Health Care Marketing: Past Present and Future

Question
Health care marketing requires a different approach than other industries. In this assignment, you will review current health care marketing and how it has evolved in the past 50 years, as well as how health care marketing compares to other industries. This will give you the necessary background knowledge to understand what impact competitive, regulatory, technological, and environmental changes have on health care marketing.
Research the following:
Identify different events or shifts in our health care system within the past 50 years that have led to a change in health care marketing.
Identify marketing ads for one healthcare-based company and one non-healthcare-based company, such as from the automotive or cellular phone industries, from the past 50 years.
Select 1 marketing ad for a healthcare-based company and 1 marketing ad for a non-healthcare-based company from the past 50 years.
Write a 350- to 700-word analysis that details the changes in health care marketing that have occurred in the past 50 years and why these changes occurred. Your analysis will include a discussion around the similarities and differences between health care and non-healthcare marketing based on the ads you selected. Your analysis should:
Describe how health care marketing has changed since the 1970s.
Describe how current health care marketing efforts should be adjusted according to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Identify advantages of health care marketing for an organization and its consumers.
Discuss whether you consider marketing an appropriate practice in health care.
Identify similarities and differences between health care marketing and marketing in other industries.
Review the ads you selected (health care and non-healthcare ads) and identify 2 similarities and 2 differences between the marketing in a health care company versus a non-healthcare company.
Consider readings related to the 4Ps of marketing.
Predict how health care marketing may change in the next decade.

Answer
1. Introduction
The essay focuses on the evolution of healthcare marketing since the 1970s, with an emphasis on how the implementation of the Affordable Care Act has transformed the way public health and community-based care is provided. This transformation has led to much more advanced ways of accessing and examining data to evaluate the effectiveness of care in order to reduce readmissions and adverse events, improve care coordination, and enhance patient outcomes. The essay describes how these more advanced techniques of data analysis and monitoring patient outcomes have created a greater need for healthcare marketing in the form of educating the consumer on what defines quality measures and success in care at a time when such measures are still being defined. The article provides examples in which hospitals are using innovative healthcare marketing methods to compare themselves with their peers in an attempt to expose relative differences in safety, effectiveness, patient-centeredness, timeliness, efficiency, and equity in care between competing organizations. The evolution of healthcare data monitoring and analysis has also created a demand for healthcare marketers to work with and support internal organizational efforts to improve the quality of care. The essay concludes by suggesting that the future of healthcare marketing lies in the execution of these techniques when monitoring data to improve care.
1.1 Evolution of Health Care Marketing since the 1970s
As the industry moves into the new consumer-driven era, marketing and public relations are no longer considered a disreputable activity, but are vital in helping organizations to identify their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats, to make sound business decisions and to build relationships with its publics (Buchbinder, 2012). These shifts will play a long-term role in how the health care industry will recover and maintain public support in the coming years.
Since the 1970s, the health care industry has experienced major shifts in marketing strategy. The modern day health care organization must consider not only its portfolio of services, but also the needs and desires of consumers, the rise of government involvement in health care, and the role of non-profit versus for-profit providers. Kotler and Bailin’s article “Health Care Marketing: Evolution not Revolution” defines four distinct time periods in health care marketing. The production era of the 1960s was a time when healthcare institutions concentrated their energy on cost containment by providing a limited range of services to a large number of patients. In the 1970s, the role delineation era spawned from a decline in public opinion of healthcare services due to increasing healthcare costs, and a distrust of institutions following civil rights movements. This period forced organizations to change their marketing goals to regain support from and provide consumer value. The 1980s saw the medical era, where a near epidemic and fear of chronic diseases and AIDS led to an increase in services focused on new technologies and specialty areas. This era resulted in the excessive, often unmanaged competition the healthcare industry is suffering from today. Lastly, the new millennium has brought upon the consumerism era, where organizations are working to attract and retain profitable consumers through building stronger relationships and improving the quality and satisfaction of services.
1.2 Adjusting Health Care Marketing Efforts during the COVID-19 Pandemic
The advance of technology and improved access to information has continually influenced the manner in which health care marketing is carried out. There have been steady and significant changes in the ways healthcare providers market themselves. In the recent period, as the world contends with the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been great difficulties and concerns faced by health care marketers. Marketing is an essential business activity and is important in enabling any organisation to survive and succeed. Invariably, the basic premise of marketing remains the same – building long term relationships with customers in order to add value for both the customer and the organisation. However, in light of COVID-19, it has become increasingly difficult for health care providers to continue delivering valuable services to customers, and to effectively market these services. It is now more difficult to add value to services due to the unique nature of COVID-19. The ever-changing information and research about COVID-19 has caused consumer uncertainty. This makes it difficult to develop detailed and specific marketing strategies, and has forced health care providers to concentrate mainly on providing information to consumers, rather than promotion of services. Patients are now looking for high quality and reliable information regarding COVID-19, and how it may affect their health conditions and access to other healthcare services. This is a crucial time for health care marketers to provide accurate and timely information to the consumer. The focus of information giving presented a shift in marketing paradigm, from the traditional transactional, to a relationship based model, where the priority is providing consumer trust and confidence. This strategy is beneficial for consumers, and also a platform for building future marketing strategies and customer retention.
2. Advantages of Health Care Marketing
2.1 Benefits for Organizations
2.2 Benefits for Consumers
3. The Appropriateness of Marketing in Health Care
3.1 Arguments in Favor of Health Care Marketing
3.2 Arguments Against Health Care Marketing
4. Comparing Health Care Marketing with Other Industries
4.1 Similarities between Health Care Marketing and Marketing in Other Industries
4.2 Differences between Health Care Marketing and Marketing in Other Industries
5. Reviewing Health Care and Non-Healthcare Ads
5.1 Similarities in Marketing Approaches
5.2 Differences in Marketing Strategies
6. Exploring the 4Ps of Health Care Marketing
6.1 Product in Health Care Marketing
6.2 Price in Health Care Marketing
6.3 Place in Health Care Marketing
6.4 Promotion in Health Care Marketing
7. Predicting the Future of Health Care Marketing
7.1 Emerging Trends in Health Care Marketing
7.2 Anticipated Changes in the Next Decade