The effect of integrated marketing communication elementson trust and preference in health services: A study on consumer profiles receiving service from IVF centers

Infertility is a multi-causal, multivariate disease with an increasing rate all over the world. Couples who cannot have children normally apply to some treatments using assisted reproductive techniques and in vitro fertilization centers. It is possible to pay for the treatment by the state. But there are various conditions for it to be paid by the government and compared to the private sector, time, comfort etc. are differences in aspects. For these reasons, it is observed that consumers generally prefer private sector organizations by forcing their conditions. The subject of this research is to determine the profile differences of consumers who receive infertility treatment through in vitro fertilization centers in Turkey. The purpose of this research is to determine the factors that shape the purchasing preferences and consumer profiles of consumers who have received health services from IVF centers. For this purpose, data were collected from 268 consumers who received successful or unsuccessful infertility treatment through in vitro fertilization centers in Turkey in the last 15 years. The obtained data were analyzed with the SPSS program. It has been tried to determine the variables that lead the consumers to the preference of IVF center and create profile differences in terms of trust, preference and repetitive purchasing. Factor analysis was used to classify the determined variables and 8 factors were obtained. These factors are; IMC-promotion, IMC-pricing, eWOM-information search, WOM, eWOM/WOM-advice, patient-physician communication, service design-equipment and service design-employees factors. Consumers were segmented using the variables obtained as a result of factor analysis. In the segmentation part, cluster analysis was used. The differences of the four clusters obtained were determined by one-way analysis of variance and it was seen that the clusters had significant differences from each other. As a result of the analyses, the first cluster was named as "fans", the second cluster as "perfectly satisfied", the third cluster as "managers" and the fourth cluster as "fastidious" and cluster differences were evaluated in detail. Finally, recommendations have been developed for practitioners and further studies.