Separate From The Pack – It’s ALL about BRANDING in Dentistry
One of the most common questions that I receive as The Dental Geek is: “Mike, how do I get my product on a dentist’s radar screen?” I always supply my stock answer, “Brand It Properly”. What I mean by this is MAKE IT MEMORABLE. At any given moment in time, a dental office could be stocking upwards of 40,000 individual products…each of them with a name. I liken dental products to ice cream flavors. Imagine if Baskin Robbins had 40,000 flavors. How many would you really try? Which new flavors would you try? How hard would it be for Baskin Robbins to convince you to stray from your favorite flavor?
That’s it…make it different. Make it appealing. Be VERY careful not to get lost in the shuffle. Do you know how many dental products have the letters DENT in them?
About 10 years ago, I was tasked with naming a new diamond polisher for Dentsply Caulk. It really was an innovative technology…but how do we break through all the other thousands of files, burs and polishers?!? I sat with my then Creative Director, Dawn Fenn. I gave her the sample and she held it and told me that it looked like a little Pogo Stick. That was it! PoGo! Now we had to make it mean something to the dental professional. Luckily we defined it as “polish and Go!” To this day, it was one of my favorite naming exercises and the product did and continues to do an amazing volume of business.
Three Tips when Branding a New Product:
- Keep it simple and memorable
- Make the product MEAN SOMETHING to the dental professional who will be using it
- Find new avenues to penetrate the dentist’s SHARE OF MIND. Always think how you will get her to try a new flavor of ice cream when she has been enjoying Rocky Road for the past 15 years.
Below are some memorable Megabrands in dentistry….think to yourself….what makes them different and memorable?
As always, comments welcomed!
As usual, you hit the nail on the head. Branding is one of the toughest pieces of the marketing ROI puzzle. It is extremely difficult to equate branding dollars to units sold in a dollar for dollar exercise. However, when done right and carried through integrated marketing communications and sales support campaigns, branding is a catalyst for sales. Think it through, spend wisely, and the return will be there. Great post!
Yeah I totally agree with the Michael, of course the branding is one of the toughest pieces of the marketing.
Yeah undoubtedly true that branding is the key to marketing. And marketing is the key of business. And it leads to success rapidly.
Hello ,
This is an interesting article , branding does make all the difference for dentists.
Dental Holiday UK
[…] because it’s safe and it’s easy. As Lanmark360’s CSO Michael McCarthy mentions in a recent article about branding in dentistry, it’s important to “Make it different. Make it appealing. Be VERY careful not to get lost in […]