Health Services Marketing

For more information on this research please contact A/Prof Jamie Carlson or Dr Jessica Wyllie

The health care industry is one that converges with everyone in society at some juncture in their life, irrespective of whether they want to engage with this form of service or have the competencies to do so. Over the past decade, tremendous changes have occurred within the health care industry which will continue to impact the mechanisms with which health services and the individuals they serve engage with one another. However, it is imperative to understand that every health care context operates within their own complex network, with multiple levels of stakeholders, improvements in infrastructure, integration and development of technology, limited resources and a vast array of human resources (clinical and non-clinical). Governments, public policy bodies, health workers and researchers alike have thus made increasing calls to generate greater levels of understanding around improvements in health services by varying sub-sets of consumers.

Currently, the researchers in the health marketing team have a strong focus on generating understanding toward enhancing timely and proactive health adoption, optimisation of eHealth service delivery and integration of technology and social media in health care. The team employs mixed methodologies in their research, utilising a variety of qualitative and quantitative techniques.

A key current Project relates to “eHealth Intervention Content Development and Optimisation”: Managing online platforms to enhance the opportunity for consumer engagement has attracted growing research attention in eHealth services. Using the inbound methodology, strategies required to generate content and engagement among consumers with mental health and alcohol/other drug use problems will be proposed and tested, with the aim of helping to guide consumers towards the desired outcome (e.g., registration, commencing an eHealth treatment program, returning after initial use of an eHealth program and advocacy).

Recent journal articles for your interest:

  • Wyllie, J. & Carlson, J. (Forthcoming) ‘To Follow the Yellow Brick Road: Exploring the Journey to Mental Well-Being Consumption’. Journal of Marketing Management.
  • Schmid, B. C., Carlson, J., Rezniczek, G. A., Wyllie, J., Jaaback, K., & Vencovsky, F. (2017). Examining word association networks: A cross-country comparison of women’s perceptions of HPV testing and vaccination. PloS one, 12(10), e0185669. Link to Article
  • Wyllie, J., Lucas, B., Carlson, J., Kitchens, B., Kozary, B., & Zaki, M. (2016). An examination of not-for-profit stakeholder networks for relationship management: A small-scale analysis on social media. PloS one, 11(10), e0163914. Link to Article

Research Team

Social Media Analytics in Health

This research program focuses on developing innovative social media analytics to understanding consumer behaviour on social media platforms of health and not-for-profit organizations. A particular focus is placed on examining stakeholder networks using data drawn from social media brand pages of health service providers in the USA, UK and Australia. Such data-driven approaches work towards identifying opportunities for value creation in terms of mapping and analyzing social media stakeholders that are "valuable" to monitor, engage and/or establish a relationship with. Insights are anticipated to inform resource allocation decisions to optimize and focus marketing activities towards the most relevant stakeholders to build formal and informal reciprocal relationships to maximize brand awareness and campaign effectiveness.

Research Team

  • Dr Jamie Carlson, Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle
  • Jessica Wyllie, Newcastle Business School, University of Newcastle
  • Ben Lucas, School of Business and Economics, Maastricht University, Netherlands
  • Associate Professor Brent Kitchens, McIntire School of Commerce, University of Virginia, U.S.
  • Mohamed Zaki, Research associate at Cambridge Service Alliance, Cambridge University, U.K.
  • Dr Ben Kozary, Forethought Research, Melbourne Australia

Publication

White Paper: Carlson, J., Wyllie, J., Lucas, B. Kitchens, B. and Zaki, M. (2016). A Small-scale Analysis of Health Service Stakeholder Networks: Insights from Social Media.