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Issue #32 - 11.6.07
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Branding and Identity Defined
I’d like to clarify very simply what a brand is and what an identity is. By the time you finish this article you should understand quite a bit about what a brand is and why a brand and an identity are not the same thing. In its most basic form, a brand is a promise of excellence that is earned through reputation and built over time. A brand can be built the right way or it can be built the wrong way. Brands take time to build and they also take time to change or repair.
An identity is a combination of the visual and tactile things that represent your brand. Your name and logo are the most basic components that make up your identity, while secondary things like your reception area and your office manager also come into play.
What Does Your Brand Say?
It's easy to explain how Coke has become a brand after 100 years of advertising and marketing efforts, but sometimes, it is very difficult to explain how a dentist creates a brand with relatively few resources, in just one community, and in a short period of time. It always starts with a great product, a great location, and a great in-office experience. Unfortunately, many dental practices with all of these necessary requirements, (and they are all necessary) never really build a "brand.”
As a dentist, don’t be so concerned about the term “brand building” and instead focus on the concept of building a loyal following of believers in your dental services. We may even refer to them as patriots, fans and advocates. As a dental professional, you may not relate to actually building a brand, but you do think a lot about the group of people that prefer your products and services – your patients.
In the simplest of terms, brand building can be boiled down to the fact that brands are belief systems. Once you think of a brand as a belief system, you automatically understand the things that giant companies spend billions of dollars trying to obtain: trust, quality, vision, values, leadership, and on and on.
Don't become another generic dentist.
To the general public, it can be difficult to differentiate one dentist from another. This difficulty has been magnified for decades, by dentists who offer no special competitive advantage or unique approach to dentistry. The shame is that with the cutting edge equipment, procedures, and high tech dental philosophies in place, it isn't very hard to be special. Especially, since only a small percentage of the dentists in the industry seem to understand the unique opportunity that is before them.
Update your old equipment. Become comfortable with cosmetic dentistry. Invest in a laser and digital radiography. Spend some money perfecting your front office with one of the many invaluable patient education systems available. Expand your hours. Hire a practice management consultant and perfect your craft. Then, when you have done these things and more, shout it from the top of your roof!
What is Brand Equity?
Another term that gets tossed around a lot in the business world is “Brand Equity”. Although experts have written lengthy books on the subject, it is something that can be explained very simply. I’ll use Coca-Cola to illustrate the concept. Although there are dozens of brands of cola on the market, no consumer would ever pay as much for a grocery store brand as they would for name brand Coke. And, although some generic brands may even rival the taste and quality of Coca-Cola, our society has embraced name brand Coke as the leader in value. Consequently, the other brands have to compete on price ad price alone. Nothing else matters. This is Brand Equity at work.
Now, in a dental practice Brand Equity is expressed in the form of consumers choosing your practice for their care and accepting treatment with little or no regard for price. Many dentists struggle with patients who seem to always shop for a deal or hesitate to accept treatment. These dentists have not created sufficient Brand Equity and some of them will struggle their entire career without really understanding why consumers buy or why patients accept treatment. When I hear a dentist complain about price shoppers and cheap patients I know immediately that there are other problems in the practice that are not related to price. A shabby dental office, a rude office manager, a slow schedule or any number of other issues unrelated to cost of treatment will always cause consumers to make negative assumptions about the practice. At this point, the only defensive tactic for the practice is being lower priced than the competition; just like generic cola.
Your Identity
As I’ve already mentioned, your identity is a combination of visual and tactile components that tell the world who you are or who you are trying to become. Although consumers develop an impression of your practice from many visual cues, it is important that you make a polished and professional logo the anchor image of your identity. Unfortunately, most dentists either have no logo or use a logo that is tacky or inappropriate. Fortunately, this overall lack of sophistication within the dental industry leaves the door wide open for smart dentists to create a remarkable and memorable identity in their market.
All this theory and observation by myself, and dozens of other marketing experts outside the dental industry all boils down to a simple concept – “choose to be excellent”. Choose to be excellent in your service, your patient experience and in the way you tell the world who you are. Cheap, cheesy, tacky, boring, plain, and average are not words that should describe your practice in any way shape or form. Words such as polished, elegant, unique, exceptional and remarkable are words that are associated with excellence. Choose excellence today and excellence will follow tomorrow. That is the magic of building a brand.
Interested in knowing more about how to market your practice? Click Here
To reach Joel Harris Email him at Joel@thedentistsnetwork.net
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