Are We Overestimating the Health Care Consumer?
“Health care consumerism” has been a topic of conversation in our industry for more than a decade. Doctor Google. Online reviews. Apps for everything. The story goes like this: Patients are more informed, more demanding, more discerning than ever.
But when we talk with consumers in focus groups and listening tours across the country, the truth is more complicated.
- Health care isn’t top of mind until it is. Even cancer patients, in the middle of care, often can’t tell us a lot about their providers.
- Trust is sticky. Most people still lean on their doctor’s advice, especially when the stakes are high.
- System knowledge is thin. Patients know little about health systems beyond their immediate experiences. Even academic research and teaching advantages are not fully appreciated or understood.
- Practical factors often supersede. Don’t underestimate insurance, proximity, accessibility and provider affiliation as choice drivers.
- “All about the money.” More and more, communities see hospitals as big business, less personal and less accessible.
- Experience matters. Many patients tend to assume competency. They judge you on how you make them feel — listened to, respected, seen.
For all the talk of health care consumerism, most people don’t know as much as we think.
Have we moved too quickly beyond the basics?
In the rush to segment, target and promote service lines, maybe we skipped past the basics. Most busy, distracted consumers don’t stop to study health care. Their attention is elsewhere until it isn’t.
What they want is simple: to trust that care will be there when they need it — and that when it is, they’ll be respected.
The branding reality
This is where John Dawes’ 95:5 rule matters. As this rule of thumb says, 95% of people aren’t in the market today. When you look at health care utilization rates, the percentage is even higher.
Your job with the 95% isn’t to sell a procedure. It’s to:
- Make your brand easy to know. Continuously reach every potential patient to create mental availability.
- Make your brand easy to understand. Build clear associations that matter and match up with consumer entry points for your health system.
- Build memory links, so that when the 5% are ready, your health system is top of mind.
Service line pushes still matter but mostly at the “making your brand easy to buy” moment when the 5% are in the market. Those efforts work harder if they live under a larger brand that people already know and respect.
Bottom line
Most consumers don’t think about you until they need you. They don’t pay much attention to details until forced to.
That’s why a continuous brand-building effort is essential. Make your brand easy to know. Easy to understand. And easy to recall when it matters most.
The assignment is simpler than we sometimes make it: Don’t overestimate the consumer. Don’t underestimate the power of brand.
The health systems that win are the ones that keep their brand present for the 95% — so they’re the obvious choice for the 5%.
Jerry Hobbs is a marketing strategist and the president of Prairie Dog, a health care marketing group headquartered in Kansas City.
