Expansion as a Health Tourism Growth Strategy

This article is a segment from my 2+ hour workshop presented recently in Dubai, UAE at #IMTS2020. I wish to acknowledge generous business class travel sponsorship from Etihad Airways to make my appearance possible.

This course was approved for 2.5 hours of continuing education credit through the Center for Health Tourism Strategy.

? 2020. AskMariaTodd. All international rights reserved. Not for duplication without express written consent of Maria K Todd, PhD MHA.

?Request this topic to be presented at your next medical tourism education event. Contact Maria Todd for details via LinkedIn or by email at: [email protected]

Are you ready for category expansion into health tourism?

In health tourism, CATEGORY EXPANSION is a strategy by which, a hospital or medical provider uses its established brand position to add new products or services to its service lines. The company leverages on the brand equity and success of its existing brand to introduce the new product to increase market acceptance.

For example, an ambulatory surgery center or hospital that previously performed only traditional knee replacement surgery ("arthroplasty") now adds a robotic-assisted surgical system to its armament and expands that service line to include robotic-assisted knee replacement. It then uses the current local brand to leverage an entry into a wider catchment area (regional, national, global) to enter the "health tourism" arena. That's actually a double expansion strategy.

Every great expansion case study has one thing in common: the brands defined their frame of reference to their own advantage.

You can do this for your brand, too. It is a pity that so many health tourism providers and facilities don't use this strategy to their advantage, but that's haven't taken branding seriously and done enough to develop "global" brands before launching into medical tourism. And as such, they truly believe they are "just selling more" of what they do locally. They failed to create a real "expansion" product or service package, program, bundle or whatever you wish to call it - before creating a website, recruiting marketing agents and facilitators, and attempting to sell over the internet.

FRAME OF REFERENCE MARKETING

In textbook definitions of brand positioning, "frame of reference marketing" is related to that which defines the market in which you compete.

• In your medical or dental tourism "cluster" or at your destination, with whom do you compete by proximity? Which facilities or competing specialists and surgeons are located in the same place?
• In which mental set of products and services are you categorized in your ideal customers' minds? Don't know which are your ideal customers? Time out! Go back and complete your brand creation. That's one of the deliverable you get at the end of the brand creation exercise.
• Between what products/services do your customers decide in order to select your offer and transact business with you? The entire global, national or regional sales funnel is different in medical tourism from locally-sourced healthcare.

• In the Porter's Five Forces theory (above/red), which competitive rivals offer potential direct and indirect product substitutes? How can you differentiate from them to connect better and align with what your ideal customers want?
• From which source markets do you take share/draw volume from? Are some source markets more lucrative than others?
• Against which categories/competition could you win if you positioned against them? Which products and services would you like to "own" in your ideal customers' minds?

When a health tourism provider changes its frame of reference, it narrows or expands the categories in which it competes and it carefully and strategically establishes its narrative through tactical messaging and brand blitzing.

To do this costs money to purchase advertising through mixed media, online and offline marketing, and other tools, tactics, and campaigns to establish the expansion category or product in the mind of the ideal targeted consumer prospect.

If you attempt to do this without approximately USD $250,000 in hand and allocated to the expansion advertising and marketing efforts, you must not believe you are capable of generating USD $250,001 in revenues as your first success indicator. If that's the case, don't bother launching the expansion.

If you attempt to do this without approximately USD $250,000 in hand and allocated to the expansion advertising and marketing efforts, you must not believe you are capable of generating USD $250,001 in revenues as your first success indicator. If that's the case, don't bother launching the expansion.

WHEN LESS IS MORE

Is your brand too diluted? Are you competing on too many fronts? In too many specialties? Have you been unsuccessful with medical tourism traction establishment (often due to too broad of brand definition or no brand definition)? Should you focus on fewer markets or regions our source markets or products or services?

To position for long term success with medical or dental tourism, you may stop to consider how less can be more.

FIRST THINGS FIRST

Before entering the global marketplace to compete for medical travel patients, read my previous article title, "How to Plan, Launch and Grow a Surgical Tourism Business: A guide for surgeons". Complete the exercise and checklist so that you can better decide if you are ready, willing and capable to launch and grow a medical tourism service line and global category expansion.

What's needed first is to have a strong brand with enough existing position from which to expand. Typically, the readiness indicators include:

• Significantly high market share (near leadership or maximum share) and the externally vetted statistics to back up your claims of market leadership - as you will be asked to defend your claims
• A very strong, specific brand equity that is also relevant in adjacent/non-adjacent categories -  It may be counterintuitive, but studies have actually shown that the narrower the mental association with the brand, the stronger that association is. This leads to stronger brand position in consumer minds across all categories in which the brand competes.

So, is your brand "ready" to expand to medical tourism and health travel marketing? If so, what specific brand equity will you use to leverage for your expansion strategy?

If there's more than one option, a little consumer research can be helpful to sort out your rank order of options to pursue.

Which options make the most sense to consumers? What will they trust more? Which expansion category is more rare, harder to acquire, limited in access or higher-priced, or has more profit potential?

If you don't have time to conduct the rest of the necessary research, namely:

• competitive landscape
• market dynamics
• opportunity
• right to win
• price and value comparisons, and more

a skilled consultant who knows both health tourism business development and brand creation, marketing and advertising may be invaluable.

Dr. Maria Todd is a healthcare business development consultant, an expert on third-party payer contracting and reimbursement, cash pay and concierge medicine practice development, and healthcare branding and marketing. She is a seasoned healthcare executive, a global thought leader and influencer, author of 23 internationally published books, a Master Class trainer and international featured keynote speaker. She trains healthcare brands and their marketing teams how to enhance their marketing skills, lead and grow their business. As a leading healthcare brand and strategic consultant, she's created billions in new value for clients in the USA and 115 countries. Connect with Maria here on LinkedIn so you can follow her valuable and informative posts and visit her website, AskMariaTodd?.

Contact Maria Todd: [email protected] | +1.800.727.4160