Souldice Hospital Marketing Strategy

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1. What is Shouldice marketing and how is it staying focused?

Unlike physical products, a service cannot be seen, tasted or felt before it is bought. There is always an element of uncertainty and the service seeker looks for evidence of quality. People will draw conclusions from the place, the people, key influencers, communication material and most importantly from people who have already gone through the experience. Therefore the service provider's task is to supply this evidence, to "tangibilize the intangible" [Kotler]

Shouldice marketing strategy is one of a kind, in the sense that it is different, which is the secret behind every successful strategy. It's 'thinking out of the box'. It's sensing a need and fulfilling it in a remarkable manner.

Everything we have studied in the past classes seems to be embodied in the strategy of Shouldice hospital from experiential marketing, brand loyalty, providing a memorable experience, the importance of good word of mouth advertising, to focus and using one's competitive advantage to such an extent that although people might try to copy it, there are slim chances of them getting it right.

Shouldice hospital is marketing a well-developed, focused service delivery system, it is providing an experience.

Core Competency

Dr. Earle Shouldice who founded the hospital started this operation from an idea and then developed the idea further by dedication and passion, he operated on men who wanted to be soldiers but were denied because they needed hernia treatment, during the war in 1940, hospital space and doctors were scarce, especially for this non-emergency surgery that normally took three weeks of hospitalization. Dr. Shouldice stepped in and operated without taking any fee, he performed an innovative method of surgery on seventy of these men, hastening their induction into the army, and thus the idea developed into a surgical technique which survived him and is still thriving. As Bruce Lee once said

I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times."

The focus on doing what you are best in, and developing it to such an extent that people are trying to copy it, it makes sense to just stick to that and that's what Shouldice did.

A Strategic Service Concept - Focused Service Factory

Shouldice defined the one thing they do to perfection and built a whole integrated system around it. Removal of external hernia were their forte and they stuck to it.

The patients at the Shouldice center take some of care of themselves. Before the operation a questionnaire is sent to them which is simple to understand and the purpose is to determine the type of hernia and other risks associated with surgery. In Shouldice, all the patients were encouraged to walk up and down the halls and to get in dialog with the other patients and the surgeons. In thought of encouraging the patients, the steps between the floors are constructed with a smooth inclination, there are not TV's at the bedrooms and the rooms were designed as if it were a home instead of a hospital. Every square foot of facility is carpeted to reduce the hospital feeling and the possibility of a fall.

* Market Segment:

Shouldice hospital is staying focused because it has not changed its target market and the methods that made it a success; the target market for Shouldice Hospital remains the people who were detected with a primary inguinal, which was the most common kind of hernia. They treated only external hernias. More complicated cases, especially those involving patients with other health problems, were not undertaken. The primary advantage of admitting only healthy people was that the duration of the patient in the hospital was drastically cut down. Thus new patients could be admitted with a higher frequency.

Great Word of mouth advertising

"Part of the success of the Hospital from a psychological point of view is the opportunity for the patients to meet one another. I certainly enjoyed the other patients and I did not hear a single one express any negative attitude toward the hospital and I heard many glowing words about it." RON KENYON-THORNHILL, ONTARIO

Other qualities that help it stay focused in short are

* A Flat Organizational structure - Top Management Commitment to Quality

Dr. Shouldice and his sister Mrs. Uquhart each owned 50% of each, i.e., the hospital and the clinic. O'Dell as the administrator was responsible for all the five departments - surgery, nursing, administration, maintenance and housekeeping. T

* Customer Value & Satisfaction -

As is evident by the questionnaire and response and the fact that most of its customers are referrals. Which according to most is the one number you need to be concerned about.

* Focused Differentiation

Stayed focus on treating external hernias

* Self Service Technologies

- Patients self screen

- Self Serve

- Walk about

- Don't need bed pans

Q2. Is Shouldice hospital a good place to work and why?

Excellent service providers know that positive employee attitudes will promote stronger customer loyalty, so the best employees must be found to do the job and then they must be retained. At Shouldice the turnover rate is minimal, only four nurses a year, which for hospitals is quite remarkable.

Shouldice hospital is great place to work pretty much for the same reason that it is a great place to be operated on. There is an atmosphere of warmth of family rather than a workplace. The nurses work more as psychologists. And a lot of the dirty jobs so to say are avoided since the patient is healthy enough to walk around the place, his linen need not be washed regularly and can be changed only after he leaves the hospital after four days plus patients do not need bed pans. This also reduces the amount of time that the nurses need to devote to each patient in terms of individual care. Nurses could better utilize this time by conducting orientation programs for the patients and also counseling them. This kind of work keeps the work force motivated and