(Located somewhere near confusion)
Key “competitors":
Besides the negative behavioral alternatives to mental health services seeking, key competitors in the category of campus mental wellness are: The Depression Center, Campus Mind Works (also a website), and UHS. I may even place religious organizations in the category of competitors for the attention of students in need of mental health information or services. If I were to limit the category to online campus mental wellness, than the only competitor is Campus mind works, the problem here would be that MiTalk is not the current category leader online, though they are the category leader in the more general campus mental wellness category.
Main vs. Dynamic Variables:
Because my Marketing Objective is Acquisition and my Source of Volume is Stimulate demand, I will be emphasizing the Category (Main) Variable. The main variable is described in the Big Picture as the cost of entry into the category. I am not sure what this variable would be for campus mental wellness. I have considered, accessibility (i.e. ease in accessing the services and information), confidentiality, convenience.
Segmentation Variables:
In considering segmentation variables (demographic, behavioral, attitudinal, aspirational), demographics would be the easiest variable for segmentation. Using the information on services use from the CAPS 2009 annual report I could segment the UM population by year in school and focus on the group presenting the least as a good area to gain new customers for the category.
I also think that attitudinal segmentation would also be an effective one to leverage for MiTalk. Thoughts, feelings and values are likely to play a huge roll in whether someone seeks information on mental health. Personal stigmas people may place on issues of mental health may play a key role in their resisting MiTalk or CAPS services as a whole, therefore addressing these attitudes through segmentation might have a more direct impact on increasing use.
Coming soon: Target Audience definition, 5 box positioning statement/path to purchase.
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I think accessibility is a good main variable to go on because these online resources are more accessible than lets say physically going to CAPS because you have to make an appointment and then go there. So MiTalk does definitely excel in accessibility.
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ReplyDeleteI believe that your main variable is mental health services and you are not the leader in the market. However, your dynamic variable is what differentiates you and this is your accessibility.
ReplyDeleteI don't think you need to worry too much about segmenting your population. I think you have a broad target audience: all students these days can use the internet and feel free to share information about themselves
I agree with Pinar on the MV & DV. As I look at other blogs, I'm realizing that most of our non profit organizations are not market leaders.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with Sarah on demographic and attitudinal being the more important forms of segmentation, and they're strongly correlated. The attitudinal one is important because I think there might be some dissonance. You might find that while students are comfortable admitting to themselves that they are interested in mental health services, they'd never share that information with others and therefore won't seek the services.
I'm finding a hard time as well trying to nail down the MV /DV in my case. I think Pinar's nailed the MV/DV side of things, though the difficulty here is that when you do Acq/ Stimulate Demand you are normally the category leader and have to focus on the main category. But the DV here could be very good at getting people to try your services. Could the MV be "very accessible mental health services"?
ReplyDeleteAs to segmentation I think you can actually go broader on the demographic (all college students - no need to limit yourself too much if you want to increase demand). As to the attitudinal you could focus of a promotional positioning statement that helps convince the target audience to overcome the dissonance Megan mentioned. Good work so far!
I think if your category definition is campus mental health wellness, then your MV (primary benefit that consumers seek)seems like it should be campus mental health services and the DV seems like it should be online services. So CAPS is the category leader in mental health services yet it is not the leader in online mental health services. Campus mind works may be doing better on the dynamic variable of online services.
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