Ashish Bhatia, Regional Director, Fortis Healthcare has been with the group since its beginning in 2001. In last 10 years, Fortis has grown to a chain of about 60 hospitals including super-speciality centres which offer world-class services and facilities. Marketing in a service sector like healthcare is a challenge as there are ethical issues involved. Speaking to Purba Das of Pitch, Bhatia talks why healthcare needs to have a marketing budget and how the challenges can be overcome. Excerpts:
What are the challenges of marketing in healthcare services? How does Fortis overcomes those challenges?
To answer your question, yes it is ‘awkward’ to be marketing healthcare in India. It is awkward only because people feel it is unethical to be doing so. Then to top it, we have got the Medical Council of India (MCI), which has laid down stringent rules on when we can advertise and when we can’t. So only if a new doctor joins / if OPD timings change or if we get a new specialty, then we can advertise. So there are two – three conditions under which we can advertise. Advertisement hasn’t caught on as yet in a large way. So for example, TV, there are very few hospitals who advertise on TV. Earlier, there were very few schools who advertised. I think Amity was one of the private colleges that started advertising. There is this expectation that healthcare is free of cost, there is this general notion that healthcare has a connotation that people are unwell and we are trying to make use of that through advertising etc. So we do have our hands tied to some extent.
When it comes to competition, how do you tell your services are better than the others?
In healthcare, we have fewer beds per thousand populations. So unfortunately, we haven’t been able to take care to number of people, who suffer from some or the other disease. So I don’t think I have to go and tell anyone as to how I am better than anybody else. The services are world class, we have the best doctors and we are extremely focused on providing high quality of healthcare service to our patients. I don’t have to shout out loud about the quality of our services. It’s basically word of mouth that works for us.
Which is easier to market – illness or preemptive check-ups? Why?
Preventive healthcare services are easy to market, for the simple reason that today there is high level of awareness. As the lifestyle is increasingly becoming stressful, people are conscious about their health and the kind of food habits they have.
What is your marketing budget of the year? Which media gets maximum share in your media mix?
Our marketing budget is anything between one to two per cent of our turnover. In our marketing budget, most of the expenditure is on prevention and education of people.
Our campaigns basically revolve around outdoor activities. We generally market our services in form of CMEs – Continuous Medical Education, by which we go to all Tier II and Tier III cities and educate doctors in terms of treatment. There are public lectures, where we directly educate patients. We also go to schools and colleges to create awareness there about diseases like AIDS which can be prevented if one has the right information about it. However, 40 per cent of our budget goes to prevention marketing. At times, we also advertise in print.
Why not TV?
We are not shy of TVCs. I mean there will be a time when we would advertise on television.
Is internet a good medium for marketing healthcare services?
Internet is a good medium but it is certainly not the gospel for medicine. Half knowledge is dangerous. So today when you google, you come up with all the stories that are there. Today, the patient is reading up about the disease he has and comes to a doctor with some amount of knowledge about the disease. Each patient’s body and their capabilities are different. Today a doctor spends about half an hour to explain the side effects of the medications that a patient can have because the patient has read something about the treatment on internet.
Can healthcare take the PR route, when PR won’t be seen through the prism of being an advertisement?
PR is suitable to portray our work in the market. Two of my wonderful cases that our doctors did were published in the newspaper. PR is a very strong means to reach out to the consumers.
Do you have a different price model for metros and Tier II and Tier III cities? If yes, why is it so?
Of course, we have different price models for different cities. Even in metros, the price models vary because of the services. The quality of the doctors, the seniority of the doctors, and the kind of infrastructure, all of these will be at a different level. I am not saying that a cardiologist, who sits in a Tier II city, will be inferior but he will be having relatively less experience than the cardiologist in New Delhi.
How do you cope with the price sensitivity of customers in Tier II and Tier III cities?
It is a challenge and there are no two ways about it. But we have to face it. People in those cities actually travel to metros for treatments. And they pay for the treatment at the price of the metro. So, when we take healthcare to them, we make it more affordable. They will save on the travelling expenses, the hotel expenses and a treatment that is double than what it will be in cities.
Whenever there is an increase in prices for the services offered, how do you communicate that?
Healthcare is not a stock. It isn’t like if the figures change, people need to know. This is a figure people find out when they need to know it. So, when they come to us and enquire about it, we communicate the cost to that particular treatment. We do not publish the rates or whatever it is. But I can proudly claim that healthcare sector overall has managed to significantly contain the costs as compared to other sectors. A surgery that was available for Rs 1.5 lakh ten years ago is still available for Rs 2 lakh. However, people still feel that it’s very expensive. So it’s not only about the price but also about mindset.
In the current phase of growth, Fortis plans to enter the tier II/III cities. Which are these cities and why?
Till now whenever we have been talking, we have been talking primarily about state capitals. Today we are venturing into tier II/III cities. We are in Raipur, Raigarh, Dehradun, Kota. So all these cities are either the ones where we are present or are entering. We feel that we need to take our healthcare model to their doorstep.
It’s a question of the right place and the right time. It is either somebody who has a hospital and wants a tie-up with us. In some cases, it’s management contracts, where our ethical values match with other party’s values. In Dehradun, the government has open a bid where we among other hospitals bid for that place. So the govt is providing us with space, we will take our brand over there, our doctors over there.
Comments