Potential of Social Media and Mobile Marketing in Marketing Communication Management in Health Care Institutions

Background. The reality of contemporary marketing is complex and evolves very fast, which stimulates managers for usage of new and modern ways to communicate with customers and build relations with them. The article covers issues related to the usage of new marketing tools (with special attention paid to social media and mobile marketing) in managing health care institutions in the Lodzkie voivodship. Research aims. The goal is to analyze whether, and to what extent, are the tools of new marketing applied in the marketing communication of health care institutions. The basis for the assumptions was a research which covered all health care institutions in the Lodzkie region. Method. The research was conducted in all health care institutions in the Lodzkie Voivodship in December 2012. To collect the data authors used CATI with all the institutions (1338), but research results presented in this study cover 237 institutions which used e-marketing in communication with the market in-depth interviews with. Key findings. Health care institutions are not well prepared to use new marketing instruments for communication with customers