EMOTIONAL BRANDING

This is a term used within marketing that refers to building a brand that appeals directly to a client’s emotional state and aspirations. It triggers an emotional response. In the case of a dentist, a patient could want to visit a certain practice, even though the patient may not be able to fully rationalize the reason for his or her choice.

Emotional brands develop a strong attachment, a feeling of bonding, of common purpose (with the patient). Examples of non dental brands that have this ‘mojo’ include Apple, Nike and Starbucks. Each of them, although seemingly part of the ‘establishment’, challenge conventions a bit. So a high tech computer company has a fruit as an icon! A sportswear company says: ”Just do it” (i.e. ‘you take control’)! A massive coffee chain individualizes every outlet to make it unique and relevant to each location’s surroundings! This makes each brand more ‘personal’, more ‘emotional’ (challenge “big brother”, think ‘local’, personalize your message).

With Dental Focus, the ‘df’ symbol represents, not only the initials ‘d’ & ‘f’, but also: 1) the ‘infinity’ symbol – because of the infinite complex solutions and online options offered, and 2) a ‘£’ sign – because of the increased revenue dental practices will experience.

A generation ago, brands were dismissed by some as being devoid of value. But in the internet age, we can encounter so many brands at the instant click of a button. Now each of us are brands ourselves (with the help of Facebook, Twitter, etc) – we create online ‘brand’ profiles for ourselves, reflecting our personality, our interests, our social circles, our professions. We each have our own story to tell.

‘Want-needs’ can also be very much part of emotional branding. These are about generating an emotional desire so powerful that … it has to be satisfied, no matter what the cost. So to turn a ‘want’ into a ‘want-need’, a dentist could impose scarcity (only four ‘20% off’ teeth whitenings left).

Likewise, if you were aware that your website was under-performing (because of design ineffectiveness, non-compliance or inaccessibility across different devices), wouldn’t you want to know why you were missing out….

But to deal with this particular “want-need”, just contact Dental Focus.

adrian-blogAdrian Adler is “the Wizard” at Dental Focus Web Design.

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