BRANDING AND DIGITAL MARKETING 2 Branding and Digital Marketing ✓ Solved

In business, branding is crucial to the success of the corporation. An organization needs to brand itself to ensure it stands out from the rest of the competition. The health care industry has many organizations that seek to stand out from the stiff competition in the industry. The health care organization selected for a brand audit is CVS Health.

CVS Health is a leading American prescription drugs retailer and health care organization founded in 1963. The company has its headquarters in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. The size of the organization is huge as it has over 9700 retail locations and over 1100 walk-in health care clinics as of December 2016. The organization type is a prescription drugs retailer that provides other healthcare services to people. The average annual revenue of the organization is over $184 billion as of December 2017.

CVS Health has several brand elements that make the organization stand out from the rest of the firms in the healthcare industry. The first brand element is its logo, which is a hard-angled heart red in color with words CVS also written in bold red and the word Health written in black thin slab serif type. The other brand element is its slogan, which reads, “Health is everything.” The inherent attributes of the organization include its pricing, where the business has come up with a new way to help people with the escalating prescription drug prices. The organization has a program to help improve the transparency of drug pricing and help customers to find alternative medication that can save them money (Williams, Khanfar, Harrington, & Loudon, 2011).

The communications aspect of CVS Health is that the company has a number of ways to enhance its marketing. The firm has social media pages and a website that is constantly updated to provide individuals with the latest information about the organization and the different aspects people want to learn about the firm. The organization also has several advertisements that it uses to help inform people of the various changes in the establishment. The organization also uses its distribution policies to market itself.

The company was among the first organizations to implement a number of policies to be in line with the prescribing guidelines set by the CDC to curb the opioid crisis in the United States. The organization markets itself through participation in projects that involve the safe disposal of unused medication in its pharmacies and other places by providing disposal units. The competitive brand selected is Walgreens, which is second in the industry after CVS Health. The two brands try to compete against each other consistently. There are many differences between CVS Health and Walgreens.

On the issues of logos, the CVS Health logo differs significantly from that of Walgreens. The slogans that the two organizations have also differ greatly. The CVS Health slogan “Health is everything” contrasts with the Walgreens slogan “Trusted Since 1901.” The two organizations have stiff competition but they have different marketing attributes. In terms of communications, CVS Health does a much better job than Walgreens because of its greater social media presence. The distribution policies of CVS Health are also much better than those of Walgreens. The marketing attributes employed by CVS Health seem to be far superior to Walgreens across different categories. The organization appears to excel at branding compared to its competition, which has been in the industry for more years, although Walgreens tends to market itself based on experience.

There are several recommendations for CVS Health that can help improve brand positioning and marketing strategies to leverage and enhance the brand effectiveness. According to Hassan and Craft (2012), one strategy is to identify new target customers. The organization needs to develop a strategy to attract a new customer base, particularly the youth. The organization currently does not do enough to engage younger customers, leading to missed opportunities against competition targeting this demographic.

Another recommendation for enhancing brand positioning is through mergers and acquisitions. Although the organization has made major acquisitions in the past, it should pursue further acquisitions. Such strategies serve as effective marketing mechanisms, increasing awareness about the organization and its steps in improving healthcare services. The establishment needs to position itself where competitors cannot easily surpass its brand, thus solidifying its brand effectiveness (Fuchs & Diamantopoulos, 2010).

Price positioning emerges as another crucial recommendation for brand effectiveness. The organization can implement pricing strategies that keep costs relatively low and affordable compared to other brands. According to Gammoh, Koh, and Okoroafo (2011), it is advisable for the organization to offer great prices along with viable alternatives, ensuring customers prefer CVS Health over its competitors.

Additionally, the organization can adopt problem-solution positioning. This strategy involves showcasing solutions to existing consumer problems. The organization should identify significant issues affecting healthcare consumers and effectively address them. This approach portrays CVS Health as a brand that genuinely caters to consumer needs, ultimately creating a loyal customer base (Singh, Kalafatis, & Ledden, 2014).

In conclusion, branding is essential for organizations’ success. It is critical for entities to find effective marketing strategies. The brand audit conducted for CVS Health—a major player in the American pharmaceutical retail—is indicative of its strengths like distinctive brand elements, earning potential, and adept communications. Despite these advantages, opportunities for improvement exist through employing brand positioning and improved marketing strategies such as effective price positioning to enhance brand effectiveness.

References

• Fuchs, C., & Diamantopoulos, A. (2010). Evaluating the effectiveness of brand-positioning strategies from a consumer perspective. European Journal of Marketing, 44(11/12), .
• Gammoh, B., Koh, A., & Okoroafo, S. (2011). Consumer culture brand positioning strategies: An experimental investigation. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 20(1), 48-57.
• Hassan, S., & Craft, S. (2012). Examining world market segmentation and brand positioning strategies. Journal of Consumer Marketing, 29(5), .
• Singh, J., Kalafatis, S., & Ledden, L. (2014). Consumer perceptions of cobrands: The role of brand positioning strategies. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 32(2), .
• Williams, C. A. N., Khanfar, N. M., Harrington, C., & Loudon, D. (2011). Marketing retail health clinics: Challenges and controversies arising from a health care innovation. Health marketing quarterly, 28(3), .