Practitioner Application
Introduction
It is in 1977 that marketing was official recognized as a marketing concept when the FDA finally allowed health organizations to market their services since this ban violated the Federal Trade Act that protected free commerce. In 1977, the American Hospital Association hosted the first conference on healthcare marketing and the first book of healthcare marketing was officially published. Healthcare organizations that include health insurance organizations, pharmaceuticals and medicine manufacturing companies were among the first to embrace the concepts of marketing. The beginning of the 1980s marked an important mile stone for healthcare organizations. When hospitals realized that they play an important part in influencing the decisions of patients they choose to adopt mass advertising to promote their programs and services. They utilized billboards, televisions and radio commercials. Some health organizations have been able to effectively utilize advertising as a method of product promotion. However, the use of advertising to promote health services remains a problem for some organizations and some are stuck between these two extremes.
In the beginning of the 1980s the FDA paved way for broadcast direct to direct consumer advertising. Health organizations had the opportunity to market their products to interested. Organization were now in a position to educate their customers more about health service through the internet, phone, printed materials and commercial broadcasts. Since then advertising has been linked with demand for certain pharmaceuticals. After the advertisement of asthma medication, the sales of these medications increased (Reichel, 2018). The Use of antidepressants also increased as a result of advertisement. In 2015 the health service advertisement experienced drastic changes after the American Medical Association ban on expensive medication after the institution raised concerns that consumers were requesting new and more expensive drugs that were not necessary nor more effective than the already existing drugs.
Direct commercial customer advertisement has been linked with increase in drug prices. Consumer awareness about the existence of a certain drug increases the demand of the drug in question (Becker, et al., 2016). In 2010 research conducted showed that DTC advertainment by pharmaceuticals was responsible for 19% growth in drug expenditure from 1995 to 2007, this research went further to confirm that this demand was as a result of an increase in demand off pharmaceutical products. Advertisement in the health sector is still new and organizations are finding their way around the promotion concept.
Health Services Advertising "Pros"
The first advantage of health service advertising is that it provides the consumer with educational opportunities concerning new drugs and new services. Mostly, patients do not know anything concerning the drugs prescribed to them. Advertisements concerning new drugs can trigger the interests of the consumers who in return turn to doctors with questions about the new medicine in the market. Advertisement can help in encouraging patients to seek out earlier treatment. Diagnosis of some diseases aids in treatment an example is cancer which is easier to treat and place the patient in remission only with early detection (Adeoye et al., 2007). In severe cases if diseases such as cancer are not diagnosed at an early stage it becomes almost impossible to terminate the disease. Advertisements play an important role in persuading less compliant people to seek treatment.
Also advertising health services serves in encouraging individuals to visit health organizations. The appealing images used in advertisements helps to place tense minds at ease (Gaille, 2016). When patients suffering from non-terminatable diseases see drug advertisements they see hope for a cure that has not yet been recommended, that hope becomes a powerful healing tool for them. Patients have a lot of questions about drugs and thanks to advertisement they can find their answers in pamphlets and brochures handed over in hospitals and health organizations.
It helps reach a broader audience, when health service providers advertisers they have a high probability of reaching the targets audience resulting in the increase of health services consumers. (Weissman, et al., 2004) Hospitals are now in a position to advertise, new, capital intensive and high-tech equipment, this is advantageous since it is informative and could increase the speed by which new treatments are made. Advertisements present organizations promoting their products with an improved competitive advantage, health services offering organizations are competing for patients. On most occasion this competition is based on both the cost, the care delivered and quality of the care. Through advertisements organizations attracts a significant presence and more people learn of the services offered.
A large patient base results into more profit and revenue for the organization and there is no better way to attract customers than by advertising the services of the organization to a wider audience (Adeoye, et al., 2007). Advertisement increases the visibility of an organization and makes consumers more aware of the brand which in return arouses interest. When an organization markets its products and services it blocks and removes doubts from the consumers and decreases the chances of consumers being misinformed. Advertising also helps healthcare professionals showcase their skills and uniqueness and this helps patients in making choices.
Health Services Advertising "Cons"
Health service advertising can cause false health scares, advertising often discusses which symptoms accompanies a certain disease, this can terrify the audience to think they have experienced those symptoms before and tend to believe they have the disease in question in return they end up in hospitals to running tests and spending finances that they didn’t need to spend. Another disadvantage is that advertising increases cost incurred by patients. Advertising costs are often built into the prices of the drug being marketed. Patients incurs much of this cost when they pay high prices for the drugs (Adeoye, et al., 2007). Ultimately it is the patient who pays for the marketing efforts.
Often the side effects of a drug are understated in an advertisement, mostly the advertisement does not convey all the negative effects of a drug, overlooking these side effects puts the patient at risk. The health benefits to be obtained from the medication often seems to be overstated (Gaille, 2016). These advertisements often leave out crucial details. Ads that show patients who were treated in certain hospitals fail to present the consumers with the risky procedures that the patient underwent and the overall success chances of these procedures. Advertisement often encourages medication that is not always necessary. There are some health conditions which can benefit from change in lifestyles which is a non-drug treatment although as a result of advertisement many patients are looking for quick fix solutions that promise to fix their conditions instead of reclaiming their health.
The main purpose of advertising is to reach a target audience and market products to specific customers. However, advertisement may not always reach the targeted audience (Weissman, et al., 2003). The health organizations may lose its advertisement materials to the wrong audience. When organizations put up advertisements, they usually include only the information that is favorable for the company. One might think these advertisements are lying but they are not, they just skip the most crucial details but did not misinform consumers.
My Position on Health Services Advertising
With reference to knowledge gained from a marketing course and various marketing reading assignments I believe that promotion of any product or service, including healthcare services is important. In the 1990s when the marketing concept was discovered, health organizations realized that they will have to market their services to attract more loyal customers in the future. Advertising as a means of product promotion has spread an awareness about the existence of medications that consumers did not about. As an individual who has been equipped with the required knowledge of how to utilize advertisement to promote services and products, I believe that health service advertisement plays an important role in the health sector. I believe that health organizations that have not yet utilized advertisement should embrace advertisement to market its products. It is my belief that despite criticism advertising has been associated with a lot of social benefits. In the past health service consumers did not play a much vital role in in selection which hospital they are being admitted to, that decision was driven by the physician, but as a result of advertisement consumers are now active in making decisions after reviewing what different services are offered by different organization. I believe that health services advertisement has come to revolutionize the health sector.
Conclusions
Adverting of health services begun in the Mid 1970s since the FDA had termed the practice of advertising health services as unethical in the previous years. There are organizations that have fully embraced health service advertising, other organizations have failed to embrace advertising while others are stuck between these two extremes. The FDA paved way for health service advertising in 1980. Health service advertisement has its advantages that include providing consumers with detailed opportunities. Convincing consumers to seek early diagnosis. Despite the many advantages of advertising it cannot be ignored that health service advertising has come with its own disadvantages such as misleading consumers. My belief is that health service advertainment has increased the role consumers play when determining which health services to receive. Health service advertising is here to revolutionize the health sector.
References
Adeoye, S., & Bozic, K. J. (2007). Direct to consumer advertising in healthcare: history, benefits, and concerns. Clinical Orthopaedics and Related Research (1976-2007), 457, 96-104.
Becker, S. J., & Midoun, M. M. (2016). Effects of direct-to-consumer advertising on patient prescription requests and physician prescribing: A systematic review of psychiatry- relevant studies. The Journal of clinical psychiatry, 77(10), e1293.
Gaille B., (2016). 10 Direct to Consumer Advertising Pros and Cons. Retrieved from; https://brandongaille.com/10-direct-to-consumer-advertising-pros-and-cons/
Reichel C., (2018). Direct-to-consumer drug advertising spikes demand. Retrieved from; https://journalistsresource.org/studies/government/health-care/direct-to-consumer- prescription-drugs/
Weissman, J. S., Blumenthal, D., Silk, A. J., Newman, M., Zapert, K., Leitman, R., & Feibelmann, S. (2004). Physicians Report On Patient Encounters Involving Direct-To- Consumer Advertising: Doctors see both positive and some negative effects on their patients and practices. Health Affairs, 23(Suppl1), W4-219.
Weissman, J. S., Blumenthal, D., Silk, A. J., Zapert, K., Newman, M., & Leitman, R. (2003). Consumers' Reports On The Health Effects Of Direct-To-Consumer Drug Advertising: This study found no widespread adverse health affects resulting from drug ads aimed at consumers, but society still needs to weigh in on the consequences of this advertising. Health Affairs, 22(Suppl1), W3-82.
