Deconstructing

brands
In the first of three articles, Chris Barrow looks beyond the layers
and deconstructs the ‘branded experience’ in private dentistry
to make sure you are doing the things that will make la différence

28 Private Dentistry January 2011


If you are going to deliver private dentistry in 2011 and
beyond, you are going to find yourself under increasing
competitive pressure from:
• National Health Service systems, which are becoming TCO team; the clinical team; the operational team; the HR
more focused on the ‘patient experience’ and clinical
governance (no more UDA bashing)
• Corporatism – the main players who are getting bigger Desired outcomes:
and using their size to negotiate lower prices for materials,
lab costs, staff and operating expenses
• Retailers who are taking advantage of flexible opening they work and what they do
hours, ease of access, cross-selling opportunities, loyalty • Your clinicians to be regarded as the best in their field of
rewards and huge footfall.
All in all, this will be a very tough commercial environment
in which only the finest will survive and prosper. Are you
ready to take part in the next five years?
In this series of articles I want to deconstruct the
‘branded experience’ in private dentistry and make
absolutely 100% sure you are doing the things that will
make the difference. Over the months ahead we will be
taking a look at the following areas:
1. Your overall marketing strategy
Your overall marketing strategy will include brand;
visibility; location; physical environment; Google
domination; website construction; social media
communication; relationship marketing; B2B networking;
strategic alliances, and direct marketing. All of these topics
are designed to make you attractive to potential new
patients.
2. Your overall branded experience
We will then creatively destroy your ‘patient experience’ –
and reconstruct the same to create a clear competitive
advantage delivered by the sheer quality of your CRM,
that’s ‘customer relationship management’.
The protocols that I want to tear down and re-build are
your overall branded experience, including: the telephony
experience; appointment confirmation; frequently asked
questions; the new patient welcome pack; the first visit
experience; the returning patient experience; the new
patient assessment/consultation; the role of treatment co-
ordinators; values based selling – the 21st century approach
to treatment planning; treatment plan presentation;
discussing financial options; closing the sale; treatment
delivery, referral and word of mouth marketing, and
evolving patients into members.
3. Who does what?
Finally, I’m going to ask you to take a long look at who does
what in your practice, both clinically and operationally –
Private Dentistry January 2011
Practice organisation
and open your mind to radical new brand standards,
protocols and systems. Your overall team, including: the
welcome team; the marketing team; the CRM team; the
team; the leadership team.
• Your existing patients to become your greatest advocates
• Your team members to be proud of who they are, where
expertise
• Your practice confident enough to either enter the Private
Dentistry Awards for the first time, or return knowing
that you are amongst the ‘winners’ in the UK profession.
21st century branding
So let’s make a start in this first article with the topic of
‘branding’. If we take a quick trip in a time machine back to
1992, many of you will remember that which was
‘permitted’:
• A brass plaque
• A Yellow Pages or directory entry.
And perhaps it would be fair to say that most dental
practices were graced with little else – just a cold prickly
clinical environment in which the customer was not ‘king’.
Hardly surprising when one considers that cosmetic
dentistry in all its multiple forms was largely non-existent
for the working and middle classes, hence the USA
expression ‘English teeth’ for those Americans unfortunate
enough to suffer from crooked and misshapen teeth.
Around about the mid-1990s there was clear evidence
(following the 1992 NHS contract changes) that some
dental principals were beginning to make an effort to do
things a little differently:
1. The ‘celebrity’ brand – John Smith, dental surgeon or
John Smith and Associates
2. The ‘building’ brand – Trafalgar House Dental Practice
(with a black and white engraving of the building as the
logo)
3. The ‘landmark’ brand – The Clock Tower Dental Practice –
with an artist’s impression of a local point of interest
4. The ‘geography’ brand – Coronation Street Dental
Practice – with perhaps some representation of a local
symbol, flower or distinguishing feature of the area.
And, of course, in many cases, we would have some cartoon
that involved a molar (perhaps with eyes and smile)
holding a toothbrush, a dental mirror swinging, smiling,
winking – beckoning us into the building.
29
 Any such idiosyncratic branding was not, of course,
carried inside the business – where the long-suffering
patients were presented with the ‘same old’ reception desk,
racks of patient record cards, waiting room cluttered with
dental education leaflets, piles of old magazines – perhaps
even a speaker system periodically squawking into life, ‘Mr
Barrow, surgery three please’. Surgeries were kitted out for
function and for the delivery of mainly routine dentistry.
Ah yes, back then dentistry was a profession, not a retail
business. A place where patients were expected to bear it
and grin, thankful that their short-term problems and long-
term care were delivered, courtesy of the government – and
they should be grateful and respect their healthcare
superiors.
Then along came the millennium bug – a widespread
public desire to look like those ‘stars’ we saw on television,
and things began to change.
The first dental websites began to appear as ‘online
brochures’ and we saw the arrival of Boots Dentalcare – a
major retailer taking an interest in how best to sell dentistry
in store (no – it didn’t fail).
Some dentists cottoned on to the fact that a ‘fifth way’
was an option to the four branding concepts we outlined
earlier:
5. The ‘outcome’ brand – best demonstrated by the arrival of • The affluent family – beautiful premises and helpful
new businesses in dentistry that looked at the patient’s people
final result, for instance:
• The Gentle Dental Centre – for those who were nervous
• The Smile Centre – for those interested in cosmetic geographical location, it may be possible to focus on a very
dentistry.
Suddenly, it became necessary to engage the services of
graphic designers to come up with something new –
perhaps a logo, a look, a feel, a colour scheme – that
reflected the overall aims and objectives of the practice.
Then along came the first web designers who, hopefully,
would work with graphic designers. The web designer
would combine their skills for writing code with the
graphic designer’s ability to choose fonts, colours and
visualisations.
Sadly, some of the early web designers held themselves
out as graphic designers as well, which resulted in some
embarrassingly functional sites.
Then again, there were dentists who thought it would be
OK to have their sites created by a friend, relative or child
who was ‘doing computer studies at A-level’ – some
primitive sites that would bring a red face nowadays.
Looking back, it was at this stage that some practices
realised that ‘branding’ reached inside the premises and,
just as importantly, embraced the people in your team as
well.
Rapid evolution
So, the last five years have seen a rapid evolution – in the
face of increased competition and promoted by a three-fold
increase in the UK private dental market over the last 10
years. The patients have become more educated – they
know what a dental team can do for them.
30
The web has become the number one entry level for
almost all consumer research before a call or visit. Recent
research indicates that two out of three new patient
enquiries for private dentistry follow an extensive web
search and a long look around your site (in a later article I
will reveal which pages they look at and in which order –
you may be in for a surprise).
Whether it is your website, your social media, your
literature, your building frontage or what they see, hear
and feel inside the building – the private patient now
expects you to be ‘on brand’ in everything you do.
Perhaps the latest evolutions in dental branding have
been:
1. The development of the ‘spa’ practices – engaging the
patients in a conversation not just about their smile but
their overall appearance. The rise of medical aesthetics
delivered in dental practices being the most obvious
indicator
2. The demographically specialised practice – premises,
team, products and environment designed to be
appealing to:
• The 25-35 year old – contemporary, modernistic
• The ‘yummy mummy’or the ‘desperate housewife’ –
boutique
• The over 50s – business class.
Principals are recognising that, depending on your
narrow niché of patients.
If you take a look back at the start of this article and re-
read the lists for your overall marketing strategy and your
overall branded experience, you will see that they must be
combined to create your overall brand.
In order to positively differentiate yourself from the
competition, you will deliver a ‘branded experience’ as
distinctive, as fanatical and as attractive as some of the top
brands in the UK and worldwide.
Everything must be ‘on brand’, even down to the way
your business and your people perform and behave – ask
yourself 100 times a day: ‘Is what we do at this point and
the way that we do it “on brand”’?
Branding choice
This brief exercise, consisting of three steps, might help. I
would also encourage performing this excerise with your
team at your next staff meeting. Listen carefully to what
your team has to say.
Step one
Take a moment to compile a list of some of your favourite
brands – who are they? Examples might include:
• Four Seasons hotels
• Pret a Manger
• Hugo Boss
• Dyson
• Apple.
Private Dentistry January 2011
 Characteristics of some top brands:

Four Seasons hotels: Customer service, beautiful buildings

Pret a Manger: Happy, helpful team, fresh food

Hugo Boss: Excellent range, good locations

Dyson: Fantastic service and repair

Apple: Cool, it all works, great shops

Step two ‘Back then dentistry was a

With your own list, write down a list of the characteristics
that make these brands attractive to you personally (see the
profession, not a retail business.
list I made for the examples listed above). A place where patients were
Step three
expected to bear it and grin.’
Now imagine that your dental practice was up there with
those brands – what would you like your patients to be
telling their friends about you?
• Fantastic website The bottom line
• Lovely welcome pack It is the correct balance of a powerful brand, effective
• Easy access marketing and concierge class customer service that will
• Beautiful building ensure a steady stream of the right type of new patient
• Concierge class patient lounge through your door, keep them there and enrol them as
• Gorgeous toilets your unpaid sales force.
• A fantastic, happy team Here’s a bold, outrageous, provocative promise – if you
• Well-maintained common and clinical areas are courageous enough to follow me on this quest, your
• Air conditioning practice will inexorably rise in popularity, productivity and
• Beverages popularity.
• Plasma TV Join me in future issues and discover a step-by-step guide
• Modern lifestyle magazines to excellence. PD
• A superb new patient experience
• Friendly clinicians who take a genuine interest
• Payment options easily explained
• Smart uniforms and scrubs Comments to pd@fmc.co.uk
• Names given and used at all times
• State-of-the-art equipment Chris Barrow has been active as a consultant, trainer and coach
• Post-visit care to the UK dental profession for over 14 years. His current focus
• A real sense of being genuinely appreciated. is as principal of the Dental Business Club, creating training,
You now have something you can aim towards to keep you consultancy and coaching services for the top UK independent
‘on brand’. practices.

Private Dentistry January 2011 31