Food-Service-Manual-for-Health-Care-Institutions

Chapter 3
Marketing
In the past, health care providers managed operations with little concern for environmental
pressures and changes in the marketplace. However, given that health care technology has
expanded and that the percentage of the gross national product spent on health care has
increased, the health care system now must change its approach to be more consistent with
other sectors. It is no longer immune to the complexities and uncertainties of its environment.
A number of uncontrollable pressures within the health care environment (discussed in
Chapter 1) make health care delivery today increasingly more turbulent and stressful. These
pressures have forced providers to learn and implement new skills to make their operations more
cost-effective while maintaining quality standards. Primary among these responses has been the
implementation of marketing, which has long been used in other consumer-oriented fields.
Marketing is often confused with sales, advertising, and public relations. In fact, these
activities are part of marketing. To produce targeted results, not only must marketing become
a way of doing business in the health care operation, it must become a function of management.
In the health care context, marketing is oriented to consumers, as opposed to sales or a
product.
To apply to the health care field, marketing is defined as a tool that strives to meet the
needs, wants, and demands of the customers to obtain products and service of quality and
value. The American Marketing Association defines marketing as “the performance of business
activities that direct the flow of goods and service from the producer to the customer.” Because
many different health care options currently exist and because changes in health care delivery
will continue, providers must design services with the opinions and perceptions of their customers
in mind. Therefore, health care nutrition and food service departments are becoming
increasingly—and more overtly—important in facilities’ overall marketing strategies.
This chapter introduces key marketing concepts, including services management, the difference
between goods and services, types of markets, market and basis for segmentation, target
markets, marketing mix, and advertising and promotion. These concepts then will be applied to
devising a cyclical, five-phase marketing management model based on the following elements:
• Information: maintaining records; collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data
• Planning: operational and strategic planning, the planning process, documentation and
components of the marketing plan
51