S. Altan Erdem

Healthcare Marketing on the Web: Moving Forward Toward More Interactive Practices

ABSTRACT It is hard to deny the notion that the Internet has been very efficient in distributing health information to millions of individuals and has become one of the best marketing tools in healthcare. We have been witnessing so many very creative and interactive practices in this field that we can safely assume that it is now the time for e-commerce in healthcare industry. While this is true for many participants, there are also some who are concerned about using some of these new online options in the field of healthcare. Most of these concerns are derived from the questionable accuracy of the “health” information on the net. Considering the fact that the subject matter of the field is “health,” we can realize that these concerns are serious and deserve an in-depth look. This paper reviews some of the most current practices in the field and provides some examples of these online options. It is hoped that the review of these examples will result in similar inquiries in the future and as those questionable options are exposed more and more, they will eventually be eliminated and replaced with the better ones.

E-Commerce in Healthcare and Pharmaceutical Marketing—Opportunities and Concerns

Abstract There has been a growing emphasis on the use of e-commerce in various business settings. While most of e-commerce practices have been in business-to-business marketing arrangements, the traditional consumer marketing has also been subject to numerous e-commerce applications. One of the recent trends in traditional consumer marketing is relating to those consumers who happen to be actual and/or potential patients searching for either a medical service provider or a medical treatment of some sort or even a pharmaceutical product. Accordingly, the field of healthcare is having its share of the e-commerce craze. The purpose of this article is to highlight some of these e-commerce practices in the healthcare and pharmaceutical marketing arena. It is hoped that the issues raised in this article will provide the related parties with added incentives to explore the questionable sides of e-commerce in the field of healthcare.

MANAGING CHANNEL RELATIONSHIPS: TOWARD AN IDENTIFICATION OF EFFECTIVE PROMOTIONAL STRATEGIES IN VERTICAL MARKETING SYSTEMS

As it is stated in the literature, relationship marketing refers to establishing, developing, and maintaining successful relational exchanges. Promotion is one of the key variables of the marketing mix that plays a crucial role in this process. Accordingly, this paper takes the first step toward an identification of effective promotional strategies in channels. More specifically, the paper presents an examination of the interaction between promotion and power balance in vertical marketing systems from the producers as well as the dealers perspective.

An Investigation of the Structural Relationships between Salespersons’ Perception of their Power Bases and their Use of Influence Tactics

It has been stated in the literature that “influence” and “power” are two different yet related concepts. Basically, influence has been viewed as the actual manifestation of the inherent capacity of a person, while power has been viewed as the capacity to influence others (Katz and Kahn 1966; Hinkin and Schriesheim 1990). However, despite these conceptual distinctions, there are few empirical studies relating to power and influence as distinct constructs. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to empirically investigate the relationships between power and influence in a sales environment. The paper presents a structural equation model to examine how two specific power bases are related to six major influence tactics used by salespersons.