Hello and welcome back to our monthly blog post! This month we wanted to explore healthcare marketing as a potential career option for pharmacy students with an interest in the business side of pharmaceutical sector. Marketing is a massive field within the healthcare industry, but when someone says healthcare marketing to you, what does this really mean?
Marketing itself is where a company or person is trying to sell or promote their product, services or ideas to a customer. In healthcare, this customer could be patients, the NHS, a private health clinic, a medical product/ pharmaceutical company or a hospital for example. Generally speaking, anything relating to the development, packaging, pricing, promotion and distribution of healthcare products falls under healthcare marketing(1). Public health promotion, health protection and prevention are also areas that come under the general term healthcare marketing. Whilst anyone with a business background could potentially go into this field of work, as a professional with clinical training, pharmacists have the expert knowledge to make successful marketing decisions.
The costs of medicines and devices are constantly rising and changing, and with this we’re seeing more companies and organisations offering similar services. If people need something from the medical sector, they can shop around and go for the cheapest or most applicable option. Whilst this is great for customers, the increased competition results in an increased need for pharmaceutical organisations to understand their audience. Marketing their products in an effective, but ethical way may ensure companies keep their long- patients throughout their healthcare journey’s and improve loyalty(2).
Healthcare organisations have been greatly changing and developing their approaches to marketing to increase profit, awareness of the organisation and to promote their brand. In the past few years, social networking sites have played an increasing role, but more recently messaging apps such as Snapchat are also being utilised by companies to promote their services(3). This increase in digital marketing has also increased the personalisation and individualisation of marketing techniques used(4). Marketing trends are constantly changing, and people are employed to predict them, learn more from consumers through market research(5) and develop new and innovative marketing strategies.
Although there are many benefits of healthcare marketing, for example increases in prescriber confidence and patient requests for specific drugs, studies have found direct advertising to consumers has no benefit regarding patient health outcomes(6).
Hopefully you now have an appreciation of how broad an area healthcare marketing is! Keep an eye out for our next blog post (coming in December!) and keep following our Instagram and Twitter accounts (@altpharmcareers) for regular updates on the APC Conference 2019!
References:
(1)- Thomas RK. Introduction to Healthcare Marketing. In: Health Services Marketing A Practitioner's Guide. New York: Springer; 2008. p. 1-10.
(2)- Evariant. What is Healthcare Marketing? Available from: https://www.evariant.com/faq/what-is-healthcare-marketing [Accessed 22/10/2018]
(3)- Healthcare Success. 10 Healthcare Marketing Trends to Watch in 2017. Available from: https://www.healthcaresuccess.com/blog/advertising/healthcare-marketing-trends-in-2017.html [Accessed 22/10/2018]
(4)- SIS International Research. How to Conduct Healthcare Market Research. Available from: https://www.sisinternational.com/how-to-conduct-healthcare-market-research/ [Accessed 22/10/2018]
(5)- InterQ. Why Conduct Market Research in the Healthcare Industry? Available from: https://interq-research.com/why-conduct-market-research-in-the-healthcare-industry/ [Accessed 22/10/2018]
(6)- Gilbody S, Wilson P, Watt I. Benefits and Harms of Direct to Consumer Advertising: A Systematic Review. BMJ Quality and Safety. 2005; 14(4): 246-250.
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