Seth Godin is a brilliant marketer, and inspired much of what’s behind Never Market Again. In fact, I credit him in the book:

Speaking of ideas, I realized lately much of this book is inspired by the writings of Seth Godin. Especially his book, Unleashing the Ideavirus. I doubt I would have uncovered this system without having read it.

Unleashing the Ideavirus itself is an ideavirus – it’s the most downloaded book in history. You can get it free here. Seth is an interesting, jargon-free writer. He writes about marketing in a way that appeals to students of human nature.

Thank you, Seth – you’ve done more than you’ll ever know.

Today Seth posted a small mention on his blog about acupuncture.  It turns out he actually agrees with me about how to position acupuncture as an alternative to Western medicine:

Acupuncture is an interesting case. It’s possible to market acupuncture as, “Western medicine is wrong, this works.” The problem, of course, is that any time you market a product with, “You were wrong,” you have a lot of work to do. It can also be marketed as “This is a great way to supplement your ordinary medical treatments.”

Seth also explains how you don’t want to fight gravity - go against the prevailing belief.  However, most people who came to you already know that Western drug-based medicine doesn’t work.  They just don’t know why yet.

That’s where you come in.  It’s up to acupuncturists to educate their patients about how acupuncture and Oriental Medicine fit into our healthcare.

(Seth, if you’d like to read Never Market Again, just send an email through my contact form so I know where to send it.)

Mucho thanks to Dan Clements at Alternative Health Practice for giving me a heads-up.