Sonic Healthcare's marketing mix strategies and global expansion

Sonic Healthcare's Marketing Tactics And Strategies

Sonic Healthcare is a medical facility that offers diagnostic services. These include Pathology and Radiology. The company traces its roots back in 1992 when a young accountant, Michael Boyd bought into a small company that was at the verge of collapsing. He gradually increased his share ownership and later appointed Dr. Colin Goldschmidt, who is histo-pathologist to take charge of the company as the CEO. Sonic Healthcare took the pathological dimensions during this time. Ever since, the company has adapted several strategies that have propelled it to be one the leading facilities in the entire world. This paper seeks to explore some of the strategies used by this company.

Tactics / Strategies Relating to Marketing Mix

Product / Service related

Sonic Healthcare has a clearly defined niche of operations as a pathological and radiological Centre. The healthcare facility opted to concentrate on a narrow field of operation rather than adapt the integrative strategy that is now a trend in healthcare. In this, Sonic has successfully established itself as one of the largest diagnostic facilities in the entire world. Goldschmidt, the CEO of the company is quoted as referring to the company as medical diagnostic company (Jobson's Year Book of Public Companies, 1999, p.872).

6.1.2 Distribution related

Sonic has over the years managed to distribute its products effectively through acquisition of other related companies. In 1987, it began by acquiring Douglas Laboratories, which was a Sydney-based pathological company. Later on in 1999, Sonic acquired the Swiss company SGS's, which was an Australasian pathology business. In 2002, this company took a global dimension by acquiring United Kingdom's largest pathological company -The Doctor's Laboratory (TDL). In 2004, it acquired Schottdorf Group (Germany) before expanding to U.S. In 2005 through acquisition of Clinical Pathology Laboratories (CPL) Inc. (BRW, 2006. p.124).

6.1.3 Price related

The company has managed to set its prices successfully within the margins or relatively lower than its competitors. This factor is partly contributed by the fact that it is Medicare funded facility. In this view, the company can comfortably employ price leadership as at the same time maintain high quality services to its customers.

6.1.4 Promotion / communication related

The company has clearly avoided glitzy advertisement. Instead, it has used its highly qualified professional staff to communicate to the public of the quality of medical care they offer. Most customers who perceive the company to be focusing on service delivery rather than making profits have embraced this strategy.

6.1.5 People related

Sonic perceived its customers as medical profession unlike its competitors that perceive the public as its customers. In this strategy, Sonic has never ceased to acknowledge the role played by its own pathologists to the success stories.

6.1.6 Society related (e.g. corporate social responsibility and ethics)

The company management clearly emphasizes on the value of good will, healthy relations with its customers and other medical professionals, as well as the role of clean image. As a company, Sonic has never been linked to medical malpractices, which was a common phenomenon in pathology firms a decade or so ago.

6.3 Market Segment Strategies

Sonic Healthcare has employed behavioral segment strategy while rolling out its products in various markets across the world. One significant market that has had its market segmented behaviorally is Germany. Most Germans tends to develop loyalty to a given service or products based on the quality delivered. As such, Sonic Healthcare concentrated in consolidating the already fragmented labs in Germany into a one centrally managed business. This has enabled the quality of diagnostic to remain standard across several laboratories in German. As such, the Germans have developed some form of loyalty to products offered by Sonic Healthcare (Business Review Weekly: BRW, 2000, p.31).

The Market has equally been segmented into the several geographical locations. This includes the Europe, Asian and American segments. The company has equally taken into consideration the variations of demographic in each of these segments. The company has employed the strategy of price discrimination to attend to the variations of the needs in each of these demographics. For instance, Germany's and America's economies are relatively large and stable. As such, to take care of other small economies that are still developing, Sonic Healthcare employs selective pricing strategy.