Whether it is a television commercial from a pharmaceutical company touting a small pill, or a print ad for a large metropolitan hospital, the health care industry is out to capture your business. The pharmaceutical companies send their messages directly to consumers promoting either over-the-counter or prescription drugs. Hospitals, on the other hand, get their patients principally from referrals made by their associated physician. Hospitals compete…for patients…and physicians. Hospital advertising targets individuals to get them to ask their doctors about specific treatments. At the same time, it tells physicians about services they offer and what a great place their hospital is. The goal is to get the physician to be an affiliate and refer his or her patients to that hospital.

There is a third, more subtle goal, to promote the hospital in such a manner that physicians and staff will be proud to say they work there. This helps morale and recruitment.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 at 4:23 pm and is filed under Marketing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.