Innovation in Healthcare Marketing Strategies : learning from non-healthcare industry

INNOVATION IN HEALTHCARE MARKETING STRATEGIES IN INDIA : LEARNING FROM NON HEALTHCARE INDUSTRY

Today’s healthcare landscape is a challenging arena. Organizations are in search of successful and sustainable innovation strategies differentiate from the competition and create viable solutions that offer improved healthcare experiences for patients and care providers in the short to longer-term. At the same time the financial system needs to be sustainable. Many challenges in healthcare demand a diverse mix of skills, knowledge and competences which is beyond the capability of most individual businesses. Companies therefore have to think in terms of new models of innovation that include partnerships, acquisitions or strategic alliances equip themselves for the healthcare challenges ahead.

The Indian market offers huge opportunity for the service providers to make an impact on the quality of the Indian health care. As the presence & competition of healthcare industry increases with each passing day it is a need of the hour to adopt innovative strategies from non healthcare industry to create a unique identity & an edge over others keeping in mind consumer sensitivity & emotional response.

Learning from Non Healthcare Industry

The healthcare industry is facing paradigm change. Within this context of paradigm change lays opportunities for innovation. Applying non healthcare marketing strategies smartly in hospital organization will help in enhancing the brand image. The belief that a monumental problem can be solved by introducing a single tactical element- a brochure, a billboard, a radio campaign is like the same traditional approach where patients asks for a prescription without being seen by the doctor and that can be made and successfully implemented. What needs to be done is to go beyond the currents practices and explores the marketing opportunity in non healthcare field.

Use of medical vending machine in healthcare sector: there are much availability of consumables vending machines in several metro stations and public places. Medical vending machines can be introduced in different metro stations, railway stations, airports and satellite clinics. The vending machine can be equipped with mini first aid kits consist of small antiseptic liquid bottle, cotton bowls, bandages, pain relief tablets, ORS packets, baby care products and more. Medication-dispensing kiosks could be the next step in the hybrid of health care and self-service. Patients can use kiosks to test their blood pressure, check-in for a doctor’s appointment, and learn about health problems. Now, prescription medicine dispensing systems “are the next step in user-friendly health care. The customer can pick up their medicine at their convenience through the self-service system by swiping their authorization card and placing their index finger on a scanner. Once the patient’s identity has been verified, a lockbox door opens and they can access their medicine.

Talking news paper: There can be few literate countries of the world at the present time where newspapers and magazines are not an important and integral part of day-to-day lives. Not only do they keep us informed, they help us to identify with the variety of social contexts in which we live - culturally, geographically, politically or whatever. They shape, reaffirm our beliefs and perceptions. They influence our social roles and how we react to people and objects. They motivate what we put back into society. Through the medium of print and graphics they communicate their messages in ways which still remain uniquely effective in spite of other competitors in the mass media. People do, of course, receive local news via radio and television. But there are significant differences between the content of radio and television programmes and that of printed news and the way in which information is presented. There is also evidence that talking newspapers have therapeutic value for people in health care institutions and for use in reminiscence work. Talking newspapers can often provide  supplementary programme of features such as: interviews with local people, live commentaries on local events, readings from local publications, cookery and gardening hints, quizzes and competitions, daily living information such as new government legislation services and regular advertisements.. In terms of marketing, as a relatively recent entry into the Indian automotive market, Volkswagen needed to raise brand awareness. To address this challenge, Volkswagen’s marketing team focused one of its key brand pillars, innovation, to make a strong impact throughout the roll-out in India. Innovation was showcased not only in Volkswagen’s product introductions, but also in its communications and advertising. Volkswagen India created groundbreaking campaigns such as the world’s first ‘talking newspaper’, which used light-sensitive chips to speak to readers about Volkswagen as they turned the pages of their morning newspaper. The talking newspaper ad created a sensation in India, and garnered worldwide attention for taking print advertising to a new level. In one year, brand awareness more than quadrupled, increasing from 8 percent to a high of 37 percent. Using a voice-recorded device pasted on two English dailies, the company sprang a surprise to many readers in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Pune and Chennai. The Times of India and The Hindu, two of the largest circulated papers in the world, released a special advertisement in their daily papers Tuesday, launching Volkswagen's new sedan, the Vento. Marketing experts had started talking about how this new technology can be copied by other brands as well as adapted to other parts of the print media. Headlines, special reports, sports roundups, weather reports could all be adapted as the technology is improved. Same strategy would be worth for a premium level hospital as this advertisement cannot go unnoticed.

Language Interpreter Device: Interpretation has been defined as the conversion of a message uttered in a source language into an equivalent message in the target language so that the intended recipient of the message responds to it as if he or she had heard it in the original. Poor patient–provider communication due to Limited English Proficiency (LEP) costs healthcare providers and payers through lower patient use of preventive care, misdiagnosis, increased testing, poor patient compliance, and increased hospital and emergency room admissions. Language barriers result in poor understanding of diagnosis, treatment, and medication instructions, poor understanding of and compliance with recommendations for treatment and follow-up, a significantly greater likelihood of a serious medical event and lower patient satisfaction. In India, the healthcare market is growing towards medical tourism and problem arises in dealing with international patients who do not understand local languages well. Language Interpreter device promotes effective communication between international patients and healthcare providers.

CONCLUSION

For the marketing professional, the public-preferred dependence on electronic sources to disseminate information and engage in company marketing efforts represents a markedly more economical approach to consumer campaigning. In addition, the traditional restraints of paper-based advertising are lifted, leaving behind only limitations of the marketer’s imagination. The strategy successes of prominent healthcare organizations and companies in other industries highlighted in this paper provide a compelling case for the proliferation of healthcare marketing. The strategies discussed are ideas which can be used in healthcare marketing. Although not all strategies can be used for the same hospital and organization but they can be customized according to the need of the hospital. Information technology has played a vital role in the innovation of healthcare systems. This article evaluates some realistic ways of innovation in healthcare strategies in India which has to be to be applied in a way that suits the healthcare at its best.