MKT FPX 5416 Assessment 3

Executive Summary

Cigna HealthCare is a global service corporation that is now led by CEO David Cordani. Its ultimate goal is to take over the healthcare insurance market by advocating the development of a sustainable healthcare system with an emphasis on quality care. This initiative is motivated by a desire to provide high-quality services and reward excellence in the delivery of healthcare. With 37,000 staff, Cigna offers products and services to over 86 million clients across 30 countries, affirming the belief that enhancing customer health is the key to promoting general well-being and security. Established in 1792 as different entities, Cigna has deep historical origins in the insurance industry, having grown through innovation and a relentless focus on customer-centric approaches in all market segments (Cigna, 2019).

The company wants to be the premier health optimization leader for employers and organizations, enabling employees to attain and maintain their health. Cigna’s external and internal sales partners genuinely work to improve health, well-being, and security through diverse innovative products and services. These reduce medical expenses while enhancing overall health outcomes. Cigna has a global network of physicians and hospitals, ensuring consistent customer service. Its current marketing slogan, “Together, All the Way,” encapsulates its extensive offerings of services and commitment to care for customers (Cigna, 2019).

Market Segmentation

The market penetration of Cigna across the United States is quite different within the 50 states. Its New England states, particularly its headquarters’ Connecticut location, are saturated, with other states similarly saturated in states such as Colorado, Arizona, and parts of the Southeastern region. Its growth opportunities nonetheless remain elsewhere. Globally, Cigna has expanded its presence through strategic mergers, acquisitions, and alliances with local insurance companies in countries like Turkey, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, India, and Nigeria, thereby having a robust market presence (Patrick, 2015).

The mission statement of Cigna is health, well-being, and security (Cigna, 2019). To achieve these goals, the firm endeavors to create an effortless environment that is personal, dependable, easy to navigate, and caring. By creating community support, diversity, and innovation, Cigna works to build a brighter future. Through partnership, Cigna can deliver sustainable solutions that deliver value to customers, stakeholders, and the firm itself, hence perpetuating its sustained global growth and expansion.

Background of the Problem

Cigna Healthcare identifies a number of minority market segments, including African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, veterans, and LGBTQ communities. Cigna adheres to a non-discriminatory philosophy worldwide. Similar to other healthcare businesses, Cigna is targeting these minority segments that are projected to grow substantially, and these types of businesses are in a good position to access the potential of this burgeoning market segment. With 20.4 million U.S. war veterans making up approximately 7.3% of the population, this population also requires a lot of healthcare services, and most of them have disability-related health problems.

Demographic trends illustrate rising percentages of ethnic populations, namely Hispanics and African Americans. They comprise 12% of those 85 and above and 39% of the population five years and younger. These trends suggest that future generations of Americans will be overwhelmingly ethnic minorities, potentially constituting greater than 50% of the population. While the LGBTQ population reports very good health, they are likely not as large an opportunity for growth as other minority groups.

Literature Review

Cigna highlights the importance of personalizing the customer through personalized branding, supply chain choices, advertising plans, and pricing choices in the home market. The increasing cost of care has highlighted the importance of educating customers about their own unique healthcare needs. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) has made the market open to individual consumers and accessible for health care. Cigna’s marketing strategy aims at delivering the right care at the right time for the right diagnoses. Marketing campaigns in the past have been designed to achieve these objectives. 

Recommendations

To strengthen its organizational systems, Cigna HealthCare needs to make diversity not only a policy but also a core value that becomes integral to its leadership and operations. Embracing a holistic diversity strategy will enable the brand to become inclusive and effectively target minority segments. Diversity and minority markets need to be celebrated as a strength, defining Cigna’s brand identity and enabling its marketing to improve.

Focusing on the African American market segment, Cigna must address specific healthcare needs, such as a higher susceptibility to diseases like prostate cancer. The marketing efforts must address genetic testing, counseling, health equity, and outreach programs appealing to the prevalent health conditions in this population. Cigna’s participation in initiatives like the CEO Action for Diversity and Inclusion demonstrates its commitment to diversity, with the aim of reaching workforce composition and cultural competence in care. Some examples of such initiatives include Hispanic/Latino market-specific health resources and Asian/South Asian diabetes population-specific initiatives.

Cigna’s Colleague Resource Groups (CRGs) are important in serving to leverage the use of cultural intelligence to raise engagement, performance, and career mobility. Exercises such as the African American/Black CRG, the Diabetes Prevention Initiative within the Asian/South Asian CRG, and the mindfulness campaign of the Veterans CRG highlight Cigna’s dedication to diversity. To boot, PRIDE CRG boasts LGBTQ-relevant activities such as partnerships with institutions like the Gay and Lesbian Medical Association (Cigna, 2019).

Conclusions

For a business to flourish and become profitable, it should differentiate itself from the competition in various strategies. These can include serving certain customer segments, product refinement development, or devising different marketing strategies, as seen in Cigna. The focus of the company on minority market segments—African Americans, Hispanics, Asian Americans, and U.S. war veterans—by all accounts demonstrates an approach that is not discriminatory. Of particular note, the Hispanic population is growing at a rapid rate within the United States. Women and African Americans are more likely to create more health issues than the rest of the population, and so Cigna has focused on targeting them. Targeted strategy has allowed Cigna to target niche market segments with immense success and expansion. In general, the targeting of chosen market segments through using specialized strategies helps organizations such as Cigna gain huge profits and expansion. For growth in the contemporary competitive business climate, organizations have to identify precise segments and come up with custom strategies to excel over others.

Cigna’s emphasis on minority segments has reasserted its insurance leadership and set it up for long-term viability. Cigna has also introduced Customer Resource Groups (CRGs) for nontraditional market segments, in addition to traditional minority segments, including the Multigenerational CRG, People with Differential Abilities (PWDA) CRG, Virtual CRG, and Cigna Women’s CRG. Such innovative marketing approaches have set Cigna to retain its insurance leadership in the coming times.

MKT FPX 5416 Assessment 3 Market Segmentation 

Schiffman, L. G. (2019). Consumer behavior (12th ed.). New York, NY: Pearson.

Sturdevant, M. (2014, September 8). Hartford Courant. Retrieved from Cigna Rebrands, Begins ‘Together, All The Way’ Campaign:

http://articles.courant.com/2014-09-08/business/hc-cigna-new-platform-20140908_1_new-brand-campaign-medicare-customers-healthspring

The 2017 Annual Homeless Assessment Report (AHAR). (2019, January 24). Retrieved from The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: OFFICE OF COMMUNITY PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT: https://www.hudexchange.info/resources/documents/2017-AHAR-Part-1.pdf

United States Census Bureau. (2019, January 25). Retrieved from the Decennial Census of Population