This paper offers an insight on strategic marketing in health care and giving out the information on competitive edge in the health care field. It will highlight the effeteness’ of the strategies used by the two care centers. The approaches include the managed care, pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, physician practices and social marketing.
Even though, most clients are bombarded with advertising information daily, there’s the only advertising image that makes people to listen; service advertisement from Urgent Care of East Valley, Gilbert. This has taken totally different approach to getting customers attention. Urgent Care of East Valley in Gilbert ignored to use the medical professions and the doctors in adverts.
Although, Urgent Care of East Valley in Gilbert is located in an environment where there is a competitive health care market, it has managed to be a regional leader in various issues in the medical field (Pinkovitz, 1997).
Just immediately after the facility was opened, the marketing team intensified their campaigns and Urgent Care of East Valley in Gilbert made several approaches to differentiate itself from the heavy marketing advertisement from their competitor.
The main aim of the advertisement were to break through the clutter and to present a strong and clear message to the clients; the ad was considered effective and smart meeting the healthcare objective.
The campaign team focused their efforts on radio and TV, even though there were some efforts to reach print and outdoor ad as well. The location of the facility gives it an advantage because it is in a strategic position making it easily accessible in all directions.
The main location locations are: Gilbert North of Southern, Higley North of Ray Rd, Gilbert South of Queen Creek and Rural North of Guadalupe. There are also other branches being constructed. Apart from this discussion, I will briefly discuss about theories of advertising.
With innovation and development in technology, most customers are more informed about products that are available in the market. These customers are also more informed about their needs and their requirement from goods and services. Many companies that produce several products have also come up and they all compete for the attention of a similar market.
Advertising has been proposed to have two theories of how it works which are a strong theory and a weak theory. The strong theory of advertising suggests that for advertising to have an impact, an individual has to be persuaded to close the deal for the advertiser by making a purchase while the weak theory suggests that an individual is reminded to make a purchase for a particular brand of product.
However, advertisements use the same concepts to attract and hook the attention of the consumer and finally, close the deal after the client makes a purchase.
This paper will take a look into the different communication models that are utilized in advertising and give an example of a successful advertisement that has been made in the 21st century. The paper will also look at the AIDA Attention Interest Desire and Action advertising model used in the Mac vs. PC model.
The critical debate is that, the modes of advertising currently used in the world today have evolved but the concepts that are used are still the same as those that were used a long time ago even before innovation and technology advanced. Even though consumers are more aware of their needs and rights, the concept of persuading and trying to keep consumers loyal to brands remains the same.
Urgent Care of East Valley, Gilbert has various physicians who are qualified in various fields like Biology, Zoology, family practices to handle all the needs of the clients. Some of the services provided include; complicated lacerations and abscesses, EKG and X-ray, IV’s and IV medication, blood-work, specialized tests, abdominal pain, headache, severe back pain or other muscular injuries, broken bones, and ingrown nail removals.
The facility has pharmacy department that can over various medications that can treat all kinds of infections, coughs and colds, muscular injuries among others making the facility popular (Berkowitz, 2006). To market itself the facility offers its services at a very low price like $ 10 per description; making medication very affordable.
What makes it very unique from its competitor is that the facility can accept insurance through various providers like: Iab, Aetna, Health Choice, University Physichians, Health Choice Generations, Humana-Choice Care, John Alden Health, among other making payments to be very convenient.
The other health care center does not accept payment from various insurance companies. Payment can also be made online making it easy and efficient to customers who don’t have insurance or cash (Free Library of Philadelphia, 2011).
The Beth Israel Medical Center is located at 245 Fifth Avenue between 27 and 28th Street in New York. The center offers Continuum Health and healing center services to clients. The health care institution offers people the opportunities to educate themselves on health care options that are available and which they are best suited for the conditions that they might have.
In this day and age when many people are trying to get healthy through their eating habits and treatment with natural medicine, the facility offers a ‘product’ that is highly needed in the market.
Many individuals feel that the illnesses that they have developed are because of chemicals that they have consumed from highly refined foods or from years of taking medication. The notion that the Beth Israel medical center promotes wellness and prevention of diseases means that they target high end and ordinary consumers that are health conscious and act on their consciousness.
The New York Beth Israel center is strategically located to be able to treat patients from all over the city. New York has a high population and has many other institutions from which Beth Israel can be able to source its clientele. Beth Israel offers clients education about their health acting as a preventive measure.
This has helped them gain popularity especially for patients that might have long term chronic illnesses and they need to manage their diseases (East Valley Urgent Care, 2011).
The center has been equipped with the latest medical equipment that allows it to be able to offer a wide range of health care services. The center has employed the services of highly qualified specialists from all over the world and trained them on the use of integrative medicine.
Integrative medicine incorporates research studies that have been conducted from renowned health organizations such as the Center for Disease Control and the Griffin Hospital in Connecticut.
The center also prides itself in being a member of the National Consortium of Academic Medical Centers for Integrative medicine. All these affiliations to internationally known organizations make people know that the kind of health care provided by this organization is of high quality.
Most of the individuals that visit the Beth Israel center have private insurance which makes funding more convenient for the institution. Majority of the health care institutions in the country have to deal with individuals that do not have insurance and the hospital do not want to turn them away, but they still have to pay their bills.
The Beth Israel center in New York emphasizes that it does not focus on price to treat its patients. Some of the integrative treatments that are available are relatively cheap such as homeopathy and it can be performed on patients that have tried other forms of treatment without success.
Research has shown that there has been a 70% increase in the number of Americans that have chosen to use integrative medicine. Some of these patients include cancer patients whose diseases have progressed on too much and they have been poor prognoses. Some of these patients opt to spend the last few moments that they have using natural remedies instead of medical procedures such as surgery or chemotherapy.
Beth Israel has many clients from diverse backgrounds and with diverse medical issues. Most of the pharmaceutical companies that are available have failed to fund research studies that will lead to the discovery and use of new medication. The Beth Israel center has therefore collaborated with research institutions all over the country that focus on wide areas of study.
Due to the high profits that are available from pharmaceuticals, it is cited that it is the reason that most doctors, pharmacists and other individuals in the healthcare industry recommend manufactured medication.
But many individuals especially those that suffer from chronic diseases seek integrated medicine because they feel that these might offer them a chance to get completely healed from their conditions and without performing of evasive procedures or without taxing of their metabolic systems with the removal of toxic chemicals from the body.
The Beth Israel center is located in a strategic position where many people from all of New York can be able to access. Many internationally tourists also visit New York and they might decide to try out therapies offered at the center while at the city. This makes the location of the center vey prime to take advantage of the many clients that might want to take advantage of integrative medicine.
The location is in the heart of the city whereby, individuals can walk from their workplaces after a day’s work or they can call in and make appointments while they go at their free time during the day. This is therefore a great strength for the health center and places it ahead of its competitors.
While some individuals might have already tried the conventional ‘western’ medication, there are other individuals that feel that taking of their bodies through healthy eating, regular exercising and the use of integrative medicine when they fall ill is the solution to their health problem.
The Beth Israel health care institution offers holistic treatment in comparison to the Arizona Urgent Care facility. The Beth Israel Center specializes in offering clients health care services that cater to the whole body offering therapeutic care and even offering remedies.
References
Berkowitz, N. (2006). Essentials of health care marketing (2nd ed.). Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett.
East Valley Urgent Care. (2011). Web.
Free Library of Philadelphia. (2011). Web.
Pinkovitz, R. (1997). Using Lifestyle to Analyze Market Potential. Web.