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Hospital marketing threat from Walmart healthcare supercenters’

Walmart is ramping up efforts, even more so, to steal market share from traditional hospital providers. In this article that appeared in MedCity News – Walmart divulges plans for ‘healthcare supercenters – the company states “it’s looking beyond traditional retail clinics as it seeks to create “supercenters” with comprehensive healthcare services. For traditional healthcare providers and their healthcare marketing teams, the impact of this is significant (particularly if you’re located near one of their healthcare supercenters).

So far, Walmart has opened up four “one-stop” shop clinics, with primary care, urgent care, diagnostics, x-rays, behavioral health and dental care. Another important differentiator for Walmart, and its healthcare customers, is that a primary care appointment costs $40. For children, $20. These outlays for visits are less than many co-pays at traditional healthcare providers.

Dissatisfaction with the current healthcare system

Part of the impetus for rolling out their healthcare services were the surveys conducted among thousands of customers – most of whom said they didn’t feel cared for in the current healthcare system. According to Matt Parry, senior director of strategy and customer experience, customers “felt processed, like they were a number.” Reiterating the commitment to serious healthcare, Walmart President of Health and Wellness Sean Slovenski stated “we’re in healthcare. We’re not in retail healthcare. We’re recruiting physicians in all of these areas and bringing them in.”

1. COVID-19 layers on additional threat to traditional providers. Patients are afraid, and the hope that a return to normalcy will bring patients back into hospitals might not be a reality. According to Gallup, 83% of Americans said they were concerned about being exposed to the coronavirus in a doctor’s office or hospital and 36% said that they would not go into a medical facility at all. In addition, according to Alliance of Community Health Plans, 72% of U.S. consumers have ‘dramatically’ changed their use of traditional healthcare services as a result of the pandemic. Along with personal safety, out of pocket costs are also a real concern for those who face financial insecurity.

2. Walmart is already one of the most trusted brands in America. In the third annual Reader’s Digest Trusted Brand survey conducted to determine the most trusted brands in America, Walmart and personal care brands L’Oreal, Olay and Dove topped the rankings. Key findings of the study also revealed that 49% of consumers indicated their trust for a brand would lead them to likely purchase more product from the brand in the future. Walmart also finished in the top 25 most trusted brands in Morning Consult’s first annual Most Trusted Brands survey. Beyond impacting buying decisions, brand trust also drives loyalty and advocacy on the brand’s behalf.

3. Consumers desire (and buy) transparency. This relates back to brand trust. Which can’t be bought and must be earned. Consumers want to understand exactly what they are buying, and deserve to have the knowledge they seek. When a patient visits a Walmart healthcare supercenter, they know the price upfront—a huge departure from how health care usually works and a way to avoid the hidden and surprise billing by providers that can stick even patients with health insurance with unexpected out-of-network charges. “If you don’t know how much something is going to cost, that’s scary and intimidating,” says Alexandra Drane, a health-care entrepreneur who’s worked as a cashier at Walmart. “The first thing you see at Walmart Health is the price list.”

4. Consumers choose companies that offer the best experience. And Walmart’s patient experience (in the case of their healthcare supercenters) is likely better than your local hospital’s patient experience. As brand experience is the delivery and execution of the brand promise, it contributes to the relationship between brand and consumer. And it plays an increasingly important role in marketing today as many service and product differentiators fall by the wayside. No different in healthcare. Great brand experience is the way brands earn trust, admiration and excitement from their consumers. A brand needs love to thrive, and great brand experience fosters and nurtures that.

At the end of the day, a strong brand is the ultimate competitive advantage for any business. Same with healthcare, as the idea knows no boundaries. It will be fascinating to watch how Walmart’s future as a healthcare supercenter provider plays out.

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Reach out for a risk-free consultation. Since 1999, our New Jersey marketing agency Trajectory has guided the trajectory of brands across the healthcare and wellness continuum. We straddle the space between brand consultancy and creative agency – to help our client’s brands rise above the noise to help their organizations, and customers, thrive.