The Marketing Mix- a term coined by Neil Borden, essentially makes up the ingredients that combine to capture and promote a brand or product’s unique selling points and those that differentiate it from ‘competitors.’ Borden’s model was later refined by E. Jerome McCarthy into what we now call “The Four Ps” of marketing. This model has been used by businesses all over the world.
Hospitals are run like businesses; in fact, the industry is big business. The average person in the U.S. spent $10,348 in 2016 on healthcare (or $3.3 trillion nationwide), and while they help their patients deal with all types of medical challenges, they still need to remain profitable. One of the many business hurdles healthcare organizations face is how to remain competitive and attract more patients.
As other service industries are taking the shift towards customer-centricity and empowerment, healthcare organizations should look to leverage marketing tactics into their business strategy. Having a well planned and executed strategy will allow their organizations to reach new patient targets, improve quality of their services, and as a result, increase income.
What are the 4 P’s of marketing? and how do they fit into healthcare?
Price
The first component of the mix is the price. I think this one is the most challenging, as on the one hand, you want to keep your organization profitable, but on the other, you want to offer a fair price so that your services are affordable. Healthcare can be particularly tricky because there are many factors involved in establishing the final price for a product/service, like government controls, reimbursements, or an individual patient’s benefits.
To the patient, healthcare is expensive, and that cost is among the highest concerns and/or barriers for prospective patients, especially those patients who don’t have comprehensive health insurance. Healthcare providers should always be looking for any opportunities where they can offer the best care at the lowest price possible.
Place(ment)
In the marketing model, place or placement is typically defined by where a product is placed. For example, if you are selling Lucky Charms, you are going to want your product placed on the lower to middle shelves. Why? Your target customer are young kids and want your product right at their eye level. In healthcare, services must be made available to patients to be effective. If the services are only available in locations or during hours where the patients cannot access them, then the patients remain at risk and the providers miss out on the opportunity to treat them. Healthcare providers should constantly be seeking out new locations, evaluating operating hours, offering walk-in or same-day appointments, and reach out into local communities to offer more access to healthcare services to stand out from the competition. With the ongoing pandemic, many have been forced to innovate and implement telehealth options to reach their patients. Providers shouldn’t discontinue those practices once this pandemic is ‘over’ as telehealth could prove very useful in reaching working families and those who live in rural communities.
Place also refers to refers to providing easy, convenient access to products and services. It’s likely you won’t have much say on the physical location of your organization, but you can definitely leverage the internet and mobile devices to make your hospital easily accessible for patients.
Things to keep in mind:
Look to social media to enhance communication with your patients.
Make it easy to get to your hospital. Share both driving, walking, and public transportation directions.
Ensure that your front desk procedures are optimized to streamline patient check-in. Think things like pre-registration / virtual check-in processes.
Product
Healthcare really is a ‘service’ industry, but going to the hospital and/or clinic should only be one of the ‘products’ that providers offer to their patients. They should also look to expand and implement products that can improve their patients’ lives. Medications, testing kits, educational classes, supplies, as well as having a solid customer or concierge services can all be a service you provide.
Promotion
The promotion of a healthcare provider's service is an extremely important aspect of the 4 Ps, yet many times it is overlooked. Many larger providers, such as major hospital chains or manufacturers, use mass media to promote their services, which is extremely effective, however very costly. So what should smaller providers do? They should treat their organization similar to how a small business would and promote their services at a community level. They also should leverage social media, ensure their website is up to date, responsive, and easy to use/navigate.
Beyond the 4 P’s:
As mentioned earlier, the healthcare industry no doubt has a huge economic footprint and that has grabbed the attention of those in some of the biggest and most influential companies in the world. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, along with Jamie Dimon, Chairman, and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and Warren Buffett, Chairman, and CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, have banded together to bring their big business approach to healthcare.
Healthcare is a complex industry with the current patient and provider relationship at a bit of a disconnect. Patients want to remain healthy and providers want to keep a stream of income. So what’s the disconnect? Who ‘really’ wants to go to the doctors, have tests run, or be on medications? Those are the main products/services provided in healthcare and of course are expensive.
Leaders in healthcare should look to take a businesslike approach, like the 4 P’s, but they should also focus on making that approach much more patient-minded or focused.
Products like Fitbits and Apple Watches allow users to have on demand monitoring of their overall lifestyle and wellness as well as access to the data being collected (heart rate, steps, etc.). Using these examples and looking to technological innovation may be a way to achieve this. Healthcare technology is not only about offering something convenient but also giving a little control back to patients. Consumers are looking for the same on demand approach in healthcare, such as a completely integrated platform with access to doctors, medical history / records, medications, and even wellness goals. Having access to that information can help empower patients to monitor their treatments and even adjust their habits to improve their overall health.
Industry leaders should not only embrace such technologies but also advocate for their use within their organizations. Those leaders also need to ensure the technology makes the practice of healthcare more efficient for physicians and more convenient for patients without increasing cost.
Healthcare organizations generate and receive A LOT of data, at Extract, we create a more complete and accurate patient record for your organization. How? When hospitals receive faxed, scanned, or paper results or other information, our platform, HealthyData, delivers any relevant information on them directly to the EMR without the need for manual data entry. Interested in learning more? Please reach out.
Sources:
https://www.purelybranded.com/insights/the-four-ps-of-marketing/
About the Author: Taylor Genter
Taylor is the Marketing Specialist at Extract with experience in data analytics, graphic design, and both digital and social media marketing. She earned her Bachelor of Business Administration degree in Marketing at the University of Wisconsin- Whitewater. Taylor enjoys analyzing people’s behaviors and attitudes to find out what motivates them, and then curating better ways to communicate with them