Why healthcare marketing adoption lags behind other industries

Healthcare Industry Marketing

Why is it difficult for marketing concepts and strategies that are commonly used in other industries to "penetrate" the healthcare industry?

There are a variety of factors that inhibit the acceptance of the more common marketing concepts and strategies that are so prevalent in other industries. The most critical is the trust consumers have in healthcare providers based on gaps between expectations and experiences they have had in the past (Lee-Wingate, Xie, 2010). Healthcare providers, as much as they aspire to be trusted advisors of the companies they work to serve, often failed to completely understand who is the customer in their value chain and what their role is in serving them according to recent studies completed on healthcare management systems and processes (Bertolini, Bevilacqua, Ciarapica, Giacchetta, 2011). Combined with the lack of credibility make of the pharmaceutical companies have with regard to the promised value of the treatments they prescribe, it is easily seen why trust is in short supply in healthcare marketing (Hamilton, 2009).

There is also the fact that the value chain of this industry relies on the trusted advisor of the physician to accurately and quickly treat any condition and heal patients (Bertolini, Bevilacqua, Ciarapica, Giacchetta, 2011). The hard reality is that doctors vary drastically in their skill levels and while one may have very high fees and promise a quickly recovery to a problem, they may be much more inefficient than socialized medicine or even the lowest-cost alternative to care. In short, there is no strong correlation between the cost of healthcare and its ability to deliver superior results (Bertolini, Bevilacqua, Ciarapica, Giacchetta, 2011). This lack of credibility and trust is why traditional marketing does not work, coupled with the fact that healthcare is an intensely personal subject for many, and the implications of health status getting out can make a big difference in insurance costs and even employment. Consumers need to see that their confidentiality and information is going to be hold securely, and also trust the service delivery process and persons (nurses and doctors) before they will purchase more services. As the buying process is also heavily reliant on trust, the traditional means of marketing do not work.

In your opinion, has marketing been truly accepted as a necessity for health care organizations yet, or is it still regarded as a luxury?

It is a necessity because of how competitive the industry is, how studies continue to show the continual sharing and publishing of healthcare benefits from given products does lead to interest and trial, and how critical the physician base as a distribution channel is (Joseph, Spake, Finney, 2008). Marketing is also critically important from the standpoint of providing more effective customer success stories and sharing insights as to which products and solutions are also delivering the greatest value (Lee-Wingate, Xie, 2010).