Research On The Hospital Marketing From Philosophical Perspective

U.S.marketing master Philip Kotler pointed out in 1987 at the world marketing conference that economics is the father of marketing,behavioral science the mother,mathematics the grandmother,and philosophy the grandfather.Therefore,to view marketing philosophically is per se the issue of marketing.In fact,philosophy is the subject of cognition of the nature,human beings, and the society and the law of their interrelationship and movements,hence a methodological basis of marketing.Hospital marketing is a branch of marketing,with the application of the basic disciplines of marketing to medical services.Therefore;to view hospital marketing from an angle of philosophy is theoretically and logically acceptable.The introduction of marketing to hospital activity is the requirement of social development and the result of market competition.Hospitals are practically places most in need of marketing.Marketing master Philip Kotler pointed from a satisfaction dimension that marketing is mainly involved in the recognition and satisfaction of the needs of human beings and the society.The briefest definition of marketing is the beneficial needs-satisfaction.Hospital is place to practice humanism,a place where the patient-centered activities aim at and end up with the satisfaction of the needs of patients.This is the materialization of the concept that marketing starts from the satisfaction of the needs of clients and realizes it.This paper uses the thesis of Philip Kotler that philosophy is the grandmother of marketing,and views hospital marketing philosophically.The method involves the application of the basic philosophical principles to the concrete analyzing of various dimensions of hospital marketing,and the searching for the philosophical basis or foundation of hospital marketing theory.The aims are the theoretical finding of the origination of hospital marketing by adhering to the guiding roles of philosophy in the hospital marketing science,and the practical grasping of the correct direction of hospital marketing,which helps the development of hospital marketing behaviors and establishment of concrete foundation of harmonious doctor-patient relationship.This paper consists of five parts:In preface,the basis,the significance,the characteristics of the subject and the related foreign and domestic current research progress are briefly introduced. In part two,with the basis of induction of the four stages of the evolvement of hospital marketing concept,the philosophical foundation of the evolvement are analyzed from the three dimensions of materialism,dialectics and epistemology.In part three,the features and categories of hospital marketing are explained,and a point is held that hospital marketing environment can be philosophically analyzed with the basic principles of unity of opposites,universal connection,absolute motion and relative stillness,which exist in the marketing environment.In part four,the basic concept of medical market segmentation is summarized,and it is pointed out that the heterogeneity of patient needs is the materialistic basis for market segmentation,and the dialectical unity of universality and particularity of patient needs the dialectical basis.In part five,the origination and evolution of hospital marketing combination theory are described.It is clarified that the various essences of hospital marketing combination are universally related,the aim of combination is to ensure the overall optimization.It is also pointed that hospital marketing combination is changeable,and the aim of change is to adapt the new environment,and the recognition of hospital marketing combination is an endless process,because the development of the objective world is endless.