You Can’t Fix Your Marketing Until You Know What You’re Doing Wrong and Why.

What is Branding or “Image Advertising” and Why You Should Stay Away From it.

If you watch the TV commercials you might think you have a good idea on how to market your practice. But the fact is you should never advertise like the big companies do because you don’t have the kind of money they have to throw around and “hope” it works.

The kind of advertising you see on television is called C & R advertising. C & R stands for “Creative” and “Repetitive.” You see, in the 1950’s when televisions were becoming a household item in most US homes, advertisers realized this was an incredible way to reach millions of potential customers all at the same time.

Pretty amazing huh?

Today we take that for granted, but if you were a marketer back then you’d do the same thing. They started advertising on TV because it was an inexpensive way to reach millions or consumers instantly.

That only lasted until the broadcasters realized they had a gold mine on their hands.

What did the broadcaster do?

They increased the prices of those TV spots to the point where the average company could not afford to advertise on television any longer. This now gave the large companies a competitive edge and an opportunity to monopolize the airwaves, and they did.

It was companies (still are) like Proctor & Gamble, General Motors and General Electric that became household names. But since TV spots were so expensive they had to compress their marketing message to 60 seconds or less.

In other words, they had to find “CREATIVE” ways to deliver their message in a very short period of time, and run those ads many times (“REPETITIVE”) so the messages would stick. That’s how jingles and slogans became popular.

This is also how BRANDING was born. Say it “creatively” and “repeat” it enough and consumers will eventually recognize and buy your “brand.”

Does this work?

It works if you have very, very deep pockets because Branding is very expensive. As a small business owner you don’t have the kind of marketing budget the giant companies have. So in order for your acupuncture marketing to be effective you have to use Direct Marketing principles that have been tested and proven and have been working since before television.