Attracting Affluent Chinese Medical Travel Customers

Not every healthcare provider or health facility can successfully attract Chinese healthcare buyers willing to travel for care. The reason has nothing to do with "accreditation" because if that were the qualifier between all the entities accredited by recognized and accepted accrediting bodies who are themselves accredited by ISQua, the list would be in the thousands of hospitals and health centers. Nope, it has to do with branding and positioning.

The WHY story - a critical part of branding that is often overlooked or mismanaged by medical tourism destination hospitals, clinics and healthcare providers to their own detriment

Mature, affluent Chinese consumers learn about how things like logos, tag lines, brand promises reflect a provider’s ideology and philosophy, and enjoy feeling more “in the know” about these symbols that are used by the providers they choose for their health travel services.

They don't want to read testimonials by celebrities who chose the hospital. Instead, they prefer to read the back story on why the healthcare provider decided to organize the clinic or hospital, the founder's integrity, legacy and back story, and why they want to serve Chinese customers. Can you articulate that?

Affluent Chinese consumers with means to travel to purchase foreign healthcare buy from recognized branded healthcare (think Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, UCLA, NYU, Sloan Kettering, MD Anderson, etc.,) as a means of validating social status — it’s a way to showcase one’s power and standing.

So the nondescript, poorly-branded or "unbranded" health facility seeking international patients and the unknown doctor with no accolades, papers, and clinical breakthroughs who has also made the effort to "create a professional brand" have no real chance to attract any significant traffic from these buyers. This includes all the ones who have excess capacity and are keen to attract international patients from China with offers of "cheaper than XYZ". One exception to this that I found has been an anomaly, in the US midwest, but even then, traffic albeit existent is very low and unsustainable on its own. It is merely the powdered sugar sprinkled as white dust on the cake.

And remember, having a local-recognized brand has absolutely nothing to do with establishing a branded position in the international healthcare marketplace. Just because you are loved locally and you offer the same x-rays, surgical procedures, and blood tests does not mean you are on equal footing with highly-recognizable healthcare brands in the category of Mayo, Cleveland, MDAnderson, and others of similar "status". Anyone who believes otherwise is misinformed.

A recent report from Agility Research & Strategy on affluent Chinese Gen-Z consumers shows that they prefer luxury brands with solid identities that stay true to themselves—not ones that blindly chase trends like medical tourism.

You don't really see Mayo Clinic and Cleveland Clinic, Bumrungrad, Bangkok International, and many of the big brands of healthcare at most medical tourism congresses and events. In fact, as many who have attended these events recently can attest, footfall at these congresses and conventions is significantly lower year over year. These internationally-renowned, branded healthcare giants know something others who gullibly sign up for event after event know: that's not where the fish are so they don't come to fish for clients. They know that the only people passing through the exhibit hallway are other suppliers or startup facilitators. Most experienced facilitators don't go back after their first registration. Not even to "recertify" with a worthless certification they earned previously.

Instead, these branded healthcare giants focus on their excellence and stay true to their mission. They don't even cast a "just in case there's something there" net in that water. Why should they? They invested instead, in their brand legacy, value, recognition, and don't see the value or ROI in being present at great expense without so much as break even.

Will the branded healthcare preference trend last?

Indicators in my assessments lead me to believe that the core task is to set up strong brand differentiation and esteem before going after trying to appeal to the affluent or mid-tier consumers. But whether this will sustain or fade away could be up to bigger economic trends in China. If history is any indication, the current branded healthcare preference will sustain as long as the Chinese economic outlook is optimistic. In the event of an economic contraction, more conservative selections may prevail. Those who can afford to leave China to purchase healthcare services abroad will continue to do so and it is unlikely they will shop on the basis of price.

Still it is crucial for well-developed healthcare brands seeking to attract Chinese patients to look beyond their name recognition and marketing and ad campaigns. They must develop a holistic understanding of their brands and know the Chinese consumer preference, buying power, and behaviors in order to innovate. This is what what really rejuvenates a brand and makes it resilient. The branded superpowers in international healthcare know this and already do it. This translates to brands focusing on their WHY stories behind their name as much as—or more than—simply changing the message to be relevant to new generations of Chinese consumers whose tastes are starting to mature and preferences for healthcare cause them to seek suppliers they can "trust" outside of China.

The search engine issue

That brings me to two quick realizations that circle back to one of my most recent articles: See: Medical & Dental Tourism: What it takes to be discovered by international patients

The first is that you may need a completely different message targeted to the Chinese consumer, written in Chinese characters, with completely different content that addresses how they buy, how they decide, and what I call the bridging of East-West health that crosswalks Traditional Chinese Medicine diagnoses to western medicine treatments and procedures and disease management.

And second, forget about Google because it isn't as wildly popular a search engine in China as it is elsewhere in the world. In fact, there is a block of Google that is indiscriminate as are all Google services in all countries, encrypted or not, which are now blocked in China. That includes YouTube, any forms you might use in Google docs, etc.. This blockage includes Google search, images, even Gmail, and almost all other Google-owned products. In addition, the block covers Google Hong Kong,google.com, and all other country specific versions, e.g., Google France.

The double-edged sword of duplicate content

Baidu is considered as Google’s counterpart in China. If you are looking at SEO at the perspective of the Chinese users, Baidu is what you need to be looking for. It is the most popular search engine here, with a usage of 58.3% on the market. It serves as the reference standard by which all other Chinese search engines perform.

But a third reason to create uniqueness in your offer and focus on your WHY story is that it will be the only way to differentiate in terms of marketing. This is because one huge difference between Baidu and Google is that the former does not have any rules that punish offenders of copy and pasting of text.

If you are planning to advertise in China, it is highly possible to add a huge amount of content in your website, despite the fact that it has already been published without penalty. So if your message is generic, other advertisers can copy and paste what you posted. And unlike Google, it also combines together organic and PPC rankings so someone can outspend you and rise to the top on your plagiarized content. This was something I learned the hard way - through the school of hard knocks, and that was not included in the training associated with my social marketing expert certification from Google. And now I understand why it was omitted. If your medical tourism marketing consultant is unaware of this, or hasn't raised the issue, perhaps you might schedule a brief consultation with me for an advanced or different perspective.

Another Chinese search engine, Sogou, was established in 2004. Even though it has not successfully overtaken Baidu, it is still considered as a leader in the market. It is also known for its unique algorithm, ‘SogouRank’ index, and SERP layout. This has made it a very useful for companies who are searching for ways to reach residents of lower tier locations since it is generally more affordable when it comes to pay-per-click advertising.

The local office dilemma

Another factor that influences Chinese consumers is the presence of a local office with which to transact business. If you think for a moment that you will attract Chinese patients with a Google-focused website as an e-transaction, you've again been misinformed.

To understand this market penetration difference, you must first learn the history of the preference: As foreign brands entered China in the 1980s they initially had a kind of rarified status, with sexier packaging, exotic names a promise of better quality and of course status. But these brands had a high price-tag to match, becoming aspirational but out of reach. I've written about aspirational affluence in previous posts over the past few years of blogging on LinkedIn.

Twenty years ago there was high demand for foreign brands and ‘grey’ imports over the locally made version. After 35+ years in healthcare and health tourism, I can also relate this to healthcare marketing. While there was no real difference in the actual surgical or diagnostic product, people were willing to pay an imported premium. For example, Colgate Toothpaste was widely available and had extremely high preference ratings linked to its ‘foreignness’, (it was fully imported) but at 13rmb compared to the local price for toothpaste of around 2rmb few consumers could justify the price gap. Affluence has changed that over the past twenty years. Now, international brands must make themselves more relevant by making themselves more accessible and culturally appropriate. They have become ‘more local’. This means local transactional and marketing offices to coordinate care. It does not mean finding a facilitator online to steer them to a hospital that pays good commissions. Many of my clients that are measurably successful attracting Chinese clients have local offices staffed by Chinese employees, in China, to handle logistics, answer questions, and guide the client through the process of accessing foreign healthcare. Are you ready to invest to that extent? If not stay with the Chihuahuas on the porch. You aren't ready to run offleash and plan with the big dogs at the dog park.

At the same time, many Chinese private healthcare brands are slowly and steadily winning affluent Chinese patients back. Some have pursued this through advertising their international accreditation, albeit inappropriately. They attempt to use the bandwagon approach and a "me too, copycat" strategy give the appearance that they are equal to the international suppliers by the look, feel, service level and more. How are the local brands doing this? Well, some are hiring CEOs and executives and consultants educated in the U.S., not London, Canada, India, Malaysia, Korea or even Singapore to steer the brand to an international "look-alike" level. These are people with the same post-grad degrees as mine ("Master of Health Administration") and hands-on experience, internship or externship at a minimum, at the helm of a U.S. hospital brand.

So, what was once a gulf between foreign and local brands has become a grey area in terms of product quality and importantly consumer perception. If you won't appreciate this and take it into consideration, you are done before you start out.

You'll also compete with foreign prestige brands now appearing in China. This is not limited to Audi, Mercedes and BMW that are now "made in China". Consumers get it. Nonetheless, it has not dented the prestige foreign association of the brand. The same thing happens with prestige healthcare brands from the USA. They may be built on China soil, but the Chinese fly right over them whenever possible to come to the USA for what they recognize and trust as a foreign prestige brand. So placing an unrecognized brand of healthcare delivery in a local office in China doesn't spark any magic market penetration for medical tourism.

Back to brand messaging and consumer segmentation

To this point is another observation from my research and experience I want to share: There’s another notable perspective on how Chinese consumers see ‘foreign brands’. Chinese consumers see the presence of Foreign Brands as a positive competitive force (even if they don’t buy them) because they drive improvements in Chinese brands. Many Chinese consumers support for the presence of foreign brands, but not necessarily because they offer better status or (especially not) value, but because their competitive ‘quality’ presence has actually pushed local brands into improving. So all this talk of "medical value travel" has me laughing out loud. "Medical value travel" messages positions your healthcare brand at the bottom of the barrel of commodity sellers amplifying that you are equal to all the other sellers of "cheap, day-old sushi" healthcare.

That "medical value travel" marketing message strategy is flawed and destined for failure. It works only with the person surfing the internet for cheaper priced healthcare but who often who lacks the means to pay for the airfare and other associated medical travel expenses. They are merely armchair shopping while watching TV after dinner in the evening. They will likely never darken your door.

You don't believe me? Fine. Examine your Google analytics and convert time stamps to local time where the website visitor entered your site. You'll see that these visits tend to be grouped into people web surfing after dinner while watching TV with a tablet or phone, or people using a tablet or desktop device in the middle of the night because they cannot sleep.

So before you go rushing to rent a stand at the next Chinese medical tourism event, ascertain who will be present: competitors or customers or government officials patting themselves on the back?

Then ask yourself: "Will the target Chinese customer I want to engage with be present? Will they seriously consider my brand? Or will they keep walking past my stand in search of "something they already recognize?" If you really want to attend the event, go in stealth mode the first year, where you aren't chained to a stand and you can roam around and observe and network with others. And if there are consumers there, do you have exhibit stand personnel who speak Mandarin or Cantonese? Will you have culturally appropriate marketing and advertising collateral, use of QR codes that link to Baidu instead of links that must be typed in to a search engine like Google? And are your marketing materials for the Chinese market on message with the WHY story written for them? If not, don't waste your money or your time.