Have you seen the recent CBC reports on homeopathy? They are brutal. This short clip should give you some indication of the direction adapted: ‘…based on flawed science and loopy thinking’. I would normally expect a more balanced approach from the CBC. If you follow Toronto Marketing Blog, you may have noticed that it is my favourite network.

Here’s a list of articles and videos included in this recent series:

• Cure or Con?
• Marketplace examines homeopathy
• The Tip Sheet: What you need to know if you’re considering homeopathic treatment
• Natural health products: what you should know

Balanced reporting aside, it is not an entirely surprising turn of events to find a newly rising profession faced with heated opposition, especially considering that many are responding with fear or are driven by financial motives.

It would seem that homeopathy has reached the juncture where it is time to step up positioning work, rather than continue to rely on the same old statements.

Arriving in the spotlight of the mainstream, homeopaths, along with their vendors and professional associations, need to be ready with scripts that have been market tested to overcome challenges presented by skeptics. This is an entirely different exercise from preparing to meet with a well informed, open and interested audience. Here’s but one example of comments in these reports that failed to meet this bar, taken from Cure or Con:

“Yes, homeopathy is somewhat of a mystery but we know that it works… Perhaps science hasn’t developed to the point that we have the equipment and the technology fine enough to be able to detect these very diluted substances…” (Boiron representative, manufacturer of homeopathic remedies)

Refusing interviews isn’t the answer, either. Preparing is.

Positioning statements need to be developed to educate the public, not only about homeopathic successes, standards and regulations, but about an appropriate method with which it may be analyzed. If neither measuring water and sugar content nor overdosing on homeopathic remedies (as was done in Cure or Con?) is the right way to study homeopathy, show the public another way that’s in keeping with the intention of the practice, such as measuring energy, vibrations or other responses in the body.

Homeopaths don’t have to wait for attacks to respond. This challenge can be managed with a proactive, extensively coordinated communication strategy that engages the public with powerful messages consistently delivered from the entire profession by way of advertising, press releases, websites, social media platforms and healthcare clinics.

Here’s a passionate piece we recently covered in Practice Development Digest- Edition 6, that speaks to the need to coordinate an entire profession to meet a higher goal. It may provide inspiration. Taken from Psynopsis (p10), Access to Psychological Services – it is going to take a village by K.R. Cohen Ph.D., C.Psych., Executive Director, CPA:

“… a profession needs to speak with one voice, in order to have impact… Change is going to take a village – CPA as the profession’s national association, the provincial and territorial associations of psychology, and individual practitioners. Many sleeves are rolled up and we could always use a few more…”

Related articles: Positioning Statement – Definition