In healthcare, marketing strategies are applied to advertise new medical products or programs. This can be advertising in scientific publications with a large circulation, or through the internal distribution of government websites such as CDC (“Health marketing basics,” 2021). Further, information about the program or product spreads through the hierarchical vertical and reaches the communities and patient groups that receive health services. This paper aims to discuss the benefits of the two-sided message marketing strategy for healthcare campaigns.
Notably, the two-sided messages are widely used in marketing to persuade the customers and cause attitude changes. The essence of this method is that the advertiser represents not only the positive but also the negative aspects of the product (Ferreira, 2020). Paradoxically, this approach increases interest in the product and the demand for it. Since, firstly, it causes sympathy, making the product or service more human, and, secondly, it increases the message credibility, which represents both positive and negative sides.
Healthcare marketing strategies go through several stages – an information campaign, or the presentation of a product or service to the public as a result of research or program policy, the opportunity to test a product for free or at a reduced price, offering a product or service in places with a large volume of potential buyers, and, finally, the presentation of the product or service to the media and the public. At each stage, the receiving party will decide how successful the product or service is or how socially useful and significant it is. Therefore, at each stage, the presenting party must use effective strategies.
The two-sided message strategy is most appropriate to use in the last step when the product or service is being presented to the general public. In the previous stages, the messages were more specific and were aimed at more informing the consumer about the product or service and convincing them to try it. Now you need to reach a wider audience and use less memory and space. Since the public is already somewhat familiar with the concept of a product or service, they will understand the general idea from a shorter advertising message.
This message can contain a two-sided message to convince potential customers and induce particular behavior or decision. Many health care services are uncomfortable or make prospective patients feel uncomfortable. However, they can be necessary for the health of each individual and the nation as a whole, so two-sided messages can be used to convince the audience. For example, an ad message might contain the following text: cancer screening will not brighten up your lunch break, but it will help you live ten years longer.
Another example is a visit to the dentist: people ask friends to visit the dentist for them, but your smile will help you find a beautiful girl. In other words, the essence of the two-sided message is to grab attention, share information and appear more authentic in front of customers. Finally, if the public health system has developed a serious campaign to improve the health of citizens, it can put up billboards with motivating slogans that will firstly be remembered by all potential visitors to clinics, and secondly, they will cheer them up.
Thus, the benefits of the two-sided message marketing strategy for the healthcare campaigns were discussed. They can be effectively used in different healthcare campaigns like governmental healthcare programs and newly tested products like anti-COVID vaccines. The marketing campaigns in healthcare include several stages, and in the final stage, when the product or strategy is presented to the broader audience, the two-sided messages work best. This is especially true for medical products since they are supposed to arise trust in patients.
References
Ferreira, M. (2020). Two-sided messages: they sound stupid. And they work.
Health marketing basics. (2021). Web.