The marketing mantra of product, price, place and promotion enters a new realm of complexity in the healthcare environment.

Health care marketers play a critical role in the success of their organizations in today’s dynamic and competitive marketplace.  Competitive positioning, building a brand, market share, profitability analysis, variance analysis, outcomes measurements, web metrics, pre-and post-campaign results  – these terms are part of the healthcare marketer’s lexicon and require an increasingly diverse set of skills.

Back to Basics
Where does good marketing start?  It begins with an understanding of the organization, its mission and its context -- its place of business and the products/services offered.  Good marketing also requires an understanding of factors in the environment that may impact marketing strategy.  These factors include the organization’s reputation, operating quality and financial status.  Also influential are social forces such as demographics; cultural shifts in attitudes (consumers becoming, for example, more proactive in managing health); alternative therapies; technology (new treatments, pharmaceuticals, devices and procedures) and the impact of the internet, including telemedicine; plus competition, regulation and the state of the national and local economies.

These factors form the matrix from which all good strategic planning for marketing programs begin.  Marketing programs proceed from a demonstrated need for services/products or the necessity to create that demand.  The marketer makes strategic and tactical choices while proactively planning and implementing programs. 

Who is the customer?
Management guru Peter F. Drucker posed a key question:  “Who is the Customer?” The definition of “the” customer or multiple target markets is critical, given paradigm shifts in how health care is priced and paid for.  Whether an individual is insured or uninsured, in an HMO or PPO plan makes a difference in access and choice of care.  

Although the current paradigm is managed care, “consumer driven” fee-for-service care is also on the rise.  This emerging paradigm emphasizes relational rather than transactional marketing, with the “worth” of a customer measured in a lifetime, not on a single purchase of services or products.  How a healthcare organization manages its patient and payor mix has important implications for both bottom line and survival.  As every administrator knows, a hospital can have every bed full and lose money with every service provided because of its patient mix.

Reaching the Right Customer

Health care organizations reach out to their targeted customers (or “markets”) and communities through ongoing public information and educational programs, new program design (if necessary), advertising and other promotional activities, and sales.  Not every tactic will be useful to every organization.  The good marketer chooses the most effective tactic given a thorough understanding of organizational needs and a clear definition of target markets.

Today’s marketers “listen” carefully to target markets – through interviews, surveys, questionnaires and focus groups.  They reach out to stakeholders to ensure that their brand and positioning statements are appropriate, understood and widely disseminated. Many go further to truly differentiate their organizations, implementing customer relationship management programs to improve customer interactions along all experiential touch points.

For many organizations, advertising is a key tactic:  it can reach a wide audience or a specialized group.  Each form of advertising -- from print to TV to radio to billboards and direct mail – has its strengths. Print advertising focused on specialty markets (Senior Living, for example) reaches specific audiences very cost effectively.  Marketing materials such as newsletters, brochures, flyers, and the organization’s website are all important tactical tools to build brand awareness and influence choice.

Effective marketing programs require creativity, organization and an investment of time, personnel and adequate financing. Good design should be a given: badly written and designed materials reflect badly on the quality of an organization.  Careful tracking and analysis are necessary to show return on investment, by whichever metrics are meaningful and relevant.  Healthcare marketers play a vital role within their organizations and the communities these organizations serve.  Here’s to recognizing and applauding the men and women who perform a complex and difficult role!   For information call: (323) 256-5081 or visit: www.mannandassociatesPR.com

Kimi Mann, APR,
President of Mann & Associates, 
Elisa Mann, MBA.
CEO of Mann & Associates.

.