Review of the Book
Marketing twenty years ago and today has many differences, since the Internet has significantly reduced the importance of television, newspapers, and radio in people’s lives. Today customers see advertisements, buy goods or services and often even use them without leaving the global network; hence, marketing strategies need to be updated to keep up with this trend. In his book The New Rules of Marketing and PR, David Scott talks about new strategies, mechanisms, and tools for gaining the attention and interest of buyers on the Internet and provides many useful tips and examples in each chapter. Although healthcare is not a typical commercial industry, marketing and PR are also necessary to draw people’s attention to individual health care settings and promote the importance of a healthy lifestyle and disease prevention. Therefore, this paper will study the main ideas of Scott’s book to highlight their potential applications in healthcare.
The New Rules of Marketing and PR has many ideas and examples relevant to modern marketing; however, this paper will review and discuss the most significant of them. First, Scott discusses the importance of the Internet for marketing as a primary source and platform for advertising. The ideas are further expressed by discussing specific places for marketing in social media, such as blogs, social networks, websites, and forums. Scott also notes the most relevant advertising forms, namely audio and video, live streams, and backstage information. The author also focuses on modern marketing features by talking about these forms, such as the importance of big ideas and creativity, understanding of the audience’s interests, and the love of buyers for insider information. Many of these ideas overlap with classic marketing strategies; however, they have characteristics that marketers must distinguish and understand to present their products successfully and benefit.
The primary purpose of this book is to show the meaning, necessity, and application of the Internet in marketing and PR; hence, this idea sounds on every page of the book. The author begins the book by explaining new marketing trends and rules and demonstrating old and ineffective methods. One of the key advantages of the Internet for companies is that it delivers information directly to the audience, and it is a cheap and affordable tool even for small local companies.
However, Scott does not deny that traditional media is still significant for marketing, since they have an influence on public opinion. Scott provides an example that an article in the Wall Street Journal or participation in a famous chat show is undoubtedly effective advertising, but it is not available to most companies (42). At the same time, local producers can reach their audience via the Internet, even without creating promotional videos and high-profile companies, and this approach will be more useful for them. Scott also emphasizes that the nature of public relations also changed, and today, it is easier for companies to reach their buyers directly, and this popularity brings them the attention of media (42). The author also cites many examples and reasons for the ineffectiveness of old marketing methods that underscore the fact that the Internet is vastly superior to magazines or television and creates new rules for marketing.
The author focuses most of his attention on social media, which are expressed in dozens of types and forms. These types include social networks such as Facebook and Twitter, photo and video sharing websites such as YouTube, and blogs, and forums. Scott emphasizes the importance and possibilities of using social media, since they connect the company directly with the audience. For example, on social media, a company can post an advertisement for its product or a survey about a new design and receive instant feedback through the comments.
Similar solutions are available for blogs, forums, and YouTube, which helps to create two-way communication and provide a better understanding of the interests of the audience and ways of their use. In addition, Scott talks about some of the tools or methods that even start-ups can use in social media, such as engaging famous local and international bloggers (109-111). At the same time, evolving famous bloggers does not necessarily require paying for their services; sometimes, it is enough to offer them an interesting experience, which will look good on their web pages (Scott 110). A blog can also be a part of the company’s marketing itself, since often buyers need additional information to choose a product or service and become interested in it. Consequently, the use of social media is a necessity for modern marketing.
The author also discusses the most effective and popular forms for creating content and attracting customers and the features of their creation. Scott notes that video and audio on the Internet were not popular in the past because they were lengthy, and download speeds were slow; however, today, social media such as YouTube or iTunes have made them indispensable (129). Video uses emotion to attract the attention of people, and modern capabilities allow almost anyone to create clips. In addition, watching a short video is more convenient and more fun than reading a long post. Nevertheless, not every video can be effective advertising, since it must be touching, entertaining, or exciting to go viral. Scott gives an example of videos in which people mixed Mentos and Coca-Cola to create a soda fountain, which dramatically boosted Mentos sales (131). This video is a successful example of advertising that has saved the company hundreds of thousands of dollars and made a profit. Therefore, the main idea is that video and audio on the Internet can be a low-cost and effective form of marketing if its creators use their creativity and imagination.
Another Scott’s idea, which can also be related to video, is the use of real-time and backstage experiences. Since users receive significant streams of information every minute, they are interested in the latest and exclusive news. Red Bull sponsoring a live stream of aerospace records is an example of real-time advertising (155). Backstage information is also exciting for many people as they want to know and see how the company works. For example, General Motors organized a test drive of an unreleased car for bloggers and influential people, which gave the audience a unique experience and attracted interest to the new product (111). At the same time, only the Internet and social media can afford such a real-time experience at a low cost, since TV and newspapers need more resources and time to release material.
However, all of these methods and forms are not effective if companies do not adhere to Internet marketing’s basic principles, such as two-way communication, understanding the interests of the target audience, and creating a unique product and content. The first feature determines the rest, since communication is the primary source for understanding the audience and its interests, as well as a way of promotion. The company’s main task is to react to customer comments but not just to impose ads, since modern technologies allow users to block unwanted content. The book has many examples of the failure of all marketing efforts due to lack of communication and timely response, as well as success stories of companies that have used social media to their advantage. At the same time, communication does not always mean responding to every comment, but publishing posts on the desired topic, or adding new features or product design.
On the other hand, social media allows companies to collect and analyze information directly from buyers to determine their interests. Scott says that using long-tail marketing and public relations is more effective today (50). In other words, understanding the specific interests of the audience is more beneficial than trying to reach all people at once, as shown by the example of Netflix and iTunes (Scott 50). Consequently, one of the basic principles necessary for effective marketing emerges from the most convenient feature of the Internet, such as the availability of information.
Nevertheless, companies must create unique content or product, focusing on the interests of the audience. The competition in the market is extremely high, and the Internet has made it even higher, since people can receive goods from another country without leaving their home. Thus, companies must offer a unique product or a memorable way to promote it. For this reason, real-time and backstage experiences are essential to marketing, as well as targeting specific audiences, since the company can cover to their unique needs. At the same time, Scott notes that the company’s website needs to have information that offers a solution to the problem of customers but not just describes products or services (35-36, 51). Consequently, modern rules, methods, and tools of marketing and PR can be summarized by the fact that strategies should be focused on buyers and direct interaction with them.
Marketing in Healthcare
Health care is a complex system that cannot be called a typical marketing field as it pursues different goals and depends significantly on government policy. However, marketing and PR are also used in health care to attract clients to various medical centers and hospitals and promote health and prevention measures. In the first case, the use of marketing has commercial purposes; therefore, in many points, it coincides with typical marketing practices. In the second case, the purpose of marketing is to draw public attention to health problems, their prevention, and timely treatment to improve the health of the nation in general, and it only partially coincides with commercial marketing. For this reason, this paper will study the problems of marketing in medicine, features described by Scott in The New Rules of Marketing and PR, and their current and possible uses to overcome the challenges of healthcare.
Healthcare is not your typical marketing industry, and service providers face multiple challenges. First, assessing the success of strategies can be challenging, since many external factors influence demand, and the results are often difficult to express in material terms (Purcarea 93). For example, the purchase of flu prevention medicines can be driven by its increased morbidity rather than successful marketing, and the number of condoms sold cannot measure the decline in STDs. Second, physicians often mediate between buyers and companies, making it difficult to sell services or drugs as they determine patient treatment options (Purcarea 93). Consequently, companies need to influence both the audience of doctors and the audience of patients.
Moreover, identifying the audience and their interests is also often difficult, since although diseases and their distribution have specific characteristics for age or gender, they are still more uncertain than in conventional marketing. This fact means that mass advertising can be costly and useless, since out of a hundred people who saw the post, only a few of them face the disease against which the service or medicine is directed. For example, medication for people with diabetes is difficult to advertise without a previous user’s request. Thus, TV or radio commercial more often has low effects on healthcare. At the same time, part of the audience cannot pay for a service or product, and use the support of the state; therefore, companies need to attract fewer representatives of this audience due to limited healthcare resources (Purcarea 93). These challenges are common and affect marketing depending on the company’s area and specificity of its health products or services.
Nevertheless, most of the ideas described by Scott in the book are relevant and used in health marketing, since the Internet has significantly influenced this area. Hillestad and Berkowitz note that 72% of people use the Internet to get health information, 29% learn about hospitals and doctors, and telemedicine is a popular way to get a consultation (59). For this reason, the healthcare uses the mechanisms and tools proposed by Scott. For example, Scott talked about the importance of filling sites with information that solves the user’s problem, as well as the use of social networks. Today, most hospitals have websites where a user can find information about services, doctors, and make an appointment. In addition, Hillestad and Berkowitz say that according to the results of one significant research, 93% of the studied hospitals make appointments for patients through a Facebook page, 50.8% via Twitter (58). This tool also helps the healthcare institution collect data and attract customers in the future. Therefore, this approach demonstrates the realization of Scott’s idea of the importance of using social media, communication, and understanding buyers’ interests.
Moreover, in addition to social networks, some healthcare providers use applications for smartphones or mobile versions of sites to make it easier for customers to search for information. Purcarea notes that search engines such as Google are changing algorithms to promote such sites in search, so that a person can find them even for an indirect request (96). For example, if a person is looking for symptoms of a disease or ways to treat it, the search might suggest to him or her the site of a clinic or a company that manufactures equipment or medicines. Therefore, creating a user-friendly and informative website is one of the vital marketing tools in healthcare.
Using blogs to promote services or products is also a standard method in healthcare marketing. People want to know what they will face or how to avoid disease, but the topic is usually complex and confusing. For this reason, many healthcare providers publish articles on their websites or social networks to explain some critical issues, remain relevant to clients, and collect data about their interests (Purcarea 95). However, blogs are also used in various forms, and video and photo publications are popular. Some clinics or manufacturing companies produce videos that explain the characteristics of certain diseases, their prevention, and treatment. Short videos also are used on social networks, such as Instagram, to show the progress of treatment or the process of specific procedures, such as plastic surgery. This approach is an example of the insider and real-time experience that Scott emphasizes. In addition, such videos can be not only a means of attracting customers but also the distribution of messages by health promotion organizations, since users share them on their web pages. Therefore, these examples demonstrate that marketing forms and methods in commerce and health care are similar.
Most of Scott’s principles as key to modern marketing are also relevant to healthcare and help overcome challenges. Firstly, the main objective of marketing is to direct efforts to the audience. As Purcarea notes, the emphasis in healthcare has shifted from mass marketing to specific marketing and episodes to long-term relationships (93). Scott also talks about targeting particular groups of people, so the methods he offers are also relevant to healthcare (42). The challenge in which companies are faced with the need to influence doctors and patients is addressed through this approach. For example, publishing articles on a specialized blog for healthcare specialists, as well as linking to it on a popular social network, can attract the attention of both parties. Moreover, depending on the specifics of a product or service, the location of such an article should also be different. For instance, a manufacturer of a medical product for children can involve a blogger-mother as most of her subscribers also belong to the company’s target audience.
At the same time, creating a video clip about any health issue with the participation of medical specialists and posting it on social media can connect doctors and patients. However, as Scott notes, this video must also have an emotional message to become viral and spread on the Internet. Comments on such content will also help companies gather information about the audience’s reaction and use it to improve the product or service and meet the interests of people. Consequently, such an approach and advantages of social media motive understanding people’s specific interests through communication, which help companies overcome challenges that interfere with targeted marketing.
Conclusion
Therefore, a review of The New Rules of Marketing and PR by David Scott and modern healthcare marketing demonstrates that many commercial tools and techniques are suitable for healthcare. This feature exists because the Internet has a significant impact on all spheres of human life, and its use is beneficial for marketing any field. In addition, healthcare is an area that traditionally focuses on the interests of patients and directs efforts towards their satisfaction, and the new marketing rules also use this principle. For this reason, most forms and methods of promotion, such as blogs, videos, social networks, and websites, are advantageous for healthcare marketing and can overcome the challenges that traditional media cannot solve. Consequently, Scott’s ideas are relevant for marketing in various spheres, and are already used in healthcare, adjusted for its specifics.
References
Hillestad, Steven G., and Eric N. Berkowitz. Health Care Market Strategy: From Planning to Action. Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2020.
Purcarea, Victor Lorin. “The Impact of Marketing Strategies in Healthcare Systems.” Journal of medicine and life, vol. 12, no.2, 2019, pp. 93-96.
Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing & PR: How to Use Social Media, Online Video, Mobile Applications, Blogs, News Releases, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly. John Wiley & Sons, 2015.