Community Needs Assessment Recent observations in the tri-county area of rural Iowa have shown a disturbing trend of a constant increase in women and young children in the emergency departments and shelters. These women and young children visits emergency departments and shelters with different healthcare concerns including undetected female cancers, miscarriages, pediatric pediculosis, and symptoms of malnourishment. The county's health executive, Susan, has convened a meeting on behalf of the three counties to discuss this disturbing trend. The emergency services director noted that most of the women and children visiting the emergency departments have no addresses, which is an indicator of them being homeless. While the healthcare executives recognize the need to address the healthcare concerns of this population, the county's healthcare system has limited resources and schedule to even help 5% of this population. By the end of the meeting, the attendees agree that there is need to involve more people like local police and fire departments to help meet the needs of these women and children. However, the effectiveness of such efforts requires distributing information through a suitable marketing campaign.

Part I: Needs Assessment

Demographics of the Underserved Populations

As shown in the case, the medically underserved groups in this community are homeless women and children. This is evident in the steady increase in the number of women and children visiting emergency departments and shelters with different healthcare concerns/needs. This population comes from different racial and ethnic backgrounds while most of them come from a neighboring city. These homeless women and children are currently underserved because of various factors including the provision of little assistance by the relevant agencies in the city. This has forced them to move to the neighboring rural community in search of help for their various healthcare issues. Secondly, the community is underserved because of the limited schedule and resources in the county's healthcare system. According to Dr. Matt, the county's healthcare system has limited resources and schedule to even serve 5% of these women and children. The third factor is the decline in community services and social assistance programs to address the plight of these women and children. The decline is brought by lack of adequate funding for such services and programs, which in turn contributes to the availability of limited resources to provide adequate support and help to the women and children. Additionally, there is an apparent lack of concerted efforts from the various relevant agencies in the community towards assisting the underserved population. There is no effective collaboration between the healthcare department, fire department, and the local police departments. This lack of collaboration exists despite the fact that these women and children seek for assistance from these various agencies.

Apart from these factors, the underserved population is also facing barriers from obtaining necessary medical information or care. One of these barriers is the uncoordinated and ineffective systems in the healthcare sector that will provide relevant medical information and care. While some of these women are suffering from female cancers that could be detected at an earlier stage, their conditions end up being detected at later stages because the uncoordinated and ineffective systems in the health sector tends to neglect them. For children, age has acted as a barrier that prevents them from accessing medical information and care. Since they are young, they are unable to comprehend their conditions and access relevant medical information. The second barrier is the socio-economic status of the underserved populations, which is a major issue. Given that they are homeless, these women and young children have relatively no income that would help them in obtaining relevant medical care for their various health concerns. Finally, the lack of effective marketing campaigns to create awareness of the various health concerns facing the population and relevant support programs has acted as a barrier. Even though these women have smartphones provided by the state's social assistance program, there is not coordinated marketing campaign targeted towards them to provide them with relevant medical information.

Marketing Segments from the Demographic Information

Based on the agreements in the meeting, one of the major initiatives towards addressing the plight of the medically underserved populations in this community is through developing a suitable marketing campaign for information distribution. This process requires appropriate market segmentation, which is defined as dividing the target audience in several groups using specific criteria (The Community Tool Box, 2016). Therefore, information distribution targeting these underserved populations requires dividing them into different groups based on their demographic information in order to identify the best marketing methods to reach them.

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This is a crucial segment because they are the medically underserved populations seeking for help from the various agencies in the county. Through targeting women, the marketing campaign will help address the barriers to access of medical information and care. Additionally, women should be targeted because they are the key decision makers on healthcare issues affecting their children. Consumer behavior is reflected in this market segment through their search for help from different agencies/departments in the county. Moreover, the search for information on social media platforms by this population is a reflection of consumer behavior, which in turn influences their decisions to seek for assistance from the various agencies in the county.
The second market segment is the police and fire departments since they are frontline folks who act as first contacts with the underserved population. Through targeting this segment, the marketing campaign will help ensure that the women and children receive adequate support from the police and fire departments. In addition, targeting police and fire departments will help in expanding the resources that are needed by the medically underserved women and children. Consumer behavior is reflected in this segment on the premise that they act as frontline/first contact with those in need.

The currently utilized marketing channels in this community include social medial platforms, local radio station, and local newspaper. These channels have acted as mediums through which the healthcare sector in the community provides information to the society. Actually, the underserved population has obtained information regarding the available support services and programs in the county through online platforms and the local radio station.

Impact of Cost on Marketing Messages in this Community

While the case does not provide detailed information about the influence of pricing on these marketing messages, costs has a significant impact on the county's marketing initiatives. An analysis of the information provided in this case demonstrates that marketing messages are determined by the price of utilizing a particular marketing channel. For instance, the marketing messages are not aired on the local radio station on a daily basis but based on the community calendar because of the huge costs of airing advertisements on radio stations. On the other hand, the healthcare department seems to utilize online platforms to spread information because these channels are cheaper than traditional marketing channels. It is also relatively unclear how insurance, Medicaid, and self-pay influence marketing messages in this community. However, these methods of payment seem to have an influence on marketing messages given the limited resources available to the county's health department. Most of the marketing messages are seemingly designed to provide information on how to use these various methods of payment.

Use of Traditional Marketing

The traditional marketing initiatives that are currently utilized to reach the specific healthcare audience in this community is the local radio station and newspaper. These marketing channels have acted as the main communication tools in the community and are associated with various strengths and weaknesses. The strengths of radio advertising include enhanced ability to reach huge range of targeted audience, ease of access by the target audience, and convenience. On the other hand, the weaknesses of this marketing channel include high costs, inability to reach every targeted individual, and minimal impact. The strengths of newspaper advertising include ability to reach majority homes in the area, flexibility with regards to size and space, and provision of numerous alternatives. The weaknesses include limited access by the target audience and a relatively short life span. The need for a new marketing campaign in the community is brought by the weaknesses of current healthcare marketing plans, limited access to medical information by the target audience, and the need to reach a wider audience.

Online Marketing

Online marketing has also been utilized to reach the target audience and is associated with some strengths and weaknesses. The strengths of online marketing include ability to reach a huge range of the target audience and cheaper costs as compared to traditional marketing. The weaknesses include the need for Internet connectivity to view the ads and inability to meet the ever-increasing need for medical information by the underserved population. The need for more medical information and Internet connectivity limitations contribute to the need for new marketing campaigns in the community.

Part II: Marketing Campaign

As previously indicated, there is need for a new marketing campaign with the capability to reach the target audience more effectively and contribute to enhanced access to medical information and…