Are You Changing the Conversation About Dentistry?

Last week, the world's biggest one-day consumer event occurred, with record-shattering sales. No, you didn't sleep through Black Friday—that annual tradition of consumer madness is still to come. I'm talking about the "Singles' Day" Sale promoted by Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant. In just 24 hours, they took in over $9 billion in gross sales across their network of retailing websites. To put that in perspective, last year U.S. shoppers spent $3.6 billion online on Black Friday and Cyber Monday combined.

What's interesting here is the story behind this event. Singles' Day began in China in the 1990s as a kind of anti-Valentine's Day, a day for single people to celebrate being single. November 11 was chosen because the date can be displayed in a series of ones. It became quite a popular trend, particularly among young adults, for single people to party with their single friends on this day.

Then, in 2009, Alibaba sensed an opportunity and began a marketing push centered around that day, encouraging single people to get online on 11/11 and buy a gift for themselves. A consumer phenomenon was born—one that hit epic proportions last week. In just five years, Alibaba has turned what was just another day on the calendar into a huge commercial and cultural event.

Changing the Conversation

This is an extreme example of what I am talking about when I say that creating movement in the marketplace is about creating excitement. When you look at the success of the Singles' Day sale, you realize it all started with an important shift in mindset. The people who started the idea of Singles' Day took something that is often looked at as a negative thing—being single—and started changing the conversation, turning it into something to celebrate. That laid the groundwork for Alibaba to come in and capitalize on the groundswell of goodwill by offering special deals all day on the 11th of November.

I honestly believe dentistry is poised for a mindset breakthrough like this. The top practitioners among you have been changing the conversation by getting patients to realize that a trip to the dentist doesn't need to be a negative thing—in fact, it can be an exciting life-changing event. When patients come to really feel this, case presentation becomes easier and case value and acceptance rates rise naturally.

I'm not saying that you can expect there to be a 9-billion-dollar "Dentistry Day" frenzy any time soon. But every dentist can contribute to changing the conversation about dentistry, and every dentist can see the benefits, on a personal scale, of doing so. It may not happen right away but, as Alibaba just proved, when you seize the opportunity that comes with a significant shift in consumer thinking, great things can happen.


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