Health Care in Markerting

Healthcare in Marketing (Lasik)

Lasik's Methods in Other Health Care Organizations

Customer profiling is a vastly unexplored marketing method in the health industry. While it has been used to target very specific markets, such as potential consumers of elective surgery, other markets have been largely neglected (Barber 2001). The reasons for this are many, but mostly they include difficulties with medical data gathering, and legal issues regarding potential customer profiling.

Despite the above-mentioned difficulties, there are several organizations that can and do benefit from customer profiling. One such entity is the pharmaceutical industry (Winterhalter 2002). Here the customer being profiled is normally the health care professional, rather than the patient. By gathering geo-demographic data as well as customer loyalty information from a group of health professionals, pharmaceutical companies can significantly enhance the effectiveness of their marketing practices. This will further benefit not only the professionals, but also the healthcare consumer, in that pharmaceutical medicine prices are favorably influenced by the costs saved in terms of advertising. Using customer profiles, marketers can therefore invest in areas most likely to respond to products advertised, and save money that would otherwise have been lost by investing in a location where interest may be low.

A contemporary phenomenon that has touched the healthcare industry, and nearly every other area of life today, is information technology. The healthcare industry can greatly benefit from such technology not only for customer profiling, but for a myriad other purposes. Thus, IT companies can profile potential consumers in the industry for the kind of services they may require. Similarly information technology can significantly facilitate customer profiling activities within the industry. Lawson Software is for example an e-business company that targets the healthcare industry for its specialized computer services (Business Wire 2001).

The Role of Customer Profiling in the Non-Profit Organization

Customer profiling can also play a very important part in non-profit healthcare organizations. While the main purpose of these organizations is not financial gain, there are two ways in which they can benefit from this marketing tool.

Firstly, profiles can be created of organizations and business persons who would be likely to sponsor a non-profit organization. Several sponsoring options can also be included, to determine part of the profile by means of surveys. Thus, during each sponsoring period, the organization might know whom to target for future funds.