The public hospitals are increasing its service offerings and are therefore getting more competitive for the private hospitals. This forces private hospital to undertake actions in order not to lose its clientele. The maternity ward of the Hirslanden Klinik Im Park has recorded decreasing number of births in the recent years which leads to an unprofitable business unit. The overarching aim is to be able to get a turn and increase its number of births again.

The thesis starts with an introduction into the topic of positioning strategies and the marketing mix in a service environment. After that, a situation analysis depicts the situation in which the maternity ward is currently in. Market analysis, competitor analysis and internal analysis are being evaluated with the help of surveys and interviews. After having identified the current position, recommendations for the desired position are being established on the methodology given by the literature. The last part of the thesis includes an implementation plan with specific tasks summarized in a course of action plan with corresponding controlling elements and objectives.

The thesis shows that the maternity ward of the Hirslanden Klinik Im Park is positioned quite well and benefits from the good reputation amongst the existing patients. However, the share of mind of the customer segment is not strong enough in order to increase its numbers of births again. In addition, as an outcome of the analyses, it has been recognised that it is important to focus on two attributes, where the maternity ward performs weaker than its competition. Therefore, amendments in the positiong strategy need to be done. In order to establish the adapted position, a course of action plan has been established with specific tasks concerning the marketing mix. These recommendations for the implementation of the adjusted position is strongly focused on promotion, people and processes, whereas other categories are considered as well.