Healthcare Marketing Campaign for Homeless Women and Children

Introduction and Community Overview

Recent observations in the tri-county area of rural Iowa have revealed a disturbing trend: a steady increase in women and young children presenting at emergency departments and shelters. These individuals arrive with a range of healthcare concerns, including undetected female cancers, miscarriages, pediatric pediculosis, and symptoms of malnourishment. The county's health executive convened a meeting on behalf of the three counties to discuss this trend. The emergency services director noted that most of these women and children have no addresses on record, indicating homelessness. Although healthcare executives recognize the need to address the concerns of this population, the county's healthcare system has limited resources and capacity to serve even 5% of them.

By the end of the meeting, attendees agreed on the need to involve additional partners — including local police and fire departments — to help meet the needs of these women and children. However, the effectiveness of such efforts depends on distributing relevant information through a suitable health communication and marketing campaign.

Part I: Needs Assessment

The medically underserved groups in this community are homeless women and young children. This is evident in the steady increase in the number of women and children visiting emergency departments and shelters with various healthcare needs. This population comes from different racial and ethnic backgrounds, and most arrive from a neighboring city. These individuals are currently underserved for several reasons.

First, relevant agencies in the city of origin have provided little assistance, forcing these women and children to move to the neighboring rural community in search of help. Second, the county's healthcare system has limited resources and scheduling capacity — a local healthcare professional noted that the system cannot adequately serve even 5% of this population. Third, community services and social assistance programs have declined due to insufficient funding, further limiting the support available. Finally, there is an apparent lack of coordinated effort among the relevant agencies in the community. Despite the fact that these women and children seek assistance from the healthcare department, fire department, and local police, there is no effective collaboration between these entities.

The underserved population also faces specific barriers to obtaining medical information and care. One such barrier is the uncoordinated and ineffective systems within the healthcare sector. While some women are suffering from female cancers that could be detected at an earlier stage, their conditions often go undetected until later stages due to systemic neglect. For children, age itself is a barrier: young children cannot comprehend their conditions or independently access medical information. A second major barrier is socioeconomic status. Because these individuals are homeless, they have little or no income to obtain necessary medical care. Finally, the lack of effective marketing campaigns to create awareness of healthcare concerns and available support programs has contributed to the problem. Even though these women have smartphones provided through a state social assistance program, no coordinated marketing campaign has been developed to reach them with relevant medical information.

One of the major initiatives toward addressing the plight of this medically underserved population is developing a suitable marketing campaign for information distribution. This process requires appropriate market segmentation, defined as dividing the target audience into groups using specific criteria (The Community Tool Box, 2016). Dividing the underserved population into different groups based on demographic information helps identify the most effective marketing methods to reach them.

The first market segment is the homeless women and young children themselves. This is a crucial segment because they are the medically underserved populations seeking help from various agencies in the county. Targeting women directly will help address barriers to accessing medical information and care. Additionally, women should be targeted because they are the key decision-makers regarding healthcare issues affecting their children. Consumer behavior is reflected in this segment through the population's active search for help from different agencies and their use of social media platforms to find information — behaviors that influence their decisions to seek assistance.

The second market segment is the police and fire departments, as they serve as frontline contacts with the underserved population. Targeting this segment through the marketing campaign will help ensure these professionals are equipped to provide adequate support and will expand the resources available to women and children. Consumer behavior is reflected in this segment by the fact that officers and firefighters act as first contacts for those in need.

The currently utilized marketing channels in this community include social media platforms, the local radio station, and the local newspaper. The underserved population has obtained information about available support services and programs in the county primarily through online platforms and local radio.

While the case does not provide detailed information on the influence of pricing, cost has a significant impact on the county's marketing initiatives. Marketing messages are not aired on the local radio station on a daily basis but are scheduled according to the community calendar because of the high cost of regular radio advertising. By contrast, the healthcare department relies more heavily on online platforms to disseminate information because these channels are cheaper than traditional ones. It is also relatively unclear how insurance, Medicaid, and self-pay influence marketing messages in this community; however, given the limited resources available to the county's health department, most marketing messages appear to be designed in part to inform the public about these payment options.

The traditional marketing channels currently used to reach healthcare audiences in this community are the local radio station and local newspaper. The strengths of radio advertising include the ability to reach a broad range of targeted audiences, ease of access, and convenience. Weaknesses include high costs, inability to reach every targeted individual, and limited impact. The strengths of newspaper advertising include the ability to reach a majority of households in the area, flexibility with respect to size and space, and the availability of numerous formatting alternatives. Weaknesses include limited access by the target audience and a relatively short lifespan. The need for a new marketing campaign is driven by the weaknesses of current healthcare marketing approaches, limited access to medical information by the target audience, and the need to reach a wider audience.

Part II: Marketing Campaign

Online marketing has also been utilized to reach the target audience and carries its own strengths and weaknesses. Strengths include the ability to reach a large range of the target audience at a lower cost than traditional marketing. Weaknesses include the requirement of Internet connectivity to view advertisements and the inability to keep pace with the growing need for medical information among the underserved population. These limitations contribute to the need for new and expanded marketing campaigns in the community.

Traditional marketing mediums — print, radio, and television — have long been used to distribute information to targeted audiences. Lavinsky (2013) contends that traditional marketing mediums typically involve advertising through print, radio, and television, and have been considered suitable channels for keeping organizations visible to the public. In this case, the county's healthcare sector has primarily used radio and newspaper. Given that a large number of community members listen to radio, it has served as the main source of information.

The strengths of traditional marketing mediums include the ability to reach wide audiences due to broad coverage areas, convenience to the healthcare audience, enhanced flexibility, and availability of numerous alternatives for designing advertisements. Weaknesses include limited access for those who do not own the relevant devices, reliance on one-way communication, and an increasing audience shift toward newer marketing channels.

Other traditional marketing mediums that have been employed include outdoor advertising (such as billboards and posters) and direct mail. While these mediums can reach a large base, they are limited in accessibility and can sometimes be ineffective in reaching a specifically targeted healthcare audience.

Online marketing mediums have emerged as vital channels due to rapid technological developments and the widespread adoption of social media. As Greene (2015) notes, healthcare marketers have increasingly shifted from traditional advertising strategies to more digital approaches as social media platforms have transformed communications. The most commonly used online marketing mediums to reach healthcare audiences are social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Healthcare marketers create banner ads and campaigns on these platforms to raise awareness of healthcare issues and available resources. They also develop web content and employ search engine optimization to help audiences find medical information.

These mediums offer numerous benefits: the ability to reach a wide range of the healthcare audience, enhanced consumer interaction, flexibility, and cost efficiency compared to traditional marketing. According to Forbes Insights (n.d.), online marketing mediums are advantageous in terms of targeting, measurability, ease of optimization, and return on investment. Weaknesses include limited accessibility for those not active on social media, the possibility of failing to generate the desired response from the target audience, and the requirement for Internet-connected devices.

Traditional and online marketing mediums can be combined to more effectively reach the identified target audiences. As Greene (2015) observes, such combination is increasingly important in an information-saturated and fragmented media landscape. It also provides healthcare marketers with a wider range of channels to reach diverse audiences. Even as audiences shift toward digital channels, combining them with traditional ones enhances the overall capability and effectiveness of the campaign.

For this community, the most suitable approach is a multi-channel marketing strategy that leverages the unique benefits of traditional media alongside the accessibility and convenience of online platforms. The traditional mediums utilized in this multi-channel approach will be television, radio, and newspaper. Local newspaper print advertisements will provide information about the healthcare issues facing homeless women and children, and where and how they can access medical assistance. Television and radio advertisements will carry similar messages during normal programming. These commercials will be short and direct, as most consumers prefer brief television and radio spots (Talafuse & Brizek, 2014).

The online social media tools utilized will be Twitter and Facebook. Banner ads, pop-up ads, and awareness campaigns will be created on both platforms to target the healthcare audience. Most of these advertisements will be placed on platforms commonly visited by the target audience or on pages that address relevant issues. This will also include sponsoring topics on Twitter and Facebook to increase awareness and improve the likelihood of reaching the targeted audience.

Since the target population already uses radio and online platforms to access medical information, the multi-channel approach will enhance effectiveness in reaching this demographic. This combination will provide coordinated messages that address the population and eliminate barriers to accessing relevant medical information. The multi-channel approach also provides a means of reaching individuals who may not have access to certain channels but can easily access others, ensuring the targeted audience can obtain medical information at their convenience.