Define the product, know the market
Newcomers to occ-med need a marketing plan
When it comes to letting people know about their services, health care professionals have historically had the "If we build it, they will come" mentality, according to one consultant. "But that mentality has reached extinction," says Christine M. Kalina, MBA, MS, RN, COHN-S/CM, FAAOHN. "A marketing plan is very, very important to an occupational health service." Kalina, a Chicago-based global consultant in occupational health, advises clients to first decide what it is they are selling before they take their first marketing steps.
Know your product
Occupational health providers, like most other specialists in health care, often have not studied business extensively, so when it comes to launching or building on a service they might overlook some basic elements — like knowing just what it is they want people to come to them for. "There are some very important steps to take when you’re building a program, and the first one is to define what your product is," Kalina says. "Just what is it that you are marketing?"
Health care providers, she says, commonly "think they have to be the be-all and everything to everybody," but that approach usually is not successful. "You’ve heard the saying that if you’re good at everything, you’re really good at nothing?" Kalina asks. "It’s very important to make sure you have your product defined. Know what you’re marketing before you start marketing."
She often meets occupational health providers who tell her they are busy marketing their businesses; when she asks what they are doing, they tell her they have mailed fliers or purchased advertising. "If someone says, I sent out fliers saying my occupational health service is open from 2 to 4 p.m.,’ I tell them that the real marketing question is why is the service open from 2 to 4 p.m." Kalina says. "You have to understand what your strategy is, what targeted programs you’re going to plan, and how to launch them."
While health care providers are usually far more interested in the service they’re offering to patients, she says marketing has to be part of the strategic plan for the overall occupational health service. Advertising is just one part of the marketing plan.
There are Four P’s — product, place, promotion, and price — that a new or growing occupational health service should incorporate into its marketing strategy, she suggested:
- Product — define what it is the service will provide;
- Place — where the program or product will be delivered. Will you take your services to the employee’s work site, or will you have the employee come to you?
- Promotion — how the service will be promoted: word of mouth, fliers, and advertising are some promotional tools;
- Price — how the service is priced depends on what financial structure the occupational health program uses. Will employers pay for the service? Will employees be charged, under the theory that if someone pays for a service, there is more vested interest in its success?
As part of the promotion aspect of the plan, sitting down with customers to find out what they want is a valuable step, Kalina says. Find out what they want, and then decide how you can give it to them. "Emerson says, If you build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door,’" she says. "If you define your product, create something unique, then there you have it. If everyone is selling the same thing, they’re not being competitive."
The aggressiveness of a marketing strategy depends in part on where the service is located. If a service is coming into a market already bustling with competitors, marketing will need to be precise and aggressive; if it is the only occupational health provider in town, the need for marketing is much less.
Marketing can be an expensive proposition if a service calls on consultants to handle the process. On the other hand, a savvy manager can do the marketing if he or she knows the product, the market, and how to promote, Kalina says.
"Budgets drive operating expenses, so you have to step back, define what your objectives are for your marketing plan — what you want it to accomplish, and how much you have to spend to obtain those objectives," she says. "It goes back to your strategic business plan."
Benchmarking and competitive analysis are two tools that can help determine expenses and strategy, but one is easier to use than the other.
Benchmarking involves comparing what your business or service does, via what processes, and how best to implement those processes, based on how other businesses conduct similar processes. But it’s not always comparing apples to apples. For example, Kalina says a drug testing company can benchmark against a pizza company — both take multiple ingredients that must be processed to deliver a top-quality result quickly. Far-fetched as it may sound, Kalina once conducted such a benchmark study. "We benchmarked a pizza company for a drug testing company, and it was not comparing products — it was comparing processes," she recalls. "How do you take all these ingredients in a drug test and get it done faster?"
Competitive analysis provides information that’s good to know, but hard to come by. It involves finding out what your direct competitors do and how they do it. "And they’re not going to share that with you that unless they’re really, really stupid," Kalina says.
Whether an occupational health service devises a marketing plan that’s complex or very simple, high-priced or inexpensive, it is a process that is sorely needed, she says. "Marketing is something that occupational health care providers, in my experience, need to explore and implement more."
For more information, contact:
- Christine M. Kalina, MBA, MS, RN, COHN-S/CM, FAAOHN, Christine M. Kalina & Associates. Phone: (219) 934-9285. E-mail: [email protected].
When it comes to letting people know about their services, health care professionals have historically had the If we build it, they will come mentality, according to one consultant. But that mentality has reached extinction, she says.
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