Hospital Marketing - Emerging Trends

Hospitals being skeptical about marketing their services was a common phenomena earlier. Given the fact that Indians do not like hospitals to hard-sell themselves, hospital promoters, CEOs and management staff were bound to experience this hit-or-miss situation before promoting their hospitals. Nevertheless, it has been subtly practiced over the years by individual private practitioners. Often the supply and demand situation was so poor that efforts to get patients were really not required. Also, most providers were government institutions that were already over burdened with patients and with no incentive to handle more.

Regardless of all the factors that influenced the traditional marketing approach, hospital marketing as a concept for growth evolved in the recent past. The increasing corporatisation of hospital groups, promotion of medical tourism and increasing consumerism within the industry that has proved to be a blessing in disguise for healthcare organisations. Increase in the number of private players has led to healthy competition within the industry. This in turn has propelled hospitals to market their services aggressively.

On the other hand, consumerism has given hospitals a fair shake to promote what best facilities they have to offer to their customers. The most positive aspects of this momentum is that hospital marketers and senior managements are turning their attention towards their brand. Traditional method of marketing commonly known as the 'word-of-mouth' technique is now succeeded by more strategic and tangible techniques. Additionally, various marketing strategies have been developed in order to ethically market their hospitals without misleading their patients.

The emphasis is now shifted from an aggressive marketing approach to a well thought-out brand building activity. The evolution is not yet complete and institutions are experimenting with various structures using different nomenclatures for similar roles. The role of a sales person and public relation (PR) is well established. The need for digital marketing and branding are also registered, particularly after the Medical Tourism hype and increased corporatisation. The latter two and sometimes even PR are outsourced by hospitals these days.