Strategic dental marketing within the framework of COVID-19 in Ambato, Ecuador

ABSTRACT

In a pandemic context fraught with socioeconomic crisis, the field of dentistry has also had challenges in providing its services, since caring for patients implies high risks of infection in dental settings;However, commitments to society have led them to reconfigure their actions, in accordance with the needs of the market. In this framework, the present research aimed to determine the marketing strategies implemented by specialized dental centers in the canton of Ambato (Ecuador), to face the economic crisis generated by COVID-19. For this, strategic marketing was investigated by consulting the positions of Lambin (2009), Kotler and Armstrong (2007) and Munuera and Rodriguez (2012), among others. Methodologically, a type of applieddescriptive research was used, with a field-transectional design. The population was made up of all the specialized dental centers active and with physical infrastructure in the canton of Ambato, the informant agents being the dentists who provide their services in the aforementioned centers. The technique for data collection was the survey, using a structured questionnaire with a Likert scale, its content validated by five (5) marketing experts and reliability was measured using Cronbach's Alpha coefficient, which yielded 0.99. The results show a positive trend in the implementation of marketing strategies oriented towards diversification, growth and competitiveness. It is concluded that specialized dental centers develop marketing strategies to face the turbulent environment and to be able to function in competitive terms, according to the dental needs of the local society.