Power of Women
Matriarchs often make health-care
decisions for their families. Reach the
woman with your marketing efforts and you reach everyone in the family.
woman with your marketing efforts and you reach everyone in the family.
Why should doctors consider a special
campaign to market to women? Isn’t marketing that is
gender neutral just as effective? Not always. Martha Barletta,
the author of Marketing to Women: How to Understand, Reach
and Increase Your Share of the World’s Largest Market
Segment, says, “Twenty-seven percent of households in
the United States don’t have males, and even in homes
where there are men, women assume the gatekeeper role.”
Indeed, the days of women as the “silent
generation” are over.
When it comes to
health care, women make the vast majority of decisions for
themselves, their children, and their husbands. Women also
often are in charge of caring for the elders in the family.
Matriarchs typically are the ones who decide when it is time to
see the doctor, book the appointments, and decide whether to go
for a second opinion. “My husband turned 50 last year,
and I have been trying to get him to go in for a
check-up,” Barletta attests.
Barletta is not the
only one encouraging her husband to take care of his health.
Wives and mothers across the country are in charge of their
families’ medical care. As Barletta notes, “Women
can insure and will insure compliance within the family.”
In short, they make certain that people at home are doing what
they are supposed to do.
Dispelling myths
However, reaching women with your
marketing message takes some skill and insight a bout what
works and what doesn’t. First, avoid the misperceptions
some people may have about marketing to women. Barletta writes
about “Eight Myths of Marketing to Women:”
1. With women, marketing is all about
relationships.
2. Women want gender-neutral marketing.
3. Gender-specific marketing doesn’t
work.
4. The average income for women is lower
than that of men—it doesn’t make sense to go after
a low-income market.
5. We have limited resources, so we
shouldn’t diversify and market to women.
6. Marketing to women will double our
budget.
7. We need to keep our marketing focused on
our core consumers—men.
8. The best way to market to women is to
undertake a dedicated initiative within our emerging markets
group.
To understand more
about these myths, she goes on to explain that women are
increasing their economic status and power through advanced
degrees. In fact, there are significantly more women getting
college degrees than men (57 percent compared with 43 percent).
They are making more money than ever and will increase their
incomes over the next decade. Moreover, women are spending not
only their paychecks, but also their husbands.’ More
often than not, it is the wife who decides how nearly all of
the money is spent in the home. In short, women are the
ultimate asset holders.
Although many people
believe that women are emotional consumers, in fact, they are
usually extremely savvy about what they purchase. Most women
have a lot more practice in purchasing services than men do,
and they are intelligent consumers who often will take the
initiative to do research and educate themselves about what
health-care options are available.
Faith Popcorn has written
many books on marketing to women including, EVEolution: The Eight Truths of Marketing to
Women. Popcorn starts out by noting that women have been a
major force in the evolution of the current marketplace. She
gives such examples as the fact that the Web has a long list of
successful sites for women whereas there are few for men; the
take-out foods industry, supported in large part by women, has
changed the eating habits of Americans; and “home spas
and other pampering products have gone from a niche for the
rich to class for the mass.” All this is due to female
consumerism.
Meeting women’s needs
Popcorn recommends a variety of strategies
for marketing to women. Here are three of them which I have
tailored to the health-care field.
Women enjoy sharing
ideas and information, which is why there are so many Web sites
devoted to females. Keep this in mind as you market to women.
If you develop a practice that caters to matriarchs,
they’ll be sure to tell others about you.
Second, women are busy
juggling many work and family responsibilities. They prefer to
use services that are easy to access and utilize. Therefore,
consider ways that you can cater to them by offering
appointments that don’t involve a long wait—either
for the date of the appointment or the time spent in the office
waiting for the doctor. Also, if you can package your services
to cut down on running around, women will appreciate this. For
example, if you can offer an annual physical examination and
annual mammogram on the same day and in the same building, let
women know about this time-saving service.
Finally, this may be
obvious, but women like to be treated with respect. Many are
turning away from traditional doctors and health care and
embracing complementary and alternative medicine. One reason
for this is that they feel as though they have more control
over these services. Making your female patients partners in
their health-care decisions will encourage them to rely on more
traditional methods rather than seeking care from health
professionals that may not be able to offer the same level of
services that you can.
Barletta believes that
doctors will be successful marketing to women if they
understand what women value and develop services that resonate
with these consumers. Take a moment to assess how you are
catering to this population. Do women know about you and your
practice? If not, how can you better inform them of your
services? Next, ask yourself whether women who call to make an
appointment will find it to be an easy process or one that
turns them off. When they or their family members arrive at
your office, will they have a comfortable and reasonably short
wait? Do you have a waiting room that is clean with up-to-date
furnishings? Recent magazines that are targeted to a female
audience are a must. Old or dirty office furnishings and
outdated or torn magazines speak volumes to women who may take
this as a sign that their doctor is out-of-date as well.
Also consider what
women might find offensive. For example, broken locks on
bathroom doors will likely not go unnoticed.
Finally, when your
female patients do meet with you, it is important that you
spend time educating them about their health issues. You can do
this verbally and with preprinted brochures. A combination of
both is ideal. Women want to know that you understand what is
going on in their lives, but more than that, they want to know
about the health issues they are experiencing.
Marketing to women is a
great way to develop your practice regardless of your
specialty. Of course this doesn’t mean that you neglect
other patient populations, it just means that you are aware
that women make the majority of health-care decisions for the
entire family and that you are in tune with what they are
looking for in a physician. Acknowledging the powerful
influence of the female gender is just as important today as it
was years ago when Helen Reddy sang, “I am woman, hear me
roar, in numbers too big too ignore.” g
Julie
Silver, MD is an
Assistant Professor at Harvard Medical School and the author of
several books including the recently released Chronic Pain and
the Family. She is also directing the new Harvard CME course,
“Publishing Books, Memoirs and Other Creative
Non-Fiction” (for more information go to http:
//cme.med.harvard.edu/.)
