Echocardiography.Org - Softcover

Rafferty, Terence D.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1581120540 ISBN 13: 9781581120547

Publisher: Dissertation.com, 1999

Synopsis

Echocardiography.org is a multimedia publishing company which was founded in 1998 to meet a consumer demand for education in the field of transesophageal echocardiography. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) is an ultrasound diagnostic technique for obtaining real-time images of the heart and great vessels from a transducer positioned within the esophagus. This technique receives widespread application in the perioperative care of critically ill patients.

The company has two divisions, namely, a research unit based in New Haven, Connecticut, and a production and distribution unit based in Silver Spring, Maryland. The company product consists of 6 hours of videotape and a book which describe TEE techniques. The target market consists of physicians who wish to develop or maintain expertise in TEE.

Initial company efforts have focused on developing a product, and determining the logistics of test marketing and distributing the product to a market niche of cardiac anesthesiologists, a subset of consumers who would be expected to be particularly receptive to the product. Promotional methods included selective mass mailings, lecture promotion, and Internet marketing. Test marketing of the product resulted in 99 sales of complete videotape sets in 6 months of operations. Most purchases were made by groups of physicians, rather than by individual physicians, a factor which necessitated downward revision of the size of the residual market. This suggested that efforts be made to expand the size of the potential market by also targeting both non-cardiac anesthesiologists and physicians from subspecialties other than anesthesiology. A second focus of test marketing had been to determine an optimal price for the videotapes. Results suggested that price was not a major purchasing variable, and that it would be reasonable to set the price for subsequent marketing at, or above, the price previously demanded. Finally, despite the small number of sales involved, the distribution channel for the videotapes did not function seamlessly, and requires further attention.

Projected plans for the future include placing a major emphasis on Internet marketing from established e-commerce sites, both in the US and overseas, and annual release of product upgrades to reflect consumer needs, as determined by feedback from a database of existing consumers, and further development of an existing public service Internet web site, also termed Echocardiography.org.

About this title

About the Author

Terence Rafferty, a graduate of the Executive MBA program of the University of New Haven, is Professor and Chief of Cardiac Anesthesiology at Yale University School of Medicine. Prior to his twenty-two year affiliation with Yale, Dr. Rafferty was on the Faculty at Harvard Medical School. He is a Diplomate of the American Board of Anesthesiology and a Fellow of the American College of Anesthesiologists, American College of Angiology and International College of Angiology.

Dr. Rafferty was one of the first physicians to become Board Certified in Transesophageal Echocardiography (TEE). Before his appointment as Chief of Cardiac Anesthesia at Yale, he served as Chief of the Intraoperative TEE service at that institution. Among his many awards and professional recognitions, Dr. Rafferty has been a recipient, since 1994, of Nobel Committee invitations to nominate candidates for the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology. He was appointed by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to serve on the Peer Review Consultant Files for both the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Administration. In 1991, Dr. Rafferty was the recipient of the award for the Best Scientific Exhibit from the New York State Society of Anesthesiologists.

Besides authoring numerous original articles, editorials, review articles, book chapters, monographs, and book reviews, Dr. Rafferty is the author of the textbook, "Basics of Transesophageal Echocardiography", and co-author of "Transesophageal Echocardiography: Clinical and Intraoperative Applications". He is also author of the public service web site, "Transesophageal Echocardiography Tutorial". Dr. Rafferty has lectured widely on TEE, both in the US and overseas, and has also given TEE workshops for the Royal College of Anaesthetists and the Society of Cardiovascular Anesthesiologists.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

ANALYSIS OF TEST MARKETING RESULTS

Principles

The analysis requires performance of two independent critiques, namely, a critique of overall strategy (posture and moves - "doing the right things"), and a critique of the operational effectiveness (implementation -"doing things right"). The object of the analysis was to establish cause-effect relationships ("why") between the test marketing results and the various components of the action plan. Definition of cause-effect relationships, in turn, allowed differentiation between positive and negative aspects of the plan.

Positive factors in the action plan warrant repetition, while negative factors require corrective action. Corrective action involves either elimination or modification of the corresponding portion(s) of the action plan. Expressed alternatively, the analysis could be characterized as defining guiding principles for use in developing a strategic focus. These guiding principles require "doing more of what was done well" and "doing less of what was done poorly".

Goal attainment

The three-fold objectives of the project can be classified as financial, intangible, and market research, as follows: a) The financial objective had been a sales revenue break-even point, exclusive of author opportunity costs, within 12 months of implementing the action plan. This objective corresponds with a net operating income hurdle rate of 0%. This return on investment was achieved within 6 months of plan implementation; b) The intangible objective had been to develop a professionally edited inventory of multimedia descriptions of TEE patient examination sequences suitable for use by beginning practitioners, and to develop a multimedia database of TEE findings in commonly encountered perioperative disease states. These objectives were met by producing the videotapes; c) The market research objective had been to gain an understanding of the TEE videotape market in a market niche of anesthesiologists. This objective was accomplished by analysis of the test marketing results.

Consumer demographics

The geographic sales density distribution in the 32 states from which purchases were made paralleled the state-by-state population density of SCA membership. This suggests that the sales volume was not unduly influenced by purchases made by acquaintances of the author, a factor which would have required major downward revisions in forecasts of the size of the remaining market.

Payment pattern

Payment was received from either a physician group or institution, rather than an individual physician, in 10 of 99 cases. The average purchase represented 4 physicians. Group purchases eliminate multiple potential customers, rather than simply the purchasing customer. The impact of this factor is that the 99 sales would have to be considered as a multiple of 99 sales. The remaining market for the videotapes is, thus, significantly smaller than originally anticipated.

Pricing

There was no significant relationship between quantity demanded and price within the price range of the study. This inelasticity suggests that the price for the videotape s be set at, or above, the uppermost asking price, assuming constancy in the marketplace.

Marketing

Marketing strategies consisted of promoting the videotape series at a lecture on TEE, selective mass mailing of promotional materials, presentation of a sales exhibit at a national meeting of individuals perceived to be particularly receptive to TEE, and Internet marketing.

Lecture promotion

Lecture promotion was not associated with immediate sales. However, the low sample size could not reasonably be expected to adequately represent the power of this marketing medium. In addition, lecture-promotion may well have sensitized the audience to subsequent mass mailing.

A response rate of 1-2 percent is considered to represent a successful mailing, and the response rate of mailings to conference registrants was 4 percent. In addition, providing TEE lectures does not result in financial outlays or lost opportunity cost from the partners of the company. Accordingly, it would seem prudent to continue with this particular marketing strategy.

Mass mailing

Mass mailing represented the primary vehicle for sales, and, as such, bears repetition.

Sales exhibit

The sales exhibit provided sufficient sales to exceed expenses and opportunity costs. Equally importantly, this intervention also provided an opportunity for first-hand assessment of both consumer needs and wants and the level of competition. For these reasons, this strategy also warrants repetition.

Internet marketing

The Internet marketing results suggests one, or more, of the following possibilities: a) Internet marketing, by its nature, is without merit; and the marketing web page should be discontinued; b) The duration of Internet marketing (5 months) was inadequate to properly evaluate this medium; c) The Internet marketing strategy which was adopted in this test marketing action plan was flawed, and should be reconsidered.

The first possibility may, in time, prove to be the case. However, it would seem more prudent to focus on the second and third options as more likely possibilities. A 5 month trial of Internet marketing on a new web site is probably insufficient for gauging the true impact of this medium on sales. One experienced webmaster, consulted for analysis of these results, emphasized that it usually takes up to 12 months for a new site to be incorporated into the databases of the major search engines, even following concerted efforts to formally register the site.

A further strategy which might have been employed could have included listing the product on a web site with pre-existing heavy traffic by users and potential users of TEE. The logistics of implementing this approach will be described in the succeeding section.

Production

Strategy consisted of product on a "just-in-time" basis. The inventory was sufficient to avoid a "stock-out". However, the comfort margin was narrow. In addition, mass mailing coincided with production. The timeline of directly confluent marketing and production schedules decreased the risk of a build-up of unsold inventory. However, this situation stretched the time resources of the partners well above capacity.

Distribution

Distribution channel flaws were apparent, evidenced by the duplicate mailing of promotional material with different prices to the same individual, and the non-distribution of an order to a customer who had remitted payment. Divergence of production and marketing schedules would have allowed the luxury of a more orderly, less frantic schedule, and institution of both production and distribution quality control mechanisms.

Edition details

• Publisher: Dissertation.com
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1581120540
• ISBN 13: 9781581120547
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 108