With activities started in 1988 by Dr. Osmar Guzatti Filho, Guzatti Gastroclínica is the most traditional Gastroenterology clinic in the Lages region, a city located south of Santa Catarina.
Growth of 80% in procedures and consultations.
With activities started in 1988 by Dr. Osmar Guzatti Filho, Guzatti Gastroclínica is the most traditional Gastroenterology in the region of Lages, a city located south of Santa Catarina.
As the Gastroclínica is a pioneer in the region in carrying out procedures such as Endoscopy and Colonoscopy, it has grown for many years due to its exclusivity in carrying out exams within a vast geographic region. In addition to Dr. Osmar's excellent relationship with the community, due to his clinical and academic activities in the region.
At the beginning of 2020, new procedures were incorporated. Expanding skills and renewing Guzatti’s clinical and technological pioneering spirit.
And they were also incorporated into the clinical staff by Dr. Patricia (gastroenterologist and daughter of Dr. Osmar) and Dr. Suelyn, with the new sub-specialty of Pediatrics.
However, new challenges emerged during the period:
(Folha Vascular is the official newsletter of the Brazilian Society of Angiology and Vascular Surgery, São Paulo region)
It was founded by gastroenterologist Dr. Osmar Guzatti Filho in 1988, who wanted to return to his homeland – Lages/SC – after completing his medical residency.
Developing a competent clinical and diagnostic activity, it was the first clinic in the region to carry out Endoscopy and Colonoscopy procedures, facilitating the treatment of patients who previously needed to travel to Florianópolis or Porto Alegre just to carry out these procedures.
With Dr. Osmar as the only doctor until 2020, he gained the trust of a large part of the inhabitants of Lages and the region. Due to competent service, always permeated by humanized reception and empathy.
Growing organically for more than two decades through Dr. Osmar's relationship in the community – who also worked in the Unified Health System, was director of the local hospital and founder of the Faculty of Medicine at UNIPLAC – it established itself as a reference clinic in the locality.
However, over the 10 years prior to our consultancy, we noticed the emergence of several competing clinics. In addition to several gastroenterologists opening offices in Lages and nearby municipalities – which obviously characterizes increased competition for patients in the locality.
In this way – approaching the completion of the medical residency of his daughter, Dr. Patrícia Ramos Guzatti – Dr. Osmar observed his challenges: bringing his Brand to the Perception of a new generation of residents of the Lages region. In addition to increasing demand to provide care to new doctors and to carry out more advanced procedures, which are now carried out by Dr. Patrícia.
Together with Dr. Patrícia, he joined the clinic Dr. Suelyn Petris da Silva, working as a Gastropediatrician.
And to overcome these challenges, our company – Burlamaqui Marketing and Strategy Consulting – was invited to build a new Strategy that would take the clinic to a position of preference for patients.
With excellent medical work, highly effective equipment and the excellent reputation of the Clinical Director, Guzatti Gastroclínica did not face financial or reputational difficulties.
However, the increase in competition in the category was clearly noticed by its founder. Because the region's population has not grown at the same rate as medical clinics specializing in gastroenterology, plus several doctors in the specialty who have entered the segment and region over the last 10 years.
One competitor in particular was at a more advanced stage in its Medical Marketing operations: already having a defined Brand Positioning, new building facilities, private procedures with lower investment and partners focused on expanding market share – in addition to services of a good advertising agency helping them.
Considering that two of Dr. Osmar's children graduated in medicine and followed in their father's footsteps in the same specialization, it was expected that both would join Clínica Guzatti to continue their father's legacy. Allowing him to gradually withdraw from the clinic's routines and retire over a period of time.
However, initially it was necessary to substantially multiply the demand for medical services: initially, to occupy the schedule of both Dr. Patrícia (daughter of Dr. Osmar) and Dr. Suelyn, a specialist in pediatric gastronomy who joined the team.
Finally, we need to generate demand for new procedures that, until then, did not exist in the Lages region: Intragastric balloon, High Resolution Esophageal Manometry, pH monitoring and pH-impedancemetry.
And added to all the factors, we still had the impact of a great challenge: with the arrival of the Covid19 Pandemic in March 2020, a large part of procedures and consultations that were not linked to acute pain, urgency or emergency began to be canceled by patients. Rapidly reducing the clinic's cash flow.
Organizing our goals, the objectives became:
Given the immediate reduction in revenue caused by the pandemic, it was necessary to maintain a very clear awareness of the limitations of resources for implementing the project.
In this way, we prioritize the allocation of the few resources in actions with the potential for greater return on investment. In addition to focusing a large part of these resources on structural activities, the existence of which would allow the future expansion of results with the lowest viable advertising investment.
Our fundamental consideration was the need for a Brand Repositioning: due to the clinic's organic trajectory until then, there was no clarity for the community as to a “why” to choose Guzatti Gastroclínica (or its doctors) over any other in the segment.
Therefore, we carried out a process of analyzing both points of satisfaction and aspects for improvement, aiming to strengthen skills and gradually mitigate failures – and fully adopting a management perspective Customer Centric, where the patient is a client and we actively want them to choose our work. A factor that is still rare for Medicine in the region even in 2022.
The success of any Brand – whether in Medicine or in Construction of Gas Pipelines – is based on the behavior of the people involved in the process: from the patient/client profile, to competitors and the internal team.
Based on solid research, we were able to map the patient's desires and perceptions when seeking medical services: which elements lead to preference for this or that clinic, for this or that doctor. And which behaviors are perceived as positive or derogatory in relation to the Brand within medicine.
We also had constant interactions with the internal team – not just the doctors, but the entire clinic team – in which we had the opportunity to learn about their personal views regarding excellent medicine, good service and the challenges experienced by each one, in this daily process of dealing with a large number of people at a time of fragility linked to their own health.
In turn, and no less important, we studied the main public and Marketing operation information of the main competitors. Recognizing your strengths and mapping your weaknesses that could be explored in our competitive process.
Based on all this collected and processed data, it was possible to define a Business Strategy and also a Brand Positioning.
For any Brand (and consequently, any business) to have sustainable success in its segment, it needs to occupy a certain “mental space” in the consumer universe. It is necessary to obtain a positive perception, which these clients resort to consciously and unconsciously when they need services.
Otherwise, an economic phenomenon called commoditization occurs, where services no longer have their differences perceived by the customer and consequently, the company starts to be seen as “generic” and without any particular factor that motivates the choice for it. This truth also applies in medicine, with the difference that we call the client a patient.
Considering the volume of Intellectual Capital embarked and the investment made in equipment high-end, allowing the commoditization of services was not an option.
In this way, we establish a Brand Narrative consistent and integrally true, which capitalizes on the strongest true points. And as in any good Brand Strategy, it exploits the weakness derived from the main competitor's own strategic choices and directs secondary competitors to a position commoditized.
Previously, there was no Brand Strategy clearly defined: There was no Value Proposition specific, an evident Personality and not a clear Positioning. Basically, the clinic as a company obtained its financial results due to the personal brand of Dr. Osmar Guzatti Filho, well known by the population of Lages and highly respected for his efforts around good medicine.
However, in order to follow a consistent path towards the unquestionable favoritism of patients, it was necessary to construct clear definitions regarding the Guzatti brand. These definitions are independent of a single individual – considering that, in the future, Dr. Osmar intends to retire and one of his children may choose another professional path – and the Brand needs to be able to sustain its growth without losing what was prepared initially.
Therefore, we maintained parallel nomenclatures: Guzatti Digestive System Medicine & Diagnosis It is Guzatti Gastroclinic. Adopting only the first in the Brand's Visual Identity and combining both in integrated Marketing communication.
This choice aims to maintain dialogue with both the traditional population and new generations, who need to identify the Brand through its Value Proposition.
As a general language, elements were defined with the intention of carrying the following perceptions: For everyone, Dynamic, Welcoming, Modern, Humanized and easily accessible. Items that permeate all documents and communication contact points with the Brand.
And for greater effectiveness of the process as a whole, all points of contact were standardized. Each one for its own moment and objective, all items – from the facade to the uniforms, from the recipe book to the website – undergo language standardization, reinforcing professionalism and Positioning aspects.
All Marketing planning would become irrelevant if business operations and planned narratives were not seen by patients. Therefore, an important tactical development was to define the most cost-effective way to make the clinic widely visible to potential patients and the community as a whole, while at the same time reinforcing Positioning at all stages of the decision journey: from research to selection , from selection to information, from information to service and from service to the report.
In the condition prior to our project, Guzatti Gastroclínica only had confusing social media links and remote service only via landline.
To adapt the company to the needs of today's world, all Brand planning and business strategy were implemented on two fronts: initial service team and digital communication (called “Digital Marketing” in popular jargon).
With regard to so-called Digital Marketing, we implemented the clinic's website based on a solid project: considering design, content and Search Engine Optimization (SEO). Making it possible for the patient to easily find all the procedures provided by the clinic, being able to carry out the entire scheduling, guidance and preparation phase for the procedure remotely – a fundamental condition during the pandemic.
Speaking of the Pandemic: at the same time that it caused an immediate reduction in patients, it caused a mandatory change in patient habits in Lages, a traditional city in the interior of Santa Catarina. Previously, most Lageans leave the medical appointment that originated the prescription directly to the clinic to schedule the procedure. However, with the spread of contagion, everyone adapted to only going to the clinic with the procedure already defined.
In this way, the internet catalyzed the change in habits and was favorable to our moment: because we defined the tools based on the weaknesses of the main competitor, however applying strategic reservations. We made enough improvements to surpass the immediate competitor by a small advantage, inducing them to apply their resources to surpass us and enabling – on top of the competitors' improvements – more consistent competitive improvements to be applied and which would require much more in-depth skills to overcome.
Aligning this with tactical improvements on all digital platforms – even with the extension of the public emergency – people were soon no longer able to postpone their medical procedures. A fact that, combined with the new Brand Positioning and a superior communication tactic – led the volume of initial calls to levels 110% higher than the period before the pandemic.
Increasing the number of interested patients needs to be accompanied by an evolution in care. As it was not viable to increase costs in human capital and service equipment at the time.
In this way, multiple digital service channels were implemented: WhatsApp Business, direct messages from social networks, map platforms and medical guides.
Many of the preparation documents for procedures were made available digitally, facilitating understanding by the patient and reducing the time spent per patient seen at reception. And every situation of conflict or patient dissatisfaction began to be analyzed individually, developing a reasoning method to minimize points of dissatisfaction from the first moment.