It's a question few PR professionals can avoid. Identity often begins with a moniker, perpetuating senior PR managers' struggle to make it catchy, distinct and accurately
descriptive of what it represents. For ChiroPractice Marketing Solutions (CPMS), a group running a PR campaign to redefine the chiropractic profession as being on par with the
rest of the medical community, the first step is getting patients to look beyond the stereotypes that define the name.
Dr. Len Schwartz, president/CEO of CPMS, says 85% or so of the community is turned off by the word "chiropractic." "I'm going to call them 'spine specialists' because people
are more likely to embrace what a spine specialist says rather than a chiropractor," Dr. Schwartz says.
The decision to promote chirpractors a spine specialists, an important component in an ongoing PR campaign designed to improve the image of chiropractors, is essential to
gaining the respect of the rest of the medial community (in addition to that of potential patients).
"The American Medical Association had an official position to call [chiropractors] quacks, and then the American Chiropractic Association sued the AMA, saying 'you can't call
us quacks, and we're clinically as well-evident at what we do as any of you are in any of your specialties.' And they won," says Chet Holmes, president of Chet Holmes
International, who created the campaign. "AMA is no longer allowed to slam chiropractors officially, but many doctors still do. So there is a challenge there."
Holmes' reference to the 1987 victory in the antitrust lawsuit Wilk v. American Medical Association cites the first step in chiropractors' efforts to reverse negative
stereotypes, and CPMS' PR push serves as a steppingstone to move the profession from "voodoo healing" to medical treatment.
"I don't even want to call [chiropractic] 'alternative,' because alternative sounds like something you would do if you were breaking away from tradition," Holmes says.
"Chiropractors should be every bit as respected [as the rest of the profession]."