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Most workforce strategists are well familiar with the traditional definition of marketing — the Four P’s:
- Product
- Price
- Place (Distribution)
- Promotion
Health care was a latecomer, as industries go, to the marketing concept. Guide users of a certain age remember the pre-competition, pre-consumerism, pre-DRG/PPS era. To healthcare providers, marketing was a foreign word. To some, it was almost an obscenity. Now, 20-something years later, marketing is generally recognized as a necessary function in healthcare organizations but frequently falls short of its fullest potential for results.
Why? One answer is that healthcare marketing efforts are often long on promotion and short on the other three P’s. We ignore these fundamental components at our peril. Successful, cost-efficient, return-on-investment marketing starts with the product.
A simpler, more intuitive — and for strategists, more useful — definition of marketing is:
Find out what the people want, and give it to them.
In health careers recruitment, success will always be the result of having a product that is able to compete effectively against a myriad of other vocational choices. Our product — i.e., career opportunities — must satisfy buyer needs and wants (things like security, income, personal and professional growth, benefits). It must be accessible (place) with respect to training and education and open positions. It also must be affordable (price) — i.e., ability to finance prerequisite education and acceptable wages when employed.
Effective marketing communications campaigns have specific goals. The goal may be simply generating awareness that a product exists, like introducing a new generation to the diverse career opportunities in health care. But leading young people to the point of preparing for and pursuing a health career is a process that merely begins with awareness.
Advertising theorists have created "response hierarchy" models to depict the series of steps that a consumer passes through between recognition that a product is available and purchasing the product. The consumer response pyramid shown here is adapted from what is called the innovation adoption model, which evolved from academic study of the diffusion of innovations. The challenge for new product marketers, according to George Belch and Michael Belch in the book Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective (6th ed.), "is to create awareness and interest among target consumers and then get them to evaluate the product favorably. The best way to evaluate a new product is through actual use" so that the consumer can assess performance and decide whether to adopt or reject the offering. (Think job shadowing.)
Each step the consumer passes through is a challenge for the marketing strategist. At each level, fewer members of the target market move closer to purchase — or, in our case, making a commitment to a health career.
Awareness. Effective marketing communication begins with making prospective healthcare workers (our target market) aware of the opportunities and benefits of health careers.
Creating awareness is not a simple task in today’s media-driven culture. Consumers — and especially youth, a demographic group hotly pursued by advertisers — are bombarded with promotional messages thousands of times each day.
"Breaking through the clutter" requires that the message is actually noticed by the target audience. It must command attention and be repeated until it sticks in the target’s memory. This is particularly necessary when targeting teenagers. Media planners use the formula RxF (Reach times Frequency) to calculate the number of times an advertising message should be run. The target consumer generally has to see, hear or experience a message (reach) multiple times (frequency) before he or she absorbs the message, and registers either interest or disinterest.
Interest. Only a portion of people who notice a health career marketing message will actually have an interest in health careers. The pyramid shrinks as each level is achieved. The number of prospects declines.
Evaluation. Of those intrigued by the health careers message, only some will act on their interest. This group moves into a stage of evaluation. They respond to the ad or presentation in individual ways. One person might pick up health careers literature at a career fair. Another might request additional information from the sponsor of a promotional message. Another might ask a teacher or acquaintance about health careers. Yet another might go to Google and type in "health careers."
The health workforce strategist or health careers marketer has very little influence over how various prospects explore and evaluate the messages they receive from other sources. This is why having an outstanding product — one that is more attractive than alternative careers, even after considerable evaluation — is a critical component of success. The effectiveness of initial promotional efforts often ends when serious product evaluation begins.
Health workforce development strategists must be able to provide in-depth information to those who are exploring health careers along with other career choices. Our messages must be truthful, compelling, consistent across various sources (e.g., promotional materials vs. the opinions of practicing health careerists) and easy to access.
Trial. Once an individual has reached the trial stage of the pyramid, chances are he or she has a legitimate interest in exploring health careers. Programs that provide hands-on or close-up experiences have been very effective in drawing secondary students up the pyramid. Read the pipeline development section in this guide for examples of successful hospital-based programs in job shadowing, health careers summer camps, medical exploring posts and more.
Adoption. Those who try and like something usually buy it. In the context of health careers recruitment, adoption occurs when a prospect makes a commitment to further education or training, or applies for an entry-level position in health care. There may be obstacles in the path of a prospective health careerist — financial need, lack of transportation or conflicting family responsibilities — that impede an actual "sale." This is where healthcare providers, industry supporters, educational institutions, communities and governments can play an indispensable role through scholarships, loans, articulation agreements, alternatives to traditional programs, mentoring and other means of support.
We cannot afford to lose capable individuals who want to pursue a health career. The road between choosing a health career and gaining entrance to the chosen profession can be long, twisting and arduous. As an industry, our recruitment strategies must include the means to support, encourage and value students and trainees every step along the way.
Imagine two more levels on the pyramid. The levels to add are Retention and Referral. It is not enough to recruit more workers into health careers. We also have to keep them and fulfill our promises.
Retention is about fulfillment of our promises. It is about providing workplace environments that respect the individual, that reward commitment to excellence, and support personal and professional growth. Retention also is about maintaining competitive, family-friendly benefits and work/life balance.
Referral is the pinnacle of loyalty. We must reach this level before we can truly end health workforce shortages. Referral means that healthcare workers become ambassadors for their professions. They tell their family, friends and acquaintances that they love what they do for a living. They actively recruit outstanding youth to ensure a stable, competent and adequate healthcare workforce.
In the end, it is all about the product.
For more about marketing principles in health careers recruitment, read the "Market Targeting and Market Segmentation" section below.
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