Medibank - Leading Insurance Company In Australia, Essay.

Variety of Protection Plans for Customers

Question:

Write an essay about the Marketing Strategy Recommendations.
 

One of the leading insurance companies in Australia, Medibank has been focused on in this piece of research studies. The company has been found to be providing a variety of protection plans in alignment with the needs of customers such as travel, healthcare, income insurance, pet, life insurance policies. The strategic overview can be summed up as that, at Medibank, people work towards ensuring better health every single day for respective families, children, friends, community in terms of providing best possible private health insurance and peace of mind to the Australian people for more than 4 decades. The detailed Australian insurance market analysis with special reference to Medibank actually points towards the relevance of the company in the modern business scenario with the company’s array of various protection plans taking into account the wide range of demands from the customers or tourists across the land of Australia. The travel protection plans range from local to global travelers with effective budget allocation. The respective travel packages come with certain facilities and provisions of insurance; and are meant for all travelers, i.e. young and senior travelers, families, lone travelers, corporate travelers, group travelers etc (Leggat and Leggat, 2006).

Strategic implications have been explored in this particular piece of research writing which have been focused with detailed illustration. On the basis of the part 2 market environment analysis of Medibank, the development of marketing strategy would be possible in this part 2 segment in terms of establishing the leading insurance provider proficiently within the framework of travel insurance market in Australia.  

Medibank has manage to cater to the needs of millions of Australians in terms of focusing on the specified delivery of top quality health insurance and excellent health services; and this is what differentiates the company in the competitive business arena. It can be put forward in this regard that the leading health insurance provider offers private health insurance products that largely are inclusive of standalone hospital cover or extras cover and packaged products taking into account both the options. Medibank being one of the leading private health insurance providers in the health sector across Australia, it is quite obvious that the company arranges for various protection plans for customers with travel insurance policies being the highlighted products of the all in context of the Australian tourism sector (Barer et al. 2010). The presence of two brands i.e. Medibank and ahm helps the company in marketing the products of private health insurance. In case of travel insurance, the healthcare facilities must be kept in mind significantly, in order to land up immediate services in case of emergency and others.

It has been found that the company comes up with a premium full service offering by means of providing the respective policyholders of Medibank better as well as effective access towards all kinds of health services and health advice. The company has enabled the policyholders with their respective hospital covers with an exclusive access to its telephone based 24*7 health service line along with medical health in course of the healthcare treatment. Comprehensive package i.e. international travel package, multi trip package, Australia only package, medicals only package etc all denote the variation in the products and services offering which take into consideration complete travel protection for people travelling abroad with the all inclusive factors of overseas medical insurance, unlimited flight cancellations and refunds, cover for baggage, theft of personal items and money, cover for credit cards during the entire period of traveling and journey (Hashani-Siqani and Rudhani-Haliti, 2016). Furthermore, an online health hub has been introduced alongside certain mobile health apps for Smartphones, so that customers or tourists can get hold of the medical service and facilities at any given time, in any emergency at the foreign land and under any situation.

Excellent Health Services for Australians

Being a product driven business, Medibank is well acquainted with its facets of unsustainability for it is of utmost importance to achieve strategic growth in terms of shifting from being the health insurer to the renowned health company with tourist or customer at the primary centre of the healthcare structure (Medibank.com.au, 2016). The company’s individual decision to rebrand its Private Health Insurance to Customer Centered Healthcare can be cited as an instance of strategic reformations that need to be taken place within the company infrastructure with special reference to the travel provision for the travelers need the insurance benefits as well. 

One of the major points that constitutes to the strategy dimension of business is that of its respective pricing factor which is regarded as an inevitable issue in the case of Medibank also. The strategic approach lies in the provision that the leading healthcare insurance company is bound to offer quality healthcare in accordance with the factor of affordability; and therein lies the company USP of competing in the tough situation of tourism industry. While the company of healthcare insurance apparently is reported to strive significantly in terms of reducing the respective operational costs with its efficiency in the service delivery, the strategic priority is said to be highlighting the factor concerning the management of rising cost of healthcare itself within the structural framework of tourism industry (Flynn, 2016). Affordability should be the key in case of the travel insurance packages on the basis of the customer needs and respective lifestyle. Pricing strategy of the company must be at par with the market situation and also in accordance with the tourist requirements to ply efficiently in the marketing ocean.

The renowned company of insurance provider, Medibank has been found to be focused on the certain development of stronger relationships with the respective providers in terms of building innovation driven provider networks, to make ways for sophisticated purchasing results, to create specified options of contracting, to build provisions regarding referral as well as appointment management capacities etc; so that all these factors collectively can help in keeping the cost of benefit outlays as minimum as possible as far as the medical regulation standards in the travel and tourism industrial infrastructure are concerned (Leggat et al. 1999). Furthermore, providing access of differentiated nature towards health services in alignment with the varied needs of customers alongside creating new working models of care for serving the purpose of delivering better travel consequences with utmost cost effectiveness is another major strategic look out of the company when it comes to the field of pricing.

The insurance provider group has been aiming for ensuring the customer or tourist experience at the centre of respective medical interactions from a typically health preventative perspective through to the payment terms that occur during the phase of post event of travelling (Mills, 2002). The other issues other than medical i.e. cover for baggage and luggage; lost items during journey, cash theft etc are also taken into serious consideration for smooth and safe as well as hassle free travel experience is what the company aims for towards all its clients whose responsibilities lie with the insurance provider company.  

Relevance of Medibank in the Modern Business Scenario

Clear segmentation of the market in close association with the varied range of products and services of the travel and tourism industry is essential, for this calls for effective and strategic distribution of marketing. Understanding the customer requirements in this travel genre is of utmost importance for this allows the insurance provider company to better serve the demands and needs of the existing and potential tourist base with effective expertise (Leggat et al. 2012). Global travelers and domestic travelers are not the same people always, and this difference needs to be incorporated in the business structure to understand the issue of placement and distribution with strategic approach in the tourism environment.

It can be recommended that both the state as well as federal governments should be predominantly focusing on the facilitation of the designing and the operational activities of the prominent markets, instead of emphasizing the genre of healthcare supply in the respective regulatory framework of travel and tourism industry. Brand positioning of the insurance provider company in the respective Australian travel insurance industry is significant for this assesses the market scenario with intricate precision and makes way for brand promotion.  

In order to function with smooth effectiveness in the dynamic market of competition, the company of Medibank urgently requires a strategic framework concerning a mean operational environment that has the potential of enabling the company to proactively respond to the different needs and demands of the customers or tourists (Cameron, 2014). The provisions in this regard can be summed up as to cause simplification and consolidation of Medibank’s respective back office responsibilities and functioning activities, optimization of internal systems and processing systems, improvement of the concerned levels of staff productivity and efficiency. 

It can be put forth in this regard that Medibank needs to adopt the customer driven approach instead of being wholly product oriented because Customer Centered Healthcare will not only drive the company in gaining momentum from the situation, but also in improving the standard of the healthcare system in its entirety. Customers i.e. the tourists of all kinds such as leisure travelers, job travelers, local and international travelers etc would not only feel cared for genuinely in this approach, the entire thing would be focusing on the concerned demands of providers, clinicians, tourism management operators, insurance agents and intermediaries with the customer being at centre of attention regarding the variety of tracel experience. It would be far more effective and possible in bringing forth human touch to the table in lieu of the customer care service segment, along with the business ease that in turn would alleviate the business prospects of the concerned business company of insurance providers (Wilcox, 2001).

It is to be mentioned in this context that, the specified company capacity to leverage its scale, reputation as well as the brands of tourism business will be enabling the company to fly high in the insurance care business environment of Australia with special reference to the genre of travel in terms of maximizing the enterprising value of the company, proving oneself unique from the other contemporary competitive bodies with differentiating grounds and by means of driving market leadership with efficient expertise. On grounds of product benefits, online facilities and advantages, emergency services etc the company can work well for these are the areas which are emphasized in the company profiling and are favored in competitive market (Medibank.com.au, 2016). The insurance provider company must arm itself with unique and innovative promotional strategies i.e. catchy advertisements, variety of schemes and discounts, ensuring hassle free travel experience with complete and attractive health cover, online facilities of insurance policies regarding traveling to the specified parts of world, offering excellent service in terms of ensuring memorable travel experience etc to win over the competitive business ground. The growth intentions need to be put forward in the forefront in terms of fulfilling the objective of market share acquisition in close proximity with the respective growth and increment of enterprise value.  

Conclusion 

As far as the situation in insurance providing industry is concerned, it can be put forth that the very core of Medibank marketing strategy has been built on several business pillars i.e. travel cost leadership, customer or tourist oriented healthcare, growth, operational excellence, human resource, promotional mix concerning  etc. It is to be understood that certain aspects of the Australian tourism sector, all inclusive of the private health insurance industry can gain benefit in terms of being exposed to the competitive environment which is actually good for the company growth and industry development as well as sustainability in the cut-throat situation. It can be mentioned in this regard that travel and tourism sector with competitive background can certainly thrive in this contemporary age with serving the purpose of improving the concerned quality of the travel consequences with predominant factors of health issues for all the money spent and would be able to promote consumer welfare, specifically within the territory of Australia. Henceforth, it can be summed up in this concluding segment that private health insurers are capable of playing a prominent role in course of travel system improvement; but in order to play the role efficiently and effectively, the industry needs substantial support in terms of being allowed to take up commercial agendas and innovative funda.  

References

Barer, M., Nicoll, M., Diesendorf, M. and Harvey, R. (2010). From Medibank To Medicare: Trends In Australian Medical Care Costs And Use From 1976 To 1986. Community Health Studies, 14(1), pp.8-18.

Cameron, N. (2014). Measuring up to expectations: Medibank's customer analytics. [online] Cmo.com.au.

Flynn, K. (2016). Financial fraud in the private health insurance sector in Australia. Journal of Financial Crime, 23(1), pp.143-158.

Hashani-Siqani, S. and Rudhani-Haliti, L. (2016). Travel Health Insurance: With Case-Study Insurance Company "Elsig" 2009-2014. AJIS.

Leggat, P. and Leggat, F. (2006). Travel Insurance Claims Made by Travelers from Australia. Journal of Travel Medicine, 9(2), pp.59-65.

Leggat, P., Carne, J. and Kedjarune, U. (1999). Travel Insurance and Health. Journal of Travel Medicine, 6(4), pp.243-248.

Leggat, P., Zwar, N. and Hudson, B. (2012). Travel Health Advisory Group: A joint travel industry and travel health Special Interest Group promoting healthy travel in Australia. Travel Medicine and Infectious Disease, 10(5-6), pp.259-262.