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Exclusive interview with João Lemos Diogo, Marketing Director of OralMED Health Group
In today's landscape, communication plays a strategic role across all sectors. This responsibility is even more pronounced in healthcare, as it facilitates patients' evaluation of service quality and their adherence to necessary treatments and preventive behaviors.
With the advent of digital platforms, healthcare professionals and companies can now forge closer connections with their patients, opening up avenues for dialogue that mass media couldn't provide.
We sat down with João Lemos Diogo, Marketing Director of OralMED Health Group, to discuss the current state of oral health communication strategies in Portugal. We also delved into how the OralMED Health Group builds brand significance with patients through various communication channels.
How would you describe the current communication paradigm in Portugal's oral health sector?
I believe that communication in Portugal's oral health sector still has immense room for growth. We're still in a rather product-centric stage, typically associated with sectors that have limited marketing or branding orientation. This is understandable, given that most players in this sector are individual clinics managed by healthcare professionals with minimal support in communication.
As brands managed by various dental medicine groups in Portugal develop their communication strategies, this area will begin to evolve in a more emotional direction, becoming more patient-centric. It will move beyond the realm of functionality, with brand narratives that go beyond simply showcasing treatments or testimonials.
Do you think digital media, which dental medicine brands seem to be increasingly adopting, play a role in addressing some communication weaknesses among various sector players?
The Internet and social media have leveled the playing field, dissipating asymmetries related to company size. We recognize that organizational scale was once a crucial factor, especially during the rise of mass media-based communication. Back then, only brands with significant investment capacity had access to communication and dissemination channels. However, that's no longer the case today.
I admit that large companies might have easier access to technical knowledge or more qualified marketing professionals. But in reality, it's never been easier to communicate with consumers or patients. All a brand needs is the desire and a relevant, strategic interest in establishing a permanent and meaningful dialogue with its patients.
From the patients' perspective, what are the benefits of dental clinics investing more in communication?
It's important to remember that Portugal still ranks among the worst European countries in terms of oral health levels. Our population continues to undervalue the importance of oral health prevention. This is a situation that can be changed through informative education within dental clinics, but it must also occur outside these physical spaces. Otherwise, this unfortunate paradigm will not shift.
This is only possible with active and continuous communication from all players in the dental medicine sector. If all 11,000 dentists in Portugal promoted communication from their offices or workplaces, and actively highlighted the importance of oral health, we would undoubtedly have a sector less overlooked by the population and a higher perceived value of the sector.
João Lemos Diogo, Diretor de Marketing do Grupo OralMED Saúde
The mission of OralMED Health Group is precisely to "raise awareness about the importance of oral health." How does the Group approach communication, and what emphasis does it place on digital media?
We don't have a strategy based on communication channels, but rather one centered on an omnichannel patient profile. In other words, we have a well-defined positioning in terms of functional and emotional dimensions. We communicate what we do, but more importantly, what we represent. In our view, the OralMED brand doesn't belong to us. It belongs to our patients, as they build it through their interactions, experiences, and recommendations. We believe our brand is a source of meaning. It's not what we say about it, but what patients say.
We adjust our communication to the characteristics of each digital or social platform, just as we adapt messages to the characteristics of radio, television, or outdoor advertising in traditional contexts.
However, even more important is adapting communication to different stages of what we call the patient journey. This means that the doubts, questions, or expectations of a potential patient at a consideration stage are different from the attitude and behavior at an evaluation, comparison, or decision stage. There's a cycle of discovery and engagement with the brand that requires different dialogues or different communication expressions (text, video, photography), always in line with the brand's DNA and defined positioning.
In your opinion, how is the meaning of the OralMED brand built with patients?
I argue that health communication needs to evolve from 'talking to' to 'talking with' the patient. That's what we all seek as patients or consumers. No one likes lectures anymore. But we all enjoy a good conversation. Oral health has specific audiences interested in different topics. Dental clinic communication should identify and establish conversation with these audiences through a narrative that is unique and distinctive for each brand. And this is built from what the patient wants to hear, not so much from what the dental clinic has to say.
Interestingly, dental medicine already incorporates an ingredient essential for any brand: trust. The dentist has enormous influence due to the high value society generally recognizes in them. Reputation and prestige are usually a consequence of good work done by brands. However, in the dental sector, the process is reversed. Trust is an attribute pre-defined from the start in the healthcare professional, and the confirmation of this expectation comes afterwards.
This represents a huge advantage for dental clinic communication, which naturally has a humanistic expression in its DNA. Most brands don't have this, so they have to artificially create these endorsements and seek speakers or endorsers to give personality to the communication to humanize their products and services.
About OralMED Health Group
OralMED Health Group is the first Portuguese group specializing in dental medicine. With over 11 years of experience and leadership in the sector, it already has more than 60 of its own clinical units, three dedicated laboratories, and an integrated contact center, the first specialized in healthcare in Portugal.
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