Health and marketing have been around recently. Marketing in medicine has traditionally been used sporadically in the form of a customer survey or demand analysis. Since many private medical centers that provide highly qualified assistance to the population and different levels of customer focus have entered the market, it has become necessary to pay attention to the marketing strategy of promotion in this area.
A novice specialist may encounter such a marketing problem in medicine as the lack of groundwork, experiments and generally experience in promoting this culture in Russia. Why is this happening? The reason is a short period of development of marketing in the healthcare sector. The audience is also not always ready for an adequate perception of incentive events, because they are already used to discount products, but when they offer a discount on medicine, this often inspires doubt. The same can be said of other marketing activities.
Thanks to foreign experience, major international players in the healthcare market, the need for marketing in medicine is acutely felt and is actively being introduced in Russia. Why is this necessary? System marketing in medicine allows you to identify demand drivers, reorient products and services so that customer needs are met, while optimizing costs through an effective sales policy. All this is extremely necessary in a market with increasing competition and rising production costs.
All types of marketing in healthcare cover such categories as services, institutions, specialists, ideas.
Goals
In the medical field, marketing has the following tasks:
- market research of goods (therapeutic and prophylactic preparations and products), identification of trends and development forecasts;
- adjustment of existing strategies in terms of the provision of medical and preventive services;
- development of new goods and services to meet existing demand.
Medical Marketing Principles
Healthcare marketing management is based on certain principles:
- detailed market research (drugs, services, specialists, etc.);
- allocation of market segments (all consumers are divided into groups according to criteria significant for the medical industry);
- the flexibility of production and marketing, depending on changes in demand;
- technology and innovation (the field of medicine should keep up with the times in terms of channels of interaction with customers, management systems);
- formation of a plan of production, marketing and promotion.
Activities
Marketing events have the following goals:
- market analysis and forecasting;
- selection of the most effective methods of influencing market segments;
- development of an adequate pricing policy;
- informing;
- formation of a marketing plan.
Market analysis implies primarily the study of reports on the sales of medicines and products, services. In parallel with the analysis of statistics, educational work is being carried out to form the population’s health needs.
Features of marketing in health care are that the need for help may arise too late when the disease is started. To minimize such situations, work is underway to form the right health image. The health of the population must be made observable by specialists, at least periodically for the timely detection of diseases. A change in the emphasis in the behavior of consumers of medical services and drugs from treatment to prevention can qualitatively change demand, and, as a result, the entire healthcare market.
Marketing activities to form the need for maintaining health reduce the costs of not only medicine, but also of the patients themselves, and bear a social burden. Such events, as a rule, have an educational character, are expressed in social advertising, etc.
Having studied the market, it is segmented by type of consumer. A segment distinguishes such a group of potential customers, which is united by common selection criteria, due to which it supposedly reacts equally to marketing activities. Criteria can be geographical, socio-demographic, behavioral, etc.
After identifying the main segments that are most interesting from the point of view of forming needs and sales, a marketing mix is developed. The finished strategic marketing plan in medicine can be focused on the following areas:
- improvement of consumer properties of products;
- improving the reliability of goods or services (warranty, repair);
- brand formation (for example, a leader in a particular field);
- the development of cross-sales, the formation of channels for related sales to basic services;
- innovative component of the brand, image formation of a modern market player.
The marketing mix includes three plan blocks: the product itself (service), pricing policy and promotion.
The nature of the complex is based on the details of a particular area and product. There are three main types of strategy plan:
- launching a new brand, a medical center, a new service on the market;
- expanding sales by offering an existing arsenal to new segments;
- a diversified plan involves the withdrawal of new products for new consumers, the redistribution of emphasis.
The medical promotion process includes the following tools:
- advertising - informing the audience about the merits of a product (service), attracting maximum attention;
- incentive promotions;
- propaganda.
Communications that promote health are based on eternal values and are easily perceived by the audience, but advertising with institutions is not so simple. The construction of marketing for clinics and medical centers should take into account the following features:
- informing the target audience about the possibility of services in this institution, the high quality of the equipment, the professionalism of the staff, the price of the services provided;
- formation of reasons to think about use;
- colorful presentation of the results, forming the desire to visit the specified institution.
It should be remembered that the advertising message carries not only an information function, but also is a direct appeal to future customers, colored by emotions, which should form exclusively positive images. Such a message is the first stage of communication between the client and medical marketing.
Internet marketing in medicine
Patient life goes online where they find everything they need. And this means that they must also find medicine and healthcare there. Internet marketing in general and content marketing in medicine in particular have the following levels of implementation:
- Definition of an ideal client, maximum description of his socio-demographic, psychophysical, and behavioral characteristics. At this stage, it is important to understand what goals this ideal sets for itself, what it strives for, what it cares for and who it faces. It is possible to offer quality content and interest the necessary target group by understanding and feeling all these details.
- Building a common language of communication, based on the information obtained in the previous step. The sphere of interests and the style of behavior determine the language that is understandable to the person, those images that are best read, activate the emotional response. When interacting with an audience, this language will be adjusted depending on the experience of the interaction.
- The formation of the intent of the “assistant”, in which the content is presented from a position of help and care, the development of comments occurs from the point of view of the interested person, not in the sale, but in satisfying the needs of the client with the help of a particular service (product).
- Openness and sincerity are felt at a subconscious level, even through a layer of gadgets, so it’s worth creating a clear internal intention to be sincere in communicating with the audience.
- Creating a series of meetings of representatives of the right audience with marketing information. There is a five-touch rule, according to which the first touch with something new causes concern and caution, but with repeated meetings, everything changes, after the fifth touch, the person perceives the same information as well-known, friendly. In medical marketing, it is necessary to strictly monitor the points of contact with customers, identify the main and additional channels, create an interaction structure through which a person will meet the necessary information several times through different interaction channels.
- The focus on meeting offline should always be kept in mind when interacting, offering to take action towards, because this is exactly what forms the commitment in the customers.
- Particular attention to reviews, encouraging customers to write feedback. Feedback is important, because it is the wording of all the moments that left an emotional imprint in the memory of the target audience, they spell out the most successful and most failed, which serves as a good lesson in future activities. Negative reviews are required to study, neutralize the negative, otherwise word of mouth will greatly spoil the results of marketing planning.
The specificity of medical marketing is that content addresses sensitive health issues. Successful content takes into account the ethical side of the issue, avoids advertising templates and overloaded with medical terms. In this matter, doctors with long practice, accustomed to communicating in the client’s language, having a huge number of life stories with humor and bitterness, each of which has a deep semantic load, become an invaluable source of content.
In addition to well-formed content, adherence to marketing levels, it is important to consider the development of technology, the model for using Internet content. So, today no one is surprised by the fact that the mobile Internet is actively increasing volumes, respectively, all channels should be adapted for this type of content consumption, taking into account technical features. In some clinics, mobile traffic reaches 69% of the total flow, so delay in this area can lead to serious losses in the number of customers.
Content visualization in marketing
Information in the form of images, pictures, colorful schemes has long become the main part of the most memorable information, now video has confidently joined this list. Social networks place the main emphasis on the visualization of information, more often they don’t read reviews, but look on the Internet, look for videos with a description of the procedure, photos before and after, etc.
The moment of visualization is important for the process of building marketing in medicine, because it directly affects the decision-making of the client. It may seem that medicine is boring for video and vivid pictures, but it is not so at all. Social networks already use video content to its full potential, which consists of tips, explanations of processes, meetings with former patients who have something to tell. All information should make the process of providing a service (product use) simple and effective.
The emphasis of social platforms on visualization is clearly visible in the news - live broadcasts and stories that are not at all aimed at disseminating high-quality material, but create the illusion of direct contact, without filters and censorship.
Website as a necessary communication channel
First of all, the person goes to the Internet, to the organization’s website, where he studies the details of who, where and how he conducts the activity, watches the content filling, determines its orientation and acceptability for himself personally. This is not an isolated example, it is an established model of behavior in society, which is gaining momentum even more with a decrease in the age of the groups in question. Thus, the creation and competent website promotion is a matter of first necessity of a comprehensive marketing program in medicine.
Website promotion of this focus has a number of features that need to be considered:
- Regular filling with content that is new, interesting, taking into account the seasons and the associated waves of changes in the health status of the population.
- The ability to communicate, ask a question online, write a question to a specialist, etc.
- Expert judgment and advice form a high level of trust.
- The first plan should be given to useful information, and advertising modules should go the second plan, such planning will allow to interest customers, leave them on the site and build trust.
Service as a friend and foe
The quality of medical care can not always be assessed without appropriate training, for this you need to have a good base of medical knowledge, experience in their application. Clients of most medical institutions rate the center according to the level of service.
Ease of contact by phone, at the reception, waiting times, courtesy of staff immediately form an opinion about the institution. If there is a mess in the call center, what can be expected in the doctor’s office?
It is worth noting that working with repeat customers arranged by the service is simple and pleasant, and their budget requires much less than attracting a new client. Accordingly, it is worth making an effort, creating an internal customer-oriented interaction system, and working with staff so that everyone is imbued with the importance of this model of behavior.
Legislation
Advertising in the medical field is subject to the general rules provided for by the legislation of the Russian Federation. Given the specifics of the sphere, operating with concepts such as "life", "death" and the like, increased ethical requirements are placed on advertising.
According to the law, advertising must be reliable, not mislead, do not defame third parties and be neutral to competitors. In addition, advertising for medical services should not contain:
- links to healing with advertised drugs;
- Thanks to the individuals who used the product;
- indications of benefits identified as a result of mandatory registration studies;
- an assumption of the presence of health problems among consumers of marketing content.
Since 2014, additional amendments have been made to the law on the promotion of medical services. Now it has become necessary to indicate contraindications, a reminder of the mandatory study of the instructions before use, a recommendation to seek medical advice. These amendments relate to the distribution of advertising in non-specialized media.
The active use of "promotions and discounts" is also not applicable to the field of medicine, because going to the clinic is, in most cases, forced, in the event of certain circumstances. Here, advertising should form a brand that would be immediately remembered first when a situation arises requiring medical intervention.
"Black Swan" new developments
“Black Swan” refers to events that dramatically change the reality of the market contrary to all expectations. A feature of marketing in medicine is that such events are not only macro-factors in the form of laws, foreign policy, etc., new developments also belong to such factors.
With the emergence of radical innovations, the market situation changes dramatically and requires constant reallocation of resources and emphasis of all market participants. In the event of such situations, the winner is the one who is better prepared for the new economic realities, has previously received, processed and applied information about market changes.
Monitoring requires constant marketing management in the field of healthcare, which consists in the operational analysis of market changes and the adoption of appropriate corrective measures. For example, when demand decreases, a special study is conducted to identify the reasons for rejection, to determine growth points, which is subsequently evaluated in terms of the goals set for marketing.
Marketing Training in Medicine
The market for medical services, drugs and institutions is growing rapidly. But professional marketing in this area appeared not so long ago. Further education courses for marketers have appeared to help them adapt to the new field.
The programs of such courses include the basic concepts and tools of marketing in medicine, all promotion processes: market analysis, formation of proposals for the target audience, marketing activities, analysis of results. Be sure that competitive courses are considered in such courses, because the medical and healthcare market has a long-established structure of leading participants, which must be taken into account in building a marketing plan.
Medical MBA training programs also have marketing units, but address more global issues of strategy, brand building, and marketing management.
An IT unit is included in all training programs, which allows you to keep up with the times in terms of using technologies that are most in demand from the point of view of consumer experience and help to build the most comfortable customer relationships.
Thus, there is a choice of training programs that are able to fill in the gaps in the rules of marketing in the field of medicine and healthcare.