Why Hospitals also Need Benchmarking Marketing Capabilities?

The reduction in protectionist barriers in India has made the Indian business environment more competitive. In order to obtain competitive advantage health service providers (hospitals) should inculcate a market-based learning approach where they can identify and monitor value sources of competitive advantage, such as marketing capabilities, which can provide fact-based evidence to help managers recognize the need for capability improvements. Such a scenario demands an empirical study in India with regard to hospitals marketing. Keeping the factors in mind researchers conducted the study to know whether the hospitals in Chandigarh and surrounding areas formulate the strategies with respect to various marketing variables, viz., Product Development, Pricing, Customer Management, Marketing communication Staff, Marketing Information Management, Marketing Planning, Marketing Implementation, and Marketing Outcomes (Market-effectiveness and Current Profitability). In order to answer the question 'Do hospitals need benchmarking marketing strategies?’ the researchers have also tried to find out the impact of these marketing variables on Marketing Effectiveness and Current Profitability. From the analysis, the researchers have come to the conclusion that there is a preference for type of patients segments by the hospitals. The strategies followed by hospitals are strongly and positively related to the market-effectiveness and current profitability.