Brian King

When I drive down the street, I see the same thing over and over and over again: Fast food restaurants that look, more or less, the same. And for cost reasons, I understand why they do what they do.

But here’s an idea: spend a little more, and stand out. Be remarkable. What if Main Street in your town had a Jack in the Box that was a tribute to the area's famed historic architecture (image to the right)? Would that stand out from the McDonald's across the street or the Taco Bell next door?

I think so.

All of a sudden, rather than competing on who has the cheapest breakfast biscuit, you are suddenly competing on emotional values like an experience.

Look at Chipotle: With over 1,000 locations, no two Chipotle’s look the same. True story. The only thing that remains consistent is the experience and the delectable food. Oh, and the framed photograph of their original location prominently displayed where the customer orders (Yes, also true).

OK, OK, so I’m sure the CMO of Jack in the Box would laugh if she read this. Spend more for architecturally unique stores? You are out of your mind. 

Perfect! I at least got your attention with what would inevitably be a really cool concept design for a new Jack in the Box.

Now go ahead and call us here at Balihoo, so I can educate you about how we can enable that franchisee (the one with the unique restaurant) to be more effective with local store marketing. Because who am I kidding? Even with a ridiculously awesome structure, you still need to do some local advertising.
 

Every monster has a big shadow

That's what makes it a monster.

In fact, when you look the monster in the eye, when you calmly and carefully inspect the actual monster, you discover that he's not so bad after all. It's just the shadow that's scary.

When in doubt, ignore the shadow.

I'm not married, but I know enough people who are to realize that the 'Honeymoon Stage' doesn't last forever. You know, that initial stage in the relationship where each other can do no wrong and life is pure bliss?

It's kind of like engaging with advertising for the first time. We work with a lot of dental professionals via our Balihoo Dental Marketing solutions. Advertising in that industry is a relatively new concept, so many of the people I meet with have never advertised direct to consumer before. It's always interesting for me to watch how the relationship develops over time. One of the hardest things to convey to someone new to advertising is: It takes time! So many new advertisers get excited up front(Honeymoon Stage) but quickly lose confidence when customers aren't knocking down the door after six weeks of advertising and decide to halt all advertising claiming it was ineffective and the cost of new patient acquisition was too much(Divorce). In the words of John Heywood, "Rome wasn't built in one day."

Nobody said local advertising was easy. In fact, it can be incredibly difficult. There is a reason why many well known companies have advertised ever since their inception and believe me, it's NOT because they like spending money. They do it because it works and because it is the lifeline for the continued business growth.

We just recently brought on board a new dental clinician that said to me, "Brian, lets be honest, six months is simply not enough time to see results. If we are going to do this, we want to do it the right way and we want to commit to it for at least a year, if not three." It was the most refreshing thing I have heard in a while and I can assure you that a killer case study will follow because with his mentality, energy and level of commitment, he will see results. Im excited and I know he is too.

The best part of the whole conversation to-date was the cover letter of a fax containing the signed contract. All it said was:

Let's Roll!

Drinking coffee while flying on an airplane. That means nothing other than optimal blogging time.

TODAY'S TOPIC:  Dentists and Websites

To those of you dental professionals who have a website, you are excused from reading on. This is directed to the tremendous percentage of dental professionals who do not have a functioning website. No more excuses. They stop here. With increasing competition in the marketplace, having a functioning website is critical to long-term practice growth and sustainability.

It always amazes me how many clinicians I meet who are 100 percent open to advertising externally yet do not have a functioning website. These same clinicians want their ads to tout their state-of-the-art in-office technology. Well docs, I have news for you all. The general public DOES NOT care about what you have in your office. Chances are the general public doesn’t even know what an i-Cat or a Cone Beam scanner is. They don’t care about what YOU can do, but they do care about what you can do for THEM. Consumers are very selfish in nature and rightfully so. Remember, they are paying YOU.

Let’s play out a brief scenario. Say a Balihoo employee (who does not work within the Nobel program) is looking for a good clinician to visit. Likely, they will ask around for a few recommendations from friends, family and co-workers. That Balihoo’er now might have the name of two clinicians, Dr. A and Dr. B, near their home. They head to Google to run a quick search for the names, because that is what people do these days, and find Dr. A online but Dr. B is nowhere to be found. Dr. A clearly has a well-optimized website because he shows up on the first page of the Google organic results (+1 point Dr. A). Furthermore, he shows up on the sponsored links section on the right hand side showing that he has a well optimized paid search campaign running (+1 point Dr. A).

Immediately, the Balihoo employee in search of a new dentist associates Dr. A with being up-to-date and in touch with modern technology regardless of the level of technology in Dr. A’s office. Dr. B might have twice number of space-age looking machines in his office but the simple fact that he was not online is enough to lose out on a new patient.

Now don’t take this as me saying that you need a Rolls Royce of websites. All you need is a functioning, decently optimized site and maybe some Pay-per-Click to drive traffic to the site. Easy enough. Think about it. It’s simple really. By getting a site, you will be miles ahead of the competition. Once you have your website up and running, it’s time for the next level. See Balihoo Dental Marketing.

I just finished reading a great book by Ken Blanchard titled Raving Fans. I would highly suggest it to anyone who works with customers. It’s a quick read and one that will inevitably leave you thinking about things that you, or your organization, could do to improve your organization’s approach to customer service.

One of the best takeaways I got was the way a customer feels when they walk away from an experience. Often times, we assume that if the customer isn't visibly mad or upset, that they were satisfied with their experience. However, this is not necessarily true. The only time we can truly know if someone is satisfied with an experience is if they walk away as a raving fan. If their reaction is neutral when they walk away, there is a good chance that the delivered experience was in fact below expectations.

Look at it this way, ever been to a restaurant where the food was marginal but when the waitress asked, “how is everything?” you replied with, “everything is fine.” Now the waitress might take that as everything is great but in reality, you may have felt that the food and service wasn’t terrible but was mediocre. Well unfortunately, mediocrity doesn’t cut it in today’s competitive business world. Extraordinary is the only truly sustainable business model.

At Balihoo, building a killer local advertising plan or implementing a game-changing co-op advertising program is simply not enough. While we like to think we are damn good at doing those things, it is even more critical for us to be creating raving fans through a comprehensive approach of not only building great products, but delivering exceptional customer service. We aren't perfect but we are continually pushing the envelope and raising our game to the next level every single day that we all walk into the office. Its engrained in what we do, who we are and how we succeed and its what keeps all of us working harder and harder every single day.

So let me ask you, are your fan’s raving? 
 

Absolutely nothing. This blog is being written 2 cups of coffee deep, from seat 18C and while cruising at 31,000 feet somewhere over Canada as I return from a 4-day business trip in Anchorage, Alaska. Because of the unique nature of a business trip to Alaska, I felt that sharing a few things I observed, as they pertain to local advertising, would make for a somewhat intriguing blog. Here it goes:

*Anyone who thinks New York is the most expensive place in the country has not left the lower 48. Hawaii and Alaska take the cake. Evidence: Subway Sandwich Shops in Alaska do not have $5 foot longs. It’s actually $5 six inchers. However, local advertising space within Anchorage city limits is somewhat affordable and leads me to believe that it may be Alaska’s best kept bargain-buy relative to other cities of similar population.

*Cosmetic and dental implant dentistry marketing does not exist in Anchorage. Yet, 100% of the people I met with are becoming more and more receptive to the idea. This leads me to believe that the first ones to implement such external dental marketing (you know who you are) will capture the benefits of being a pioneer, or in the words of Wasilla’s hometown hero, Ms. Palin, the benefits of ‘going rouge’.

*Alaskan Amber is NOT the only good beer brewed in Alaska. Alaska has more unheard of micro breweries than any other state I have ever visited (Colorado excluded), yet not a single one of them promotes their brand or distributes out of the state of Alaska. Imagine the first one that does. Oh wait, one already did… Alaskan Brewing Company. It’s quite amazing that more don’t, considering they are some of the finest beers I have ever consumed (at $7/pint).

*225 moose have been hit by cars since January 1 on the major highway between Anchorage and Fairbanks. This has no correlation to advertising but more of an interesting fact and a number that I found to be quite alarming considering the sheer size of a Moose (I saw three of them near downtown).

*Due to the expansive nature of the Last Frontier, people will travel great distances for services, especially medical and dental. Add some relatively low cost, yet strategic local advertising to this notion and all of a sudden, a visionary clinician has the ability to capture a tremendous audience from a 500+ mile radius. This is a huge advantage considering clinicians in Manhattan have a difficult time drawing patients from a radius greater than 10 city blocks.

All-in-all, Alaska is an amazing place. The vast differences in business landscape that exist present exciting challenges and great opportunity across all industries. With Balihoo being a company that is setting forth on a mission to revolutionize local marketing, I am excited that we can apply that mission to the great state of Alaska. Time for another cup of coffee.

As part of my role within Balihoo, I have the privilege of traveling the country and meeting with dental practices all over the 50 states. While the travel can be tedious and the hours long, I am constantly rejuvenated by the people I encounter and the experiences I incur. Just recently I met with a practice that reaffirmed Balihoo’s efforts in bringing enterprise class dental marketing to a local level.

During one of my most recent travels, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting one of the pioneers of utilizing dental implants in the United States. Dr. Tom Balshi and his wife, Joanne, operate the highly successful Pi Dental Implant Center in the suburbs of Philadelphia. Dr. Balshi and Joanne were gracious enough to converse with me over the course of several hours in the comforts of their home. What I found so intriguing about the conversation was the fact that Dr. Balshi began advertising the practice over two decades ago. At that time, and many today still believing the same, advertising a dental practice was considered highly taboo and borderline unethical. However, Dr. Balshi realized that in order to operate a successful practice, utilizing technology otherwise unheard of, advertising was going to be a critical component in the long term success of the practice. It allowed them to educate the public and bring awareness to new technology. They were spot on in their thinking. External advertising, combined with the highest quality of care and patient experience has allowed Dr. Balshi to build a world renowned dental practice and has allowed him to provide life-changing procedures to people from countries all over the world.

While many criticized Dr. Balshi for advertising his practice to the general public, he has seen sustained growth and success beyond what many would dream of. What this reaffirmed for me was that direct-to-consumer dental marketing is not a fly-by-night concept. In many cases nowadays, it is a fundamental building block in developing a long-standing and sustainable practice. The world of dentistry is changing as the paradigm for building a practice has begun to shift dramatically. I strongly encourage those operating dental practices to be on the leading edge of the paradigm and look to the solution for sustainable growth, rather than dwell on how things ‘used to be.’

Being actively involved in the world of franchise marketing, I’m continually amazed at the creativity that goes into developing brand awareness and recognition utilizing strategic local advertising. I came across a video that demonstrates a very well known brand taking local advertising and product placement to a whole new level. Literally. The 105^th level to be specific.

A New York City Subway franchisee won the bid to provide delicious $5 foot longs to the iron workers building the new Freedom Tower. Rather spending a well deserved lunch break riding construction elevators down to ground level, workers can remain put and grab a fresh sub from the mobile Subway which was constructed inside of welded cargo containers. The restaurant is continually hoisted up by a tower crane so that as the building rises, so does the Subway. How's that for convenience?

Dental practices are small businesses by nature. At the end of the day, they are trying to bring patients(customers) in the door and get them to accept treatment plans(buy products) to ultimately drive revenue all while working to keep overhead low and thus yield a profit. Sounds like a business to me.

Where dental practices veer off the path that many small businesses drive down is when it comes time to selling the practice (business). While there are many variables that impact the valuation of a business, I’m going to attempt to keep this simple because I do believe the underlying difference remains. A starting point for business valuation is often derived from an Owner Benefit number. The formula for such number is:

Pre-Tax Profit + Owner’s Salary + Additional Owner Perks + Interest + Depreciation less Allocation for Capital Expenditures

The “Rule of Thumb” is that businesses tend to sell for a one-to three-times multiple of the sum of that equation. That holds generally true, EXCEPT for dental practices. In many cases, a profitable dental practice can actually, and often times do, sell for LESS than the Owner Benefit valuation. Why you might ask? Simple. Practices rarely follow the principles of ‘Branding’. What ends up happening, is that by default, a practice coincidently becomes branded as Dr. John Doe instead of High Plains Cosmetic Dentistry.

So for the sake of this example, we can assume that when High Plains Cosmetic Dentistry is up for sale, it is because Dr. John Doe has decided to pursue a retirement filled with golf, tennis and travel. That single clinician practice may have had an Owner Benefit of $1mm but the practice is lucky to get $400,000 in the sale. This is because more often than not, patients leave when Dr. Doe leaves. The new owner may be just as talented and even keep the name High Plains Cosmetic Dentistry but it is now Dr. Tom Jones instead of Dr. John Doe. All of a sudden, customers (err… I mean patients) are confused and look for alternative options. All of a sudden the practice is not worth the $1mm that the valuation might have initially lead us to believe.

Calling all dentists! It does NOT have to be this way. Focus on branding your practice and not necessarily yourself. Be on the lead-edge of the shifting paradigm by building brand equity through strategic dental marketing. This is the first step in helping you sell your practice for what it’s worth. Heck, why not even a multiple of what it’s worth like most other successful businesses?

Balihoo is working with those forward-thinking dental practices across the country to focus on communicating the brand to the public via strategic direct-to-consumer dental marketing and local advertising campaigns. Let’s face it, at the end of the day, most of us don’t want to work forever and would sure like to sell our lifetime of hard work for what it’s worth.

Look at it this way: when Phil Knight retired from Nike in 2004, did people stop buying Nike products? Point and case.

Many moons ago I wrote of an epic Balihoo vs. Wild journey into the depths of the Hells Canyon Wilderness. At the end of that article, I promised our loyal blog roll that I would keep them abreast of Balihoo’s next expedition into the wilderness. At the time, there were quiet murmurs of a First Annual Winter Yurt Trip. I sadly report that such a journey never took place and is still a coming of age tale. Several of our large outdoor apparel/gear sponsors backed out at the last minute due to ‘unexpected market conditions’ leaving us without sufficient financial backing to commence our research-driven exploratory journey. I personally think those sponsors could have weathered the economic storm had they taken advantage of Balihoo’s Local Marketing Automation platform but that’s neither here nor there and is best conveyed in one of my previous blogs titled, Outdoor Adventures in Co-op Advertising.

So while the Yurt Trip never took place, I am pleased to announce that we did manage to recently dawn our sub zero degree down jackets, resembling the fearless infantry of the 10^th Mountain Division circa 1943, and hit the slopes at our favorite alpine skiing venue. To those of you who don’t reside in the Treasure Valley, Bogus Basin may not mean much to you. But for those of us who call this area home, well… we look at Bogus Basin as 'The Matterhorn of the Boise Alps'. A group of eleven Balihoo winter-sport extraordinaires impressed bystanders (Caribou, Wolves, Grizzly Bears and even a Yeti) with a dazzling display of 360 Helicopters, Daffys and Backscratchers. Après Backscratcher, was greeted with delicious nutrient enriched hot toddys at BaseCamp to cure our aching muscles, halt frostbite and reduce the side-effects of our early-stage Pulmonary Edema (a medical condition most commonly developed at high altitudes).

All-in-all, it was another stunning display of the can-do and will-do mindset of Balihoo’s team and an even further testament to what makes this place so unique. Its the people folks. We’ve got great people.

Please stay tuned for the next Balihoo vs. Wild journey coming this Spring. Planning for a record-breaking cross-country bicycle trek are already in the works.
 

I can’t even begin to tell you how often I hear that comment when meeting with dentists in regards to direct to consumer advertising to help fuel practice growth. They say this as though their marketplace is a deserted island in the middle of the Pacific and cold-hard facts don't apply.  While I do agree that no two markets are alike, I respectfully disagree that their market is so different that their practice cannot benefit from local advertising. Here's why:

48% of the US population, over 25 years of age, is missing one or more teeth. That’s a bold fact. 16% of the US population is missing 4+ teeth! Wow. Now we are on to something. These facts came from one of our clients, Nobel Biocare, who conducted one of the largest consumer dental surveys ever. So what does all this mean?

What this tells us is that, relative to the population in the market, there are a lot of people missing teeth. So then the next thing I typically hear is, “Well, they don’t have money and can’t afford to have their teeth fixed.” WRONG. The largest percentage of people missing 4+ teeth happen to fall in the higher socio-economic category(annual income of $100k-$149k/year).

So let’s get back to basics here. Why aren’t these people doing anything about their missing teeth? In most cases (43% of those people missing with incomes above $75k/year to be exact), are “not concerned” about their missing teeth. Ok, why not? Because the majority of these people are unaware of the health ramifications of not replacing their missing teeth. And how could they be? In most markets, nobody has educated theme about the long-term health benefits of dental implants outside of their office walls which is simply, insufficient. For example, a typical dental office in New York City has a network of approximately 4,000 patients. That’s less than 1/10^th of 1 percent of the people that reside in New York City. Therein lays the unrealized opportunity via local advertising.

There are a lot of people who need the services, could benefit from the services and can afford the services but simply don’t know about the services. Enter Balihoo, the low-barrier to entry local marketing automation solution for those loyal Nobel Biocare customers who realize that at the end of the day, their market isn’t THAT different.
 

If you watched the second week of the Olympics, there is a good chance that you might have seen some coverage on Men’s Freestyle Aerials Skier, Jeret “Speedy” Peterson. Speedy, who happens to be a Boise native, managed to take home the silver medal after stomping a trick he calls The Hurricane. The Hurricane is a jump that consists of three flips and five twists all while soaring 55+ feet in the air over a period of about 2.9 seconds. It’s simply unreal. Jeret named the jump The Hurricane because he said halfway through; you have no clue where you are.

Rather than attempt the jump myself, I’ll gladly take his word for it. Jeret happens to be a buddy of mine so I took particular interest in his success and actually planned meetings around when he was competing to make sure I was near a TV. The meeting I had prior to his event was with that of a dental practice that had been dabbling in local advertising but saw minimal success because they simply, didn’t know where they were. Because they got lost in the mix, they gave up which is common in the world of local marketing and often times the demise of most direct-to-consumer local advertising campaigns.

Fortunately for national brands and franchises, Balihoo is changing this with its local marketing automation platform. It allows the parent company to offer their customers, distributors and/or affiliates the ability to implement strategic local advertising campaigns with the assistance of enterprise class advertising professionals, and all at a fraction of the cost. Rather than attempting to throw The Hurricane (which is actually a fair description of advertising world in general) on their own and risk the bone-breaking brutal landing, companies now have the ability to utilize Balihoo’s local marketing software to take on The Hurricane and nail the landing with the precision to bring home the medal.

For those loyal Balihoo Blog followers who were too busy reading our blogs and missed Jeret “Speedy” Peterson landing The Hurricane, I have attached a link to watch him compete. Enjoy! Click to View

I look forward to the Winter Olympic Games every four years. It’s difficult to not admire some of the world’s most talented athletes coming together to compete for two weeks. Athletics aside, one thing I have noticed this year is the abundance of brands utilizing the Olympics as a spring board for their integrated marketing strategy. From sponsoring teams and events to running ads during the prime time coverage, a variety of brands are using these two weeks of competitive competition to bring out the competitive spirit of their products.

I saw this great Molson Beer commercial and thought I would share it. While most might think that Molson is the preferred beer in Canada, the reality is that the top selling beers in Canada are in fact from the states: Coors Light and Budweiser. The Molson brand is now trying to re-ignite their presence with this catchy campaign across national and local advertising mediums. Enjoy!

Bing Dictionary defines the word Paradigm as:

1. A typical example of something

2. An example that serves as a pattern or model for something, especially one that forms the basis of a methodology or theory

If there is one thing that gets me all jacked up, it’s when I witness a shifting paradigm. It really gets me excited. I’m currently flying from JFK to SFO on Virgin America airlines flight #027. To those of you readers who have flown on one of Sir Richard Branson’s airlines, I think you know where I’m going with this.

To the rest of the world that places Southwest Airlines on a pedestal, it’s simply because you haven’t flown Virgin America yet. I defy you to fly Red(their clever marketing reference) and then tell me you would rather fly the same route on a flight with attendants dressed in purple polos and khakis. To you Virgin America virgins, picture relaxing in a comfortable Las Vegas ultra lounge while flying 400 miles per hour at 35,000 feet without the use of recreational hallucinogenic drugs. Comfortable black leather seats, ambient mood lighting, and smooth electronic jazz music are a few of the things they have done to bring back the comfort in flying.

I write of this amazing spectacle all while enjoying my third Ginger Ale that I ordered from a screen in the seat back in front of me, listening to a playlist that I built from the 1000+ song music library available to all passengers and occasionally gazing at the dumbfounding spectacle of ambient lights above. This compilation of words, commonly referred to as a blog, is being posted while at 35,000 feet courtesy of the onboard wireless internet available to all passengers. And because, my laptop battery would never last the 2,586 mile journey from JFK to SFO, my computer is plugged into the power outlet underneath my seat.

I’m pretty sure this wouldn’t be the case on a US Airways flight. This is a beautiful shift in the old-school airline paradigm and it reminds me exactly of what Balihoo is doing for local marketing automation. Balihoo is revolutionizing the way that businesses market at a local level by offering a state of the art co-op marketing solution, robust ad builder capabilities and local media buying. This is a complete departure from the way that companies facilitated local marketing in the past

Oh how I love shifting paradigms. Time for another Ginger Ale.