An assessment of the marketing strategies used by Homeopathic Practitioners in the eThekwini Municipality

Abstract

Homeopathy has been practised in South Africa for over 100 years, but thevast majority of South Africans have never heard of it. Only a small number of SouthAfricans use homeopathy, and it is largely unknown to many South Africans becauseit is only available through private health care, with only 20%of the populationestimated to belong to private healthcare schemes. There has been no study to examine the utilisation of marketing strategiestopromote homeopathy. A recent study at the University of Johannesburgreflectedthat students were not aware of homeopathy and the reason behindthiswasbecause of the lack of promotion and marketing of homeopathy. This researchinvestigates the marketing strategies used by practicing homeopaths intheeThekwini municipality area. The study aimed to determine the marketingstrategiesused and to evaluate successful application of these marketing strategies for patient acquisition. Furthermore, the study investigated the homeopathic practitioners’ attitudes towards the marketing strategies used to market homeopathic services. Data was gathered using semi-structured in-depth interviews with 12 participantsover a period of 45 minutes. The sampling used in this qualitative studywaspurposive and snowball sampling. The study followed a constructivismparadigm. After the study was completed, the researcher used qualitative thematicdataanalysis, which enabled the researcher to reach certain findings. The study results revealed four themes word-of-mouth, aversion to theuseof marketing, additional services are the key method of differentiation in themarket, and electronic word-of-mouth. The study made several important recommendations for marketing homeopathicpractices, the main one being that training and meetings on marketing shouldbeprovided by the Allied Health Professions Council of South Africa (AHPCSA) topractitioners in order to assist them in understanding what is and is not allowedinmarketing. In conclusion, there was a need to assess the marketing strategies that areusedbyhomeopaths for acquiring new customers, as studies have indicated that theinabilityto obtain new patients is due to poor awareness of homeopathy, which canleadtothe failure in growth of their practices. This research has revealed that thereisalackof understanding of what marketing is and its application in the healthcarespacebyboth the practitioners