$"$I$\text{'}$m not sure we are getting anywhere in this meeting,"

Aaron Powell thought to himself as he pushed his chair

away from the conference room table and slowly stood up

to stretch his legs after an hour had already gone past.

Powell, Akron Children's Hospital's $($ACH; akron$-$

childrens.org$)$ marketing director, stood to gaze out the

conference room windows onto the two ribbons of train

tracks that curled near the hospital on the north side of

this midsized city in Northeast Ohio. He was thinking

about how rival hospitals, such as Akron City Hospital,

Akron General Medical Center, and St$.$ Thomas Hospital,

had recently hired marketing directors like himself. The

urgency to advance Akron Children's Hospital's market$-$

ing effort was going to intensify in the next year.

Powell's meeting was going into its second hour. In

addition to Powell, the meeting's participants were Mark

Norton, the hospital operations officer $($Powell$\text{'}$s boss$),$ and

Janet Jones from the Cleveland$-$based Marcus Thomas com$-$

munications and research agency $($

marcusthomasllc.com$).$

One staff member from finance was there, along with the

soon to be retiring public relations director for the hospital. In

the past, both of these staffers would support whatever

Norton proposed or liked. It now looked like Powell and

Jones were on the other side of a divide about how to

approach positioning Akron Children's Hospital in next

year's advertising campaign. To make matters worse, Powell

and Jones appeared to be outnumbered, and the tension in the

room was palpable.

"Let me read the research problem statement all of us

revised in the first hour of our meeting," Jones said. "Akron

Children's Hospital board wants the hospital to become the

preferred hospital in the high$-$growth areas of the region.

Accordingly, we are studying positioning possibilities, so

that the board can select the best positioning for next year's

communications campaign intended to boost the number of

patient cases $10$ percent in the following year."

"That's it$.$ That's what we want," Norton said. "But I don't

think we have to pursue a research project with a survey that

just may lead us to reinvent the wheel$-$and for $$60,000,$ too."

"What wheel is that?" Powell asked, turning away

from the window to face Norton.

"Aaron, you know as well as I do that this hospital is all

about children. It's even in our name," Norton said.

"Emphasize the kids. Whatever we do in the media should

feature the kids. Just do some focus groups that will allow

Marcus Thomas to get some ideas for their advertising

about kids and our hospital. That should only cost about

$$20,000.$ But honestly, I am not sure we even need that."

"Mark, remember that McDonald's tends to emphasize

kids, too, but adults are featured in their advertising most

of the time," Powell said. "Marcus Thomas needs to cover

the entire range of issues families consider when choosing

a hospital for their kid. If we miss something important,

one of the other hospitals in Akron might claim they are

the better hospital when it comes to this."

"Aaron is making a good point," Jones said. "Right

now, we don't know which positioning would help Akron

Children's the most."

$"$So describe which paths we can pursue now," Norton

said.

"Plan A$-$do focus groups only, as you suggested,"

Jones said. "Plan B$-$do focus groups with a follow$-$on

survey. Plan C$-$do a survey with follow$-$on focus groups.

And plan D$\_$do no research."

"Tell me more about each of these," Norton said.

$"$In plan A$,$ Marcus Thomas would conduct four focus

groups, with an average of $10$ respondents per group," Jones

said. "We'll ask participants to discuss their experiences

while at a hospital. Participants will be required to be the

primary decision makers for health$-$care decisions within the

family and have a child $-$ newborns to $18$ years old $$ with an

acute condition and who had spent at least $3$ consecutive days

in a hospital. Because most health$-$care decision makers

within a family tend to be women, most of the participants

will be female between $25$ and $54$ years old with one or more

children ranging from newborns to $18$ years old."

"Cost?" Norton asked.

"About $$20,000,$ Powell said.