New Mexico Complementary and Alternative Medicine Project misses $15,000 opportunity — breaks ‘WIFFM’ rule

A group I am involved with that seeks to get a right-to-practice health-freedom law enacted in New Mexico in 2007, broke a powerful marketing rule when it chose its name last week.

It broke a core tenant of the “What’s in it for me” rule.

That’s because, in order to get a health freedom act passed through the New Mexico legislature, the proponents must enlist the support of the public, of the lawmakers, of allied and licensed health providers (such as the state medical board), of the regulators and prosecutors who feel they need to protect the public from all manner of unlicensed practitioners. And, of course, they will need the support of New Mexico’s complementary and alternative health practitioners. But that’s pretty much a slam dunk so long as they get the word out that this act is being developed.

The name they chose for their group identifies them. It doesn’t call out to the public — whose right to access to alternative health treatments and options would be guaranteed by the act — and remains ever in jeopardy without the act.

It doesn’t call out to the lawmakers, whose constituency is made up of people who want that access to be guaranteed and of people who are concerned that some alternative practitioners are quacks who could cause great harm. A Health Freedom Act answers the concerns of both of those groups.

It doesn’t call out to licensed and allied health providers — such as medical doctors who want to protect the “practice of medicine” and assure that only highly trained and qualified, licensed people are engaging in it and that there be a high standard of public oversight of any other health-care providers in the state.

Also, medical doctors talk to patients every day who are using alternative treatments and seeing alternative practitioners. And the doctors have a need and desire to know who these practitioners are and what exactly they are doing — what the modalities are, what is their methodology, and what type of training the people have who are offering them. The “informed-consent” disclosures in a Health Freedom Act provide that kind of information.

Rather than cultivating the medical doctors, the name the health freedom advocacy group has chosen may actually offend some. The name, New Mexico Complementary and Alternative Medicine Project infringes upon what many doctors consider as their exclusive domain by including the word “medicine” instead of the word “health.”

Doctors accept that there are many different kinds of “health” practitioners, from nurse’s aids to all sorts of therapists to lab technicians and scientific researchers. But the only people they recognize as qualified to practice “medicine” are those doctors licensed by the state medical board.

Calling non-licensed therapists and counselors “medical practitioners” is not a smooth move if we are seeking the consent and approval of the Medical Board for this act — which indeed we will have to have in order to squeeze it through the Legislature.

Incidentally, “Complementary and Alternative Medicine” was not a term that alternative health prectitioners came up with originally or “owned.” It was a term devised by governmental medical doctors at the National Institutes of Health to decribe  their agency, created during the Clinton years, to set up and fund medically and scientifically rigorous studies of alternative health modalities and report the findings. The term is frequently used now by alternative practitioners. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t cause some MDs to bristle when they hear non-licensed practitioners using the term “medicine” to refer to themselves and their practices.

 Alternative practitioners DID widely embrace the terminology “complementary health” in the early to mid-90s,  as wise marketers and advisors at conferences and in various practitioner associations urged. The rationale was that it is  much more concilliatory and encourages bridgebuilding and respectful interaction between the medical and alternative communities. The term “allied health” also was introduced in the late ’80s, early ’90s, but seems not have survived in any substantial way.

It’s subtle, but alternative practitioners are likely to win a warmer reception from the medical community if they introduce themselves in a way that does not immediately push a territorial-defensiveness button.

The name, NMCAAMP, does not call out to the interests of allied health industry folks — like health food stores and fitness centers and vitamin and herb manufacturers and Yoga centers and chiropractors and holistically oriented counselors of all ilk — who are all part of the greater holistic community and who benefit when non-licensed alternative practitioners refer clients to their products and services, either by direct referral or by educating clients about other helpful options they might explore. And the entire wellness community benefits though “cross-pollination” when there is full disclosure and open sharing.

The name does not call positively to regulators and prosecutors who are charged with protecting the public from harm. But a Health Freedom Act indeed has provisions for public protection.

I want to see a health freedom act pass in New Mexico. Why? Because it will guarantee the public’s access to a broad range of health alternatives… Because it will protect public safety by requiring accountability and full disclosure from alternative health practitioners… Because it will guarantee right to practice to all alternative health providers–so long as they abide by the basic and simple accountability requirements and don’t misrepresent themselves or cause harm.

I’m using this group’s choice of a name at the outset of their campaign to enact a Health Freedom law in New Mexico as a case study in the concept one aspect of the “What’s in it for me” principle.

The principle infuses all effective promotion and marketing. And at its heart is the paradigm that in all marketing communications-and in most client communications — you talk about your clients’ needs, problems, fears, concerns, desires, dreams and help them resolve and allay needs, problems, fears, concerns and help them achieve desires and dreams.

The principle teaches that you do not talk about you, your business, your background, the “features” you offer, the specifics of how your process or offering works. Instead, you talk about the benefits your clients receive and appreciate.

(Unfortunately, MOST advertising and promotions talk about the business, its background, features it offers, how what it offers works. And that’s why most advertising and promotions don’t work well.)

This is where the name, New Mexico Complementary and Alternative Medicine Project, fails as a marketing communication for a health-freedom act. It is an identifier of a group of people: The practitioners who would like the legal right to practice.

Other states that have successfully passed health-freedom acts have used a name that conveys a strong marketing message (and that builds upon growing recognition of the health-freedom trend nationally). They have used the words “Health Freedom” in their names. Such as, California Health Freedom.org.

“Health Freedom” encompasses the public’s right to choose healthcare options, the public’s right to access to alternatives, providers’ right to practice, and quality control and protection measures such as informed-consent forms and full disclosure and legal redress.

In other words, it speaks to everyone whose support is needed in order for a health-freedom act to pass in New Mexico. It calls out to everyone who has concerns about alternative practice and it calls out to everyone who desires access to alternative health care or who wants to practice alternative health care openly and legally in the state.

The group’s name is a remarkably valuable advertising vehicle. If this group really promotes a health freedom act, the group’s name will be repeated in the media thousands and thousands of times between now and next March. It will appear on flyers and petitions distributed in health-food stores and co-ops and fitness centers and yoga centers and (maybe?) chiropractor’s offices and elsewhere statewide.

Which name carries the most advertising value? Promotes the group’s message most effectively?

New Mexico Complementary and Alternative Medical Practioners? Or New Mexico Health Freedom.org?

Which one tells you what they’re really about? Which one is most likely to stir up emotion and desire? Which one is a call to action? Which one talks to you and grabs your attention?

The New Mexico Complementary and Alternative Health Practitioners are squandering potentially $100,000 in free advertising for their cause by selecting a name that does not subtly and actively promote their cause and that does not speak directly to their real clients: the public and the state legislators and the allied health industries and professions.

How? If each public mention of the group’s name is worth a minimum of $20 (the least it would cost to buy classified advertising or tiny space ads pushing the Health Freedom cause), then just 750 mentions of the name in media (news stories, legislative reports, listings of bills introduced, bulletin boards statewide, petitions) and public discourse (in meetings, public presentations,  word of mouth, etc.) is worth $15,000.  

I urge NMCAAMP to reconsider and amend its name so that it, in itself, is a powerful marketing message that evokes emotion and communicates what this initiative is all about each time it is spoken or written. At the very least, I hope NMCAAMP will incorporate the term “health freedom act” into its public campaign.

Object lesson: If you are starting a business or campaign, choose a name for it that sends a clear, powerful and emotion-evoking message to the people you most need to reach and influence in order for your business or campaign to be successful. Make sure that the name clearly communicates what the business or campaign is about — what it offers to the people you most want to reach.

So often, new businesses come up with clever names. To its credit, NCAAMP avoided that pitfall.

Clever names are for television and movie production companies. David Letterman calls his production company “World-Wide Pants.” You shouldn’t call your company “Word-Wide Pants” unless you are marketing pants world-wide. And even then, something like “Need Pants?” might be a more effective company name. (And it would keep you out of court. David Letterman’s company isn’t about to allow a second World-Wide Pants.)

5-12-06 UPDATE: This article has been corrected. In its initial version it had incorrectly referred to New Mexico Complementary and Alternative Medicine Project organization as being named the New Mexico Complementary and Alternative Medicine Project.

As Bob Dubin, D.C., pointed out, that carries much stronger marketing value than what I had understood the group’s name to be. And, he said, “combined with using the health freedom act language now, really gets our message across.” Agreed.