Healthcare Marketing Project
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Marketing Healthcare Services to International Consumers.
Healthcare marketing can be defined as a strategy for healthcare providers, doctors, healthcare marketing professionals, hospitals, healthcare practitioners, healthcare networks, as well as caregivers. The rapid changes within the healthcare industry markets require focus and agility, calling for help from outside and planning for a larger budget than before (Kay, 2007). This is quite expensive though it is worth it to ensure faster growth in patient volume. Today, it is not only the retail chains and commercial manufacturers. They seek new business opportunities overseas since several healthcare organizations are currently increasing their medical operations and programs, intending to draw more international patients.
Those healthcare providers who do this successfully, often find a good economic sense out of their investments and get to enjoy significant rewards. Despite the recent events in the world that lead to individuals cutting their travels internationally and making it hard for foreigners mostly in specific regions of the globe to have access to wire money and visas between countries, the number of individuals seeking medication from abroad has increased than before. Most countries have recognized the United States’ medicine as being standard. Hundred of foreign healthcare professionals go to the United States every year to train despite the problems being experienced within the U.S. healthcare system.
Foreign governments make it a routine going to the United States to study the approaches and models of medical care, as well as thousands of patients seek care from the healthcare facilities. It is only recently that countries have started borrowing the managing strategies of healthcare insurance, encouraging competition in healthcare as well as applying for the new information technologies from the United States. The country, therefore, maintains a high reputation for being among the countries holding highly trained physicians, state-of-the-art facilities and medical equipment, shorter wait times, and high customer service standards.
By serving international patients, the United States healthcare providers could benefit in several ways, including international and national recognition for starters through serving patients from all parts of the world and specific referral sources, countries, and regions could inspire new loyalty. The complexity and severity of medical cases can be profitable as can maximum compensation. All these factors, when combined, could lead to a more substantial initiative for the healthcare providers where they would court the foreign consumers as well as their interests within the medical care in the United States. Among the factors that drive the success of international patient marketing, location is a significant factor. In the United States, major ports and cities serve as key geographical draws for those international patients who find it easy to get in and out of the locations.
Also, the major attractions, as well as tourist areas, can draw tourists from foreign countries who may need medical care while they are in the U.S. and ones who the future marketing targets of medical care. Having an international brand reputation could allow global marketing efforts to have a boost. Some examples of well recognized international brand names are Johns Hopkins that boasts over 7000 patients per year from 90 countries as well as Mayo Clinic that boasts over 10,000 patients every year who come from about 120 countries (Fell, 2002). Such organizations work effortlessly to maintain and build their brands in the international market as they market international patients. To break in the global markets, healthcare organizations need to have physicians who are internationally known.
It the work of the internationally recognized surgeons and physicians that most organizations get to attract foreign businesses. It is as a result of these practitioners who comes out of teaching settings, research, or clinical care that bring public awareness as well as referrals towards the key service lines. Through the combination of coordinated clinical care, brand awareness, and physician expertise, most organizations have built international and national reputations for their expertise within specific areas of medicine. Hundreds of lesser-known healthcare organizations find ways to attract foreign patients meaning that an organization does not explicitly need to be internationally recognized to be able to get to the international market.
This, therefore, means that even though an organization already has a broad base within the international market or whether it is building an international program currently, it is critical to have a solid marketing plan as well as a detailed business strategy. The organizations can reduce their expenditure but cutting the cost of aggressive advertising and marketing programs since they can opt to fall back on their well-known names to attract patients as well as referrals. The small and less-known medical centers should invest more to generate referrals and awareness towards their programs. Marketing to international patients needs a dedicated business effort accompanied by clinical and operational support across the organization.
For an organization to focus on the specific needs of the patients, several general communication and marketing strategies need to be put in place to help the organization build its reputation, attract new patients, and draw attention to the organization’s services. One of the strategies is creating a website that addresses and helps international patients. A website is an essential component of a great marketing program since it serves the customers through a staff support system through different languages. An organization such as Mayo provides customized forms on its websites that connect back to their overseas office representatives. Another factor that helps in the marketing efforts of a healthcare organization has a well-trained support staff and call center.
Organizations such as John Hopkins have an international service group for patients, which has staff members with the capacity to coordinate all care aspects of patients, which may include personal and cultural needs. Having internationally-based field offices and sales representatives is another strategy that could help in the marketing of healthcare organizations. Other approaches may consist of hosting international tours for civic, business, and consumer groups, establishing future activity, contacts, and referral sources for organizations by those physicians and healthcare providers who travel abroad. Residency programs and medical schools that train foreign physicians could act as better links to international referrals.
Marketing to the Mature Marketplace
Businesses become successful when they put into consideration the needs and wants of their customers before anything else. This is because they cannot run successfully if they do not meet customer satisfaction meaning that any business that aims to succeed has to employ business strategies that meet customer satisfaction. In America, one in three people are aged over 50 years and statistics showed that by 2010, the population of people aged 50 years and above would increase at 40% while the community of those aged below 50 years would grow at 1% (Marsh, 2010). This meant the presence of new challenges for those businesses and companies that targeted the population.
This shift in the demographics had to force companies and businesses in the promotion of awareness, technology-leveraged services, the enhancement and deployment of innovations, as well as the development of consumer-friendly products that catered for the unique needs of the growing senior or aged population. The companies also had to provide familiar and comfortable home environments, quality, independence, and mobility of lifestyle in safety. According to a presentation by Don Marsh in an article about the Healthcare Public Relations and Marketing Association, the report addresses the search for services and products individually in the leisure time, health care, retirement living as well as the financial planning by the aged population which would enhance their lives (Marsh, 2010).
To ensure that he retained and captured the loyalty of the individuals in search, he observed four significant rules of relationship marketing which include; it has to be founded on the personal service and perceived value, it requires intimate knowledge of the consumer, it doesn’t need to be high-tech, and it has to be attractive. Some of the physical challenges that face the senior population, according to Don, are the deteriorating eyesight, cognitive changes as well as hearing changes. This challenge forces companies and businesses to put into consideration elements such as the use of testimonial letters vs. photos, glare sensitivity, as well as volume and clarity of speech within their marketing strategies, and the most efficient way of getting there is by appealing to the values of the senior population.
Marsh argues that when such rules of marketing relationship are observed, there will be an improvement in the consumer perception of the services and products; hence the consumers will, therefore, focus on value and not price. Don argues that there are three main ways that any business or company could influence human behavior, and they are by addressing human wants, addressing social needs, and by sending human values (Marsh, 2010). Companies should develop strategies that focus on addressing the three to be able to operate effectively and efficiently and effectively. The most important of them all is addressing the human values, and the reason is that the exchange of values results in the creation of a confidence and trust environment. When the consumers express their values, this leads to the understanding of what leads to their lives being unique.
This, therefore, means that for those companies and businesses that try to focus their operations around the needs and wants of the senior population, they should get to know who the individuals are and how they live. Hence for the longevity of the products and services of these companies and businesses depend mainly on the ability of these businesses and companies to know and understand how their customers live as well as how they think. There are five key concepts that are considered universal truth in the definition of what motivates the mature market place. When businesses incorporate these concepts both in the conversations with patients and family members as well as in the marketing materials, they will witness more success through the enhancement of patience experience while at the same time ensuring business growth.
The concepts include; self-sufficiency or autonomy, this is the regaining of the capacity to track the activities and interests that illness and age could have taken away and it is by offering choices as opposed to only one solution is the only way to help the aged population to use their self-sufficiency and autonomy in the decision-making process. Connectedness is a concept that requires the connection between the company’s staff, place of business and services with the patients through the typical infrequent, newsletters, handwritten notes, phone calls as well as other means of communication from B to C. the reason to ensure that they stay connected is because the old population is usually in a life state where trigger events start affecting their daily lives.
Altruism, engaging the health system, practice, or hospital in the community-based outreach charitable activities or programs as well as encouraging the participation of patients enables them to participate in the concept, which is the concern for others. Personal growth, in the mature market place, this concept is essential in ensuring the growth of organizations such as Elder Hostels. According to Don, no matter how older adults become, they do not leave behind the need for personal growth. Another concept is the revitalization, and Marsh states that one of the main recommendations that he offers his clients who are reviewing their marketing materials is the utilization of models who are 10-12 years younger than the target population.
He argues that the older the people get, the younger they like to think of themselves, and this could be used by organizations and businesses to reinforce the idea that better health makes the senior population feel more youthful and more alive again. Hence its therefore essential to create an atmosphere whereby the older patients feel comfortable expressing their values, which will play a significant role in enabling organizations to understand them on a personal level. There are six proven methods of marketing in a mature market place, particularly in challenging times, and they include retention marketing, which is a strategy that mainly focuses on the existing customer base. Its goal is to create repeat customers as well as the increasing of both the average order volume per purchase and the frequency of purchase.
Focus groups, just as the consumer seminars within the healthcare marketers, focus groups are developed as a twist on the consumer seminar differing only the fact that they are currently focused on patients and not the larger communities. In focus groups, spouses and patients are usually invited to give their views and opinions concerning procedures or new technologies and holding appointments set immediately after the sessions. E-marketing, since most people aged 50 years and above, for example, in America, over 60 million spend an average of 18 hours on the internet per week; hence e-marketing exercises such as emailing and online websites and advertisements would help improve the lives of the aged people. Referral programs, Community outreach, as well as patient awareness, are also other methods that companies and organizations can adapt to address and meet the satisfactions of the senior population.
Comparison of the Two Proposals
From the above two proposals, marketing healthcare services to international markets address and support all the marketing opportunities that were outlined by the chief executive officer of the firm. According to the proposal on marketing the healthcare services to the international markets, targeting other groups makes sense since it helps the organizations in developing both internally and externally as well as increasing the rewards as a result of the service offered. Marketing of healthcare services to international consumers should be part of my marketing proposal since all the opportunities present within the organization for global consumers could increase the organization’s reputation. In contrast, they grow the rewards for the entire organization.
There are enormous expansion and growth opportunities for the organization within the international market, and they can only be witnessed after an action is taken. I would love to work on the strategy as part of my proposal to find out how the organization could be expanded in the international market. The reason why I would not go for the marketing healthcare services to mature marketplace is that the strategy fails to consider the younger population who also requires to be put into consideration since the business can offer its services to both the young and mature marketplaces.
Marketing to international consumers would create a functional and enhanced network where the organization would even be able to get new assistance from physicians, and healthcare providers from other parts of the would like, which would mean the enhancement of services by the organization and, therefore, a better reputation. Another advantage of international marketing is that it will enable the company to expand its knowledge on healthcare after it manages to interact with different people from all parts of the globe, including different races and cultures hence assuring a wide range of information which would help in improving customer service by the organization. Currently, the organization has a marketing strategy that focuses on enhancing its services to all members of the society, which by employing the marketing to international consumers strategy, would be expanding the current operation of the organization but on a global market.
Marketing on mature market places contradicts the current marketing strategy of the organization, which means that it would incur the organization a lot of resources to focus on a particular group of the population mainly. I would recommend the adoption and employment of the first proposal on the marketing of healthcare services to international consumers by the organization for further research to ensure that a more understanding of the strategy is met so that the organization can implement it. It is by marketing to international consumers that the organization will be able to increase its rewards and reputation at a lesser cost. Marketing on mature market places can be employed when the organization is aimed at doing away with its initial strategy and focuses on meeting the needs of the senior population, which would be costly to implement.
References
Fell, D. (2002). Taking the U.S. health services overseas. Marketing Health Services, 22(2), 21-23. http://search.proquest.com/openview/bec6aa9a26a2717e61cc53611890cb90/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=36770
Kay, M. J. (2007). Healthcare marketing: what is salient?. International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/17506120710818256/full/html
Marsh, D. (2010). Marketing to the mature marketplace. Marketing Health Services, 30(1), 12–17. https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/20166329