If you’re struggling to attract new patients and keep your chairs filled, you’re not alone. At The Creative Composite, we use blue ocean marketing to help your practice overcome these challenges. The blue ocean strategy focuses on finding underserved gaps in the market. This makes it easier for your practice to stand out and be profitable.
What is blue ocean strategy?
To better understand the blue ocean strategy meaning, let’s focus first on what it creates: new market spaces (blue oceans) where your practice has very few or no competitors at all. The blue ocean strategy – first introduced in the Blue Ocean Strategy book by W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne – creates new demand rather than competing for existing demand. Instead of being stuck in an already saturated market (a red ocean), your practice can operate in an environment where your treatments and services face little to no competition.
Plenty of practices run campaign after campaign without seeing consistent new patient growth, while competitors in the same area keep pulling ahead. At TCC, we apply the blue ocean marketing strategy to differentiate your practice from others without significantly increasing your costs. This gives you the edge in an untapped market with stronger potential for profitability.
What is the difference between a blue ocean market and a red ocean market?
In this scenario, the blue ocean represents a wide-open market where there’s huge potential for growth and profitability. On the other hand, the red ocean is a saturated market where competition is fierce, making it that much harder for your practice to stand out.
So what is blue ocean strategy in marketing, and how does the red ocean compare? Here’s a simple breakdown:
Red Ocean Market |
Blue Ocean Market |
| Established market with existing demand | Untapped market with new demand |
| Fierce competition (example: competing on prices for Invisalign) | Limited /zero competition |
| Reduced profit due to massive competition | High potential for growth and profit |
| Goal: beat the competition | Goal: make the competition nonexistent |
What are the benefits of the blue ocean market strategy to your dental practice?
Limited competition
Competition vastly differs between the blue ocean strategy and the red ocean strategy. Using blue ocean strategic marketing, your practice can thrive in a space where you’re not fighting for the same patients as everyone else. This strategy increases the potential for you to stand out. It will help your practice grow and become more profitable, especially if you’ve tried other methods and nothing consistently works.
Innovation to attract more patients
Do you get enquiries that don’t turn into actual bookings? Following the idea of blue ocean marketing, we can help you identify underserved patient needs and position your practice to meet them. By offering something genuinely different, or something your local area doesn’t have yet, your practice will attract patients who are ready to book.
More flexible pricing
Without being limited by the struggles of competitive pricing, your dental practice has the opportunity to set prices that reflect the true value of your services. This increases the potential for higher profit without compromising on patient value. In an untapped market, you can attract patients who know the real value of the dental treatments you offer and are not just out for bargains.
How TCC applies blue ocean thinking to grow your dental practice
TCC is a team of experienced marketing professionals who understand the dental world from the inside. With over 20 years of experience in the industry, we know the pressures you’re working under while running a dental practice. We apply the fundamentals of the blue ocean marketing strategy to analyse the challenges your practice is facing – then give you a clear, practical picture of what needs to change to grow.
We’re not like marketing agencies you’ve tried before. Automated, generic reports that tell you nothing aren’t our style. Instead, you will get fast, efficient service with real-time performance insight and a team with genuine clinical experience, trusted by 120+ dental practices across the UK and Ireland.
Do you want your practice to stay ahead of the competition? At The Creative Composite, we apply the blue ocean strategy to help your practice stand out locally and increase your revenue.
Ready to find your blue ocean? Book a free consultation with The Creative Composite and we’ll show you where the gaps are in your local market.
FAQs
Is it possible to use the blue ocean strategy within an existing market?
Yes. You can create a “blue ocean” within an existing market by identifying patient needs that have been previously neglected and delivering the value that competitors failed to provide. It can also be done by cutting non-essential costs.
What is value innovation?
Value innovation means pursuing differentiation and cost reduction at the same time, rather than trading one off against the other. It’s what separates blue ocean thinking from conventional competitive strategy.
Is innovation the top factor to consider when implementing the blue ocean marketing strategy?
No, customer value is more important. Innovation will not have the desired impact if it doesn’t address your patients’ pain points in the first place. It’s better to start with what your existing and potential patients need and want, before focusing on groundbreaking ideas.
Do profits stay the same in the blue ocean strategy and red ocean strategy?
Typically, they don’t. With a blue ocean strategy, your dental practice can get higher profits because without fierce competition, you have more freedom to price based on the value you provide. In red ocean markets, profits tend to decrease due to the competition.
