2. INTRODUCTION:
Healthcare, which is a US$ 35 billion industry in
India, is expected to reach over US$ 75 billion
by 2012 and US$ 150 billion by 2017.
-Technopak Advisors in their report – ‘India Healthcare Trends 2008’.

3.  Hospitals generally do not undertake aggressive
promotion; they rely a lot on a favorable word
ofmouth.
 As hospitals spend millions of rupees in
technology and infrastructure, it becomes
necessary, to attract patients and generate funds.
In order, to do the same, the hospitals follow
various marketing and brand building exercises.

4.  METHODOLOGY:
Objectives of the Study:
1. To study the promotion practices in healthcare
industry.
2. To suggest ways and means, if needed, for
strengthening healthcare service sector for
better Promotion mix Planning.

5.  METHODOLOGY:
Data Sources: This study requires both Primary
and Secondary data.
Data collection method: For collecting Primary
data, a Questionnaire is used as Research
Instrument followed by personal interview.

6.  METHODOLOGY:
Sampling: The samples were selected by using, non-
probability sampling procedure and in
specific, Quota Sampling technique has been
adopted to select the sample.
Sampling Size:Important in hospitals considered for
study are 111

7.  METHODOLOGY:
Data Analysis: The collected data is
coded, tabulated and summarized. One-Way
ANOVA, Chi-Square tests and Freidman test
have been applied for analyzing the data.

8.  FINDINGS:
1. All hospitals agreed that undertaking
promotion activities is important and all of
them are undertaking promotional activities
for the promotion of their services.
2. It is found that advertising stands first in the
hospital preferences of promotional mix
followed by public relation, publicity,
referrals, personal selling and sales promotion.

9.  FINDINGS:
3. The contents of the advertisement that they
preferred are ‘Service firm’s image’ followed
by ‘Staff / experts availability’, ‘Products /
services offered’, ‘Sophisticated facilities /
equipment’, and ‘Price/Tariff structure’.

10.  FINDINGS:
4. The study identified the television advertising
as most preferred media followed by
Newspapers and
magazines, Hoardings, Radio, and

11.  SUGGESTIONS:
1. Promotion to increase Occupancy Rate: The Hospitals need to
conduct free medical camps periodically, create awareness
about the facilities through brochures and design
advertisements with rich information.
2. Maintaining good Relations with Public: Hospitals need to
release news for press coverage related to hospital events and
public interest topics, write columns for news
papers/magazines, publish news letters on latest medical
topics and try to send personal letters to patients regularly
about enquiring their health.
3. Organizing Customer Exit Interviews: The suggestions from
customers through exit interviews may be recorded and due
consideration may be given to maintain quality while
rendering the services.

12. Finally the following model is suggested for Healthcare industry inA.P
Model of Promotion Practices in Healthcare Industry
Promotion practices in Promotion practices in Recommended
Healthcare Industry Healthcare Industry beneficiary practices
in Literature in Practice today
1. A Promotion to increase
Advertising in
occupancy Rate
Promotion: majority of
Advertising, Person hospitals,
al selling, Sales Public 2. Maintaining good
Promotion, Public relations, Publicity Relations with Public
relations, Publicity
in
, Referrals
Media: few, Referrals, Perso 3. Organizing Customer
Electronic, Print, an nal selling, Sales Exit Interviews
d Mass Promotion in very
few hospitals.
Media:
Electronic, Print, an
d Mass