Marketshare for Healthcare

Recently I met with the VP of Marketing and Corporate Communications for a Pennsylvania-based health system. During our meeting, she asked me what I like about healthcare marketing. “It’s the balance between being a business and having a mission,” I said. “We have to realize every day that our work is to support the business of the hospitals while understanding that the general public probably cringes at the idea that a hospital is a business. They want to focus on the mission side of the equation; the hospital is there to do good and provide for people.”

A business with a mission – healthcare marketing has to strike a delicate balance communicating these attributes. Come down too heavily on “it’s a business” and you risk losing that well of support that hospitals enjoy because they do have a mission. Focus too much on the mission of the hospital to provide healthcare, and the business can suffer, and doesn’t allow the hospital to fulfill its mission.

You can drive the business and promote...

Your brand is your business. It’s your promise and value proposition to patients, referring doctors and payors – and the market share you achieve in the future will be directly related to your brand strategy. Hopefully, you have one.

Here’s an easy “brand litmus test” one: What one word does Memorial Sloan Kettering stand for? That’s right, “cancer.” Few hospitals have this luxury. However, Volvo is just a small player in a sea of automobile brands, and, a yet they own “safety.” What a powerful marketing asset that is. (By the way, do you know any hospital brand in the country that owns safety? With the need to drive down costs, reduce medical errors and dramatically lower the incidence of hospital-acquired infections, the hospital that owns “safety” in its market can rise above the rest. That’s a freebie!)

The marketing challenge for any hospital is focus. A hospital may do a very good job in multiple service lines and perceive itself to be the best in their market in two or more. But markets...