Diabetes Clinic
Marketing a Diabetes Clinic
For some people, the entire idea of creating a marketing plan for those struggling with a serious chronic disease might seem distasteful. Making money off of other people's suffering can seem to be capitalism at its untrammeled worst. However, there is no reason that capitalism cannot in fact be married to compassion in the case of providing care for diabetics. Indeed, marketing a clinic that is providing good care is a real service for people with diabetes for several different reasons that will be explained below.
Moreover, given that at least for now medicine is delivered in the United States primarily within a for-profit context, it is essential that medical providers be realistic about the ways in which they run their business. If they fail to be realistic, then they will not be able to stay in business and they will not be able to provide the care that their patients need. This paper explores the marketing strategy pursued by an established diabetes clinic that has been in business for twelve years and that provides services to about 250 patients a month.
One of the most important (and indeed arguably the most important) aspect of running a successful business is having a product to sell that people want to buy. With medical care, the product is health, which (as suggested above) is both easy and rather tricky (from an ethical standpoint) to sell. Medical care (that is, products and/or services that promote good health) is something that nearly everyone wants, and so in this sense it is easy to market since there is no need to create a market. This is, of course, not always the case since for many products there is not a serious need and so the provider of the services or products must create in the mind of the potential buyer a perceived need for the product.
However there are many products and services that are far less trendy and ephemeral that are, nonetheless, almost equally unnecessary by an objective standard such as yet one more color of pale pink nail polish or the services of a personal shopper. Medical care falls at the other end of this spectrum, for it is literally vital, literally a question of life and death.
Thus a clinic that offers medical products and services (as this one does) has overcome what is for many company owners or managers the biggest hurdle: They do not have to convince anyone that what they are offering is worth paying for. Their product is already well established in the minds of potential customers as being valid and valuable. Just as important is the fact that the clients who come to this clinic already define themselves as consumers of services and products for diabetics. These services include diabetes education about foot and wound care and nutrition as well as products that many individuals with diabetes use, including cookbooks, online support from diabetes educators and nurses, testing supplies, support socks and hose to help with the effects of poor circulation, and support groups for different populations of those suffering from diabetes.
This clinic offers comparable pricing on products such as testing supplies. Testing supplies are one of the most serious costs for people with diabetes and so being able to offer a low price on these is very important. The clinic's prices are higher than some online sites, but to compensate for this has the advantage that it provides supplies on the same day. The clinic staff…
