The Impact of Word of Mouth on Brand Utility in the Healthcare Service Sector

Introduction

Nowadays institutions strive much harder than ever before so as to obtain the advantage of competition, create a meaningful difference, to pursue / continue their existence in the market, to increase the number of their loyal customers as well as to improve and increase their profitability. In comparison with the other fields of businesses, branding in health services is relatively a new concept because the number of private hospitals were quite restricted, and they used to charge such high fees that only a handful of rich people could afford their services. But during the last two decades, numbers of private hospitals increased incredibly because of intentional huge supports provided for by the ruling government within the framework of the privatization policies in all fields of businesses so nowadays there are private hospitals on almost every corner, especially in those districts where relatively rich people dwell. Therefore, private hospitals did not use to come face to face with so much competition in the past. Variations in choices for consumers made it necessary for the brands of healthcare services to address, appeal to and deal with their customers differently. This means that the health service institutions are face to face with numerous hardships and problems to sort out so that they can carry on branding activities and catch up with many other new health service providers while trying to catch some new opportunities which are likely to arise in the healthcare services, especially during the early days of the Covid 19 Corona Pandemic era, healthcare services have become one of the hottest topics which kept people busy almost every hour of the day on those days because of the struggle of life and death matters. Thus, both customers’ and the managers’ awareness of health and hygiene have increased. Besides, the healthcare sector necessitates much higher amounts of shareholders’ equity than other fields of businesses which signifies that those brands which are engaged in doing businesses in healthcare sector, it is much more significant to get ahead of their competitors, to become a leading choice for patients as well as provide sustainability for themselves. İt is seen that brand utility is a strong barrier to dissociate them from others within the health sector where most services are alike nowadays. Within this content, Private hospitals which are engaged in healthcare services can increase their sustainability together with their dignified brand name and also with their brand utility that they can create by providing their patients or customers with satisfactory services continuously without causing any complaints.

Those healthcare service institutions which meet customers’ needs completely by keeping the brand utility and customer satisfaction as their priority are bound to go ahead of their competitors and become frontiers in their sectors of all times. The fact that customers are satisfied and the benefit from the healthcare services of institution in return for a certain amount of fee or payment market that consumer adopts a positive attitude towards that healthcare institution and as a result of this that patient recommends that hospital both online and during face to face interactions with their friends and families. Consequently, word-of-mouth communication and marketing provide both material and nonmaterial benefits for the brand in question. For this reason, brands strive hard to go ahead of their competitors, to make a difference and provide their customers with benefits. (Albert et al., 2008, p.1062).

Most probably, word- of- mouth marketing is one of the oldest ways of sharing and exchanging ideas about various goods and services that brands present to their customers. Mostly, it is defined as exchanging news about brands, products or services among people who are often in close contact with each other. Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955, p.9) argue that before the spread of the Internet, word-of-mouth marketing was seven times more effective than newspaper advertisements, four times more effective than direct marketing, twice more effective than radio advertisements, and Day (1971, pp. 35-36) argues that word- of-mouth marketing was nine times more effective than commercials and advertisements. This assertion or argument has not changed at all today and studies still keep saying that one of the most effective ways of attracting and keeping customers is word-of – mouth marketing (Goyette et al., 2010, p. 6)