Marketing-1: Case Analysis

MARKETING- 1
Case Analysis
American Well
PGP 2018-20
Term - I
Submitted By: Submitted To:

Dipten Kundu – 2018PGP119 Prof. Subin Sudhir
H Chiranth – 2018PGP145
Malay Nandgave – 2018PGP202
Manoj Kumar – 2018PGP207
Himanshu Rathod - 2015IPM038
INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT INDORE

Prabandh Shikhar, Rau-Pithampur Road, Indore – 453556 (MP), India
Problem Statement:
The Schoenberg brothers came up with the innovation of extending healthcare facilities to the
customer remotely using the internet and telephone. American Well, the Online Care Company
had established a platform for the patients and physicians to come together for which they would
have to physically meet, thereby ruling out inconveniences due to
• Skewed geographical location of doctors
• Economic deprivation of patients
• Inconsistent workload shares of physicians
American well, the pioneer of online healthcare, however was facing a dilemma on deciding new
opportunities for expanding American Well’s reach. The points on which they had to decide on
were:
• The choice of the ideal customer.
• The dilemma of going forward with “Team Edition”, the add-on service that promotes a
much faster and convenient engagement of patients, PCPs and specialists or to carry on
with the base model of their business.
• Expanding its services internationally.
Causes of the Problem:

1. The idea of focusing on the insurance companies as customers is in combat with the idea
of moving to other customers as well. Potential customers were the hospitals where they
could decrease the waiting time a lot, or Pharmacy chains who would make medicinal
information much free flowing for patients.
2. Launching “Team Edition”, the next service concept would enable customers to connect
promptly with specialists through Primary Care Physicians (PCPs) drastically reducing
the cycle time of the patient between the first visit and follow-up, trying to push multiple
services in one sales pitch could even be detrimental for the core services.
3. International would-be customers had shown interest but that would call for extensive
changes to American Well’s organizational structure.
Evaluation of Alternative Solution:

• Laying the foundation for the marketing primary care product (online care technology)
o Online care technology is primary product of the company. It has centered itself
in decreasing the cost of care delivery
o Provider can take benefit from new revenue generating opportunities
o Providing a robust health delivery system.
• Launch and market secondary product (Team-edition)

o real time connectivity through the use of primary/core solutions platform
o it also cuts the cost to insurance firms and patients which would not add any
additional cost as it uses online system
• Introducing product in new market segment (hospitals, pharma, patients, payers)
o Concept of extending the core technology to a new business segment such as
Hospitals, Retails Clinics is based on setting up of online care kiosks which may
require substantial capital for infrastructural development and marketing.
o This is a business segment which would require new business resources. However
the pharmacy segment can be targeted by using the existing infrastructure. . It is
also premature to divert resources when the core product is still not established in
US itself.
• Regional expansion (UK, Germany, Australia)

o Expanding it internationally could be costly as it requires tailoring/customizing
the solution to the specific needs of the local markets and reorganizing the
company structure which may require enormous financing.
o It is also premature to divert resources when the core product is still not
established in US itself.
Recommended Solutions, Implementation and Justification:

After a brief analysis of the various solutions, the best course of action for the company will be
to go ahead with following plan of action:
1. American wells should first go open to all prospective customers. Restricting the services
to the health insurance companies may limit their diversification because of vested
interest of Large Health Insurance companies. Exhibit 5 gives a clear picture of a
potential consumer base for American Well. More than 50 % responses were in favour of
Online Healthcare services.
2. Team Edition is a viable opportunity and the company should venture into it once the
core product has been accepted by the customers in a timeline of around 6-12 months.
Exhibit 11 and 12 show how abnormally long patients have to wait for appointments with
family Physicians and specialists for specific ailments. The waiting time sometimes even
push up to 60 days compromising with the idea of consulting. Such conditions would
definitely help patients welcome the Team Edition concept.
3. Finally, they should consider International expansion after success at the home market.
Their initial diversification to customers other than health insurance companies will help
them achieve their goals in countries where health insurance has limited enrollments and
individuals handle expenses.

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MARKETING- 1

Submitted By: Submitted To:

INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT INDORE

Causes of the Problem:

Evaluation of Alternative Solution:

• Launch and market secondary product (Team-edition)

• Regional expansion (UK, Germany, Australia)

Recommended Solutions, Implementation and Justification:

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