Marketing Occupational Therapy Karen Jacobs Key Words: consumers. marketing of health services Marketing is emerging as an important aspect of the delivery of health care services, including occupa- tional therapy_ An understanding of marketing and a knowledge of how to apply its princzples will per- mit therapists to keep pace with the changing health care environment. This article introduces terminology, strategies, and applications of marketing. Karen Jacobs, MS, OTR/L, is DireclOr of Development, Learning Prep School, 1507 WashinglOn Street, West New- ton, Massachusetts 02165. She is also an adjunct clinical instructor at BoslOn University and the president of the Massachusetts Association for Occupational Therapy. The Americanjoumal a/Occupational Therapy H ave It Your Way" (Burger King), "You're the Boss" (United Airlines), and "To Do All in Our Power to Pack the Customer's Dollar Full of Value, Quality and Satisfaction" (J. C. Penney) are but three examples of slogans or catch phrases that reflect the successful implementation of the con- cept of marketing. Carefully orchestrated marketing programs sell today's food, clothes, movies, colleges, hospitals, and health care services. Although it was once thought to be inappropriate or unprofessional to use marketing in health care, it now appears to be the key to survival in the reality of shrinking health care funds. Marketing can do the following ("Marketing OT SerVices," 1984). 1 Help you identify unserved needs 2. Help you determine which needs you can serve profitably 3. Help you identify programs and services with declining profitability 4. Help you maximize tile advantages of new trends and technologies 5 Serve as a key step in program development and expansion (p. 4) Much can be learned from the marketing of commer- cial products for application to the field of health care Loubeau (984) describes six ways in which health care services are identical to commercial prod- ucts. Health care services: (a) are developed to fill a market need or want: the market could be consumers, physicians. or even other hospitals; (b) reqUire a capital (research and develop- ment) investment. an operating (production) budget, and a communications (public affairs) effort; (c) have specific func· tions, features. and benefits that are (or should be) packaged for maximum acceptance; (d) are sold to selected market segments; (e) determine revenue (sales volume) througll direCt billings, reimbursements, and grants; or services are carried as a loss to stimulate good will, image, or sale of Other services; and (f) are imitative (the same as others), adaptive (modified with improvements), or innovative (a trend·setter) (p.40) Marketing-What Is It? Simply stated, "marketing consists of meeting peo- ple's needs in the most efficient and therefore prof- itable manner" ("Marketing OT SerVices," 1984, p. 4). It is a management discipline that systematically makes the customer the touchstone for information gathering, strategic decision making, service design, and profitability As Drucker (973) remarks, "Mar- keting is what makes selling unnecessary. The aim is to know and understand the custOmer so well that the product or service fits him/her and sells" (p. 64) Marketing is an orientation which makes satisfying the customer's needs the integrating organization principle. It enables one to stay in touch with the needs, wants, and preferences of constituencies In- stead of designing services and then looking for cus- tomers, marketing reverses the process. One first looks at the market and listens carefully to potential customers and then designs services or products to 315 Downloaded From: http://ajot.aota.org/pdfaccess.ashx?url=/data/journals/ajot/930398/ on 05/24/2018 Terms of Use: http://AOTA.org/terms