4 A’s approach in Healthcare Marketing

When hospital and healthcare thing about the new marketing strategies for their services, they must do it step wise process. Marketing executive must include Doctors when they formulate marketing strategies. How doctor play important part in marketing strategies? For example if your hospital want to do to marketing campaign for newly started heart centre, then doctor can easily tell you what would be your target segment. Doctor can tell you which age groups are mostly getting most heart problem so marketing person can define their market segment.  Then marketing person must rely on state health data, this data also helps you to formulate target positioning. Health Data can tell you the current health status of your area, like what kind of disease is prevailing in your area, what age group is mostly getting affected by disease so you can easily target your marketing campaign to that area so you will get maximum response.   

Combining the above concept you can now determine the 4 A’s approach.

Awareness: 

Your community must have full awareness about what is your hospital offering with this new marketing campaign. Hospital should use good source of media to reach target group or community. It can be any things like TV, radio, social media and road show etc.

Acceptable: 

 What you are offering in new services must be acceptable to your target people. Costing should be done in strategic manner so it can be accepted by the community or target audience. If possible hospital can give customize kind of services, like in case of dental services all person don’t need all dental procedure so you can customize it according to demand. Some services are only for high income group but not for low income group so your offering should be in such a way that all income groups can utilize it effectively.

Available:

What you are offering to target group must be acceptable and available at right time and right place. For example to if you are targeting in far flung area then you can tie-ups with the local clinic and physician for OPD facility for short period of time or for fix day visit for regular.

Affordable: 

Last approach is Affordable it tell that what you are offering must be acceptable, available and affordable to target group.  So, you target people can afford your service in case of out of pocket also. For example: some service in hospital can only be affordable by high income group but not to low income group.