The Five Ps of Marketing in Optometry

Many healthcare providers argue that the four Ps of Marketing or the concept of the marketing mix is hard to apply to healthcare in general. The reason for this argument is that in business marketing, a consumer consumes goods and services that he decides on and chooses. He is knowledgeable about the different options and he has an independent and assertive will to choose fast and efficient services. Whereas, a patient in healthcare has different expectations that relate to concerns about being treated in a humane way and working to providing the best health treatments. Therefore, many marketers expect that soliciting patients ought to be completely different than soliciting customers.

On the other hand, healthcare marketers see nothing wrong in applying the four Ps in healthcare, they even developed five Ps for healthcare marketing. The marketing mix consists of four controllable variables that marketers use to influence the target market. Those variables include Product, Price, Place, and Promotion. In most industries, the four Ps have long been at the core of the marketing strategy. Healthcare organizations increasingly considered using the four Ps however with a different meaning for healthcare providers than for other businesses and contexts.

The first P is Product: in healthcare, the product represents products, services, treatments, and procedures as well as their perceived attributes.

The second P is Price: in healthcare, the price refers to the amount of money charged for the above-mentioned products that include fees, deductibles, copayments, or out-of-pocket costs as well as pain, waiting time, discomfort, anxiety, and much more. The value that the patient is expecting should be worth paying all these costs.

The third P is Place: in healthcare place represents the location, hours of service, online services, telemedicine, etc.

The fourth P is Promotion: in healthcare, promotion goes beyond merry advertising. It represents any way of telling the patients that they have a new product or service to answer their needs. Promotion involves sales promotions, advertising, publicity, personal selling, and personal relations PR that help achieve specific goals.

A fifth P is Prompting patients to adopt changes in behavior as they make contacts with healthcare providers that lead to better health and quality outcomes and better relationships. Some also link the fifth P to People who are friendly staff who like to make themselves loved by providing exceptional services. Whatever the way the four Ps is used there are always new attempts to develop more appropriate models that comfortably fit in healthcare.