The Role of Corporate Branding on Corporate Reputation
How do dental care companies differentiate themselves with corporate
branding and how does corporate branding strategy affect their reputation?
Student Name: Özlenen Ünal Student Number: 455517 Supervisor: Dr. Yijing Wang Media and Business Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication Erasmus University Rotterdam
Master's Thesis June 22, 2017
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ABSTRACT
Organizations are aware of the importance of corporate reputation to achieve their goals
and stay competitive. These aims can change according to the size of the companies and
variety in the structure of the organizations. The significance of corporate reputation cannot
be denied. Different structures, sectors, sizes of the organizations led to the emergence of
corporate branding concept.
In this research, the data gathered from 13 semi constructed interviews with both the
patients, employees and the employers of a dental clinic were analysed. This paper traces
the development of brand thinking from both the marketing (customer & patient market)
perspective and a multi-disciplinary (organization perspective). It is believed that discussing
the relation between corporate branding and reputation from both perspectives can add
valuable output to the ongoing and future researches and the organizations.
This research also confirms that corporate branding efforts of the organizations can vary
according to the sectors. Even though, generally the efforts are similar between product and
services sectors, these efforts can be different in health care or dental care sectors. Health
care is an intimate service experience and emotions play a role in decision making. Thus, the
organizations should improve their branding strategies carefully. Additionally, corporate
reputation is so sensitive. Organizations even small and medium sized enterprises are able to
create strong firms with high reputations through well managed corporate branding. It is
obvious that there are some differences while forming the corporate brand in SMEs.
The study offers new horizons on branding and reputation as they relate to economic reality.
These concepts and their relation are essential factors in the success of small and medium
sized enterprises in dental care sector.
Keywords: Corporate branding, corporate reputation, dental care, SMEs, health care,
Netherlands, community, dental clinics.
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Table of Contents
Abstract 1
1.INTRODUCTION 3
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 7
2.1. CORPORATE BRANDING 7 2.2. CORPORATE REPUTATION 12 2.3. THE RELATIONSHIP OF CORPORATE BRANDING AND CORPORATE REPUTATION 15 2.4. CORPORATE BRANDING AND REPUTATION IN SERVICE SECTOR 16 2.5. CORPORATE BRANDING AND REPUTATION IN SMALL AND MEDIUM SIZED DENTAL CARE SECTOR COMPANIES 18
3.METHODOLOGY 19
3.1. RESEARCH DESIGN 19 3.2. SAMPLING 21 3.3. PROCEDURE 23 3.4. OPERATIONALIZATION 24 3.5. DATA ANALYSIS 25 3.6. RELIABILITY 27 3.7. VALIDITY 27
4. RESULTS 28
4.1. EMERGENT THEMES ACCORDING TO THE COMPANY PERSPECTIVE 28 4.1.1. DESIGN OF BRANDING ACTIVITIES 29 4.1.2. SERVICE QUALITY 33 4.1.3. HOSPITALITY 36 4.1.4. HUMAN RESOURCES 40 4.2. EMERGENT THEMES ACCORDING TO THE PATIENT PERSPECTIVE 43 4.2.1. DESIGN OF BRANDING ACTIVITIES 43 4.2.2. SERVICE QUALITY 44 4.2.3. HOSPITALITY 46 4.3. COMPARISON BETWEEN TWO PERSPECTIVES 47 4.4. SUMMARY 52 4.4.1. SUCCESSFUL FACTORS OF BRANDING 52 4.4.2. RELATION BETWEEN CORPORATE BRANDING AND REPUTATION 57 4.4.3. OTHER TOOLS THAT ENHANCE CORPORATE REPUTATION 58
5. DISCUSSION 61
5.1. THEORETICAL IMPLICATIONS 61 5.2. MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS 62
6.CONCLUSION 63
6.1. LIMITATION AND FURTHER RESEARCH 64 REFERENCES 66
APPENDIX A. INTERVIEW GUIDE 75
APPENDIX B. OVERVIEW OF THEMES 77
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1.Introduction The development of technology has shifted our economy from product-driven to service-
driven. In addition, the emergence of new media results in a more competitive market in
many sectors. Consumers now can reach various products in one second with only a click
which provides them many choices in consumption (Alsmadi, 2006). As a consequence,
companies aim to develop strategies to differentiate themselves from other competitors.
They intend to form strong brands in order to be appealing to consumers. Creating a strong
brand provides multiple benefits for companies and building a corporate brand is vital to
personalize the company as a whole with its strategic position, institutional activities,
employees, products and services (van Riel & Fombrun, 2007). Branding plays a crucial role
in service companies too (Hardeep & Bala, 2012). It increases customer trust (Berry, 2000),
acts as a tool of differentiation among competitive products and services (Motameni &
Shahrokhi, 1998), enables customers to better visualize the service products (Kim et al.,
2008), delivers value to the consumers (Hardeep & Bala, 2012), provides customer
satisfaction, relationship commitment of the consumer to the company and brand loyalty
(Fibuch & Ahmed, 2016). Corporate brand is a visual representation of a company that
combines a group of products or businesses, and makes it known to all world with a use of a
single name, a shared visual identity and common symbols. According to van Riel and
Fombrun (2007), some business unit managers support corporate branding because of the
following reasons: a corporate brand can create a sense of internal harmony and can
simplify internal cooperation. It helps to demonstrate the strength and size of the
organization to outsiders, maintaining a corporate brand can be cheaper than having to
support many product brands (van Riel & Fombrun, 2007). The process of corporate
branding consists of a set of activities that are guaranteed by the company to build
favourable associations and positive reputation with both internal and external stakeholders
(van Riel & Fombrun, 2007). It can also increase customer loyalty and this causes decreasing
undesirable effects of crisis in the market (Keller, 2001). Several researchers mention that
corporate identity, corporate communication, corporate reputation are all terms that are
highly related to each other and have influence on one another (Balmer, 2001a; Bernstein,
2003; van Riel & Fombrun, 2007). Thus, corporate level concerns should form a new branch
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of marketing which is all combined with corporate identity, image, reputation and
communications and this should be known as corporate-level-marketing (Balmer & Gray,
2003). According to Berry (2007) corporate branding should be designed to ensure the
company’s promise to the consumer about the consumer’s future experience with the
company. It is the organization’s controlled communication message of a desired enterprise
reputation (Fibuch & Ahmed, 2016). Researchers are asking the question: why companies
are focusing on carefully managing their corporate branding effort to build their reputation.
Finally, there is a relation between corporate branding and reputation and the companies
are aware of that (Argenti & Druckenmiller, 2004). Why is corporate branding so important
for corporate reputation? So, this study aims to add valuable findings to better visualize this
relationship. Besides that, it tends to uniform the workforce around the values and purposes
that the organization brings to its customers (Fibuch & Ahmed, 2016). According to Ergüden
(2003), making clearly defined differences among companies, enables this process
sustainable and make value presentations permanent in stakeholders’ mind and associate
them with the areas over economic values (Şatır, 2006). In sensitive and competitive
markets, the companies which provide professional services all suffer a fundamental
problem: They are not very valuable in stakeholder’s minds (partners, customers, employers,
suppliers) as they expect (Şatır, 2006). If the companies find a unique attribution to offer to
their customers and also to the other stakeholders, this will provide them an advantage to
distinguish themselves from other competitors and can result to be recalled, to be valuable
and to be remembered permanent in stakeholder’s minds, thus, a good corporate
reputation. Therefore, companies have been involving with improving and protecting the
quality of reputation for a long time (Caruana, 1997). Corporate reputation is not just related
to price, product and service quality. It depends on the corporate image and can be seen as
a result and a mirror image of corporate history (Fibuch & Ahmed, 2016; Nguyen & LeBlanc,
2001). Thus, reputation is transforming into a compulsory social capital that must be
established, protected and managed as a strategical element (Şatır, 2006). Reputation is
generally accepted as an intangible asset (Coombs, 2007; van Riel & Fombrun, 2007). Good
reputation means a valuable asset for a company reputation. For years, Fortune Magazine
has been publishing several annual corporate reputation indexes. The index is based on a
research which is carried out in USA among 10000 senior executives who are requested to
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rank 10 largest companies in their industry. These indexes are formed with eight dimensions
which are quality of management, quality of products and services, innovativeness, long-
term investment value, financial soundness, ability to attract, develop and keep talented
people, responsibility to the community and the environment and wise of corporate assets
(Caruana, 2006). These dimensions provide a guideline for this research to better analyse
the dental care company’s reputation through corporate branding.
A health care sector is a unique sector highly leverages on corporate branding since it is
based on servicing for human health. It has to provide customer satisfaction, the relation
between the company and the patients are very dense and sensitive (Şatır, 2006). Dental
care sector companies are also counted as service organizations in health care sector
(Hardeep & Bala, 2012; Kim, Myoung, & Lee, 2012; Moshkelgosha, Mehrzadi, & Golkari,
2014; Yang, Kim, & Jung, 2016). Beyond that, dental care sector is a very competitive market.
A brand in this sector should find unique selling propositions which differentiate itself from
other companies ( Şatır, 2006; Armstrong et al., 2008; Yang et al., 2016). Differentiation of
the brand allows an organization to compete more effectively in the marketplace. In today’s
competitive market, this is an essential issue for health care companies.
The corporate brand and reputation concepts have been extensively addressed, both in
academic literature and in practice. However, most researches focus on large companies
only. The gained knowledge from these studies is the greater the configuration between
these concepts, the more consistent and thus the more successful the branding efforts will
be (Abimbola & Vallaster, 2007). The question that should be answered at this time is: can
such thinking which is originally designed for large companies be adopted to small and
medium sized dental care companies? In order to answer the question, this research is
intended to focus on a small and medium sized dental care company in the dental care
sector.
The purpose of this research is to explain the value of corporate branding on reputation in
dental care sector. In literature, focus has been drawn on health care marketing strategies in
terms of behavioural, human resource and organizational concepts (Argenti &
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Druckenmiller, 2004; Fibuch & Ahmed, 2016; Friedrich & Witt, 1995; Kemp et al., Becerra,
2014; K. H. Kim et al., 2008; Hardeep & Bala, 2012; Yang et al., 2016). There are also
researches on consumer’s perceptions and attitudes towards dental care clinic preferences
(Belén & Andrés, 2016; M. J. Kim et al., 2012; Y. Kim et al., 2012; Moshkelgosha et al., 2014).
However, hardly any research focuses on the branding-reputation relationship specifically in
dental care sector. Further, most research conducted a survey to investigate employees’
perceptions, while little have tried qualitative research have been developed to understand
managers’ aspirations directly. In this research, it is aimed to fill the gap in literature by
conducting a qualitative research via in-depth interviews. These interviews will be carried
out both with dental clinic employees and with clinic’s patients, in order to acquire a good
understanding of the corporate branding strategy as well as its effect on the reputation of
companies in the dental care sector. This research will provide managerial implications for
small and medium sized dental care companies operating in the highly competitive market
with respect to improving and protecting their corporate reputation through corporate
branding.
Therefore, given the vulnerability of the corporate-customer relationship in the dental care
sector and the value of corporate branding on enhancing reputation leads to the research
question of this thesis:
How do dental care companies differentiate themselves with corporate branding and how
does corporate branding strategy affect their reputation?
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2. Theoretical Framework 2.1. Corporate Branding Corporate brand was a term emerged in the 1970s and mostly focused on managerial
perspective rather than academical one (Fetscherin & Usunier, 2012). According to some
researchers, corporate branding is seen as marks denoting ownership, image building
devices, symbols associated with key values, means by which to construct individual
identities, a bridge which pleasurable experiences may be consumed (Balmer & Gray, 2003).
The purpose of a corporate brand is to personalize the company as a whole in order to
create a value from its strategic position, institutional activities, organization, employees,
products and services (Riel & Fombrun, 2007). It is a promise of an organization to its
stakeholders ( Balmer, 1998).
Corporate branding has the same tradition with the product branding. It has a purpose of
creating a differentiation. Though, corporate branding is more complex than product
branding due to its relationship with the other levels of the organization and the
stakeholders (Knox & Bickerton, 2003). Moreover, corporate brand can add a value to
company’s product policy and it links the corporate and product brands. This causes
advantages to both of the brand types (Souiden, Kassim, & Hong, 2006). Another concept
which is related to corporate branding is corporate visual identity. It is an important
component of corporate identity. Schmitt (1995) and Dowling ( 1993) both mention that
corporate image and corporate brand is highly integrated with each other. Schmitt et al.
(1995) present a corporate strategic framework to manage visual production of the company
which are products, packaging, logos, advertisements, buildings, company uniforms. With
this framework a company can reduce communication costs, enhance company image and
products and increase sales (Schmitt, Simonson, & Marcus, 1995). According to Dowling
(1993), “the world’s most succesful companies must invest in their images” (Dowling, 1993,
p.101). Companies need consistent use of corporate visual identities (Bosch et al., 2004) but
it should be noted that culture and linguistic factors affect the visual identitiy elements of a
brand (Schmitt, 1995). Corporate image of a brand has an influence also in brand extention
decisions of companies. For many companies, the (financial) risks to access to new markets
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or launch new products or services are quite essential (Boush & Loken, 1991; Loken & John,
1993). One way of dealing with these risks is to use the familarity and prestige, or rather, the
image of brands as a leverage for enhancing credibility and unobservable quality (Rao, Qu, &
Ruekert, 1999). Moreover, according to Keller and Aaker (1997), a strong corporate image
can be used to increase communication efficiency , if the new market is clearly beyond the
current market scope of the firm (Ruyter & Wetzels, 2000). According to researchers,
corporate image is described as the overall impression, associations made on the minds of
the public about a firm (Nguyen & Leblanc, 2001). It is related to the various physical and
behavioural attributes of the firm, such as business name, architecture, variety of products
and services, tradition, ideology, and to the impression of quality communicated by each
person interacting with the firms’ clients (Nguyen & Leblanc, 2001). Corporate image
associations with innovation and trustworthiness can influence product evaluations of
consumers more when they perceive high risk versus low risk during product purchase
(Gurhan-Canli & Batra, 2004). Furthermore, corporate advertising may influence the way
consumers evaluate about brands of the company (Biehal & Sheinin, 1998). Corporate brand
is not only an affect for company products but also for its services. Corporate image of a
brand for services sectors has an influence on consumer perceptions (Leblanc & Nguyen,
2005). Consumer’s response to a service is perminant with his/her perception of the
company’s reputation. For this reason, using the company’s reputation in marketing
products and services can be effective (Fetscherin & Usunier, 2012).
According to some researchers, corporate branding is highly associated with corporate
identity (Melewar & Karaosmanoglu, 2006; Perkins, 1995; Schmitt, 1995; Schmitt et al.,
1995; Schultz & Hatch, 1997). Managers should gain a good understanding of their
corporate identity, corporate communications and the relationships, in order to better
manage the corporate branding strategy (Gray & Balmer, 1998). Studies show that
uncontrolled corporate communication is decisive for corporate image and there is a need
for corporate discourse to be in line with operations and behaviors (Melewar &
Karaosmanoglu, 2006).
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Some researchers extented their research by focusing on relation between corporate
branding, employment image and employment application intention (Highouse et.al, 1999;
Lemmink et al., 2003). Organisations that operate in tight labour markets are looking for
new ways to attract highly qualified employees and are now becoming increasingly aware of
the importance of their image (Lemmink et al., 2003). Organizations with better image or
reputation can benefit from attracting better job applicants. Image perceptions can
influence applicant’s intentions to pursue employment opportunities at a particular
organization (Lemmink et al., 2003). Companies can define the image for applicants to
perceive the company a place to work (Highhouse et al., 1999). Therefore, corporate brand
has a very significant effect on job applications (Lemmink et al., 2003). Companies can
benefit from corporate brand by using it as a tool to evalute the prospective employees.
They select their staff not only according to their skills and profession but also with their
alignment to the organisations’ corporate brand values (Balmer & Gray, 2003). Thus,
corporate brand is a crucial concept for also human resource departments of the companies.
For this research, it is believed that developing a proper corporate branding strategy is
important for a company. Therefore, it is necessary to review different strategic approaches
for corporate brand management.
Balmer (1995) suggests corporate branding as strategic corporate identity management.
According to the researchers Stuart (1991) and Balmer (2001), corporate branding can be
examined at two levels: macro and micro levels. The macro model is developed by Abbrott
(1989) and Dowling (1993). Their important contribution is to consolidate various constructs
of corporate branding, such as corporate personality, identity, image and culture from
organization itself to their models. Even though, the macro model is developed for multi-
disciplinary interest mainly and has apparent limitations in explaining the underlying link of
these constructs (Knox & Bickerton, 2003).
Number of authors such as Hatch and Schultz (1997, 2001) and Rindova (1997) developed
the micro model for corporate branding. Hatch and Schulzt (1997, 2001) emphasize three
key elements of corporate branding as vision, culture, brand. Balmer (2001) sorts five
components of identity which are actual, communicated, conceived, ideal, desired and the
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underlines organizations should explore these components as brand management procesess
(Balmer, 2001b). Actual identity is shaped by a number of elements including corporate
ownership, the leadership style of management, organizational structure, business activities
and markets covered,the quality of the products and services offered and business
performance. Communicated identity is not only about controllable corporate
communication such as advertising, sponsorship and public relations but also non-
controllable communication such as the performance of products, organizational behaviour,
employee discourse and commentaries made about the organization by groups such as
competitors and the media. Conceived identity is related with main perceptual concepts of
corporate image, corporate reputation and corporate branding. These exist in the minds of
individuals, of groups and of networks. Ideal identity refers to the articulation by strategic
planners and others of the optimum positioning of the organization in its market or markets
in a given period of time. Desired identity is corporate leader’s vision for the organization
(Balmer, 2001b). Knox and Bickerton (2003) identify a number of distinct practices in
characterizing the process of corporate brand management and they term them as six
conventions of corporate brand management (Knox & Bickerton, 2003).
The development of a competitive context for the corporate brand builds understanding of
two interim dimensions: the current image of organisation and its future competition, and
current culture of the organisation and its vision for the future. This comprehension is the
first convention and is termed as brand context. During positioning corporate brand, there
are also intangible organizational attributes as tangible ones which are performance benefits
and portfolio benefits. Potential of the network of an organization shows up a strong and
differentiating element in the corporate brand. This forms the second convention that is
termed as brand construction. The corporate brand positioning that is created during the
brand construction phase needs to be united and communicative to the rest of the
organisation and the external audiences. Brand confirmation is for development of a series
of agreed statements that explain the corporate brand positioning. Organisations need to
split their channels of stakeholder communications according to their levels of formality by
describing both key formal communication channels and other informal mechanisms
commonly found in organisations (e.g. e-mails).
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The adaptation of a measurement tool for organisations’ all formal corporate brand
communication can be a very important benefit to the management teams to control and
manage the formal communication. This term is called as brand consistency. The business
processes which are identified as communication, operations, knowledge management and
strategic development should be discussed in the context of their unification with the
corporate brand in order to be engaged in value delivery. This is for brand continuity of the
organisation. The last convention is brand conditioning which gives an opportunity for
managers not only communicating the key aspects of corporate brand positioning but also
ensuring that these communications are supported by organization behaviours and process
that create customer value (Knox & Bickerton, 2003).
Social media’s effects on corporate brand are undeniable. A strong corporate brand acts as a
focal point for the attention, interest and activity stakeholders bring to a corporation (Hatch
& Schultz, 2003). There are two closely interelated strategic approaches to the
communication of the corporate brand via social media are beginning to emerge. These are
interactivity and openness. Harmonization of the firms’s trategic vision, its organizational
culture and its corporate image is most likely to be achieved when internal and external
relationships are charactarized by openness, interactivity and a listening orientation. In this
environment, there can be a steady growth in the stakeholders’ contribution to the
evoluation of the corporate identity based on strong values, and thus to the organizational
culture and the strategic vision (Gregory, 2007; Roper & Davies, 2007). Interactivity is
defined in many ways. Recent definitions emphasized some aspects such as active user
control, two way communication and synchronicity (Liu & Shrum, 2002; McMillan & Hwang,
2002). According to Berthon, Pitt and Watson’s (1996) perspectives web interactivity is
defined by emphasizing its failitation of direct communication between users and
organizations regardless of distance or time. With these personal contexts users are
empowered online and are able to generate content (Vernuccio, 2014). There is also
increasing openness of firms to the communicative assistance of the various stakeholders in
the brand building process, peaking in the creation of what Gregory (2007)calls a negotiated
corporate brand (Vernuccio, 2014). Corporate branding is seen as a dynamic and social
process that emerges continiously and dynamically through social interaction among
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multiple stakeholders (Vernuccio, 2014). Corporate brands open their bounderies to allow
interaction, participation and co -creation in multiple social media platforms (social
networks, corporate blogs, content on demand, content communities, virtual worlds and
internet forums. Moreover, different stakeholders (e.g., customers, employees, the financial
community and influencers)interested in a corporate brand are able to colloborate on its co-
creation rather than simply accepting it or supporting it (Vernuccio, 2014). In this study,
social media’s effects will be also discussed according to the results gathered from the
interviews.
2.2. Corporate Reputation Corporate reputation has got great attention recently because it captures the effects of
corporate brand has. Eventhough there are incresing number of studies published in this
area, there is no generally accepted definition for corporate reputation term, due to
research conducted in different disciplines (Gotsi & Wilson, 2001). According to Fombrun’s
(1996) definition, reputation is based on perceptions. It is the aggregated perception of all
stakeholders, and it is comparative. There are two additional attributions that are
mentioned frequently in some researches. Reputation can be positive or negative, stable
and enduring (Walker, 2010). Moreover, according to the several definitions of researchers,
the following characteristics are assigned to the concept of corporate reputation: It is a
dynamic concept, which takes time to build and manage. There is a bileteral relationship
between corporate reputation and corporate image. It crystallieses a company’s perceived
quality in a field of competition. Different stakeholders may have various reputations of the
same organisation based on their own economic, social and personal background (Gotsi &
Wilson, 2001). With these characteristics, the following definition is proposed: “A corporate
reputation is a stakeholder’s overall evaluation of a company over time. This evaluation is
based on stakeholder’s direct experiences with the company, any other form of
communication and symbolism that provides information about the firm’s action and/or a
comparision with the actions of other leading rivals” (Gotsi & Wilson, 2001, p. 29). On the
other hand, Fombrun and van Riel ( 1997) summarized six different views on corporate
reputation. From the economists’ view, reputation is either traits or signals. Reputations are
the perceptions of firms held by external observers. Some researchers explain that;
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established reputations interrupt mobility and produce returns to firms since they are
difficult to imitate. Lipmann (1922) emphasizes reputation in marketing view, as a focus on
the nature of information processing and result in “pictures in the head”. To organisation
scholars, corporate reputation is based on sense-making experiences of employees.
Company’s culture and identity form a company’s business practices, the relationships
between the managers and the key stakeholders. In sociological view, reputation is the
indicator of legitimacy; they are whole assessments of firms’ performance relative to
expectations and norms in an institutional field. Rindova and Fombrun (1997) and Barney
(1986) also point that some accounting researchers make effort to develop better measures
for how investments in branding, training and research build intangible assets to create
higher reputation (Fombrun & van Riel, 1997).
Recognizing the value of corporate reputation, Reputation Institute launched a global
project in 1998 to understand and measure the diverse factors related with corporate
reputation (Fombrun et al., 2015). According to RepTrak model, there are seven dimensions
of corporate reputation. Most stakeholders know a company from its products and services
in the market place (Rao, et al., 1999; Smith, & Wang, 2010). RepTrak’s products and
services dimension evaluates perceptions of a company’s offerings whether they are
thought to be high in quality and service, and in their ability to fulfil customer needs
(Fombrun et al., 2015). Courtright and Smudde (2009) confirm on their study that there is a
relationship between innovation and reputation, and mention positive regard often
dependent upon effective communication about an innovation (Courtright & Smudde,
2009). RepTrak’s innovation dimension defines perception of a company as innovative and
adaptive (Fombrun et al., 2015). Satisfied employees are more likely to work for a long time,
less likely to turn over and more likely to act as ambassadors of their companies (Fombrun et
al., 2015). RepTrak’s workplace dimension assesses perceptions of a company’s exercise in
providing an environment that shows concern for employees and for behaving and
rewarding them fairly (Fombrun et al., 2015). Companies often signal to stakeholders their
principles and commitments, generate confidence that their internal practices build
reputation. RepTrak’s governance dimension defines stakeholder perceptions of a company
as ethical, fair and transparent ( Fombrun et al., 2015) Some stakeholders evaluate
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companies for acting like good citizens and view this as a form of relationship marketing but
some of them see it as a distraction and unnecessary. RepTrak’s citizenship dimension
defines stakeholder perceptions of a company as environmentally friendly, a supporter of
good causes and a positive participator to society ( Fombrun et al., 2015). Attractive leaders
attract media coverage and investor endorsements so they give messages to all stakeholders
about the credibility of the company’s activities, increasing confidence and trust in the
company and naturally building corporate reputation. RepTrak’s leadership dimension
defines perceptions of leaders as effective managers and strong endorser of their companies
(Fombrun et al., 2015). Past and current profitability are important cues to investors about a
company’s operating success, continuing profitability, strong future prospects for growth.
RepTrak’s performance dimension defines stakeholder perceptions of a company’s
performance as the whole financial performance, profitability and growth prospects
(Fombrun et al., 2015). All the dimensions are relevant to also small and medium sized
companies in the dental care sector. As mentioned before, dental care sector is a difficult
sector since it is a service healthcare sector and its core communication is with the patients.
Companies in this sector should find unique attributions in order to attract consumers in a
very competitive market. These dimensions can be supportive ways to build and protect
reputation. So, through analysing all of these dimensions, this study will draw on how small
and medium sized dental care companies (should) construct and protect their reputation.
Corporate reputation is vital for maintaining a good stakeholder relation. According to
Matuleviciene and Stravinskiene (2015), corporate reputation affects stakeholder
management in two ways. The relation between the organization and stakeholders is based
on the addiction of power. There is a mutual influence between the organization and the
stakeholders. However, stakeholders may have greater impact on the organization because
of a major power. They are essential to the company for one main source-resources which
are necessary for the company. Despite involving themselves in the activities of the
company, stakeholders can not only control the company’s activities but they can also shape
the corporate reputation of it (Matuleviciene & Stravinskiene, 2015). It can be also stated
that some stakeholders such as shareholders, customers, employees, non-governmental
organizations, the media, lobbyists create a higher reputation risk for the companies.
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Researchers have not found an answer to which stakeholders should be considered as the
most or the least important for the organization’s corporate reputation but stakeholder
grouping is considered to be a way to express their importance to the company
(Matuleviciene & Stravinskiene, 2015).
The effects of corporate reputation to the corporate performance have been studied by
many researchers. Previous studies have reported that a positive reputation has a significant
effect on company’s ability to reduce costs, set higher prices and increase profits (Rindova,
et al., 2005; Roberts & Dowling, 2002). Furthermore, researchers mention that positive
corporate reputations reinforce consumer’s purchase intentions, attitudes towards the
company, its products and services and brand loyalty (Brown, 1998; Saxton, 1998).
Jung and Seock (2016) emphasize that negative publicity can worsen consumer’s attitudes
and the company should carefully manage its reputation to avoid damaging consumer’s
attitudes and purchase intentions (Jung & Seock, 2016). According to Spears and Singh
(2004), attitude is not like a feeling. It is enduring but the feeling is transitory (Spears &
Singh, 2004). With these descriptions, it is obvious that customers’ attitude toward a
corporate brand has a critical impact on their purchase intention. The arguments suggest
that the higher trust on brand – a good corporate reputation, leading to a higher purchase
intention and brand loyalty. Corporate reputation is thus essential to the customers’
satisfaction and loyalty. So the factors affecting longer relationship and loyalty should be
reconsidered carefully (Liengjindathaworn et al., 2015).
2.3. The Relationship of Corporate Branding and Corporate Reputation
Despite many literature dedicated to the research on corporate branding and reputation,
disparity remains in conceptualizing these terms (Argenti & Druckenmiller, 2004). A
company’s corporate brand, ensures consumers with expectations of what the company will
deliver. Names, logos, corporate advertising are some of the elements of the corporate
branding and they reinforce it. A company can describe and communicate its identity and
corporate brand but its image and reputation result from constituency impressions of a
company’s direct control. Some researchers argue that a company cannot control its
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reputation and some of them mention that strong management of a corporate brand is an
essential part of this process (Argenti & Druckenmiller, 2004). Companies should focus on
corporate brand as a means of managing their corporate reputation. Corporate brand
provides expectations in the minds of consumers about what the company will deliver,
meeting these expectations creates the image in the minds and enhances overall reputation
(Argenti & Druckenmiller, 2004).
There is a high recognition of corporate brands serving as a powerful navigational tool to the
stakeholders for the purposes including employment, investment and consumer buying
behavior ( Balmer & Gray, 2003). Corporate brand values have a mirror effect to show the
values and understanding of company founders, owners, management and personnel
(Balmer & Gray, 2003). They are the significant elements of a company strategy and they are
in management’s concern. Corporate brand can be of unpredictable value to organisation’s
human resource departments. Moreover, properly branded companies have more
advantege to find venture partners since investors seek strong corporate brands (Barney &
Hansen, 1994). Corporate brands shelter organisations during crisis times since they create
their own reputation(Greyser, 1999). This created reputation can protect companies from
external risks.
2.4. Corporate Branding and Reputation in Service Sector Since dental care sector is a service sector, it will be crucial to understand the corporate
branding and reputation concepts in also service sector environment. Even though there is
no exact definition to service term, McDonald and his colleagues (2001) mention Payne’s
(1993) following definition; “a service is an activity which has some elements of intangibility
associated with it. It involves some interaction with customers or property in their
possession, and does not result in a transfer of ownership. A change of condition may occur
and provision of the service may not be closely associated with a physical product”
(McDonald et al., 2001,339). Researchers, mention on their studies that corporate approach
to service branding needs to be managed at a more systematic level than for product
brands. It also requires skills to span the marketing and human resource management.
Because, for delivering the brand’s promise, staff should be recruited and trained (McDonald
17
et al., 2001). Researchers have explained some solutions with regards to reduce the risks of
intangibility of service brands since service is delivered to the customers, it is not produced,
and is experienced not used. In order to overcome this problem, strong corporate brands
with a definite set of values which provide positive perceptions among customers is essential
but ensuring this, is very difficult (Dibb & Simkin, 1993). An effective way to make brands
tangible is to use as many physical elements as possible. These can be staff uniforms, office
decor, the type of music that is played when customers are waiting in the offices (McDonald
et al., 2001). There are two other essential elements in corporate service brand concept.
One of them is, consistent corporate service brands should be provided through staff. Even
though, the service organisation may have provided a well-conceived positioning for the
corporate brand and improved a good communication programme, the brand can still have
problems because of its insufficient attention to the role of the staff in producing and
delivering the service (Coskun & Frohlich, 1992). The staff of service organization should
enhance the positive perception of consumers of the service quality through the following
attributions: reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and appearance (McDonald et
al., 2001). For example, Lufthansa pilots strive to ensure that their corporate brand has an
outstanding track-record of punctuality. This means Lufthansa has reliability attribution. A
member of cabin staff may be sympathetic to the family who have been split up on their
flight and enable them to sit together as a family. This is the presentation of responsiveness
attribution. While the plain is kept waiting before taking off, the pilot informs passengers of
the reason, the expected length of delay and that all is being done to shorten the delay. This
represents the assurance attribution. Cabin staff may show empathy by comforting a crying
child who is flying for the first time. This example represents the empathy attribution. The
uniform worn by the Alitalia crew is perceived as particularly elegant and fashionable as
some passengers recognise that it was designed by Armani. This example represents the
appearance attribution (McDonald et al., 2001). Another crucial element of corporate
service brand is optimum consumer participation. The level of consumer participation differs
across services. For example, the level of consumer participation in airlines sector is lower,
the required customer involvement is just physical presence. For instance, Ikea explains to
its customers about how they are supposed to take measurements and select pieces of
furniture. To engage consumers in the service sector, organizations can develop different
18
strategies which are based on the following three factors; they should define the consumer’s
role clearly, as well as recruit, educate, reward consumers. Also, they should manage the
consumers who simultaneously experience the service. All organizations should be aware of
the need to separate different segments of the customers (McDonald et al., 2001) as
customer relation has a high influence on building and protecting corporate reputation. The
strongest point of the interaction takes place in the relationship of the consumers and the
employees. In this research, it will be also aimed to analyse employee and consumer relation
effect on corporate reputation.
2.5. Corporate Branding and Reputation in Small and Medium Sized Dental Care Sector Companies
As the dental care sector is unique in its highly sensitive corporate-customer relationship
and lack of clear guidelines for corporate branding, it is important to analyse companies in
this sector with regard to their corporate branding strategies for reputation management.
Brand authenticity is a core element of distinguishing one company from its competitors.
From the marketing perspective, brand authenticity is valuable for dental clinics as they are
not easily differentiated in the competitive market. Brand authenticity refers to service
expertise, service consistency, trustfulness of advertising (online, offline), openness of
communication (offline and online) (Yang et al., 2016). Service expertise and consistency are
critical for human service of the dental care clinics because it is suggested that consistent
service based on expertise provided at the contact points of the service has positive impacts
on the enhanced service quality, image and brand reputation of dental clinics. Openness of
communication provides a core element for clients to sympathize with the images of the
dental clinics. Authentic service is an element to earn a brand reputation. But it also provides
positive attitudes, increases brand reliability, customer satisfaction and brand loyalty (Yang
et al., 2016). Thus, managers of the dental clinics should provide training programs for their
employees to increase the medical service quality. They should listen totheir patients’ ideas
and cause sympathy and voluntarily recommendation; create authentic, responsible, ethical
advertisements to earn patients’ trust (Yang et al., 2016).
Not many studies have related corporate branding with reputation in the context of small
and medium sized companies. To understand the definition of small and medium sized
19
companies in Netherlands - the focus context of this study: Deutsche Bank Research suggest
that small and medium sized companies are the companies with employee size of less than
100 people in Netherlands (Roth, 2011). In particular, internal communication strategies of
small and medium sized enterprises have not been studied by many literatures. Hola’s
(2012) study is the only research of our reach which explained internal communication as an
element to establish a strong corporate brand. It should be also emphasized that internal
communication has an essential effect on company operations, job performance, work
behaviour and attitudes of employees. All employers including the managers should provide
sufficient communication for better identification of corporate objectives (Hola, 2012).
Present study is aimed to fill this gap by analysing the internal communication of small and
medium sized companies’ corporate branding strategies and their effects on corporate
reputation. Thus, the research questions of this study are;
How do dental care companies differentiate themselves with corporate branding?
How does corporate branding affect corporate reputation in dental care companies?
How is the relation between corporate branding and corporate reputation for small
and medium sized companies?
3.Methodology
This chapter focuses on explaining in detail the chosen method, in-depth interviews and its
relevance to this study and the research question. This chapter presents the reasons of the
chosen method and explains the procedure of the interviews that were conducted. In this
part, following parts will be determined namely; research design, the sample, the procedure
of the interviews and operationalization of the research. Finally, data analysis according to
the interviews will be presented in this chapter.
3.1. Research Design
In order to answer the research question qualitative research technique which is semi-
constructed in-depth interview method was selected since deeper information could be
gathered from the company owners, the employees, consumers, customers, patients and
this can give the researcher better understanding to analyse the relation between corporate
20
branding and reputation. 13 semi-constructed interviews were conducted. Qualitative
research is focused on developing explanations of social phenomena (Grundtvig Learning
Partnership Project, 2010). Qualitative research is focused on the social aspects of the world
and seeks to anwer about why people behave the way they do, how opinions and attitudes
are formed, how people are affected by the events that go around them, how and why
cultures have developed in the way they have, the differences between social groups
(Grundtvig Learning Partnership Project, 2010).
Qualitative research is in more depth and detailed compared with the quantitative research.
In a standard questionnaire as a quantitative technique method, the researcher may not
provide as much depth information as in qualitative method (Grundtvig Learning Partnership
Project, 2010). This research aim is to investigate people’s understanding, behavioural
intentions and attitudes. Furthermore, in the research it is also proposed to determine
corporate branding and corporate reputation relation by understanding both the employers
and employees of dental clinics and also the patients of these clinics. So, it is very essential
to use qualitative research method with semi-constructed interview method to provide
deeper information about the subject.
During semi-constructed interview, the interviewer asks questions each time in the same way
but is free to differentiate the sequence and can investigate more information. By this way,
the interviewer adopts his/her interview schedule according to the respondent’s level of
comprehension (Fielding & Thomas, 2008). Interviews consist of successful cooperation
between the researcher and the respondents (Mikecz, 2012). Furthermore, semi-constructed
in-depth interview has a strong tool which is probing.
An interview protocol was developed for semi-constructed interviews. Question protocols are
suitable for structured or semi constructed interviews (Castillo-Montoya, 2016). Developing
an interview framework has phases. The first phase is ensuring interview questions align with
the research question (Castillo-Montoya, 2016). In order to develop a well-prepared protocol,
the protocol is divided into two sections. The first one is for the clinic itself and the other
section is developed for clinic’s patients. The questions are determined according to this
21
distinction since the questions for both sides will be different furthermore the wording for the
questions differs for each question according to whom the questions are asked to.
The whole process for the interviews were recorded and then transcribed verbatim for the
qualitative six-phase thematic analysis (Braun, V. and Clarke, 2006).
3.2. Sampling
With respect to the sampling method, the interviews were conducted among the patients of
dental care company, as well as the employees working at this company. The focal company
is “Tandheelkundegroep Nederland”. This clinic has currently two dental clinics working
actively, one of them is in Rotterdam and the other one is in Den Hague. Its employee
number is more than 60. These two clinics are under the brand name of Tandartsenpraktijke
Zuid. The sample consists of thirteen people: Seven participants from the company at
different levels and six participants are among registered patients of Tandartsenpraktijke
Zuid. Among the interviewees 6 of them are male and 7 of them are female. All these people
reside in Netherlands. In Netherlands, it is mandatory to register at a dental clinic as a
patient so the sample of the patients were tried to be chosen among these registered
patients by discussing with the operations manager of the clinic, Melek Delen. This sampling
method can be classified as purposive sampling since the researcher can reach valuable and
deep knowledge of the concept with a relatively small sample (Guarte & Barrios, 2006).
Guarte and Barrios (2006) also mention that “purposive sampling is a random selection of
sampling units within the segment of the population with the most information on the
characteristic of interest”(Guarte & Barrios, 2006,p. 277). Below in Figure 3.1, the
participants of the sample are mentioned with their titles, gender, age and the working time
at the company. Except one of the patient all five of them are Turkish and have also Dutch
passport. So, their native language is Turkish and the interviews with these patients were
conducted in Turkish. The other patient’s background is from Nigeria and this interview was
conducted in English. Interviews with the chief executive officer Ali Keleş and with the dental
clinic coordinator Hilal Ateş, were conducted in Turkish since their native language is Turkish.
The other five interviews with the dental clinic chief medical officer K.D. Go and the
employees were conducted in English. Since this sample is consisted of people from
22
different nations, it can be also a good evidence for the research about the target audience
of the group. On the other hand, in order to get valuable results, the ideal sample should
include from both genders, people with different societal groups and different ages but in
this research, it is not fully achieved and this will be the limitation of the research which will
be further discussed on limitations chapter.
Participant Title Gender Age Working / Registered time
Employer / Employee
E1 E2 E3 E4 E5 E6 E7
Chief Executive Officer
Chief Medical
Officer
Business Developer
Business Developer
Clinic Coordinator
Clinic Coordinator
Dental Assistant
Male
Male
Male
Female
Female
Female
Male
33
50
23
21
23
21
21
November, 2013
November,
2013
January, 2016
February, 2017
November, 2013
June, 2014
January, 2014
Patients
23
P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 P6
Bakery worker
Nurse
Housewife
Housewife
Housewife
Housewife
Male
Male
Female
Female
Female
Female
45
27
42
45
41
48
November,
2013
January, 2013
March, 2013 October, 2014
May, 2014
May, 2014
Table 1. Table for the research sample
3.3. Procedure In order to gain higher level of trust between the researcher and the participants, the
privacy of the interview was explained to the participants. Also, the consents of the
participants were asked in order to indicate that they were accepting to participate this
interview and the research. It was also mentioned that the interview would be recorded via
a recorder. The interviews were recorded via Asus mobile phone of the researcher. The
approximate time was between 30-45 minutes per interview. The interviews were
conducted during the last week of April 2017 and the first week of May 2017 since the CEO,
CMO and 2 business developers were available at those days. The interviews of these 4
people were conducted at Tandheelkunde Groep Nederland head office at Villa Lakeside in
Rotterdam. The interviews of the patients were scheduled in the first week of May 2017. 6
patients were interviewed in one day after the closing date of Rotterdam clinic in
Hermancoster Straat in Rotterdam. All the interviews were conducted in rooms without a
third person attending. Before each of the interviews, respondents were informed that the
data that were provided from them would be only used for academic purposes and would
not be shared with public.
While doing the interviews, researcher also took some notes which give her insights for
some questions. After each interview was conducted, the records were transcribed and if
necessary translated into English from Turkish. One of the disadvantage of this research was,
all the patient interviews were conducted in only one day so the researcher had to
24
transcribe all the 6 interviews one after another and there wasn’t any time for the
researcher to think and change if necessary about the interview guideline for the patients.
Before the interview started, it is aimed to ask especially to patients some questions to make
them feel more relaxed. Because most of them were female Turkish and they were too shy
to talk and worried about what they would be asked. Furthermore, the researcher had to
use probing too much when doing interviews with patients. Probing is a key interviewing
skill, it is all about encouraging respondents to give an answer and as full a response as the
format allows. Probing is important especially in open ended questions and even highly
standardised formats will usually include a few of these (Fielding & Thomas, 2008). The
concepts such as branding and reputation were too foreign for the patients and the
researcher had to use probing to make them understand the terms and get useful answers.
3.4. Operationalization The interview is composed of a brief introduction of the purpose of the research to the
interviewees. Before asking specific questions about the research, interviewees were
required to give a brief introduction of themselves including information on their names,
their origin and occupations. In order to provide a clear structure for the interview, the
researcher went through a guide that it was prepared previously. With an interview guide,
interviewers take their own path within certain guidelines (Gilbert, 2009). This guide was
including all the focus points and the questions that will be planned to ask to the
participants. In order to reach valuable and deep information from the participants, open
ended questions were asked. Real time events and examples were provided for the
respondents. Table 1, illustrates the guide for the interview. This guide includes the
proposed questions but since semi-constructed method was used, many more questions
were asked to the participants when needed and sometimes participants gave the answers
of the next questions with their answers. 2 different interview guides were studied for the
clinic employers, employees and patients separately (See Appendix A). Even though the
focuses were different for two guides, the questions were selected to learn deeper insight of
the employees, the employer and the patients on corporate branding, reputation and dental
care sector relation. For the clinic staff and the employers, first part of the interview was
25
started with questions for providing general information about Tandheelkunde Groep. These
questions were planned to ask since the researcher tried to understand if the employees
also have the same knowledge about the group or not. The second part of the interview
guide was about current branding strategy of the group including communication strategies
for existing clients and also for new clients. Third part of the interview guide was focusing
on brand communication which includes traditional and social media advertising and their
truthfulness, service quality, expertise, consistency and openness of communication. The
final part was about on corporate reputation. Interview guide for the patients was differed
with the style and wording of the questions. Below the table for the separate interview
guides for clinic employees, employers and patients can be seen. After the interviews, the
collected data were analysed to find the common patterns among the clinic employees,
employers and clinic patients. Then all the results were compared with the reviewed
literature and corporate branding, corporate reputation in the dental clinic findings.
3.5. Data Analysis
The inductive semantic approach was applied to this research. Corporate branding and
corporate reputation are two separate terms and there are many researches that investigate
these terms in different aspects separately but there are not so many researches to give a
deeper information about their relation especially in dental health care. This research didn’t
have to be supported by existing coding frame or the researcher’s own prejudgements that’s
why this is a data-driven thematic analysis (Braun and Clarke, 2006) At the interpretation
section, it can be seen that findings were interpreted also with the help of theoretical
framework.
In this section, the method for analysing data that was gathered from interviews will be
presented. After transcribing and translation of the interviews, the data was processed in 6
phases which is a thematic analysis approach. This six phased thematic analysis approach
helped to identify the patterns of the meanings and answer the research question according
to these meanings in a systematic and objective way (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The six-phased
approach can be seen on figure 3.5.
26
Phase Description of the process
1. Familiarizing with the data gathered
from the data
Transcribing, reading, looking for the
patterns, generating initial ideas.
2. Generation of initial codes Identifying interesting aspects, points,
coding.
3. Searching for themes Categorizing codes
4. Reviewing themes Reviewing and improving themes
5. Defining and naming themes Defining specific themes and if necessary
create sub themes.
6. Producing the report Selecting examples, providing final analysis,
relating results to the research paper
Table 2. The six-phased thematic analysis approach chart
The first step of data analysis started with familiarizing with the data. After transcribing and
translation of the interviews the researcher read all the interviews one by one repeatedly to
look for patterns and generate them. This helped the researcher to get the initial sections of
her findings.
The second step includes the researcher’s identification of interesting subjects gathered from
all the interviews and underline all of the points on transcription texts. For example, when the
researcher asked to one of the patients about their reason to choose Tandheelkunde Groep’s
one of dental clinics, the answer was because they saw the clinic when they were walking on
that street which was coded as selection because of “convenience” but with the other
interviews there was another important point found which was “flyer (print ad) effect”. Thus,
there were new codes after finalizing analysis of the other interviews. After that with the third
section researcher categorized the codes that were found in the previous section and created
themes. With the fourth phase, researcher tried to improve the themes by reviewing them
again and again. During the fifth phase, since new themes were found researcher wanted to
merge the themes logically and also divide them into sub categories which helped her to
27
analyse the themes easily. The last phase includes the analysing and writing the report
accordingly. This research result section will present the findings that were found with the
help of these phases.
3.6. Reliability According to Patton (2002) reliability of a research is essential for the researcher when
designing the study, doing the data analysis and then analysing the results (Patton, 2002).
The issue of reliability is discussed more often in research studies based on quantitative data
rather than qualitative data(Campbell, Quincy, Osserman, & Pedersen, 2013). To
Krippendorf (1995), there are 3 types of reliability. One is stability where the concern is if the
coder’s use of codes change over time. Second one is accuracy where a standard coding
scheme is already established with high reliability and other coding schemes are developed
and compared to it. Third is reproducibility across coders-often called intercoder reliability
where the concern is whether different coders would code the same data in the same
way(Campbell et al., 2013). Many researchers rarely report or discuss reliability in their
work. Also, there are not much studies on the subject for this type of data.
Transparency of the data can help to ensure the reliability of the data(Moisander &
Valtonen, 2011). In this study, the researcher aimed to present transparent data with all the
details to ensure the reliability. Recording all the interviews, transcribing verbatim and
presenting long extracts of the data in the analysis section are effective means to ensure the
reliability(Silverman, 2015). Apart from this, a second coder was asked to code the themes
of two interviews so that the researcher could compare the results with the other interviews
that were conducted. The second coder was a lecturer at one of Turkish universities who has
finalized her doctorate degree.
3.7. Validity Validity is defined by the researchers as appropriateness of the tools, processes and data.
Whether the research question is valid for desired outcome, the choice of methodology, the
sampling and data analysis’s fit to the research and finally the results and conclusions are
valid for the sample and the context (Leung, 2015).
28
According to the understanding of validity term in qualitative research, in this study all the
procedures were followed systematically. First of all, the aim of this study is to explore the
corporate branding’s role on corporate reputation. The section for research design has
presented sufficient reason to conduct a semi-structured interview. The sample of this
research was selected randomly and the respondents were presenting different
demographic features. The sample was including respondents from employees and also
from registered patients. Questions of the interview were studied according to theoretical
framework and was ready before the interviews. Finally, for the data analysis, inductive
thematic analysis was implemented. During the analysing process, the researcher tried to
think in a theoretical perspective and furthermore a second coder helped for the coding
process in order to provide a reliable result.
4. Results In this chapter, the results of the six-phased thematic analysis will be presented. In the
previous chapter, the methodology procedure is explained for thirteen in-depth interviews.
The core themes will be summarized, sub sections will be clarified and detailed respectively.
The results section will be in 3 sections. The first section will determine the themes and sub
themes according to the company perspective, the second section will determine those
according to the patient perspective, the last section will provide comparison between these
two perspectives. Afterwards, a summary will be presented which reflects the analysis and
comparison with the theoretical framework. It is believed that this will provide a view to the
research question in a more academic way. The researcher is also aware that there can be
extra insights from respondents and this can create another, different perspective to the
research. These insights will be also presented in the results section. In this section, a
conceptual model will be also provided with the help of findings and the researcher’s
interpretation.
4.1. Emergent themes according to the company perspective Thematic analysis method was used on the collected data. After thematic analysis was
finalized with these data, the themes were identified for patient and the company
perspectives. In this section, themes will be determined according to company perspective.
29
The themes are namely as follows; design of branding activities, service quality, hospitality
and human resources. All of these themes are identified with the feedback of both the
employees, employers of Tandheelkunde Groep Nederlands. With the following sub sections,
these themes will be identified in detail.
4.1.1. Design of branding activities One of the most mentioned theme is determined as design of branding activities by the
company. These activities are actualized with different tools in different times but all of the
respondents mentioned these activities during the interview. Tandheelkunde Groep
Nederland has currently a 4 years life time. It has two dental clinics. Rotterdam clinic is opened
in 2013 and Den Haag clinic is opened in 2016. So, the company is still aiming to gain more
clients for both of its clinics. 4 years ago, when opening the first clinic, there were also brand
awareness campaigns according to the company CEO. These campaigns include door to door
advertising, event sponsorships, outdoor and also indoor branding. These are mentioned as 4
sub themes of the main theme “design of branding activities”. These sub themes will be
determined in detail in the following sections.
4.1.1.1. Door to door advertising As discussed in the previous paragraphs, door to door advertising was mentioned by the
employees. It is presented as company’s advertising strategy to attract new clients. According
to managing director of The Leaflet Company and chairman of the DMA door-to door council,
there are 3 reasons for door -to - door advertising’s growth, first one is it is easy and cheap to
test and can monitor 500000 households, second it is cost effective and third it works (Godin,
2004).
Flyers Flyer delivery is the that the company has been using for its the targeted audience. This tool
is discussed by the employers and the employees.
Tandheelkunde Groep Nederland uses door to door advertising materials in order to reach
targeted audience. This tool is an efficient tool for the company since it provides ease to
reach targeted customers. Moreover, it is cheaper than the other marketing tools.
30
“We use different press or marketing instruments. We have flyers, posters and hard
copy print ads that we do direct marketing… We prefer to be at different places as we
can do, as our budget limitations” (Respondent E1).
During the interview, respondents gave their feedback on these types of advertising material’s
trustworthiness which is important for also reputation of the company. Trustworthiness of
advertising shows if the brand promise meets the standard of the services of the company.
Company managers mentioned their purposive marketing activities to reach targeted
audience. They also confirmed that flyer delivery is one of the tool that they use frequently.
To sum up, flyer delivery to the houses within the neighbourhood is an attractive way to
inform the clients about the clinic and its services. On the other hand, the flyers are in Turkish
and Dutch so that the target audience is attracted with their native language which will be
later discussed as another subtheme.
4.1.1.2. Event sponsorship
“We go different cooperation, these can be communities, mosques of religious
foundation, different mosques, synagogue, church, cultural cooperation, patient
treatment days, city hall’s special days, schools. We go to very different places and
introduce ourselves actively and give information about health and hygiene”
(Respondent E1).
For most of the respondents, one of the other tool to create awareness for the clinics is event
sponsorships. 10 out of 13 respondents mentioned that they are aware of these kinds of
events.
Tandheelkunde Groep Nederland tries to choose efficient ways for their marketing activities.
One of these activities is event sponsorships. These sponsorships are chosen among lots of
events which can attract targeted audiences. With these sponsorships, company tries to
train, educate the attendants about dental care, general health care and hygiene. Both the
patients and the company think event sponsorships beneficial for both the company and the
patients. To sum up, events like kermises, fairs are great places for the company to
introduce itself. It is also a good feedback that company is recalled by the respondents who
attend to these events.
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4.1.1.3. Outdoor branding Apart from door -to- door advertising activities and event sponsorships, one of the sub
theme of branding activities is shown up as outdoor branding.
Tandheelkunde Groep Nederland has outdoor branding for its two dental clinics. All of the
employees confirmed these brandings’ effectiveness on directing people to the clinics.
“We have communication inside at the reception, for the payments, bleaching, implant
and so on and we have also outside, the branding takes them inside because they see
the names of the doctors in Turkish for example” (Respondent E5).
In this response, the wording “them” is used for the patients.
“When going in front of the clinic in Rotterdam, at nights, it is all clear, there is a light
board, it is good I think, we have our logo on it” (Respondent E6).
Consistency is critical in branding, so the practice’s professionally designed logo must be
used throughout all marketing efforts, including exterior / interior signage, practice
letterhead and business cards, printed materials and advertising, as well as on the practice
website, in the e-mail signature of each team member, throughout online media such as
practice blog and even on social media profiles (Cooper, 2013). To sum up, outdoor branding
is important for the patients and its positive effects were confirmed by the employees.
4.1.1.4. Indoor branding For the employee and especially for the management team all the effort that were done for
the branding was purposively.
“We use same type of materials in our clinics. Our chairs are the same, our colour match
is the same. We became corporate and we are sustaining it. These are the things that
people can be attracted” (Respondent, E1).
Some respondents stated that clinics has a mission to adapt itself to the city.
“A huge picture of Rotterdam itself in the dental clinic in black and white. This is the
same case in the Haag. We believe that this creates a sort of local identifier for the
clinic, for the group in every city that it is located” (Respondent, E3).
Some respondents mentioned the colour consistency in the clinic buildings.
“I like the paintings in the Haag, the colours…” (Respondent, E6).
32
“When you go into the clinic, you see everywhere in blue. Inside you see in everywhere
our logo” (Respondent, E6).
One respondent called attention to the relation between outdoor branding and indoor
branding of the clinics.
“The paintings in the clinic catches the eye, the branding takes them inside because
they see the names of the doctors in Turkish for example” (Respondent E5).
Employees are aware of company’s effort on inside branding and its purpose. They feel also
responsible for the consistency and improvement of the branding of the company.
4.1.1.5. Social Media Eventhough Tandheelkunde Groep clinic doesn’t use any social media channels yet, the
respondents were very positive to see social media accounts of the groups’ clinics. The
management remarked that they have been working on implementing these channels since
the respondents from the management think it is an element of marketing.
“Currently we have social media activities in progress and they should be improved.
We are in preparation and in the next month till summer, we plan to be in social
media more. We are in progress and after that we will be doing television
commercials special for ethnic parts and we believe that it is totally a marketing. If
one of them is missing, it cannot be concreated. Because of that we want marketing
to be in every part but most important thing is to give service to the patients at that
level. If you can’t respond accordingly you will lose” (Respondent, E1).
Some of the respondents gave the reason for which social media platforms should be used.
“I think every single company needs facebook page. Two biggests are facebook,
twitter and instagram. Facebook is necessity for all companies, twitter, not so much
especially in Europe, this is more Anglo-Saxon concept mostly in UK and America.
Instagram, I don't see a need for us. It is just photos. Advertising on an Instagram can
be a possibility. Advertisements of the company simply show up on the newsfeed for
the target audience. Facebook pages allows a universal access point” (Respondent,
E3).
Respondents also draw attention to social media managing skills.
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“Social media is needed for every business nowadays. The question is how you manage
it. For some companies, social media strategy is very frequent and very intensive to
generate results from it. For some establishments, clinics are belonged to second
category, it has to highlight the qualities of clinics without going too much or without
pushing people react” (Respondent, E4).
The same respondent also mentioned that dental clinic chose is something more personal.
“I think your choice of dental clinic is personal… Some strategies that are actively
utilized by companies Zara, Starbucks or any other lifestyle businesses are not really
applicable to dental health care” (Respondent, E4).
After facebook and Instagram were mentioned as social media platforms for the clinics
Whats App was also spoken about. One of the respondent’s idea of using Whats App was for
effective customer service.
“I was thinking on an application, it was too basic. A whats app group but it will be for
the patients. They have lots of questions after leaving the clinics so they can use this
application” (Respondent, E5).
Web site was shown up as a tool for customer service according to one respondent.
“Appointments can be arranged on our web site. We haven’t done it yet. It can be easy
for the patient and also for us” (Respondent, E7).
On the other hand, some respondents talked about pleasure of social media.
“If we have a facebook page we can see our friends, at the events like kermises and
so on” (Respondent, E7).
4.1.2. Service Quality Employees confirmed this theme as one of the most important qualification of the clinics. The
name of the theme is described as product and service quality but within Tandheelkunde
Groep Nederlands clinics it is mentioned as treatments and services. Product and service
quality as shown in different aspects and these are the sub themes of this main theme. The
sub themes are treatment quality, technology, hygiene and convenience.
4.1.2.1. Treatment quality The data provided from the company side confirmed the quality of the treatments. The other
important attribution of the clinic was mentioned as professionalism.
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“Dr. Go has 40 years’ experience in dental care. He has a reputation and certain
standards, we try to reflect these standards to the other dentists and the employees.
We have control mechanisms, we examine all the treatments and call the patients
again, control their teeth” (Respondent, E1).
4.1.2.2. Technology Usage According to the data gathered from the respondents, technology is one of the most
frequently mentioned attribution that the respondents give value for the dental clinics.
“We always open the clinics from zero and buy the most modern devices… There are
3 types of roentgen photos. First one is we say solo, it can take one piece or only a part
of it. Then, there is roentgen device as we know. Rontgen device can take whole jaw
but not 3D. This is an upper level and can be at hospitals. Their prices are too high….
therefore, technologies at the hospitals are at our clinics” (Respondent, E1).
“I visit lots of fairs, conferences in Netherlands also in Europe, to improve my
knowledge and know more about technology about dental care” (Respondent, E2).
Tandheelkunde Groep Nederland tries to improve its technology that is used in the clinics.
According to the respondents, serving with high quality technology can have a positive effect
on patients.
4.1.2.3. Hygiene According to the respondents one of the most mentioned attribution of a clinic is the
hygiene.
Hygiene is one of the most frequently used attribution by the employers and the employees
but they also think that hygiene is a mandatory attribution which should be in all health care
companies.
One of the respondent who is an employee mentioned that hygiene is a rule for the clinics.
“Hygiene is too important, our hands, nails should be clean, we control each other,
every day” (Respondent, E7).
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4.1.2.4. Convenience From the data gathered during the interviews, convenience of the clinics is specified as a sub
theme of the service quality. Convenience sub theme can be divided into 2 categories
according to the answers of the respondent from the company side. In the following sections
this sub theme will be detailed.
Targeted audience and target location
As discussed previously, convenience is shown up one of the most important attribution for
the dental clinics. This qualification is provided by the clinic itself. It is all mentioned by the
employers and the patients. According to the CEO of Tandheelkunde Groep, the locations of
the clinics were planned consciously.
“We are open to all Dutch people and people who live in here. Our clinics are mainly
regional, in other words, some south parts of Rotterdam, north region, west or east.
There can be one branch office in each region. Our business speaks to the people who
are around our clinics. These are different ethnic background people who live near the
clinic that we opened. For example, in Rotterdam, Den Haag and big cities, there are
more than 100 different kinds of ethnics…Moreover we have a qualification that we
give service with lots of languages and our employees also have more than one culture
and language. Because of that we have an interest in ethnic markets” (Respondent,
E1).
When looking at the location of the clinics, they are located in the centre of some ethnic
neighbourhoods. People’s nationalities are mainly Turkish, Moroccan.
“In most clinics, we don’t target to Dutch population, the native population. Mostly at
some point coming from abroad and integrated into Dutch society and they experience
trust, come to the dentist and speak with their own language. This is a very good fit for
the company to expand to ethnic market” (Respondent, E4).
With this answer of the respondent, it was the first time that ethno marketing concept was
pronounced. In order to reach these targeted group, it was essential to establish the clinic in
that area.
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“Our target market and patients are those who originally from a different country so
we have an ethno marketing concept basically” (Respondent, E3).
“Den Haag clinic is at a location where many international people live but it is not on
the main street, it is on the branch road” (Respondent, E6).
The location of the clinics was chosen purposively on the main streets of some locations where
people from different ethnic background live by the company. These purposive efforts are
confirmed by all the employees.
Availability - Working Hours
The other element of the convenience sub theme is shown up as availability. According to
the most respondents, availability, the working hours is something very valuable for
choosing their dental clinic.
The respondents from the clinic employees confirmed their working hours as their unique
attribution. According to the feedback from the employees, the working hours depend on
the patients’ availability. The clinics work also at weekends and it has not a certain time for
closing.
“We also mention our working hours on the windows of our clinic, this attracts
attention of the possible clients because we don’t have the same working hours with
the other clinics” (Respondent, E5).
“The other things that they will be attracted are our service areas and service days.
We are open for 7 days from 8 in the morning till 20.00 in the evening. Yesterday
there is a patient at 23:30 at night. We have incredible working and opening hours.
Annually, 363,364 days in average. One day, which is after new year 1st of January.
First day, that day we are closed. I know that we worked at new year night.
Therefore, there is a place where people can go whenever, in the afternoon, in the
evenings, they work or not, there is a service” (Respondent, E1).
4.1.3. Hospitality One of the most important qualification of a clinic came in view as communication style
according to the data gathered from the interviews.
Receptionist’s value as the first face of the clinic is also accepted by the group management.
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“Well informed employee will treat the patients with respect, with extra care. This is
important. We want our patients to keep coming. We want to be happy in our clinic.
It is much more like hospitality. In hospitality rule 1 is always smile. Giving what
patient wants when they are in our clinic. At the end, they have good experience
otherwise they will not come back” (Respondent, E3).
Even though patient relationship value is confirmed by both the employees, the
management of the group notified that they have to improve themselves in that area.
“The most important thing in the clinic is the relation and contact with the patient.
The most precious value is the patient herself/ himself. I think we have ways to cover
in here” (Respondent, E1).
This theme is a merge of 3 sub themes. In the following sections, the sub themes will be
mentioned in detail. These are namely, receptionist as the first face, different language
usage, presence of a spokesperson.
4.1.3.1. Receptionist as the first face Nearly all of the respondents mentioned the receptionist’s role is one of the most valuable
attribution of a clinic. The employees who work at the reception emphasized their value on
creating relationships with the patients.
“My value is how I communicate with the patients. I’m the first person that they
communicate… when they go into the clinic, they ask for me or they ask for Melek”
(Respondent, E5).
Some of the respondents also mentioned that they behave as they are, natural but they also
confirmed that they give importance to have a well communication with the patients.
“I always think my family, I behave to the patients according to this” (Respondent,
E6).
“I welcome them with a smiling face, I feel close to them. If a patient is too emotional,
we behave accordingly, no one is standard, patient is patient, no one is the same”
(Respondent, E7).
“We reach people who need help and also need to be understood, they are not just
patients for us, we are motivating them for their health” (Respondent, E5).
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“Sometimes some patients come from other clinics and they are telling some sad
stories but they cannot come upon those sad stories in our clinic, we give information
on everything; budget, insurance, we give information to each of them separately…”
(Respondent, E6).
As a company, Tandheelkunde Groep is aware of these employees and tries to have a
standard behaviour process with in these people.
4.1.3.2. Spokes Person
According to the business dictionary, spokesperson is defined as a celebrity or a well-known
and respected individual who serves as a regular advocate of a cause or product and over
time, whose name becomes associated with the advocated item. Entrepreneur.com defines
company spokesperson as usually a member of a company’s marketing department, other
company employee (the CEO or a corporate communications director), or a member of a
public relations firm hired by the company. Their task is to present a professional face. A
spokesperson also can be a celebrity hired to increase the visibility or reputation of a
company. Even though Tandheelkunde Groep dental clinics are small medium sized
enterprises, with the interviews a spokesperson affect was shown up. Many respondents
including patients and clients pronounced a person name frequently. This person was
presenting a character as a problem solver according to the respondents.
The respondents from the clinic management stated that her presence at the clinics always
make them feel safe. Her professionalism, knowledge and communication style with the
patients make her unique for the company.
“I know that everything is alright and in a good order when Melek is at the clinics”
(Respondent, E2).
“The rules are mainly managed by Mrs. Melek, she has decades of experience in this
sector… “(Respondent, E3).
An employee at the clinic was perceived as a face of the clinics like a spokesperson. Being
reliable, being knowledgeable, being receptive have shown as valuable personal
qualifications of a spokesperson. The relations between the patients and the employee is
very critical in small and medium sized dental care clinics. During the interviews eventhough
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the company didn’t mention Melek as a spokesperson, they mentioned her professionalism,
communication and expertise as unique attributions of their clinics. This is very important
for the company to feel comfortable in communication with the patients.
4.1.3.3. Different Language Usage Language usage in Tandheelkunde Groep Nederlands’s clinic was shown up as one of the
most valuable and essential characteristic of dental clinics. In this sub theme, different
language usage will be detailed. This sub theme was stated by many respondents from
company side. Furthermore, on company’s web site this qualification was mentioned.
“The dental group has over 18 languages, through those languages even though they
are ethnically for example Turkish or Moroccan or Dutch Antilles or Surinamese, they
all speak Dutch and many times they need to speak with their own language. Our aim
is to break down this language barrier for those who has different nationalities and
easier, more comfortable experience in terms of being able to express themselves
freely” (Respondent, E3).
“In the clinics, we don’t target the Dutch population, the native population. Mostly at
some point coming from abroad, have integrated into Dutch society and experience
trust, coming in to the dentist and speak their own language, I think it is a very good
fit for the company to expand to ethnic markets” (Respondent, E4).
Respondents who are employees at the clinics also mentioned that they had been
experiencing those issues too much at the clinics.
“In Rotterdam patients know Dutch more but in Den Haag, they don’t know much
Dutch but we are trying to solve this issue”. (Respondent, E7).
Some of the respondents emphasized the cultural differences among the patients. They
explained that sometime they have to behave according to these cultural and behaviour
differences of the patients.
“Our patients are not Dutch always, they are Arabic, French, Turkish, Belgian and
they are very different from Dutch people. Dutch people is always on time. Diversity is
important for us to know how to communicate with them” (Respondent, E5).
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4.1.4. Human Resources When talking about clinics’ service quality and consistency respondents gave feedback on
the process of standardization and the improvement of the services. This is provided by the
human resource. According to the respondents’ feedback human resources theme has 3 sub
themes. These are training, internships and new projects. In the following section, these
three terms will be detailed.
4.1.4.1. Training The answers of the respondents from clinic employees mostly created this sub theme. The
answers were given when talking about the standardization of the services.
“Even though we have style for answering the calls and talking of the dentists, I don’t
say as criticism but it is the point that we should improve. Currently we planned some
courses for the next months. These courses include communication with the patients,
putting standards to what people say in which tone and how we can handle the
arguments and dissatisfaction or if there is a difficulty how you handle these.
Professionals will give a course to us. These are all in the next months. Actually, we
planned them to be last year but couldn’t realize them. We have approximately 3,4
different courses. And these will be all continuing. I mean it will be same for new ones
and we will try to catch a standard. But these of courses take too much time”
(Respondent, E1).
As it is discussed in the previous sub theme, according to respondents, clinic manager
presented also a trainer personality at the clinics.
“I trust Melek, she trains the employees well at the clinic, she shows how to use the
language, how to talk, behave to the patients” (Respondent, E2).
It was also explained during the interviews that a new employee always gets the first-time
training at the clinics.
“There are some specified protocols, these protocols are valid for all of our clinics. We
have a file. We can get a copy of it if we need. It is an information file how a new
employee should behave in the treatment rooms, waiting rooms, at reception and so
on…” (Respondent, E6).
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“We have some rules that we have to obey. For dressing, hygiene, we welcome the
patients, we shake hands if necessary, we say our names, we say good morning or
good afternoon and so on when answering the calls, we have protocols”
(Respondent, E7).
During the interviews, aim of these trainings took attention. Some of the trainings were
mentioned as projects that empower team feeling at the clinics.
“There is a good communication between management and the employees for
example we are organizing a team building day in which there will be lots of exercises
that require different abilities of different people. This is part of team building
process. Management will also participate. So, there is strong bond between
everybody in the organization” (Respondent, E3).
The company believes that these kinds of empowering trainings can structure a corporate
branding feelings also among the employees.
Training is one of the most important sub theme for both the employees and the employers
to provide standardized service procedures. It also creates empowerment for both the
employees and the employers.
4.1.4.2. Internship Opportunities
According to most of the respondents’ feedback, Tandheelkunde Groep Nederlands’s clinics
one of the employment process is providing internship opportunities for the students. While
discussing the employment process with the employees, internship opportunities were
presented at the first place for recruitment.
“I was doing my internship here, now my school is finished and I started as full time
employee. I was referred by a friend, he was also doing his internship here”
(Respondent, E7).
It was also mentioned by the respondents that the group has a strong communication with
the schools. These schools provide interns and employees for the clinics.
“I was a patient initially in here at the same time I was studying at Zadkine. There
was a two-week mandatory internship. I applied here and I was accepted. I’m here for
2 years, I work twice a week also I’m still following my courses” (Respondent, E6).
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“I was first an intern here now I’m a full-time employee. I was at Zadkine, school
arranged my job in here… After 4 years we created our own procedure and now we
can also train the interns here” (Respondent, E5).
It was mentioned by the respondents that the clinics provide employment opportunities in
clinics’ locations.
“We search our colleagues from those places, if we can’t find there, we search for
other places but we create employability…” (Respondent, E1).
As a company providing these kinds of employment or internship opportunities is a good
way to interact with the communities and people. Creating impact in the neighbourhood can
change the perception of the patients and this can lead to a reputable brand.
4.1.4.3. New projects During the interviews respondents also mentioned some new projects that can present
groups human resource strategy and its effects on groups’ reputation. The respondents
identified these new projects also as social responsibility activities.
“To control all of the dentists and employees we look at, evaluate them and talk with
them and in this framework, we started an academy. This is currently a small step but
we did the initiative. Go Academy. Go Academy means it is done by Dr. Go and it
means “to go” also. With this academy by doing seminars twice a week we will catch
the highest standards. This is our dream” (Respondent, E1).
“We can select successful student for our clinics with Go Academy” (Respondent, E2).
Respondents also stated that they are developing some project for society in clinics’ area.
“We develop projects in the society if there are no projects in that location. They are
about health, they are focusing on information. We have grants, they are financial or
moral. Social responsibility is a value that we feel deeply so we try to add value to
people, society, social issues, we are trying to do our best” (Respondent E1).
As it is mentioned previously, trying to make an impact by the company to the society can
create a good reputation.
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4.2. Emergent themes according to the patient perspective
Generally, the main themes are the same with the company perspective but some of the
themes are not valid for patients according to the data analysis in this study. These are
namely as follows, design of branding activities, service quality and hospitality.
4.2.1. Design of branding activities In the previous section, the details of branding activities were discussed from the company
perspective. In this section, the patient perspective will be detailed.
4.2.1.1. Door to door advertising Flyers Nearly all of the patients are aware of company’s flyer deliveries. All the patients mentioned
that they saw company’s flyers in all over the neighbourhood. They were also interested in
the content of the flyers.
“When I was at home after shopping I saw a flyer at my door which was in Turkish, I
showed it to my husband and after 2 days we visited the clinic, it is very near to my
house” (Respondent P5).
“I saw it in my post box, a flyer, they are doing that all the time” (Respondent P1).
4.2.1.2. Event sponsorship For most of the respondents, one of the other tool to create awareness for the clinics is event
sponsorships. 10 out of 13 respondents mentioned that they are aware of these kinds of
events. Especially patients are very interested in attending these events which are targeted to
a specified culture, nation, religion in Netherlands. These events include kermises, bazaars or
any other events that are organized by Turkish Religious Foundation in Netherlands.
“I like going to kermises organized by Kocatepe Mosque. Everyone is there. Also, I can
eat Turkish cultural food. It is cheaper there” (Respondent P3).
“I saw your stand at Kocatepe Mosque Kermis” (Respondent P5).
4.2.1.3. Outdoor branding
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Nearly all the patients remembered the outdoor branding of Rotterdam clinic. They
confirmed the colours and the logo that were used on the branding.
“The outside branding of Rotterdam clinic is so big, there are also names of the head
doctors on the windows and the opening and closing hours” (Respondent P6).
4.2.1.4. Social Media Patients are also interests in social media and they believe that the company should be
active in these channels. They only specify entertainment attribution of social media
platforms. Any other elements or attributions of social media weren’t mentioned by them.
But it should be crucial to add this branding activity to the patient perspective section in
order to understand patient perceptions.
“It can be good to see some photos on facebook, we can see ourselves there”
(Respondent, P5).
4.2.2. Service Quality
4.2.2.1. Treatment Quality According to the data gathered the most mentioned attribution of the clinic was its treatment
quality. 5 patients specified the clinics’ treatment quality as the most important reason that
make them to be registered to the clinic. Furthermore, one of the respondent told its
importance by giving an example.
“First, I was having treatment in another clinic, I came here with a tooth full of iccor. I
was having big pain. I asked the dentist and he wanted to see my tooth and he
discovered that my previous dentist broke the screw on my teeth when doing the root
treatment. I immediately gave up that dentist and registered here. Currently they are
doing implants for my teeth” (Respondent, P5).
According to the respondents the trust is also an important feeling that should be for a clinic.
“My husband is also registered to here. I’m also insisting my children for registering
here, but they are married and living in another location, clinic always calls to remind
me the time that I should do an appointment for a check-up” (Respondent, P5).
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“The previous clinic that I was registered sent me to the hospital for my tooth but I
came here and they solved the problem and all the things were done in here”
(Respondent, P3).
Also, the other 3 patients mentioned that they are also satisfied with treatment that clinic
serves. On the other hand, one of the respondents mentioned that treatment’s quality should
be standard for all of the dentists.
“…these are standard things you cannot just open up a dentist without meeting these
standards they should have. You don’t have to compare with any other clinics. It is a
standard. I’m satisfied with the treatment but I cannot say it is a very high quality”
(Respondent, P2).
One of the other feedback from one respondent was the high price of the treatment.
“They do great treatment but we pay too much” (Respondent, P3).
But the respondent was also aware of the standard price policy of all dentists in the
Netherlands.
4.2.2.2. Technology Usage The patients combined their treatment quality perception with also the technology and they
are believing that all the clinics of the group use good technology that meet their expectations.
In here, it shouldn’t be forgotten that the patients have not much information about dental
clinics technology usage, they only mentioned what they saw large machines, computers at
the clinics. As it is mentioned in the previous sub section one of the respondent told one of
her experience at another clinic.
“The previous clinic that I was registered sent me to the hospital for my tooth but I
came here and they solved the problem and all the things were done in here”
(Respondent, P3).
4.2.2.3. Hygiene Even though, this sub theme is not specified by the employees too much, all of the patients
repeated this as one of the most important standard for the clinics. Patients evaluate the
devices, materials’ hygiene but also, they evaluate the interior of the clinic like waiting rooms.
“When I go inside of the clinic, I feel, this is my house, everything is clean and fresh”
(Respondent, P4).
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“Hygiene is very important for me but it is a standard, it should be in everywhere, isn’t
it?” (Respondent, P2).
4.2.2.4. Convenience Location
According to patients’ feedback, the clinics, especially Rotterdam clinic gives patients a feeling
that the clinic is their close friend.
“This clinic is too near to my house, on the same street, before, my clinic that I was
registered was not in this location, now it is too near” (Respondent, P3).
“My house is 5 minutes’ walk to here, I also work at a bakery house, we are baking
Turkish pizza, it is behind this street, come and enjoy our food there” (Respondent, P1).
“Sometimes when I walk to my work I just go inside the clinic and say hello to the
employees that work here” (Respondent, P1).
Availability During the interviews patients stated the availability of Tandheelkunde Groep Nederland’s
clinics as an advantage for them and also an advantage for the company itself.
“I moved this location from Utrecht and I was just having a walk to look around, and I
saw this clinic, it was like 8 or 9 pm, I went in and ask some questions” (Respondent,
4.2.3. Hospitality As it is determined in company section perspective, this theme is a merge of 3 sub themes.
In the following sections, the sub themes will be mentioned in detail. These are namely,
receptionist as the first face, different language and presence of spokesperson.
4.2.3.1. Receptionist as the first face The patients mentioned their satisfaction about how they were welcomed by the
receptionists at the clinic. Giving the right and needed information to the patient is very
important for the receptionists
“… We have a girl here, at the receptionist, I think she is from Somalia, she is so nice,
she always smiles…” (Respondent, P5).
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“There are couple of people, who do great work here, they are very official, but I don’t
know their names” (Respondent, P2).
“When I go in, they always ask how I am and ask me if I want tea or coffee”
(Respondent, P4).
4.2.3.2. Spokes Person
“I wasn’t very happy when I first came to this clinic. They weren’t using the protocols,
there were lot of things that I didn’t like, the workers were working with their
sentiments. They were putting me behind Turkish people when waiting. This
happened so many times. I was angry and I told this to Melek. I don’t know how but
she solved the problem. Now everything is ok…. When I moved here from Rotterdam,
I realized that some treatments were taking too much time than when I was treated
in Utrecht so I had to spend more money in here, I again told this to Melek and she
took over my file from the other workers who didn’t do their work right”
(Respondent, P2).
As many respondents mentioned, this person has provided trust among the respondents.
“If Melek is at the clinic, it is good for me, sometimes I just come here to say hello and
drink a cup of tea” (Respondent, P1).
“She told me about all the details about my treatment, the payment options and we
did a plan together according to my budget, she is so receptive” (Respondent P5).
4.2.3.3. Different Language Usage As it is stated by the respondents who are employees, this qualification forms a unique
selling proposition of the clinics and one of the most important element of the hospitality
theme.
“…. before, my clinic that I was registered was not in this location, now it is too
near…I live in this street Herman Costerstraat also there was a language issue…I
know a little Dutch…We didn’t follow any courses” (Respondent, P3).
4.3. Comparison between two perspectives With the data analysis, the themes were identified according to both company and patient
perspectives. Except one theme, the patients, employees and the employers discussed the
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same themes as essential for creating the relation between corporate branding and the
reputation. Human resource theme is discussed only by the employees and the employers
since it is an internal process or department within the companies. It is assumed that the
patients can perceive the results of human resource activities. These results can be
determined in different sub themes.
During the interviews, respondents gave their feedback on these types of advertising
material’s trustworthiness which is important for also reputation of the company.
Trustworthiness of advertising shows if the brand promise meets the standard of the services
of the company. Company managers mentioned their purposive marketing activities to reach
targeted audience. They also confirmed that flyer delivery is one of the tool that they use
frequently. To sum up, flyer delivery to the houses within the neighbourhood is an attractive
way to inform the clients about the clinic and its services. On the other hand, the flyers are in
Turkish and Dutch so that the target audience is attracted with their native language which
will be later discussed as another subtheme.
According to patients’ answers generally, the women are more interested in the events than
the men. There are some reasons for their interest, these are being together with relatives
and friends, purchase some food, cheaper kitchen products like Tupperware, eating Turkish
cultural food. Tandheelkunde Groep Nederland tries to choose efficient ways for their
marketing activities. One of these activities is event sponsorships. These sponsorships are
chosen among lots of events which can attract targeted audiences. With these sponsorships,
company tries to train, educate the attendants about dental care, general health care and
hygiene. Both the patients and the company think event sponsorships beneficial for both the
company and the patients. To sum up, events like kermises, fairs are great places for the
company to introduce itself. It is also a good feedback that company is recalled by the
respondents who attend to these events.
It is not very clear with their answers what the patients observe at the clinic inside as a
branding tool but according to their answers they were exposed to outdoor branding of
Rotterdam clinic so much. One of the other reason they are so exposed to the clinic’s
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outdoor branding is because they live in the same neighbourhood so when they go out they
always see the branding and it is too attractive for them. Consistency is critical in branding,
so the practice’s professionally designed logo must be used throughout all marketing efforts,
including exterior / interior signage, practice letterhead and business cards, printed
materials and advertising, as well as on the practice website, in the e-mail signature of each
team member, throughout online media such as practice blog and even on social media
profiles (Cooper, 2013). To sum up, outdoor branding is important for the patients and its
positive effects were confirmed by the employees and the employers.
Social media’s effect cannot be denied nowadays. During the interviews, the perceptions of
both the company and the patients were analysed. Even though the company has no
activities on social media platforms currently, they mentioned that they were aware of the
importance of these platforms for interacting with current and prospective patients. Some
of the employees also stated that these kinds of platforms are good for interaction with all
the employees in the company. Patients were also positive to companies’ use of social
media platforms. The main attractiveness of social media usage for the patients are
entertainment attribution.
Treatment quality is the most important factor for the patients to choose a dental clinic.
According to the data, even though the other attributions do not satisfy the patients they can
still choose a dental clinic with a trust on treatment quality and this can be a core element of
corporate branding also. On the other hand, the company gives importance to have a standard
with the treatment quality of their two clinics. They also trust their professionalism and
experienced dentists.
Technology seems to be an important asset for the dental clinics. For Tandheelkunde Groep
Nederland clinics, respondents from both sides, employees and the patients mention that
Tandheelkunde Groep Nederland uses high quality technology for its clinics. Employees are
more aware of the technology. Patients see the company as technological by seeing machines,
equipment at the clinics and perceive the clinic as technological after the treatment.
50
Hygiene is thought to be the most important and mandatory attribution for a clinic. The
patients give importance on a clinic’s hygiene. This attribute also affects the patients’ trust.
According to the interviews, it is clear that hygiene is a mandatory attribution of a clinic.
During the interviews when patients wanted to say something positive about the clinics, they
started their sentences with hygiene. Also, some patients mentioned that hygiene shouldn’t
be discussed for a dental clinic since it is mandatory for the companies. Company is also aware
of the importance of hygiene attribution. They also stated that they cannot give any tolerance
for hygiene.
The location of the clinics was chosen purposively on the main streets of some locations where
people from different ethnic background live by the company. These purposive efforts are
confirmed by all the employees. Patients of Tandheelkunde Groep are mentioned their
satisfaction through the interviews. The nearness of the clinics gives the patients comfort and
it gives patients the feeling of closeness.
There are certain working hours for dental clinics in Netherlands but Tandheelkunde Groep
was shown as a clinic regarding its opening and closing times. This serving attribution can be
seen as a unique selling proposition of the group and it can be a reason for prospective
clients to choose the clinics. Tandheelkunde Groep Nederland also uses this unique selling
proposition in mainly all of its advertising materials since the group believes its strength.
During the interviews, nearly all the patients discussed the recepsionists’ positive role at the
clinics. Some of the patients know these receptionists one by one with their names. Some of
them remember them with their smiling face. With the results, it is shown up that
receptionists are effective elements of the clinics. As a company, Tandheelkunde Groep is
aware of these employees and tries to have a standard behaviour process with in these
people.
An employee at the clinic was perceived as a face of the clinics like a spokesperson. Being
reliable, being knowledgeable, being receptive have shown as valuable personal
qualifications of a spokesperson. The relations between the patients and the employee is
51
very critical in small and medium sized dental care clinics. During the interviews eventhough
the company didn’t mention Melek as a spokesperson, they mentioned her professionalism,
communication and expertise as unique attributions of their clinics. This is very important
for the company to feel comfortable in communication with the patients. On the other hand,
all of the patients stated Melek’s name during the interview since they see her as a face of
the company and they feel comfortable at the clinics ahen she is there. She also creates trust
according to the feedback of the patients.
Ability to speak different languages is a key point for the company. Tandheelkunde Groep
trust this strength and uses this as another advertising message. They also try to reach more
people with different national backgrounds so they believe that serving with different
languages is a very strong selling proposition for the company and also its branding.
According to the interviews, patients speak both Dutch and mainly Turkish during the
treatments but they prefer to talk in their own language since they feel themselves more
comfortable. Language is one of the most important branding tools for the company.
Patients didn’t mention that before it was asked but they confirmed that they are satisfied
with this attribution of the clinic.
As it is mentioned previously, human resource theme is mainly created by the employees
and the employers of the company. Even though this theme is formed by those, some sub
themes were the result of human resource theme. These sub themes can be receptionist as
the first face, hospitality. With the human resource activities, the improvement of the staff
and standardization are the results.
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4.4. Summary This section links the provided findings based on the thematic analysis with theoretical
framework on corporate branding and reputation relation. One of the important step for
this research is to interpret the gathered data with theories. This can be beneficial for
answering the research question but also can provide a different perspective to the research
topic with the specified sample.
4.4.1. Successful factors of branding According to data analysis presented in the result section, the successful factors of branding
which lead to corporate reputation are shown up from the feedback of the employees and
the patients during the interviews.
Advertising Activities With the data gathering the successful elements of the branding of Tandartsenpraktik Zuid
dental clinics are shown up as door to door advertising, event sponsorships, outdoor branding,
inside branding and social media. Since the clinics want to gain more patients, the branding
activities are focusing on more brand awareness campaigns. Brand awareness is seen as an
important concept for affecting brand attitude of the consumers for the products and services
of a company (Shabbir, Kaufmann, Ahmad, & Qureshi, 2010). Brand awareness is defined as
the ability of customers to recall a brand among a clutter of rival brands(Keller, 1993). In
especially highly competitive markets awareness can strongly influence a customer while
buying a product(Radder & Huang, 2008). Consequently, to better exploit the contributions of
brand awareness companies are using different strategies to create brand awareness among
the consumers(Esch, Langner, Schmitt, & Geus, 2006). As it is explained in previous chapter,
Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid has a 4-year life till today and the company is focusing on brand
awareness campaigns to have place in the market. Dental care sector is a big market in
Netherlands and there is a severe competition. Different branding activities are used to be
seen as a dental care company with more than one offices. Door to door advertising is one of
the most important corporate branding activities. It is mentioned here as corporate branding
activities since Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid wants to visualize itself as a group with more than one
dental clinics. There are some factors that affect Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid’s branding activities.
53
One of them is the group is a small-medium sized enterprise and it is operating in the
healthcare service sector. It is generally accepted that the basic principles of marketing are
universally applicable to large and small businesses ( Reynolds, 2002). SME marketing in
practice is thought to be largely done through networking (Gilmore, et al., 2001) or a
combination of transaction, relationship, interaction and network marketing (Brodie, et al.,
1997). There can be SMEs without any advertisement and there can be SMEs which apply
channels of street posters, door to door materials(Ngoc, et al., 2016). Advertising strategies
of SME’s were not discussed during the theoretical framework but after the data gathering
these findings will be beneficial to understand the concept of dental clinics corporate branding
strategies. Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid uses advertising activities to establish a strong corporate
branding. Schmitt (1995) and Dowling (1993) both emphasize that corporate image and
corporate brand is highly integrated with each other. Schmitt et al. (1995) present a corporate
strategic framework to manage all the visual production of a company. This framework also
includes the advertisements of a company apart from products, packaging, logos, buildings,
company uniforms. Tandheelkunde Groep uses consisting and related advertising tools to be
a corporate brand. Its designs on flyers, print ads, clinic designs are in the same format. These
are all implemented by the management team purposively. The sample is not very related
with the term “corporate branding” but their feedback and observation on the clinic designs,
flyer designs were beneficial to understand their perspective on this crucial point.
Furthermore, during the interviews, patients gave feedback on the language usage of the
flyers. Since on the flyers there are always two languages used, Turkish and Dutch. In this
research, there will be also some examples of flyer designs will be presented in order to
understand the concept of the clinics.
The other essential point for this section is Tandartsenpraktijks’s use of door to door
advertising. Even though it is believed that door to door advertising is not very popular
currently, its effects to Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid is strong. Because Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid
gives services to a specified location and these advertising materials are focused on those
areas and people. Door to door advertising is a great tool to get the attention of prospective
clients. On the other hand, it can be thought that this tool is cheaper than the other advertising
tools. It is not mentioned by the management team of the clinics but since it is a small and
54
medium sized enterprise it can be assumed that the budget for these advertising tools can be
limited.
Image 1. Flyer design for Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid Rotterdam Clinic
As it is seen from Image 1, flyer text is written with both Turkish and Dutch in order to break
the language barriers of prospective clients. The images which strength the corporate image
and corporate brand are used. These images are outside branding of the clinic, inside
branding of the clinic, the technological devices and the service moment of the clinic.
Furthermore, dentists’ photos are used in order to express the reliability of the brand and
creating a strong relationship with the people from the same nations. On the back side of
the flyer, there is a form which direct people to register to the clinic by getting their
information. On the top of the two pages there is the logo of the company. On the bottom
side, there is the address of the clinic on a blue background. This template is used also for
the other advertising templates. Below, there is an example of a print ad which is published
in a medical newspaper.
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Image 2. Print advertising of Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid
In the print advertising, both Rotterdam and Den Haag clinics are mentioned. There are again
same types of images are used. All the staff photos are on the design in order to make a bond
between the prospective clients. Since medical newspaper is a Turkish newspaper in
Netherlands, the text is used in Turkish on the print advertising.
According to the theoretical framework in SMEs truthfulness of advertising is one of the
element of brand authenticity term (Yang et al., 2016). The advertising truthfulness is
confirmed by both the patients and the employees during the interviews. The staff, inside and
outside of the clinic branding and the texts written on the advertisings are the same when the
patients also visit the clinics. The employees also work on this in order to meet these
standards.
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Branding through employees Employees are essential for the companies. The analysis in the result section confirms the
effect of employees in corporate branding. According to the theoretical framework that was
discussed in the previous chapter, brand authenticity terms is critical for the companies. It
helps companies to differentiate themselves from other competitors. According to Yang, et al
(2016), service expertise and service consistency are the core elements of brand authenticity.
It is obvious that service expertise and service consistency are provided by the employees of
the companies like in Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid clinic. Even though the company provide a well-
conceived positioning for the corporate brand and improve a good communication strategy it
can still have problems because of insufficient attention to the roles of the employees while
delivering the service (Coskun & Frohlich, 1992). Especially service sector companies require
skills to merge both marketing and human resource management. Staff should understand
the brand promise and should be recruited and trained accordingly (McDonald et al., 2001)The
data gathered from the interviews show that Tandartsenpraktijk is working on improving its
human resource strategies with the trainings, some other team working projects and the
company has projects for the near future. In order to obtain standardized service, the
procedures, protocols should be well determined. On the other hand, since the dental care
services are intangible the brands should use more physical elements, these can be the
uniforms, office décor and so on(McDonald et al., 2001). According to the perception of the
respondents, Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid uses some elements to make its brand more tangible.
These are uniforms, office decors, paintings, outside brandings, logos.
Another important point for the company is diversity value within the company. Employees
including dentists and clinic coordinators are from different countries with different language
skills. This also add a unique selling preposition to the company itself apart from its human
resource value.
Service quality According to the data analysis gathered from the interviews confirms that service quality is
one of the most important element for corporate branding. As it is previously mentioned in
theoretical framework section, the staff of service organization enhance the positive
perception of consumers of the service quality through some attributions; reliability,
57
responsiveness, assurance, empathy and appearance (McDonald et al., 2001).
Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid has efforts to provide high qualified treatment as a dental care
company. On the other hand, the clinics try to serve with high quality to its patients.
Receptionists, working hours according to the patients, spokesperson effect, different
language usage are some of the attributions that Tandheelkunde Groep has. All of these
efforts are noticed by both the employees and the patients.
4.4.2. Relation between corporate branding and reputation In this research, the aim is to find the relation between corporate branding and corporate
reputation. The sample for this research was consisting of respondents from both the clinic
employees and also the clinic patients. Corporate reputation term was not so much
mentioned during the interviews by the patients but the questions were trying to make
them to create a link between corporate branding and the corporate reputation. As it is
specified on the previous chapters, Rep Trak measurement elements were tried to be
measured as core reputation elements for this research. Products and services dimension of
Rep Track evaluates a company’s offering whether they are in high standards and meet the
clients’ needs (Fombrun et al., 2015). According to the data analysis presented in the results
section, all the respondents gave positive feedback to Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid’s services.
Innovation element of Rep Trak is confirmed mostly by the respondents from the employees
since they have deeper knowledge about the devices and technology which they are working
with. On the other hand, patients also mention that they are treated by the devices in the
clinic and they don’t need to go to any other hospital. Workplace element is positively
mentioned during the interviews. The good communication between the employees is
emphasized. Rep Trak’s governance dimension defines stakeholder perceptions of a
company as ethical, fair and transparent ( Fombrun et al., 2015) From the analysis it is stated
by the employees that all the work flow is done by the protocols and agreed procedures.
Patients gave feedback on open communication while doing the payments or discussing a
problem. Citizenship dimension of RepTrak is confirmed by all the respondents including
both the employees and the patients. Internship, employment opportunities, different
language usage at the office, future projects are the solid evidences of this element.
Performance and leadership elements could only be discussed by the employees and the
58
management team. All the respondents were satisfied by the current company position in
the market but the company was aware of its size and possibilities.
4.4.3. Other tools that enhance corporate reputation On the previous sections, the results were compared with the theoretical framework. In this
section, some finding will be detailed in order to understand the concept in small and
medium sized enterprises in service and health care sector. There are some other strategies
that are provided from the data analysis which SMEs can use for their branding and
reputation. These tools can role as a bridge between the corporate branding and the
reputation.
4.4.3.1. Word of Mouth Effect
According to the data analysis, word of mouth effect is shown as a very important element
for company reputation. During the interviews, all the patients explained that they give
feedback to their relatives, friends about Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid clinics, dentists. Word of
mouth is a dominant force in the market place for services (Mangold, Miller, & Brockway,
1999). As it is mentioned many times, dental care sector is a difficult one since the sector is
serving for health care. Thus, word of mouth is a very strong effect among the patients. One
study conducted by the US Office of Consumer Affairs indicated that, on average, one
dissatisfied customer can be expected to tell nine other people about the experiences that
resulted in the dissatisfaction. On the other hand, satisfied customers relate their story to an
average of five other people (Knauer, 1992). Such communication exerts a strong influence
on consumer purchasing behaviour, influencing both short term and long term
judgements(Bone, 1995). Compared to purchase of goods, Murray (1991) found that service
purchasers have greater confidence in personal sources of information as well as greater
prepurchase preference for personal information sources (Murray, 1991). Since
Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid does its marketing efforts on specific regions, word of mouth effect
can be very strong among these targeted people. Even though there are new social
platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and so on, consumers still use the power of word of
mouth in person. Also, there should be an opportunity, a common place for consumers to
discuss a company’s products and services. In the following section, the other tool will be
detailed.
59
4.4.3.2. Strong Communities According to the results after data analysis section, it is perceived that strong communities
have a very powerful effect on SMEs’ reputation. Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid has registered
patients mostly from different ethnic roots and especially the patients are Turkish. According
to Central Bureau voor de Statistiek, in 2016, Turkish population is the 2,34 % of the total
population in Netherlands and with this number Turkish people has the highest population
among other nationalities apart from native Dutches in Netherlands. As regards to the
results, event sponsorship is the main advertising tools for Tandartsenpraktijk. These events
are the events at the Mosques, bazaars, kermises. Targeted audience visits these events
with their relatives, friends, family. In this way, these events become a perfect place to
reach communities who have strong tie between each other.
4.4.3.3. Spokes Person Large companies take advantage of spokesperson for their branding and reputation.
Sometimes they use even celebrities. In this research, according to the results, spokesperson
effect has a unique value to the reputation of Tandartsen Praktijk Zuid clinics. The manager
of the clinics, Melek Delen has an experience for decades. She is also Turkish and she has a
very strong environment with Turkish people. She has good communication skills apart from
her knowledge on dentistry. Interview with the patients show that she is a person who
organizes the clinics’ schedule, solves problems and be proactive before a crisis arise. All of
these qualifications create a trust between the company and the patients. Spokesperson
availability in such a company seems to develop company’s reputation according to the
findings.
4.4.3.4. The new conceptual model According to the finding and the theoretical framework, interpretations can be improved for
this study. Below, a new conceptual model for corporate branding and corporate reputation
relation in SME dental care sector is presented. The findings of this study show that, there
are some elements for a company to create its corporate branding and improve its
reputation. On the other hand, for small and medium sized dental care companies some
elements can be more prioritized like advertising strategies, employee brandings and service
quality due to the targeted audience. There are some other factors that enhance the effect
60
of corporate branding for reputation. Spokesperson and strong community effect can form a
word of mouth effect. This effect can have an impact on overall attitude of patients on
corporate reputation. Below, a new conceptual model can be seen.
Image 3. New conceptual model for corporate branding and corporate reputation relation
With this new conceptual model, the relation between corporate branding and corporate
reputation in small and medium sized dental clinics can be seen. According to data analysis
gathered from interviews and the theoretical framework that is discussed for this study, this
new model is developed. Even though the results are identified separately for both company
and the patients’ perspective, the themes were generally the same for both parts. In the left
side of the model, corporate branding themes with its sub themes can be seen. In the
middle, influencers are identified which lead to overall attitudes of stakeholders. This
conceptual model is generated through the data analysis within 13 semi constructed
interviews and based on theoretical framework.
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5. Discussion 5.1. Theoretical Implications As discussed in literature review, the researchers haven’t focused on the relation between
corporate branding and corporate reputation on service and health care sectors previously.
On the other hand, there aren’t also any research focusing on corporate branding and
corporate reputation relation in SME’s. Thus, this study fills the gap in corporate branding
and reputation relation in health care sector SMEs. The primary purpose of the study to
explore the elements of corporate branding in healthcare sector SMEs. Second purpose of
the study was understanding the reputation elements of a company and if these elements
can be applicable to any SMEs in healthcare sector. The third and the last purpose of the
study was understanding a concept of a SME which is operating in a region with people who
are highly bonded to each other. The findings further expand the literature of corporate
branding and reputation in SMEs in health care sector in the academic field.
As discussed in theoretical framework, the purpose of corporate brand is to personalize the
company as a whole in order to create a value from its strategic position, institutional
activities, organization, employees, products and services (Riel & Fombrun, 2007). Dental
clinics have the attributions of both service and health care companies. Thus, forming
corporate branding should be thought from different perspectives.
A company can describe and communicate its corporate branding but its reputation results
from constituency impressions of a company’s direct control. Some researchers argue that a
company cannot control its reputation and some of them mention that strong management
of a corporate brand is an essential part of this process(Argenti & Druckenmiller, 2004). As it
is clarified in previous sections, strong management of corporate branding can result a high
reputation in all the companies including small and medium sized ones. In this study, it is
aimed to fill the literature gap in corporate branding and reputation relation in SMEs and a
new conceptual model is developed. In this model, some influencers are also mentioned
which can affect overall attitude of consumers in corporate reputation.
62
Lastly, the study is focused on dental care sector. The data collected through semi
constructed interviews with the patients can offer insights into clients’ attitudes, behaviours
and perceptions of this sector. On the other hand, it can offer insights about employees’
perceptions on the company and the needs in this sector. Furthermore, it can add value to
the literature about SMEs strategies which concentrate on a specific region or consumers in
the sector.
5.2. Managerial Implications The findings of the study provide implications for corporations who operate in health care
sector as well as SMEs in again health care sector.
Health care and dental care sectors are difficult sectors which offers health and service
together. In these sectors creating branding and improving reputation are essential to gain
the trust of the clients as well as to obtain good relationships with them. Branding should be
consistent with all of the services, employees and also visuals of the company. While
creating corporate branding, meeting the standards and consistency with the real service
and the branding should not be underestimated. If the company cannot meet what it
promises, the reputation can be affected in a negative way. Thus, all of the strategies,
product and services’ quality, employees should meet on one standard and convey this
message to the current patients and also to the prospective patients.
Being an SME can be sometimes painful to compete in the competitive market. All the SMEs
can find their specific strategies to attract new customers or retain them. These activities
can be adapted according to the companies’ budgets, region that they operate and so on.
Previously it is mentioned that WOM and spokesperson can have an effect on also improving
the reputation but it shouldn’t be forgotten that WOM and spokesperson can also have
negative effects. If a company operates in a small region or location, WOMs negative effect
can be bigger or any unsuccessful treatment or service problems can affect spokesperson’s
reliability, thus this can affect company reputation.
63
Also, social platforms are the new opportunities for the companies but they can be also
threats for them. While having company accounts on social platforms, the strategies should
be well planned and even proactive preventions should be taken for any crisis situations.
There should be departments which are dedicated to corporate branding and reputation
activities.
6.Conclusion
This study, scrutinized the dental care company sector, its corporate branding, corporate
reputation relation, branding and reputation perceptions of the patients and the employees.
Previous researches have to a great extent investigated corporate branding and corporate
reputation separately as well the effects of corporate branding and corporate reputation to
consumer behaviour and attitude also in different industries.
The findings, as existing theory and research suggest important potential for dental care
companies when they want to execute the corporate branding activities which lead them to
improve their corporate reputation. In this study, some existing theories had overlapped
with the findings and some theories ought to be extended as this study suggests. On the
other hand, some elements that are used to create a corporate brand are also the elements
of corporate reputation. This can be a two-way direction from both the company side and
the stakeholder side. The company creates a corporate brand but if a stakeholder also sees
the company as how the company sees itself then it means that corporate reputation of this
company starts to improve.
Findings show that the most important factors affecting corporate reputation is service
quality of a dental care company for patients and also for the employees. For example,
Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid works to reach high standards of service, treatment quality. The
patients and the employees also perceive this and gave positive feedback about this quality.
So, it can be mentioned that Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid’s corporate reputation is improving via
its service quality. It is also same for the work place, governance, citizenship, innovation,
leadership and performance elements.
64
Findings also show that, small and medium sized enterprises in dental care sector can have
different strategies for creating their corporate branding. Of course, these strategies affect
their corporate reputation in different ways. Without any purposive attempt, some factors
affect corporate reputation of SMEs. These can be word of mouth communication,
spokesperson and strong communities that a company target. According to the findings, this
study suggests that these 3 factors can have positive or negative effect to the company’s
reputation. Furthermore, since social media platforms are too powerful in this new age, the
effects of word of mouth communication and spokesperson credibility should be well
managed.
6.1. Limitation and further research
First and foremost, this study aims to explore the determinants and relation between
corporate branding and reputation in small and medium sized dental care sector companies.
Semi-constructed interview is chosen as the data collection method which is because the
qualitative nature of this study. So, it is hard to generalize the findings based on a small
group rather than a large sample. However, the finding of the study can provide insights to
the researchers for their future research which will be conducted in quantitative methods on
corporate branding and corporate reputation in small and medium sized companies.
Secondly, the sample of this study is selected among the registered patients of
Tandartsenpraktijk Zuid clinics. These respondents were invited via telephone call with the
help of the clinic manager. Thus, the acceptation of the invitation can be because of the
good relationships with the patients. This would cause some doubts on randomness of the
sample. Since the respondents did the interview voluntarily and they could be pleased with
the clinics, they tended to hold a positive perspective to the company. So, in order to avoid
these kinds of doubts on randomness, future researchers can use different channels to
select respondents. Furthermore, because of the target audience strategy of the company,
the sample was consisted of mainly Turkish people, for further research the researcher can
include people from different nationalities or insist on one nationality in his/her research.
65
Thirdly, the sample was consisting of respondent from two different groups. One of them
clinic employees and the other respondents were among the registered patients. But the
stakeholders of a company are not limited with these respondents so for the future
researches the sample can include respondents from different stakeholder groups.
66
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APPENDIX A. INTERVİEW GUIDE
Company Focus Questions Purpose
Corporate branding and corporate reputation understanding of the company
Corporate Branding
Corporate Reputation
The Dental Care Sector
Corporate communication of the company
On a general level, what do you think about corporate branding in dental care sector?
On a general level, what do you think about corporate reputation in dental care sector?
Why is corporate branding is needed in dental care sector?
How does corporate branding affect corporate reputation in this sector? (Through brand authenticity term)
*Service expertise *Service consistency *Trustfulness of advertising *Openness of communication
What are the strategies that you follow for establishing a corporate brand?
What are the strategies you follow for your company reputation? (Through Rep Track dimensions) *Product & Services strategy * Innovation strategy * Workplace strategy * Governance strategy * Citizenship strategy * Leadership strategy * Performance strategy
How do all of these strategies create value for your stakeholders?
Understanding the company: What do they regard as the most important in the context of corporate branding in dental care sector and for their company?
Understanding the patterns that guide companies thinking about the importance of corporate branding and corporate reputation for their companies?
Understanding the strategies that are used by the company in order to establish a link between its corporate branding and corporate reputation. Try to create a link between the literature and company strategies.
Understanding what should be highlighted in dental care sector company’s corporate branding and reputation strategies.
Drawing a conclusion on corporate branding and reputation relation.
Providing materials for managerial implications for the industry.
Customers
Focus Questions Purpose
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Corporate branding and corporate reputation understanding of the customers
Expectation of corporate branding
Expectation of corporate reputation
On a general level, what do you think about corporate branding in dental care sector?
What should be strengthened for corporate branding in the dental care sector?
On a general level, what do you think about corporate reputation in dental care sector?
What do you think about the strategies that dental care clinics follow for their corporate reputation?
*Product & Services strategy * Innovation strategy * Workplace strategy * Governance strategy * Citizenship strategy * Leadership strategy * Performance strategy
Understanding the customers: What do they regard as the most important in the context of corporate branding in dental care sector?
Understanding the patterns that guide customers thinking about the importance of corporate branding and corporate reputation in dental care sector.
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APPENDIX B. OVERVIEW OF THEMES
