Tewodros Mesfin (PhD)Hulemenaw Delelegn2024-03-072024-03-072022-10https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/2222Marketing communications is a phenomenon that refers to the methods companies use to disseminate information about their products or services. Consumers often find healthcare decision-making particularly disquieting, and anxiety ridden, both for themselves and their loved ones. Healthcare markets are profoundly different from other types of markets, especially from the consumer perspective. Healthcare services evokes a strong, personally felt involvement with consumers. A quantitative, analytical cross-sectional research conducted by installing a five-point Likert scale survey questionnaire to 384 study participants at seven randomly selected private general hospitals in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia to evaluate marketing communications impacts on customers hospital brand preference. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage) and inferential statistics like correlation and multiple regressions. Of the four forms of healthcare marketing communication practices (referral/words-of-mouth, digital marketing, traditional advertising, and public relation) evaluated in this study, referral/words-of-mouth, with a mean composite score of 3.84 from the Likert response could influence majority of study participants hospital brand preference while seeking healthcare provider. Likert response mean composite scores of 2.96, 2.88 and 2.85 recorded for public relation, digital marketing, and traditional advertising marketing communication modalities respectively, which indicated that those three marketing communication modalities had relatively weak influence on customers hospital brand preference. Referral marketing/words-of-mouth marketing was a critical marketing communication practice in winning customers hospital brand preference on which private general hospitals recommended to invest on while considering other potential marketing communication modalities in their marketing communication practices. KEYWORDS: marketing communication, referral/words-of-mouth marketing, hospital brand preferenceen-USThesis