marketing

[Guest guest]

, " pemachophel2001 " <pemachophel2001>

wrote:

> Bob,

>

> According to Marilyn Allen, more Americans are interested in

> acupuncture than any other single professionally provided health care

> alternative.

 

If correct, that is definitely a major change from Eisenberg's original

study on the use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in the US.

At that time, about 30-40% of americans had used CAM. This study was

widely touted. however, the devil is always in the details. Included in

the definition of CAM were weight loss programs like Jenny Craig. the

vast majority of CAM use was actually such weight loss programs.

chiropractic was close to the top of the list in actual usage of a

professional CAM service. Bob Felt is right that acupuncture usage

accounted for about 1-3% of the population at that time. I think that

study is almost 10 years old, though.

 

When I worked at a large clinic last year for a while, the marketing told me the same statistic Bob Flaws mentioned about interest in

acupuncture. Yet she was puzzled that despite extensive marketing in an

area with the highest per capita income in the US, acupuncture was

actually quite hard to sell here (she had great success in LA 10 years ago)

.. San diego has a reputation for its residents being reluctant to spend

money. I heard a radio show yesterday about the food scene out here. We

have a lot of world class restaurants, because all our transplants from LA

and NY demand it, but prices are typically 30% less than in those cities.

Main reason according to the restaurant association is that san diegans

won't pay more. So there is this extra hurdle to surmount, one that

becomes even more difficult in times of economic recession. The market

that is saturated in such locales as this is the market for those willing

to pay cash for healthcare. so while Bob Felt is right that there are

plenty of patients out there, most will not pay for it in this town. and

no amount of marketing seems to overcome that frugality. So I agree with

Bob Flaws that for a cash practice, large markets like SD (probably

boulder, too) are, for all intents and purpose, saturated.

 

Chiropractors will tell you the same thing about work in a big city.

Unless they are willing to run patient mills, seeing up to 6-10 patients

per hour for often very low reimbursement, they might as well wait tables.

 

 

Chinese Herbs

 

 

" Great spirits have always been violently opposed by mediocre minds " --

Albert Einstein