In a world where drug companies spend tens of millions of advertising dollars each year, the Alliance's $800,000 is a modest sum. Many national firms spend that in a week, so how to optimize the $800,000 has become the focus, and strategic advertising placement is essential.
Because several national studies have established education and training as the most critical issues for chiropractic in the mind of the public, the first year (1998) of the Alliance campaign will be specifically geared towards informing people that DCs are highly qualified and educated health care professionals.
Targeting is the key. The public can be broken down into three groups:
Current Patients: Approximately 10% of the public uses chiropractic on a regular basis.The Alliance campaign is aimed at the second group: potential patients. The Alliance PR campaign has been specifically designed to increase the level of public awareness among these potential patients, and will be lead by the Packett Group, a Northeastern public relations firm with 20 years of marketing experience. The Packett Group has been working with chiropractic organizations the last five years.Potential Patients: It's been estimated that 10-20% of the public (as many as 77 million) is leaning toward getting chiropractic care, but doesn't know enough about chiropractic to make an informed choice.
Unaware (Clueless): The rest of the population knows little about chiropractic, or is misinformed about chiropractic, a state of affairs that must be corrected before they would consider seeing a chiropractor.
Target Market
Based on the current chiropractic patient mix, the consumer target is:Demographics
- 35-54 Years Old
- 60% Female
- Technical/Clerical/Sales Occupations
Psychographics
- Health-Conscious
- Well-informed
- Open to Choosing Alternative Health Care
- Positive Views Toward Wellness
The limited initial budget and targeted nature of the Alliance campaign makes television and radio inappropriate for the first year. To really target this specific audience, special interest magazines with tight demographics offer the largest group of "potential patients."
The three magazines whose readers are most closely identified in the potential patient group are:
Prevention: This is the number one ranked health magazine (ranked 12th among all magazine, just behind People), with a national circulation of 2.1 million.Most people's attitudes about chiropractic did not develop overnight. To wage an effective campaign, various forms of advertising and information will need to work in repetition. The advertising schedule for 1998 will feature several different full page, four-color ads. As a way to provide more extensive information, Prevention will insert two four-page booklets into two of their issues. These booklet will be written by the Prevention editorial staff on family wellness and chiropractic education.Consumer Digest: Not to be confused with Consumer Reports, this publication has a national circulation of 1.2 million, with a health/fitness feature in every issue.
Health Magazine: This magazine has a national circulation of one million, focuses mainly on women, has won numerous awards including "Best Consumer Magazine."
The advertising schedule is as follows:
| Month | Prevention | Consumer Digest | Health |
| March | Full Page | Full Page | |
| April | Booklet | Full Page | Full Page |
| May | Full Page | Full Page | Full Page |
| June | Full Page | Full Page | Full Page |
| July | Full Page | ||
| August | Full Page | Full Page | |
| September | Booklet | Full Page | Full Page |
| October | Full Page | Full Page |
To supplement the advertising, Prevention will be distributing their wellness and chiropractic booklets to:
- New and Renewing Subscribers (50,000)
- Health Book Purchasers (500,000, with 75,000 going to identified back pain sufferers)
- ICA and ACA Members (100,000)
Reprints will also be available to all DCs for 4-8 cents each, depending on quantity.
Consumer Digest will also be developing an eight-page booklet on health, fitness, wellness and chiropractic philosophy. The Alliance with receive an initial 15,000 copies, with additional copies available.
Prevention will award six chiropractors from around the country for their community service in promoting family wellness. The recipients will be nominated by other DCs and selected by a national board of Alliance members. The awards will be made at a special ceremony in May, with each winner profiled in an issue of Prevention.
The Alliance is looking to chiropractic state associations, chiropractic colleges and individual DCs to utilize advertising materials supplied by the Alliance. These materials will allow all chiropractors and chiropractic organizations to express the same theme on a more local.
Special state-level advertising rates have negotiated with Prevention and Consumer Digest to allow state associations a cost effective way to enhance the effort on a state level. Likewise, all DCs in the United States will receive a special media packet with materials for print and radio advertising.
The ICA and ACA have formed an Alliance that has committed a total of $1.8 million over the next three years. This advertising "seed money" is already growing. The Association of Chiropractic Colleges has committed and additional $150,000 to the 1998 Alliance campaign, with several colleges pledging individual support as well. State associations, chiropractic colleges and individual chiropractors can further multiply this effort, by placing the advertising materials provided by the Alliance.
The initial investment of $800,000 may be small, but multiplied by the entire profession, this seed money could grow to be quite substantial.
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