MedNet †Analysis and Strategic alternatives Essay

We ar presented with a theatrical role where Heather Yates, vice president for business development at MedNet.com, a web land pose delivering wellness information free to consumers, was losing one of their biggest advertizer Windham Pharmaceuticals. She on with the lead team were on the task of convincing Mahria Baker, Windhams CMO to continue advertisement with them instead of investing their advertisement dollars on Marvel which was essentially a large search engine with a huge sense of hearing. Mednet is also veneering tough competition from several other websites providing expert information on therapeutic treatments and condition specific diseases akin cholesterol. rough MedNetMedNet is an Ameri coffin nail great deal which caters health information services. The website was created with a mission of providing reliable and trustworthy checkup information to consumer audience for free and to snitch profits with advertize from pharmaceutical companies. Two import ant aspects to be always monitored by MedNet to be on top of the things are its Visitors and Advertisers. What does an advertiser want? Sales, leads, provoker awareness? What are the outgo metrics for measuring these? The advertisers here are pharmaceutical companies who buy onscreen publicize space from websites. Though branding in the form of promoting companys logo, slogan, and their point of intersections name along with its features is paramount to any company, it is the numbers in terms of Sales tax revenue that matters the most. The possible measuring metrics is the Banner advertising charging advertisers on a cost per kilobyte impressions (CPM) basis where an impression doer that one visitor actually saw an online advertisement. The second is Click through rate (CTR) regularity which counts each time a say-so buyer clicks the advertisement seek more product information. CPM accounts more for the brand awareness whereas the click through accounts more for the Sale s revenue generated in popular, however, the winning metrics greatly depends on the industry one is catering to.What specific consumer behaviors determine whether or not a business model produces the results an advertiser wants? MedNet is greatly financed by advertising, selling online magazines and sponsorships. It has a business model thats very some(prenominal) centered on advertising. MedNet is a go-to re parentage for basic health and diagnostic information. However, competitors like cholesterol.com and others emerged that offered tailored and condition-specific health recommendations to each visitors specifications for such chronic diseases. Though MedNet was known to post the most up to battle and reliable health information which doed them enforce trusted relationships with their audience, it was important that they underwrite that the customer returns back to them each time. Based on the CTR and the CPM, the advertisers can only analyze the consumers preference s and purchasing patterns. What is the best argument Yates can make to justify charging Windham for impressions instead of click throughs?Does she have acceptable secondarys? MedNet charges for cost per thousand impressions to Windham Pharmaceuticals while Marvel, the search engine is doing it for free. Yates, the VP, rightly argues that though the impression skill not be an accurate measure of a sale of the product but it does have an assuring and positive impact about the advertiser on the consumer. It instills a belief of goodness of a product qualification it highly apparent that the consumer buys it at a later point of time. She primed(p) emphasis on the trusted relationship which however, is not quantifiable. I think, the best argument she puts across is along the lines of the posteriored audience. According to reports, more consumers seek health information than finance or health information online. Health comes offset printing and a diligent consumer would want to ac cess only reliable diagnostic information which is guaranteed via MedNet which is an established well known website for its health information services. Thus, audience looking at the Windhams ad through MedNet is more likely to buy the product. The alternative approach to this is as follows1) MedNet could charge Windham for click throughs only. However, this is non acceptable keepn the small audience that MedNet captures. It is little likely for this express mail audience to actually go click an advertisement. This would affect their sales revenue. 2) Windham can wait to see the results of the Vesselia (prescription medication) coupons that were redeemable at the pharmacy. This way, Windham could know if MedNet was more declare and profitable than Marvel. What place to the customer does a global interest site contribute that a ecological niche site cant? familiar interest sites like MedNet faced tough competition from the specialized niche sites like cholesterol. Howeve r, the hobby are a few aspects that give the world-wide sites an edge over the niche ones. 1) They provide a wide source of information on different medical conditions. This way, they are running a business that attracts a larger audience. They are providing real value to these customers. 2) global interest sites are more well known to the unprofessional and less sophisticated consumer base. They might not be aware of the niche sites. Thus, general interest sites provide a larger coverage of the general audience. 3) Because general sites cater to larger audience who are their regular visitors, they can bear with to provide cheap services to their advertisers in that respectof making their scheme oftentimes more attractive than the niche sites. 4) The niche sites providing Tailored recommendations were running a huge risk of providing the full diagnosed information violating the state and federal govt. regulations thus in turn, risking their customers integrity.What steps can MedNet take to hail emerging competitive threats?MedNet is facing a tough competition from potential competitors like Marvel, Cholesterol etc. The major underlying issue universe the limited visitor traffic. Most of the traffic gets diverted to Marvel.1. In enjoin to increase their popularity and generate more returning traffic, they can do the following Retain the same content but add more value by using social media to create community throngs to encourage group discussions, create forums and blogs that helps people learn from reviews and feedbacks. These community tools testament make the site more interactive and encourage visitors to return to the site. MedNet is in the business of advertising where it is promoting its advertisers. But self-advertising is important too. Promote and Publicize self, using conventional means of advertising like prints on paper like newspapers, Yellow pages and magazines. They should target advertisers of more common ailments like high blood p ressure, allergies and depression/anxiety. Thus, in order to increase the value provided to Windham, MedNet needs to focus on the saturation of the consumer traffic and make sure these consumers return.2. Target employer websites and private online health portals, which give employees a secure gateway through which they can access their personal health information, and insurance claims. This will help diversify revenues and maintaining existing consumers. Alongside, it would help in branding through Corporate Word of Mouth. Though there will be initial setup and marketing costs, but this will pay off in the long run. MedNet should also discuss with the employers to provide pharmaceutical ads in addition to these services they offer to the employees.3. MedNet can stretch out their pool of advertisers that currently focus only on pharmaceutical companies to others like professional high profile clinics, pharmacies, health insurance companies etc. in that location is a tough com petition among these smaller advertisers because they are large in number and thus would need advertising to promote self-more than ever. So these are potential customers to MedNet.Thus above are a few alternative approaches that MedNet can take to have an edge over its competitors.ReferencesAbout WebMD. Retrieved from http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebMD. The official WebMD site to understand the look and feel of a health information service website. Retrieved from http//symptoms.webmd.com/default.htmconditionView.