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Of the seven years, I worked five of them In one large medical center In a local town. Marketing was never a part of my vocabulary until recently. I honestly didn’t pay too much attention to advertising campaigns until I started working for Saint Francis Medical Center in Cape Guardian, Missouri. Mass communication was and still is a major marketing technique that Saint Francis uses. A day doesn’t goes by that you will not see the “Medical Minute” spot on the local television stations. Shortly after Saint Francis started using this technique, three other local hospitals developed their own television campaigns.
Even though some people may get tired of the constant bombardment of these TV commercials, I believe that they may save lives as well as promote more business for the hospitals. As quoted by Wagner, Fleming, Managed, and Leafage (1994), a 46-year old male wrote to a local hospital thanking them for saving his life through their TV campaign on the signs of heart attacks. From this campaign, this individual was able to identify that he was having a earth attack at which time he went straight to the emergency room. Another technique that Saint Francis used was the “We Care” campaigns.
According to Beckman (2001 ) the “We Care” campaign was listed under the section “What Hasn’t Worked” of his article. Beckman claimed that consumers are more concerned with competence and results than whether the hospital cares or not. In my opinion, I would have to agree with this concept. Yes, Saint Francis did care, but Is the service good? I believe that the TV campaigns are more successful as a marketing tool than earring buttons reading “We Care. “Are Current Marketing Techniques Affecting Consumer Trends? The answer to this question is hard to pin down at this point in my current opinion.
According to Beckman (2001), some marketing strategies worked better than others. Positioning is one technique where an organization/hospital creates an Image of clinical competence. B??chamel claimed that “positioning required more than advertising and faceless: there had to be underlying capabilities, and evidence, to back up the claims. ” Another technique that B??chamel outlined In his article was “Missionary Work,” which is used when a physician cannot compete with his local hospital physicians and goes out into the countryside and builds relationships with the primary care physicians for referrals.
This proved to be a successful technique being used. Affect consumer trends. The technique that I believe affects the most is the missionary work technique. There was a time when consumers believed that the only healthcare available to them was the primary care physician within their small countryside communities. Now with the relationships that are being built between he local physicians and the small countryside physicians, more specialized healthcare can be offered/provided to the citizens of these small communities.
Thus, the trend of only using the local hometown physician has changed. Negative Impact on Healthcare Workers’ am sure some healthcare workers can be found that do not believe there is a negative impact from the techniques being used within healthcare. However, I believe there are some. Take for instance the technique outlined by (Wagner, Fleming, Managed, & Leafage, 1994) of the marketing technique f building image and not on increasing demand for services.
The negative impact that could be realized here is losing consumer business because consumers want to know more about the services provided to meet their needs than the hospital image. One hospital was quoted as having to shut its doors because of this type of marketing technique. The impact here is loss of Jobs for the staff members of the hospital. A positive impact would be due to the technique that was listed as under the sub- title “What Worked” in the article written by Beckman (2001).
When the techniques ark, everyone benefits because the consumer is satisfied and will continue to use the services, as well as, refer their friends to the hospital/clinic. Conclusiveness prior to the late asses marketing is now considered one the most important aspects of healthcare. There are many marketing techniques used today in which some have proven to work and others not so well. The main point to remember is there has to be a complete understanding of the background and foundation that identifies the importance of marketing. The right people need to be hired as racketing staff.