Purpose of Marketing; Case Study Stanford Hospital

Purposeof Marketing Case Study Stanford Hospital

Currently,hospitals face massive competition as a result of the increase in thenumber of hospitals owned by institution or individuals (Baum, 2015).As such, marketing theory has led to shifting from health careinstitutions to consumer empowerment. Increase in the efficacyregarding communication and availability of vast information fromonline and other sources has enabled the clients to judge thesuitability of services offered by healthcare professionals (Stewart,2015). For hospitals to get sufficient revenue to run their programs,they ought to provide quality services to satisfy their clients.Consequently, health institution should be able to provideoutstanding patient experience as well as providing reliable,tangible, empathetic, assured and responsive care (Baum, 2015). Thisstudy seeks to analyze the case of Stanford Hospital regardingcompetitiveness and benefits that the institution can attain byhaving a marketing plan.

Discussion

StanfordHospital is based in Stanford California and has been one of the mostprogressive healthcare brands in the United States (Stanford HealthCare, 2017). It serves as a teaching hospital for the school ofmedicine of the University of Stanford. Stanford Hospital has beenknown to provide outstanding, coordination and compassion care to itsclients and has the unmatched record regarding technology innovation,scientific discovery and revered translational medicine. Physicians,nurses and other healthcare personnel have pioneered and maintainedthe lead in therapies and provision of other health care services(Stanford Health Care, 2017). The reasons for selecting this hospitalfor study are because the hospital serves patients from the localcommunity, national level and patients from other countries.Essentially, the institution requires positioning itself throughexpansion to provide quality serviced to current and potentialclients (Stewart, 2015). The hospital has the huge capacity forpatients, the significant number of qualifies health professionalswho are motivated, ardently willing and committed to serving.

Accordingly,the institution needs to increase its customer base. For instance,the current capacity for surgical admission is 25,092 patients whilenearly 40,000 visit emergency room yearly. Moreover, the health careinstitution hosts more than 20,000 in patients cases annually(Stanford Health Care, 2017). Correspondingly, the hospital hasembarked on the construction of various modern facilities in thesurrounding region that include San Jose’s inclusive cancer center,integrated neurosurgery/ neurology center and a new hospital. Uponcompletion, the facilities will be the most advanced health carefacilities in the entire nation. Accordingly, the hospital requiresaggressive marketing strategy to enhance awareness to the neighboringcommunity, other clients from other parts of the country andinternational customers (Baum, 2015). The choice was also based onthe fact that Stanford hospital faces huge competition from otherprogressive and revolutionary brands such as Mayo Clinic, MichiganUniversity, Washington University, Duke University and Johns Hopkinsmedical centers. The reason is that quality and the level ofadvancement regarding providing medical care also determines thenumber of patients that would visit the institution seeking medicalcare.

StanfordHospital would benefit from a marketing plan because it will be asolid strategy for the brand in that the clients will maintainloyalty while new ones would be acquired (Stewart, 2015). Themarketing plan creates interconnected campaigns to enhance awarenessof the populace both in the region and away from the region.Increases in awareness would lead to increase in the number ofinquiries and hence growth in revenue. For instance, the brand isrenowned for surgery and cardiovascular medicine, neurology, organtransplantation, cancer identification and treatment and neurosurgery(Stanford Health Care, 2017). Efficient marketing plan ought toattract patients with these kinds of health care challenges. Besides,comprehensive marketing strategy would enhance the building of thecordial relationship between the institution and the patients whichare significant for repeat business like a hospital. Therefore,repeat patients would spread information about the brand throughspoken message, social media and other means of communication.Building relationship with clients’ loyalty would be one of themost significant aspects of assuring continued source of revenue tothe hospital (Stewart, 2015).

Stanfordhospital would also benefit because healthcare industry has undergonedrastic changes and thus the most competitive institution would bethe beneficially of an already declining number of patients due tocompetition. Surgery centers and other physicians-owned clinics andhospitals have enabled the consumer to be exposed to a variety ofchoices (Baum, 2015). Fundamentally, the ability of Stanford Hospitalto provide unique and high-quality services will enhance its ratingsand hence popularity which leads to increased awareness. Forinstance, the brand is known for offers revolutionary and reliablelife flight which is one of the oldest initiatives but has beenimproved with time in that it could function in almost any weathercondition (Stanford Health Care, 2017). A marketing plan that matchesthe needs of the contemporary patients would be significant becausethere have been changes in ways of enhancing awareness (Stewart,2015). For instance, sophisticated television campaign, print media,and billboards are no longer functional. Consequently, a marketingplan that responds to the need of the contemporary patient will bevery suitable for Stanford Hospital. Nowadays, Google ads, WhatsApp,LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram among other socialmedia websites have revolutionized marketing, and thus StanfordHospital will benefit from marketing plan that incorporates suchchanges (Baum, 2015).

Conclusion

Recently,there has been an increase in competition and other shifts in thehealthcare industry. As a result, such changes have triggered theneed for a comprehensive marketing plan to enhance awareness and thusincrease the number of patient visiting health care institutions. Thenumbers of the patient that visit the hospital have effects on theamount of revenue collected. The choice of Stanford Hospital for thestudy was propelled by the fact that the institution serves resident,national and international patients. Moreover, the hospital hasembarked on the construction of various modern facilities in thesurrounding region and thus would require an aggressive marketingplan to acquire more clients to match the expansion. The institutionis also facing competition from other progressive brands in thecountry and thus need to reposition itself accordingly. The marketingplan will be beneficial because it would enhance acquisition ofclients, improve awareness and maintain loyalty hence increasingrevenue. Besides, a marketing plan would lead to the building ofrelationship enhance competitiveness and adoption of marketingstrategy that will match the changing technology.

References

Baum,N. (2015). Thecomplete business guide for a successful medical practice.Cham: Springer.

StanfordHealth Care. (2017, April 7). Healinghumanity through science and compassion, one patient at a time.Retrieved from https://stanfordhealthcare.org/about-us.html

Stewart,D. W. (2015). Thehandbook of persuasion and social marketing:Santa Barbara, California: Praeger, an imprint of ABC-CLIO, LLC