Spurt in branding initiative from healthcare brands

Health care is the most rapidly growing services in the world economy. As a result of this the Indian market for medical tourism has been growing at over 15%in recent years. It is estimated that about 1 Lac foreign patients come from West Asia, South Asia, the US and UK to India each year for the tertiary care such as cardiac surgery, transplants, hip replacement and cataracts. The advantage of coming to India is one gets quality treatment at a fraction of the cost in
developed countries.


In the past few years branding initiatives in the health care industry are getting more emphasis that they had never before. Brands play a very important role in this industry as brands convey trust when it comes to offering medical services. Research has also shown that in health care, the customer has a limited rationale framework in decision-making. In this context a brand becomes important. Hospitals take a wide range of channel to highlight the brand- sponsoring events for the medical fraternity, continuous medical education program, medical camps, awareness seminars in corporates or colleges, literature in specific ailments, and the reminder media

All leading hospital brands such as Manipal Hospital, Max Health care, Apollo etc have earmarked substantial budget for brand development. The objective here is very clear and that is to let the consumer know what the brands are offering. More players are entering in this segment to get the maximum first mover advantage. Brands like Wockhardt are expanding their reach by opening their network in new cites. All the health care brands will be able to command a good premium provided they are able to attach great value to their customers.