Marketing - Edge Your Competition My colleague and I recently visited a hospital for a market survey. The hospital has been operational for the last four decades. It is well equipped and provides quality services with the support of experienced doctors and nursing staff. It is one of the few hospitals that believe in clean and ethical practices. The hospital is strategically located close to the railway station. There was a time when this hospital used to be teeming with patients. However, the hospital is currently facing a major problem in terms of patient footfall despite all the factors remaining the same. And one of the key reasons is the growing competition due to increase in the number of hospitals over the years in the vicinity. One would be quite astonished to hear that even after being one of the oldest hospitals in the region, it is completely overshadowed by the new ones. So much so, that even the residents find it difficult to recall the name of the hospital. So the question here is “Does a hospital serving for more than 40 years require marketing? Do they really need to market their services??” The answer is a big ‘YES’. The hospital that did not require any marketing for 40 odd years is now forced to think on its marketing plan and activities. Earlier, word of mouth was considered as one of the best, indirect ways of marketing. Though word of mouth is still one of the best ways of marketing, there are new and more effective ways to increase patient loyalty through customized communication and marketing. Today hospitals are considering marketing as one of the primary ways to remain competitive and have a competitive edge over others. The ways to create an effective marketing plan are as follows:
The first step towards preparing a marketing plan is doing a SWOT analysis to identify one’s strength. Also it is important that the marketing team is well acquainted with all the services provided by the hospital. Identify your target population (STPD analysis) based on the services provided by the hospital is one of the crucial steps while marketing. For example, for a gynecology nursing home, women within 20 – 40 age bracket would be the primary target population. For an orthopedic hospital, geriatric population would form a majority of potential patients Identify the primary and secondary catchment areas Deduce the market potential of the target population and therefore the conversion ratio Identify the best marketing tools / strategies for the target population based on the budget. For example, for geriatric population, camps would be ideal tool for