Hospital marketing strategy: repositioning the competition

A time-tested approach to positioning your hospital against the competition

There was a time when Aspirin was the market-leading painkiller. People trusted it to make them feel better. Sure, there were side effects, but alternative options simply weren’t as desirable.

Then Tylenol came along and wanted a piece of the pie. But, instead of advertising the benefits of their product, they instead built a strategy around highlighting the downsides of Aspirin. Ads read “If your stomach is easily upset…or you have an ulcer…or you suffer from asthma, allergies or iron deficiency anemia; it would make good sense to check with your doctor before you take aspirin.”

“Fortunately, there is Tylenol…” concluded the ad. As you see, the ad listed all sorts of information about the competition first before they even mention their product. Sales of Tylenol took off, and eventually, it became the number one brand in the category.

Most of the brand campaigns you see across industries come from this time-tested approach to strategically positioning a product against the competition. It works very well (if you pull it off) because it repositions your competition’s strengths as weaknesses. We used a similar strategy when working with our client, Portneuf Medical Center, a community hospital in Idaho.

Our research uncovered that many of Portneuf’s competitors were using messaging that relied on price comparisons. Our simple takeaway from the competition was that “We’re cheaper!” and at first blush, that sounds pretty good. Especially in 2016, when rising insurance deductibles are hitting Americans square in the wallet, the new healthcare consumer is becoming price-sensitive.

With this insight, our job was clear. We needed to change the public’s perception, and help them understand that cheaper, especially in healthcare, is not necessarily better.

Think about it. When someone you love is coping with a life-threatening illness, would you send them to the cheap place? When you need surgery, would you choose the place that’s cutting costs?

You can read the full case study (and check out the visuals) here.