Marketing of health care products and services can be legally and morally controversial given that some of the advertised products are normally used by patients with no prior knowledge. Influence of health products marketing is underlined by the fact that products always have a direct impact on the health of a consumer, and many times marketers are not concerned with the effect as much as the profit they want to make. Marketing of health care products to consumers may be both good and bad at the same time depending on intentions.
Marketing promotes competition between different manufacturers of similar health care products. Due to its aim of influencing consumers, a manufacturer with powerful marketing machinery may end up selling poor products to patients while a good manufacturer with poor marketing strategies is left without customers. Equally, marketing costs are always passed down to consumers and thus escalating costs of treatment even for inferior products. Moreover, advertisements may sometimes provide incorrect and insufficient information to consumers in the light of associated costs especially when an advert is carried through television.
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Some advertisements thrive on fallacies, such as claims which are not scientifically disapproved, as being automatically true. The fact is that most advertisement arguments are based on ignorance rather than proven facts or simple logic. Most advertisements also do not capture warnings and precautionary information on the use of health care products. Still, other advertisements provide totally misleading information which may encourage consumers to misuse drugs at their own peril. Finally, there are instances in which advertising may encourage patients to practice self-care at home instead of consulting health care professionals, and it can turn fatal on the part of a patient (Chandra & Holt, 1999).
Nevertheless, health care marketing can provide information about new products and services in the health care industry. Additionally, competition initiated by advertising can bring about improved products with stable prices. Marketing is also advantageous to the economy as it encourages purchases and consumption of products and services thus allowing for increased sales and positive inflow of money within a country (Chandra & Holt, 1999). In conclusion, controlled marketing is therefore good for any economy.