Our short answer is, “From the consumer.”  Or to put it most directly, “the opinion of a firm’s internal staff on this matter is of almost no value.” 

That’s a hard thing to overcome.  The idea that all the expertise and history of a firm’s employees should defer to the perceptions of consumers.  But which is more real and which, if acted upon, is more likely to positively influence a firm’s trajectory?

Many businesses including health plans self-define their market position without obtaining consumer perspectives.  We’ve heard health plan executives say something like, “Our market position is very clear.  We’re the low cost provider of basic health coverage.”  We are not so sure this is either clear or correct.

We’ve recently done a project that uniquely provides market differentiation from the senior consumer perspective.  We used a unique question to ask consumers what they thought made their health plan different from other alternatives.

The results show how product design, marketing, and customer service combine to create consumer perceptions of health plans.  Most health plans compartmentalize these functions by dealing with them in sequence or as separate departments.  We think we’ve got evidence for incorporating the customer service function into product design and marketing at an early stage.

One implication of is that we can see both intended and unintended market positioning of competitors.  For example five of the organizations captured in the study were not viewed by their own customers as “stronger financially than the competition.”  Yet the perception of financial strength is important to customer loyalty and retention.  Clearly, an action item can be developed here.

More information: http://www.deftresearch.com/senior_study.htm

Questions: rhamer@deftresearch.com

Richard Hamer

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