What is branding?
Many people think it’s a logo and some stationery. However, as the Design team at Practice Plan will tell you, it’s much more than that. And they should know! With more than 60 years’ experience of creativity and design amongst them, they have a good handle on what works for a dental practice.
Your brand is a way for you to stand out from the crowd. It consists of your uniqueness, your customer’s experience and people (how they see you). When you’re developing your brand, you need to think about what makes you different from the practice down the road. How do you stand out from the crowd? Do you aspire to be a practice that offers facial aesthetics as well as cosmetic dentistry? Or is your aim to offer a good standard of general dentistry? Think about what types of patients you want to attract and keep. All of these considerations will feed into your brand.
When it comes to experience, it’s about how you want your patients to feel when they come to the practice. Do you want them to feel as if they’re going to a spa or would you rather it seemed as if they were calling in to see old friends? Do you specialise in treating nervous patients? Do you offer specific clinics for children?
All of these different factors will have a bearing on how your patients (people) view your practice. In the end, it’s their perception of your brand that makes it what it is and forges your reputation, no matter how hard you may try to influence them.
Part of that influencing starts with your physical branding. It needs to communicate visually what type of practice you are and what sort of person works there or might want to become one of your patients. “In reality, physical branding encompasses everything from the outside of your building through to your furniture, uniforms and even the flowers you choose to have on reception”, according to Practice Plan Designer, Claire Griffiths. “It’s a way to communicate to the outside world what the practice is all about.”
How you represent your practice through your branding tells patients a great deal about you. Branding that is well-produced and is integrated throughout the whole of the practice indicates that the people working there pay attention to details and care about their place of work and the patients who visit there. It shows you’re prepared to invest time and money into getting things right. Whereas logos and leaflets ‘knocked up’ on an app such as Canva can look a lot less professional and may not convey the image you would like. It can even make you appear sloppy and affect your reputation. So, it really is something worth making the effort to get right.
Your branding communicates so much information about the type of practice you are and your values, so they need to match. A high-end practice that aspires to have the feeling of a spa is unlikely to choose bright primary colours for its branding. That type of practice is generally more suited to a muted pallet. Likewise, a practice specialising in general family dentistry would not suit highly sophisticated branding as it would jar with what it’s trying to be and may even put off the sorts of patients it would like to attract.
Producing branding that truly reflects the ethos and personality of a practice can take some time. As Senior Designer, Martin Cartwright says. “When we’re helping a practice with a rebrand, we like to get to know them. What sort of people they are and the type of dentistry they offer. We try to get a feel for their culture and their values as a brand should reflect all of these things.”
“For us to be able to achieve this, the practice needs to understand themselves first,” adds Laura Hodgin, also a Senior Designer on the Design team. “They need to have a clear idea of how they want to be perceived. So, it’s a good idea for a practice to spend some time thinking about this before they embark on a rebrand.”
A significant change to the business, such as moving from mainly NHS to private dentistry, or a change of ownership, can be a good opportunity to think about a rebrand. Changing the whole look and feel of the branding can help signal that things are different from the way they used to be. Practices converting with Practice Plan can use the services of our in-house design team at preferential rates to help them refresh their branding. The team will work in collaboration with the practice to tease out what type of patients you want to attract, the sorts of treatments you want to offer as well as the personality of the practice and come up with designs to suit those.
Once you have your new branding our Practice Marketing team will be able to help with any posters, leaflets or other collateral you may need. Meaning as a Practice Plan customer you can have access to a one stop shop to enhance your brand.