Marketing Case Study Analysis<\/p>\n
Chris Smith is the Purchasing Director for a large chain of hospitals in the southeast of the US. Chris\u2019 job responsibilities include everything from purchasing office supplies to high end medical equipment like MRI machines and surgical equipment. Chris is also active in her local university and likes to hire new, young graduates to work in the department.<\/p>\n
She prides herself on being a tough interviewer. She has found out that many people pursue a career in purchasing but do not have a good understanding of the basics. In the last few years she had to fire several new hires because they did not have the specific knowledge in order to succeed.<\/p>\n
Therefore, as part of the interview process Chris discusses the different types of purchasing that are done by the hospital. She asks the applicants to apply what they have learned in business school to the hospital\u2019s specific purchasing areas. She tells them that she knows that they will not have intimate first-hand knowledge yet of what goes on in the hospital but she does expect them to be able to apply the academic terminology to the hospital setting and come up with \u2018good guesses\u2019 for how things work.<\/p>\n
She tells each applicant that the hospital makes three types of purchases:<\/p>\n
Office supplies and routine purchases<\/p>\n
Small medical items like bandages, scissors, tape, etc<\/p>\n
Large scale medical purchases like new X-Ray and MRI machines<\/p>\n
As part of the analysis that each applicant is asked to prepare, Chris asks for the following sections to be addressed:<\/p>\n
Demand \u2013 speculate on derived, inelastic, fluctuating and joint demand situations for each of the hospital\u2019s three types of purchases.<\/p>\n
Rebuy \u2013 consider straight, modified, and new for each of the hospital\u2019s three types of purchases.<\/p>\n
Buying center \u2013 speculate on who is part of the buying center (HINT: Chris looks to see how the mark-up of the buying center changes depending on what is being considered for purchase. Speculate on the members for each of the three types of purchases).<\/p>\n
The B2B decision making process. (HINT: Chris looks to see that the applicant understands the differences between consumers making decisions about what to buy and businesses making decisions about what to buy so you might want to compare and contrast the B2B and consumers).<\/p>\n
Read the provided case study.
\nRead the provided case study and consider yourself as an applicant to join Chris’s team.<\/p>\n
Imagine you have studied marketing at a university and feel that you are well suited to a career in purchasing. You are interested in healthcare since you believe that there are long term career opportunities available.
\nYou have heard that Chris is a tough interviewer and will grill you on what you know\u2014and what you don’t.<\/p>\n
Step 2
\nResearch any unclear areas.
\nAs part of the preparation think about the concepts of demand, rebuys, and buying centers as it relates specifically to the three areas of the hospital purchasing as highlighted by Chris. These are:<\/p>\n
Office supplies and routine purchases
\nSmall medical items like bandages, scissors, tape, etc
\nLarge scale medical purchases like new XRay and MRI machines
\nDo additional reading or research as necessary to help you frame your thoughts. You know that Chris will not be impressed with textbook definitions and expects you to be able to apply what you have learned to a hospital setting. She knows that you are not an expert but she does expect you to show effort and motivation and to be able to think critically.<\/p>\n
Step 3
\nWrite your paper as a cover letter for the interview.
\nUsing the information that you have researched, write your cover letter. Chris expects that the paper will not only show what you know but that it will be professionally written. It should include a brief introduction as well as conclusions.<\/p>\n
Be sure to include information on demand, rebuys, the buying center as well as how the B2B buying process differs from the consumer buying process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Marketing Case Study Analysis Chris Smith is the Purchasing Director for a large chain of hospitals in the southeast of the US. Chris\u2019 job responsibilities include everything from purchasing office supplies to high end medical equipment like MRI machines and Read More …<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426396\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.benedictsol.com\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}