Two approaches to marketing exist.
The traditional selling concept emphasizes selling existing products. The philosophy here is that if a product is not selling, more aggressive measures must be taken to sell it—e.g., cutting price, advertising more, or hiring more aggressive (and obnoxious) sales-people. That probably won’t work in concierge medicine and more than it will work when one is attempting to sell phony computer software support from a call center in India.
Consider these two case studies about a “sales” orientation.
When the railroads started to lose business due to the advent of more effective trucks that could deliver goods right to the customer’s door, the railroads cut prices instead of recognizing that the customers ultimately wanted transportation of goods, not necessarily railroad transportation.
Smith Corona, a manufacturer of typewriters, was too slow to realize that consumers wanted the ability to process documents and not typewriters per se.
The marketing concept, in contrast, focuses on getting consumers what they seek, regardless of whether this entails coming up with entirely new products. The art in that is in the concept of a minimum viable product. I’d like to refine your thinking just a tiny bit more. The art of medicine that you provide is the “service”. The concierge membership is a “product”.
Consumers seek medical care. Not necessarily amenities. When they think about healthcare, they think about “needs”, not necessarily “wants.” It’s kind of like oil changes. Nobody thinks about “when I need an oil change next time, I want a serene, idyllic spa-like place with overstuffed chairs, fresh brewed coffee, soft ambient music playing overhead, I want to be able to get as many oil changes as I can get in a year, I want to be able to spend an hour with the mechanic, and the mechanic’s cell phone and email address in my smart phone.” They think, “Aw Geez, I have to get the oil changed, its been 3000 miles and that noise is back again. I have to take off work, call the sitter and tell them I’m going to be an extra hour, figure out what I can get on the table for dinner really quick since I am going to be late. I am so glad this only has to be done every four months or so!”
Consider these sobering facts about the competitive market place:
- There are about 7800 licensed acute care hospitals in the USA. Each one has an ED. How many are in your neighborhood?
- There are approximately 9,300 walk-in, stand-alone urgent care centers in the United States, and 700-800 new clinics open every year.. How many are in your neighborhood?
- In 2010, research results(1) 208,807 primary care physicians provided office-based primary care in that year, each rendering about 2237 visits per year. How many of them were yours?
- Currently there are about 3000 pharmacy-based clinics in the USA. In an internet survey of nearly 2500 respondents, of the 7% of respondents who had ever used a pharmacy-based clinic, the percentage of respondents who indicated that they were somewhat to very satisfied was 92% for convenience, 89% for quality of care, 88% for qualifications of staff, and 80% for cost. Among respondents who had never used a pharmacy-based clinic, 41% indicated that they would be somewhat to very likely to use such a clinic for medical services in the future. How many in your neighborhood>
- None of these places charges a membership fee or offers extra amenities beyond the medical service people come to buy.
Of all the potential customers out there, and all the ways they can already buy healthcare, comes now the concierge doctor with his or her new product idea. “I am going to sell my services this way. Don’t try to convince me otherwise. I don’t need to do market research because that ship has sailed. I just need the sales letters, the contract, and to get busy. Why, just last week, three of my long-time patients told me that if I made a concierge membership available, they’d buy one.”
I’ll reiterate: The marketing concept, in contrast, focuses on getting consumers what they seek, regardless of whether this entails coming up with entirely new products. Minimum viable product research elicits what it is that consumers seek, rather than what the doctor wants to sell in a package.
Are you ready to bet the sailboat on what you want to sell – your way, research notwithstanding? Good luck with that. Let us know how it turns out.
Ann Fam Med November/December 2012 vol. 10 no. 6 503-509