By Kate Hilpern
Is cosmetic surgery marketing all about selling more procedures, or about helping customers to make informed purchase decisions?
The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) called last week for a ban on advertising cosmetic surgery as a medical procedure. “BAAPS has worked tirelessly to educate the public on the many aggressive marketing gimmicks that not only trivialise surgery but endanger the patient,” said BAAPS president Fazel Fatah, who described the UK cosmetic surgery industry as a “cowboy” market.
Fatah’s comments follow the revelation that thousands of people have been implanted with industrial-grade rather than medical-grade silicone supplied by French company Poly Implant Prothese (PIP).
A committee of MPs is now looking into standards in the cosmetic surgery industry, including marketing practices. UK doctors are currently allowed to inform the public of the benefits of their work, and celebrity culture and TV programmes such as Ten Years Younger have helped make cosmetic surgery marketing big business.
Exploitation?
In other countries, especially parts of the US, there is an emphasis on ensuring psychological support and counselling before surgery to make sure that prospective customers are not suffering from deep-seated psychological problems, such as body dysmorphia, as well as unrealistic expectations. But a national audit of cosmetic surgery in the UK found that just one-third of clinics offered counselling or any psychological evaluation of potential patients. Where clinics do offer counselling, this is often left to surgeons and nurses, rather than trained clinical psychologists.
But what about the tactics used to persuade people to seek a consultation? “The marketing tactics that work for clothing retailers and beauty brands cannot always be adopted for marketing an aesthetic medical clinic,” says Wendy Lewis & Co aesthetics consultancy president Wendy Lewis. “A common mistake we see is price slashing – there is nothing innovative in cutting your prices down to the bone; the innovation lines in adding value, turning a profit while keeping patients satisfied, coming back for additional or repetitive treatments.”
But Mercer believes those seeking repeat procedures are not always suitable candidates for surgery. “It’s the cases where people are asking for repeat procedures that we are most concerned about psychological problems.”
Price & Slater law firm partner Mark Slater, who acts on behalf of people suing cosmetic surgeons, believes potential surgery customers are often targeted by marketing at vulnerable times such as divorce or depression – or when they are overweight and other measures would be longer-lasting and healthier. “The problem is that when they start to feel depressed again – which they inevitably do because cosmetic surgery isn’t usually life changing in the way they’d hoped – they remember the instant high they felt last time and do it again. It’s an addictive spiral.”
But marketers have a real opportunity to build customer trust by helping their clinic take and promote a responsible, ethical marketing approach: “For example, almost every client I have acted for tells me the same story,” says Slater. “When completing the screening questionnaire with a ‘counsellor’, they are rushed through and often told to tick ‘no’ to the option to contact their GP, as it slows things down.”
Pushy tactics?
“We are seeing some very aggressive guerrilla marketing initiatives,” says Lewis, many of which flout guidance from industry bodies. Almost half of 193 private clinics surveyed in a national audit of cosmetic surgery in the UK had no “cooling off” period between a consultation and giving consent, The Telegraph reports, despite the Independent Healthcare Advisory Service’s recommendation of a two-week window.
“People are often pressurised to sign on the dotted line immediately, or the price goes up,” says Slater. “Two-for-one offers, reward points and air miles towards your flight to the country where you’ll have the surgery done – these are some of the other pressures used to encourage people to sign quickly while the deal lasts.”
Slater says he’s come across people on income support being offered interest-free credit to take up a cosmetic surgery offer, and other instances where a clinic has allowed patients to pay for a procedure that would have been offered by the NHS, without alerting them to this.
The solution lies in companies investing in training – for sales and marketing teams and their professional target audience, says Eurocom Healthcare Communications MD Tony Chant. “Some companies certainly do this very well, but not all,” he says, explaining that many of the best marketing people in the cosmetic surgery industry have transferred from the pharmaceutical industry, which is highly regulated.
Aftercare
“One of the major concerns that has emerged is... about the responsibility they [companies] hold to look after the women they treated,” Dr Daniel Poulter, a member of the committee of MPs investigating the industry following the PIP scandal, told The Telegraph.
Risks of bleeding, infections, scarring, as well as longer-term health risks, are often glossed over, argues Slater, while discharge is often just three weeks post-operation.
“Take blephoroplasty [eye bag surgery], which carries a one in 250,000 chance of blindness,” Slater says. “It’s not a high risk, but if I want it just to look younger, then I think that should be in the marketing literature. It’s simply a case of marketing being informative and maintaining a balance between the advantages and disadvantages of the procedures.”
“If you look at the websites of overseas tourism sites, which BAAPS is particularly worried about, 70 per cent never mention any complications, yet any long distance surgery adds even greater risk to any operation,” says Mercer.
It’s not just direct advertising BAAPS is worried about: “TV programmes and articles showing surgery as a ‘holiday’ trivialise it. Most operations take six weeks to three months to recuperate. For unethical overseas clinics this is great, though, because by the time most people get complications, they are home and can’t do anything about it.”
Advertising
“There are blatant misrepresentations of physicians’ credentials and training everywhere,” claims aesthetics consultancy president Wendy Lewis. “We see non-physicians posing as doctors, and doctors with little or no training in aesthetics proclaiming to be leading experts.”
Consultant surgeon John Scurr points out that ‘new’ does not always equal ‘best’: “Too many procedures are being led by this premise and heavy product marketing, rather than a full and thorough assessment of a patient’s condition and how to achieve the best result.”
Then there are the images used. “Marketers should use real people who have undertaken cosmetic surgery to front a marketing campaign, not models that suggest you’ll look like them if you have this done,” says Mercer.
Not all agree with BAAPS’ call for a ban on cosmetic surgery advertising. “Before you know it, this will become a ‘black market’ activity, which is not an environment we want to create,” says Eurocom’s Chant. “Let’s just ensure that the quality of the marketing information – wherever advertising appears – instantly delivers or leads people to a source of honest and balanced information that may lead to treatment or not.”
Regulation
Have the regulators fallen behind the industry they are regulating? “Bring the industry in line with the kind of regulation that governs sectors such as law, finance and pharmaceuticals,” suggests lawyer Slater. “Clear rules for marketers, which will ultimately give the sector a better reputation.”
A strong legal framework is critical, BAAPS’ Mercer believes. “In this country, people do more research into their hairdresser than their cosmetic surgeon. It’s not like that in other countries and it’s time it changed here. No other medical procedure is marketed like this – why should cosmetic surgery be an exception?”
Should advertising of cosmetic surgery be banned? Do marketers have a responsibility to point out the downsides of surgical procedures as well as benefits? Share your comments below.
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