Marketing Chiropractic

Seth Godin's blog post today hit the nail squarely on the head in terms of marketing chiropractic in Hawaii.

Most marketing efforts out there-- from the spinal screenings to the radio spots to the patient education workshops (bring a friend!) to the "killer" long copy ads are all about one thing:

Convincing the people to try chiropractic.

"(Our) chiropractic is safe, drug-free, natural, gentle, gets to the cause of the problem, etc."

Basically, these marketing efforts are competing against the established alternatives to chiropractic, not the competition within the same category.  In other words, these marketing projects are set up to steer people away from prescription medication, physical therapy, massage, acupuncture, and herbal remedies and instead to direct them to chiropractic (hopefully, our clinic).

However, as Seth points out, as business owners and entrepreneurs, the question doctors of chiropractic need to focus on answering is NOT "Where should people go for pain relief and wellness?" but instead, "WHICH chiropractor should I see?"

The Honor Box was established (from a marketing perspective) to answer the "WHICH" question, not the "WHETHER."

Besides the Honor Box, there has been only one other type of "WHICH" marketing approach I have seen in Hawaii since I started my practice.  And that is the:

"Choose me because I offer spinal correction chiropractic and not the symptomatic spinal care" approach.  However, this concept easily blurred into the realms of the "whether"... only able to maintain a strong case when that doctor aggressively separated himself from his peers by marketing his superior technique and philosophy.

U.S.P.  Unique Selling Proposition.  Chiropractic, as a whole, has it big time.  But as individual practices go, improvement is necessary.  Each chiropractor should find their own separate and distinct identity to flourish the WHICH.