What Model for Health Care Marketing?
by Scott MacStravic
While marketing in the health care industry has a fairly long history, finally, it is nowhere near as long as that of other, indeed most other industries. The modern discipline of marketing, with market research, customer experience management and targeted advertising is roughly 60 years old, having emerged soon after WWII, while health care marketing is only 30 years old or so. As a result, we have long looked for models in other industries.
As a service industry, it has been natural for health care to look at other service industries for a model to follow, or at least to adapt. The financial services industry has been suggested by many, since it involves a valuable “life asset”, namely wealth, and services that are designed to help people manage that asset, as is somewhat true with another life asset, i.e. health.
Retail sales industries have been suggested as models, since “customer service” is an essential component of health care, in addition to clinical quality. Besides, many marketing gurus have recommended that health care organizations increase their revenue sources by engaging in retail sales of health-related products. And health care has increased its availability and access through “retail” convenience clinics that are located in popular shopping malls, supermarkets, drug stores and superstores.
But there is another possible model available to health care – the automotive industry. It might seem counterintuitive, since that industry deals in a durable good, the automobile, rather than a service, but there is much to recommend the idea. Primarily, it is the fact that the automotive “customer experience” lasts far longer than the purchase transaction. People keep and use their cars for years, if not decades, and the benefits vs. costs of ownership is a major factor in customer loyalty, not merely the purchase transaction.
The auto industry has moved significantly in its marketing, from decades-old focus on the features and attributes of their product to a recent, usually overblown emphasis on the “driving experience” it offers. Prospects are being told that everyone will envy their having a particular brand, want to drive with them, and look up to owners of that car. They are being told that their lives will become better, their stress reduced, their enjoyment and excitement increased, merely because they drive a particular car.
While this marketing could be criticized as ridiculous “puffery”, it at least suggests something that health care marketers could emulate – a focus on what happens to patients after and because of their health care patient experiences and relationships. What “meaning in their lives” do patients perceive as consequences of their hospital stays, outpatient visits and physician relationships? What differences would they expect in their lives if they chose other providers and relationships, if any?
Health care providers become significant partners in a host of life-meaning experiences. From pregnancy and childbirth to menopause and aging to end of life, hospitals and physicians are frequent partners in life stages and events that the majority of patients experience. And the consequences of acute disease treatment and chronic disease management, to say nothing of proactive efforts designed to reduce the incidence of disease and injury in the first place – make major differences in people’s lives.
Until providers expand their horizons to see their “products” in terms of life meaning and impact, health care marketing will be mired in myopia, focused on features and attributes, or rare and episodic encounter experiences. Unless providers recognize and make the most of the life impacts they already have, and on added impacts they might have, hopefully in a more realistic and credible fashion than is true with automobiles, they will miss out on huge opportunities to become major “life partners” with patients, instead of modest sickness fixers.
