Dropping Nuclear: My First Lesson in Product Marketing
As a 23 year-old biomedical engineer, I sat in the conference room of the Fonar Corporation for our weekly Operations meeting. To everyone’s surprise, our company’s CEO - medical imaging pioneer Dr. Raymond Damaidian - entered the room and stood beside the head of the table and cleared his throat.
“Good morning, everyone. I have an important announcement. We are no longer calling our scanners NMR (an acronym for Nuclear Magnetic Resonance), moving forward it is Magnetic Resonance Imaging, or MRI.”
Despite some co-worker grumbling, this decision made logical sense to me. The word “nuclear” had a significantly negative connotation. Moreover, the great benefit our of product was that - unlike a CT Scanner, or X-Ray - NMR technology produced no ionizing radiation hazard for the patient.
Taking the Message to the Market
A few weeks later, I travelled to Copenhagen to do site planning work at a major University hospital. It was a big deal, as this was the first MRI scanner to be installed in Denmark.
During our initial meetings, our Site Planning Director repeatedly used the new terminology. This initially received an inquisitive look from our customers, that soon turned to irritation and anger.
One of the lead radiologists for the Medical Center expressed his dismay. He stated that they were scientists, advancing medicine by manipulating the nucleus of atoms to detect disease. He reminded us that Nuclear Magnetic Resonance was the name given to this scientific process for nearly fifty years and believed it was cheapened by our new terminology.
Later that week, we travelled to Malmo, Sweden to meet with another new customer. The same concerns were voiced.
I began to wonder if our rebranding was a mistake.
Staying The Course
As we know, the manufacturers and industry stayed the course. The term MRI was soon universally accepted.
This market acceptance was critical. How many lives have been saved by this technology? How many lives might have been lost if patients avoided getting scanned because it was ‘nuclear?’
The Lesson I Learned
As my career has progressed, I have found myself a member of many teams looking to name a new product, technology, or venture.
There is almost always friction in the room. Plenty of opinions. Plenty of people emotionally invested in their opinion being selected, myself included.
The lesson I learned is that choosing the right product name is critical to the product’s success. It is important to be unbiased, uncompromising, and to get it right.
The best names, in my opinion, resonate with the end user and invite them to use the product while being somewhat descriptive and capturing your value. If possible, test your final list of names with actual end users and gauge their reactions. If it is not possible, advocate for them.
In business, there are times for compromise and times for consensus building. Selecting the right product name is not one of those times.