Marketing and Health Care

While the marketing industry itself is an older profession, with roots in traditional advertising, marketing specific to the healthcare arena is a fairly new practice. Marketing in the healthcare industry began roughly 30 years ago when the American Hospital Association sponsored the first conference on health-care marketing; the first healthcare marketing book was published during that same timeframe. The idea of marketing in the healthcare industry was not formally accepted until the mid 1980s, and still the topic saw apprehension from providers including physicians, nurses, and ancillary service technicians working in laboratory and radiology departments. Though marketing was associated with advertising, the adoption of healthcare marketing opened the door for a variety of new activities across healthcare organizations. The effective marketing approaches used in other industries were not easily adapted, and were not necessarily effective in the health-care industry. In the early 1990s, progressive healthcare organizations began to evaluate their marketing objectives and began to try to understand the market, their customers, and their motivations. These evaluations lead to an expanded marketing role in healthcare organizations, which ultimately lead to marketing as a core determinant in the direction of the company. Marketers were given high-level administrative positions and the opportunity to engage in healthcare boardroom discussions. By 2000, marketing was positioned to have a major impact on the future direction of healthcare.
With the economy in a state of distress it is important for organizations to market adequately their goods and services if they hope to stay competitive. The success of any organization depends of the development and implementation of a marketing plan. A marketing plan is an “outline the specific actions