Surgeons’ vote: Internal marketing preferred to external marketing campaigns

SAN FRANCISCO — Aggressive promotional marketing tactics are becoming the refractive surgeon's worst enemy, according to surgeons attending a debate on the issue here.

Terrence O’Brien, MD, and Jonathan Christenbury, MD, took on the hot topic during a lively session at the American Society for Refractive and Cataract Surgery meeting, in which the audience voted their choice for the more compelling speaker.

According to Dr. O’Brien, excessive promotional external marketing has damaged the image of ophthalmology, trivialized the importance of refractive surgery and lowered the value of the technology and skills involved.

Instead of sinking money into advertisements, surgeons should be focused on generating as much positive word-of-mouth as possible, he said. Ideally, this should not cost surgeons a dime.

“Internal marketing is a better opportunity for surgeons. It is our friend. Get those patients who have had good results to get out there and tell other people,” Dr. O’Brien said.

In defense of external marketing, Dr. Christenbury argued that eye care is a business as well as a profession. Therefore surgeons must seek new ways to communicate their messages to potential clients.

“Marketing is nothing more than amplifying word-of-mouth testimonials. The questions we need to deal with are what message are we sending through what media, and how much do we want to spend?” Dr. Christenbury said.

External marketing, he said, is “healthier and less expensive for your practice than co-management.”

Dr. Christenbury acknowledged the needs to keep marketing strategies informational and to avoid glitzy materials and fraudulent claims. But he urged surgeons to not discount the power of marketing strictly because some in the business may have stretched the ethical boundaries of what is acceptable promotion.

“Make sure you know where your dollars are going, so you know your target audience is reached. You have to understand the business of marketing,” he said.

At the close of the debate, Dr. O’Brien was awarded the Golden Grizzly Award on behalf of ASCRS and the Refractive Clinical Committee for his ability to convince 66% of the audience that aggressively marketing their practices does more harm than good.