The 4 A’s Of Marketing Your Eye Care Practice

In a previous post, we emphasized the use of the marketing mix that comprises the 4Ps product, price, place, and promotion. The model of the 4 Ps was popularized by Philip Kotler who is the father of modern marketing, however many healthcare marketers considered the model too hard to fit in healthcare calling the four Ps concept “anachronisms in healthcare marketing”. They announced the death of the four Ps and have argued for their replacement with the four Rs that consist of Relevance, Response, Relationships, and Results.

In the early days of marketing, marketers had a single “P”: the product. They put all their efforts and strategies into advertising this single P. By the time marketers realized there is much more involved beyond the single “P”, the 4 Ps framework emerged that was then followed by the 4 Rs which, along with the 4 Ps, both address the production side. Another framework emerged by adding another “P” to the 4 Ps model and making it a 5 Ps framework. The fifth “P” is about prompting the patients to adopt changes in behavior as they make contacts with healthcare providers that lead to better health and quality outcomes and better relationships. The fifth “P” is also linked to People who are friendly staff and like to make themselves loved by providing exceptional services.

While the 4 Ps and the 4 Rs are on the product and production side of the marketing equation, the fifth “P” is more related to the consumer and patient side. When we think about the consumer side we think of the 4 A’s framework that pertains to co-creating value by both the organization and the patient and consists of Acceptability, Affordability, Accessibility, and Awareness. This concept has been gaining popularity as a result of the disruption of supply chains and the turbulent markets that have been caused during the pandemic and afterward.

Marketers have to understand the dynamics driving the new customer behavior based on the online world composed of teleconferencing, social media, and the metaverse. The new divide caused by the pandemic has forced us to consider how patients and consumers have changed their way of accepting new products and new services. It has led to increased polarization and the middle class that has been shrinking as well as many consumers amended income caused by the pandemic. Each and every one of the 4 A’s has been altered by the new digital environment we live in.

The next time you have to offer a new product or present a new service in your eye care practice think about the 4 A’s, how they changed during the past couple of years, and how they help you look differently at those products. Take for example telemedicine and try to figure out to which patients it increased accessibility to eye care, brought affordability, and spread awareness. Social media and weblog posts are excellent tools for spreading awareness of interruption of service, the introduction of new products, and making announcements as well as driving traffic to your website where the online shopping experience is equally affected by the customer’s 4 A’s.