Positioning health services in consumer's mind

The key purpose of this work is to sum up all the researches made about the strategical positioning concept concerning health services, with a structure that collects the main working areas suggested in those researches.The changes in customer's behaviour and the consequent improvement of worldwide competition caused, in last years, the enhancement of specific academic investigation about the possibilities and policies of positioning in the sector. The synthesis shaped researches are used in areas where there was a strong initial impetus but no following structural efforts; strategic marketing situation in health services has evoluted from questioning it's appliance to questioning how to survive without it and, as occurred in areas with similar situations, it becomes necessary to synthetize the work it has been made, with conclusions and implications about the main policies to be developed so that a health center is positioned in it's customer's mind. The conclusions are centered in how to structure a positioning strategy, through the three key areas already developed by the centres: branding, location and environmental factors; as well as how to give different working areas to the health sector managers.