Investigating the perception of Romanian adults on ophthalmology services from an experiential marketing perspective

Nowadays, we live in a world in which we are daily bombed by hundreds of advertisements. Specialists have to discover other channels or embed attractive elements in the advertisements’ messages to cut through the clutter and catch the consumers’ attention. The evolution of the concept of service has changed from the commercial status to determining a lifestyle. Buying a service has led to a change in the consumer behavior. Consumers want to buy services that dazzle their senses, touch their hearts, and stimulate their minds, not as before, excellent or satisfying. Ophthalmology is the medical specialty that is the most oriented toward outpatient care, as hospitalization is required only in a small percentage of cases. The objective of this case study was to investigate the perception of Romanian adult consumers on ophthalmology services from an experiential marketing perspective, by using the Focus Group method. Ophthalmology requires a wide range of skills due to the diversity of consumers who demand specialized consultations. Experiential marketing is a valuable strategy that ophthalmologic organizations may use to target specific consumers. The purpose of this case study was to identify the perceptions of Romanian adults on experiential marketing campaigns and determine the degree to which these campaigns influenced their decisions of buying an ophthalmologic service. Using a snowball sampling technique we have sent a filter questionnaire to 40 people on the internet. The filter questionnaire consisted of questions about wearing eyeglasses, the period of wearing them, the last ophthalmologic consultation, the type of ophthalmologic clinic they were going to, age and education. The respondents revealed there is almost no visibility on promoting services even if there is an upsurge of organizations offering this type of health service in the Romanian ophthalmology sector.