ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to explain how marketing plays a critical role in healthcare management. In this chapter, we initially discuss marketing for the non-marketing professional by explaining the evolution of marketing and how the marketing orientation is shaping the practice of marketing. The chapter further gives a context to healthcare marketing by explaining how physical products differ from services – the domain for healthcare marketing. The uniqueness of this service as compared with other services is explained, as well as the healthcare customer who is the centre of healthcare marketing. The chapter explains the elements of the healthcare marketing mix and how branding serves as a strategic tool for industry players. This chapter offers some thoughts on the strategic value of marketing to healthcare and shows how strategic marketing can be adopted by entities operating in the healthcare space. It ends with some recommendations on how marketing as a practice must begin from within the healthcare entity in order to meet the needs of the external customer (the client) successfully.
