An appointment card campaign is often initially viewed as only effective for health related products In reality any product or service can be effectively advertised, make a comparison between an appointment card campaign and the other forms available. Newspapers General mass-market approach dozens of adverts competing for the reader’s attention, the paper is usually read once and then thrown away the next day . Specialised magazines Again advertisers compete for attention, readers tend to flick past adverts minimising the adverts impact. There’s no guarantee an advert will be seen as the reader may only read half the magazine or find the pages of relevance to them from the contents page. Flyers distributed in public places This general mass-market approach relies on employees to distribute the flyers. Often they’re distributed at inconvenient times which leads to them being immediately discarded. Unlike appointment cards they are not viewed as an important document that needs to be kept.
TV, billboards, radio, mass transit In today’s world the public are bombarded with this form of marketing, hit by one advert after another. Multiple adverts over an extended period of time are needed to make a noticeable impact on public awareness, making it an expensive strategy to use. Another factor is the advert is never in the targets hand, there’s no physical advert to refer to. Appointment cards Aimed at people that can afford private healthcare. The card is of importance to the target and there are only four pages. The option of advert exclusivity is available, cards are kept and adverts are guaranteed to make an impact. The advert is trusted as it’s endorsed by the targets’ doctor.
Advertising campaigns are often difficult to track, often being impossible. If a business chooses to use one campaign, the campaign can be judged by assessing any increase in business. It becomes harder when there are multiple campaigns used simultaneously. TV, radio, billboards and mass transit are notoriously difficult to track. A clear advantage that an appointment card has is that it’s a physical advert that the target holds and keeps. A phone number to call in the targets’ hand kept for a long period of time, will be more effective than the other forms out there. Another method to track the effectiveness of appointment cards is to put a discount price with the advert, “for a 20% discount show this card”. This method can be used with newspapers, magazines and flyers, but because appointment cards are kept for so long it’s guaranteed to be a more effective campaign.