Issue 6 - May 2004

Dr. Hiroya Nakamura targets his market and makes his mark
By Todd Stumpf Photos by Chris Ligeza

Few things are as important in business, particularly a new business, as marketing. And when it comes to marketing a business, knowing your audience could be the most important thing of all.

Dr. Hiroya Nakamura, owner of the nearly two-year-old Nakamura Chiropractic and Acupuncture, knows his audience and spends most of his marketing efforts targeting it. Nakamura is a native of Japan, as are literally thousands of others in his area, the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg.

Greater Chicago is home to 8.7 million people. Of those, upwards of 50,000 are Japanese or Japanese American. That’s nearly twice the national average for that particular ethnic group.

Schaumburg is home to more than 75,000 people, with a Japanese population that Nakamura estimates to be close to 10 percent. That’s the main reason he settled in Schaumburg in spite of the number of chiropractors already established in the area.

Mastering the knowledge and skills to reach those people — he estimates that 60 percent to 70 percent of his patient base is Japanese — has enabled Nakamura to quickly build a practice that in its first full calendar year of existence grossed $440,000 in billings, and projects to gross $750,000 in 2004.

Rapid expansion
Expansion has been rapid. Nakamura’s final six months of 2003 saw an average of $40,000 a month in gross billings, up more than $17,000 a month than a year earlier. The latter number, in turn, was $4,000 a month better than the prior six months, illustrating exactly how fast the practice has taken off.

“Marketing [to the] Japanese community is much less [costly] and much more effective,” Nakamura says. “I think most Japanese people in the Chicago area have seen my ads and many of them know me either directly or indirectly.

“I am tied into the Japanese media in the Chicago area and also into their network and any organization of Japanese people which [includes many] of the Japanese people in Chicago. I had a good chance to meet some Japanese people who influence other Japanese people.”

Among those was an executive from a large network marketing firm. Nakamura says he treated her and had great results. She then spread the word throughout her network as a result.

Marketing to such a specific ethnic group might seem like a fairly tall task. And in some smaller markets, it may be exactly that. Nakamura has the good fortune to be practicing in one of the world’s largest metropolitan areas and he has found many avenues to pursue his target market that likely aren’t available in areas with smaller populations.

Nakamura is not shy about spending on marketing and advertising. Among the vehicles available to him in Chicago are a Japanese version of the Yellow Pages and a Japanese magazine that readers can get cost-free. He advertises in both, along with a pair of Japanese Web sites, www.odekake.us and www.sumutoko.com.

Targeted Yellow Page marketing
Nakamura capitalizes on his nationality. He does this by putting his name on everything, including the name of the practice, and by placing his face on his advertising.

He also advertises in the “normal” local Yellow Pages and local newspapers, which allow him to reach a much wider audience than simply those of Japanese descent. It’s with the latter in mind that he gears part of his campaign. In addition to promoting himself as a Japanese chiropractor, he makes sure to emphasize he is also an acupuncturist.

The practice of acupuncture, of course, is not limited to individuals from Oriental lineage, but the public perceives acupuncture to be an Oriental science. This is something of which Nakamura is acutely aware.

“If I do acupuncture, people think I’m good [because I’m Japanese],” he says. “If it’s for chiropractic treatment, people come from just around a five-mile radius. But if it’s acupuncture, even the normal local [American] people come to see me from far away. I also have Japanese people. Most live in my area and the Chicago suburbs, but I have Japanese people from Milwaukee and Indiana. Some travel up to two, three hours.”

Of course, acupuncture isn’t for everyone. Though Nakamura tries to incorporate chiropractic and acupuncture into the treatment of all his patients, he knows many patients are going to be reluctant, based on the nature of the discipline.

“Some people are afraid of acupuncture and some people are afraid of needles,” he says. “Some don’t have insurance coverage for that function. Otherwise, I usually recommend them to do both.”

Once in his clinic, patients are exposed to a basic no-frills practice. Nakamura practices very fundamental chiropractic. He uses few machines (though he does take X-rays) and doesn’t see the need for them. He says a low-tech practice helps streamline expenses.

He employs just four people in his practice. His wife of six years, Rosanna, is one of two office assistants, while Dr. Jumpei Kawamata helps Nakamura with therapy. Nakamura says he would like to add an associate soon to help him with adjusting, but says he needs a larger office before he can hire one. That’s in the works now, but it’s not easy scouting locations and running a practice simultaneously.

With the rapid growth of his practice, though, Nakamura is sensing some urgency. After all, in addition to turning patients away, he has little time to himself. He and his wife, a native of the Dominican Republic, would like to have some time off to visit their home countries.

Once in the fold, Nakamura’s patients are treated well. He opens his office to patient appreciation parties four times a year and offers food, drink and free exams and treatments to new patients as part of the celebrations — a small price to pay to keep the practice headed in the right direction.

And therein lies Nakamura’s philosophy: spend, spend, spend. Along the lines of the “takes-money-to-make-money adage,” Nakamura believes in spending for success.

“You have to spend money on advertisements, so you can attract the people,” he says. “And you have to try to please the existing patients.”

Todd Stumpf is a freelance writer from Akron, Ohio. He has been with Chiropractic Economics as a contributing editor for four years. He can be reached at TStumpf22@yahoo.com