Marketing for Veterinary Practices

The changes to the environment that the veterinary profession operates in demands that a modern practice is able to effectively communicate what it has to offer its pet owning customers. in this context a veterinary practice manager and owner needs to understand the fundamentals of Marketing as part of their management ‘toolkit’ and the first part of the presentation is an introduction to the subject by taking a practical approach for veterinary clinics. it will put this management discipline into the context of the practice philosophy (or practice vision and mission) and examine some simple definitions of Marketing and cover key aspects such as the Marketing Mix (the 4 p’s and the 7 p’s), targeting specific pet owner groups and the role of market research. the pres- entation will use examples from both inside and outside of the veterinary profession to provide a clear overview of Marketing and highlight how practice managers and own- ers can work with other team members to achieve the objective of delivering profes- sional standards of pet healthcare profitably whilst satisfying pet owner requirements.

The second part of the presentation will focus on marketing professional services and highlight the differences between professional services firms and typical businesses. the global professional services sector grew from $107 billion in 1980 to $911 billion in 2000 due to the increasing demand for the services of lawyers, consultants, accountants and other service-providers. although most of this growth has come in business to busi- ness areas the common factor with the veterinary profession is that of expert advice being the most important driver in the growth of the sector. a veterinary practice does not sell its services to other businesses but it does sell its professional advice to pet owners and there are some learnings to be gained from examining the broader profes- sional services sector. in a typical business market some companies will look to gain a competitive advantage from offering a low-cost option (e.g. aldi, ryanair) to its custom- ers but as the key costs in a professional services firm are the people most practices seek to gain a competitive advantage through establishing differences which are valued by their customers. this part of the presentation will examine the strategic options for a veterinary practice to develop its business through marketing itself to pet owners, including the products and services it offers, the geographic spread, the approach to customer service and the level of fees charged to pet owners.