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Introduction About MedNet.com • • •
Founded in 2002 4.3 million monthly visitors and $1 million in profits Content generated by 24 trained journalists, doctors, designers and administrators, faculty of prominent medical schools, news agencies and an active community of visitors using social media tools
Goals of MedNet.com Providing scientifically based medical information to a nonprofessional consumer audience Providing this information for free Generating profits from advertising sales
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USPs of MedNet.com • • •
Award winning website Trusted for health related issues Provides evidence based consumer health information
Competitors For Visitors U.S. National Library of Medicine World Health Organization Customized Health Portals on Company Intranets • • •
For Advertisers Marvel (providing large reach) Cholesterol.com (condition specific site focused on particular problem) ClinicalTrials.com (experimental procedures) AlternativeHealth.com (Providing unproven therapies) • • • •
Issues faced by MedNet.com Marvel’s Challenge Marvel
Large search engine following contextual or pay- per -click, banner advertising
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MedNet.com
A website delivering free health related information to visitors
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Follows CTR (CPC) based advertising model, charging advertisers only when an ad is clicked and providing free ad impressions
Follows CPM based advertising model, charging advertisers a specified amount per thousand ad impressions
19 million visitors per month
4.3 million visitors per month
CPC is $0.54/click
CPC is $3.33/click
Points of Concern Selling ads at CTR comparable to that of Marvel’s rate would lead to a drop of 80% in MedNet’s revenue Windham feels that it is paying 6x more on MedNet.com For advertisers, CTR matters more than CPM Windham is one of the biggest advertisers for MedNet and if MedNet loses Windham other advertisers might follow suit •
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This clearly shows MedNet’s profit for Windham would be almost 10 times as high as Marvel, thus establishing its superiority.
Cholesterol.com’s Challenge Cholesterol.com’s Properties Condition-specific website Provided interactive tools to the visitors to record specifications Almost actual diagnosis/ prescription Fewer side-effects than competitors • • • •
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Used CTR for advertisers instead of CPM
Evaluation of Stakeholder Needs
Alternatives available to MedNet.com 1. Take a more prescriptive and diagnostic role 2. Bring alternative health into its purview 3. Develop and manage employer websites Let us analyse the pros and cons of each option to arrive at the best suited option.
Option 1: Take a more prescriptive and diagnostic role PROS •
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Y
Less dependent on advertising revenues More focused value proposition can help to face niche competitions like Cholesterol.com Likely to increase sales conversion rate More focused targeting of ads can be possible
CONS • •
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Problems with regulations Audience audit showed majority clicked on both general and condition specific information (Page 7) Audience requiring general health information may be lost Only 25% in the health website behavior survey would pay for
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More profitable and customers can be acquired
loyal •
content (Exhibit 3) Only 50% would use in case of registration requirement (Exhibit 3)
Stakeholder Need Analysis
Option 2: Bring alternative health into its purview PROS •
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CONS
Higher reach can be achieved by attracting new visitor base No. of clicks will increase New advertising revenues from other than pharmaceutical firms can be gained CPC based model can be used
MedNet visitors are avid researchers and spent a considerable amount of time there for its reliable information (Page 4) With alternative health information the original target group’s value will be decreased and they can deflect from the website Targeted advertising can not be achieved as user behavior can become unpredictable Trustworthiness can get diluted due to presence of unscientific information For Alternative health information seekers pharmaceutical ads may become irrelevant
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Stakeholder Need Analysis
Option 3: Develop and manage employer websites PROS •
Employers are moving towards
CONS •
It can be a challenge to convince
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intranet based healthcare solution and thus MedNet needs to be present in this segment eventually If they can successfully employ, new customer base can be gained which will increase reach Clicks can also be increased Targeted ads can be employed and this can increase sales as well for advertisers Trustworthiness can be established Least radical change in terms of company values Profitable customers can be acquired
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employers to introduce pharmaceutical ads and thus separate business model needs to be introduced This can create some opposition in the industry as this can reduce overall health care costs that can harm the entire industry There can be overlap of existing customers and that can harm the core business through cannibalization There no new value addition for existing customers Long term loss as it does not venture into new growing segment such as alternative health
Stakeholder Need Analysis
Thus, option 3 appears to the best fit for MedNet.com given its current scenario. Option 3 takes care of the various stakeholders better than the others and can be adopted for the long run.
A
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