Marketing strategies for vascular practitioners.

Full Abstract

BACKGROUND: A common misconception is that marketing is synonymous with advertising. Marketing by physicians has undergone a transformation from the earlier unacceptable slick sales pitches to a more common sense, tasteful, comprehensive, and well thought out plan to reach potential patients. METHODS AND RESULTS: Marketing is a much broader concept comprising four aspects: product, price, promotion, and place. Marketing activities for a medical practice include not only external but internal tactics. Publicly available resources are available to assist physicians in developing and targeting the plan towards a narrow patient demographic. The marketing process includes: determining objectives, identifying resources, defining target population, honing a message, outlining a media plan, implementing the plan, and finally, evaluating the success or failure of the marketing campaign. CONCLUSION: A basic knowledge of marketing combined with a common sense approach can yield dividends for those practices that need the service. For surgical practices that exist in heavily populated urban areas with significant competition, a well thought out marketing plan can assist the practice in reaching out to new groups of patients and maintaining the existing patient base.

Author information

Author/s: Satiani, Anand (A); Satiani, Bhagwan (B);

Affiliation: Division of Vascular Diseases and Surgery, Department of Surgery, The Ohio State University School of Medicine, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of vascular surgery : official publication, the Society for Vascular Surgery [and] International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery, North American Chapter (J Vasc Surg), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Sep; vol 50 (issue 3) : pp 691-7

Dates: Created 2009/08/24; Completed 2009/09/15;

PMID: 19700101, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 9/15/2009, IMS Date: )

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