The effect of perceived quality on hospital brand equity: Consumer assessment

In order to adjust to the increasing competitive conditions in the health sector, as in all sectors in today?s business world, practices that will make a difference among the rivals are required along with offering quality and effective service. Brandization, which is one of the most important applications in order to achieve this difference, is substantially important of health managements that are different from other hoods and service providing managements with it?s characteristic features. The most important piece in forming a brand is accepted to be creating the value of the brand that provides customer satisfaction and an advantage of competition.Although there are many scientific studies conducted in different sectors and management regarding the value of brands there has not been an adequate amount of studies found in the health sector. The aim of this study, which was launched according to this situation, is to determine the relative importance and degrees of effect of what is named the aspects of the brand value in literature that is the perceived quality, brand loyalty, brand awareness and brand association on the brand of the hospital from the point of view of the consumer and particularly present the effect of the perceived quality on the brand of the hospital. The survey questions used in the practice section of the study have been prepared according to the consumer based model that was created by considering the consumer perception and preferences of the brand assessment methods, which were suggested by Aaker.As a result of the study, it has been revealed that according to the consumers the most effective aspect in the brand values of the hospitals, that are located in the centre of the Sakarya province, was quality (estimation value=0,48, t-value=5,370). The second highest effect was the brand association aspect (estimation value=0,25, t-value=2,840). However, it has been determined that the brand awareness does not have a meaningful effect on the brand value of the hospital (estimation value=-0,07, t-value=-1,246), and that the brand loyalty was under what was expected (estimation value=0,22, t-value=2,536). For this reason, it is suggested to the hospital managers to raise awareness in the consumers by using various public relations methods regarding their activities.