International Marketing Research at Mayo Clinic Marketing Case Study

Mayo Clinic Global Marketing Research
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

Mayo Clinic Global Marketing Research
Challenges and Issues
For many years, Mayo Clinic has been a destination for international patients. Recently, Teodoro Mbasogo, Equatorial Guinea’s president, went to Mayo Clinic in Rochester in New York City for a medical checkup. Since the hospital was established, it has provided healthcare services to many patients globally. However, despite the superb reputation of this medical center, it encounters various problems in marketing. Many of the global patients who visit the hospital for treatment or checkups have been influenced by their friends or families. In other words, Mayo Clinic has not implemented an appropriate marketing strategy to reach people worldwide. Instead, it relies on word-of-mouth. The primary issue is that Mayo Clinic relies on testimonials of a few patients who have received healthcare services to maintain its reputation internationally (Berry & Seltman, 2014). As such, regardless of the quality of patient care, it offers to people worldwide, without referral through word-of-mouth, others cannot become influenced to visit this medical center for treatment. That is the reason why despite Mayo Clinic being in operation for many years, it is not renowned by patients, health insurers, and policyholders outside the United States of America (USA).
Another marketing problem of Mayo Clinic is that it encourages physicians and other staff to provide high-quality medical care, understand patients’ needs and wants, and educate them on how to lead healthy lives. However, it does not bother to advertise its high-quality services in the global market. For this reason, Mayo Clinic depends on the word-of-mouth of patients who have been treated there before, which is not enough to influence a broad population. That is the reason why not many people outside the USA do not know that Mayo Clinic is a leading healthcare institution internationally (Winslow, 2017). Additionally, Mayo Clinic does not consider cultural differences as one of the significant factors that affect people’s choice of the hospital. For this medical center to attract many global patients, it should understand its target audience well. The other challenge is that Mayo Clinic relies on a small number of international patients who visit the hospital to know the things that hinder excellent care. Without visiting different countries and interacting with distinct individuals, Mayo Clinic will never be the leading choice for the majority of global patients.
For over 120 years that Mayo Clinic has been operating, it should have done more surveys than 1,500 in over twenty nations. Although there exist challenges, such as language, cultural, and communication barriers, in conducting research abroad, the hospital should have come up with an effective strategy to attract new clients. DiversityInc has ranked Mayo Clinic for seven consecutive times as one of the hospitals that handle patients from different cultures well (Mayoclinic.org, 2019). Nevertheless, this healthcare center does not apply that knowledge to study factors that hinder many international patients from choosing it as their most preferre...