29th September, 2007
Buy One Pair Get the Second Free
What if instead of the standard “buy one frame, get the second pair free” promotion - which if you’ve been reading, you know I am not a big fan of - you ran it with a twist. The twist is: to receive the second pair, the customer must give it as a gift. The gift gives people an easy way to spread the word about your store and becomes a great new opportunity for you to show new customers why they should become regulars.
Popularity: 29% [?]
Posted at 10:45 pm | Comment (0)
27th September, 2007
Free Printed Materials You Can Use from Transitions
Transitions has launched a new web tool called Transitions Online Marketing (TOM). With TOM you can select from a variety of printed documents including Rx pads, medical questionnaires, various marketing and promotional materials, and even newsletters. Each is customizable and Transitions picks up the tab for printing and shipping directly to your office.
Popularity: 28% [?]
Posted at 10:52 pm | Comment (0)
26th September, 2007
Two Dollar Glasses
…made on-the-spot with a sub $200, wearable auto-refractor and a flexible membrane molding system - this is the goal of Saul Griffith, PhD and his California-based company OptiOpia to serve the estimated 150 million people who are blind or severely visually impaired because of an uncorrected refractive error and hundreds of millions more low-income individuals around the world. Dr. Griffith inventor of both the portable lens molder and low-cost autorefractor was recently awarded the 2007 “genius grant” award by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation for his promising work.
Popularity: 28% [?]
Posted at 11:49 pm | Comment (0)
26th September, 2007
Luxottica’s Big Retail Push
Unless you don’t watch TV or read magazines, you’ve probably noticed the increased advertising dollars LensCrafters has been spending since last April on their new “fashion forward” branding effort. In addition to the advertising blitz, LensCrafters has ditched the red and blue clock logo, completely redesigned its website, and remodeled its 900 stores, transforming them into hipper, premium neighborhood-style shops. LC also made in-roads into the fashion world as the first optical retailer to have major presence in New York’s fashion week, their partnership with Heidi Klum, and sponsorship of Fashion Rocks.
To grow the high-end market, Luxottica is launching Ilori this year, an exclusive line of luxury sunwear boutiques. Luxottica expects to have 10 Ilori stores by the end of the year, beginning with SoHo and Beverly Hills locations, and then another 150 in the next two years, with each expecting to gross more than $1 million in annual sales.
One possible upside from all this for independent retailers is the impact the mass media push on eyewear as a fashion accessory is likely to have on sales of higher-end frames and multiple pairs.
Popularity: 100% [?]
Posted at 12:35 am | Comments (4)
25th September, 2007
Top 10 Geeky Glasses
PC Magazine lists the top 10 Geeky Eyewear. The list includes:
Oakley Thump Pro
Oakley Thump Pro - Oakley’s third attempt to integrate an MP3 player into a pair of sunglasses. $249.00 to $349.00
Engadget’s Oakley Thump Pro Review
LED Light Reading Glasses
LED Light Reading Glasses – Only available in a 2.50 add, but they come with a case and a screwdriver. $19.99
I found seemingly more flexible options with these over-the-ear and clip-on models from Planet Headset.
Camera Sunglasses from Spy Gadgets
Camera Sunglasses – Have fun video taping your friends, family, and total strangers without their knowledge! $399.95 (recording device sold separately)
Visiball Golf Ball Finding Glasses
Visiball Golf Ball Finding Glasses – “Developed by nuclear scientists”, Visiball Golf Ball Finding Glasses utilize the Purkinje Shift to make your golf balls “appear to glow.” $39.95 - $59.95
Read about the rest of the top 10.
Popularity: 28% [?]
Posted at 3:02 pm | Comment (0)
25th September, 2007
The Big Idea
Daily dose of inspiration
One of my favorite television programs is The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. Donny’s show is about inspiring success in both business and in life. He features guests that range from every-day, down-on-their-luck Americans who have turned their lives around to people that have started multi-million dollar businesses with less than $500. Donny’s guests also include business moguls such as Bill Gates and John Paul DeJoria. From selling encyclopedias and living out of his car, John Paul DeJoria started not one, but two billion-dollar companies in Paul Mitchell Systems and Patron Tequila.
One of my favorite spots featured a woman (I cannot recall her name) who found herself pregnant and in the welfare office at 15. Deciding she did not want to live on welfare, against what everyone told her she could do, she struggled to make it through community college, completed an engineering program at the University of Ohio, then a PhD, and became a faculty member at MIT. As if that weren’t enough, she went on to start a successful defense contracting firm with a fellow professor and her daughter as COO.
The Big Idea airs on CNBC weeknights 10 PM / 1 AM ET.
Popularity: 27% [?]
Posted at 10:31 am | Comment (0)
24th September, 2007
Advertising is Dead - Part II
Breaking through the noise
In Part I, I discussed the changes that have taken place in marketing over the past decade or so that have made traditional advertising ineffective. The quantity of advertising messages we receive on a daily basis has become so great, our brains must ignore most of these messages to focus on what is important. Consequently, advertisers are not getting through. Obviously, this does not keep them from trying. The more ineffectual advertising becomes, the more they employ it. While traditional, Madison Avenue-style advertising is dead (perhaps overwhelming throngs of living-dead is a better metaphor), it is still possible for small businesses to use advertising effectively.
To be effective, advertising must first get past our brain filters. The easiest way to do this, of course, is if these filters are already turned off, that is when people are actively seeking your products or services. All you need to do to be heard by these people is make sure your message is easy to find. This is where yellow pages, classified ads, web sites, search engine optimization, and search engine marketing come into play.
Of course, it is not always prudent to sit around and wait for people to seek out your product or service, so another way to get past the filter is to offer something of value. Most effective in this category is information your target audience can use, e.g. articles on fashion trends, eye health, contact lens use, etc. Whether electronic, print mail, or print media, you can use this valuable information to establish familiarity and credibility through which you can obtain permission to begin a conversation about your product or service.
Ultimately, the most effective form of advertising is word of mouth. Word of mouth is powerful for two reasons: one, people do not usually ignore their friends or peers; and two, people are far more likely to trust, or at least consider, words of a friend or peer, as opposed to those from a commercial source. Word of mouth only occurs when you provide a customer experience worth talking about and requires the most effort and consistency on your part to maintain.
While long gone are the days when you could effectively advertise by simply using “er” words (e.g. whiter, brighter, faster, better), with enough thought and effort, you can still create effective advertising strategies to grow your practice or dispensary.
Popularity: 29% [?]
Posted at 4:26 pm | Comment (1)
22nd September, 2007
Patient or Customer?
I have heard the debate go on about what to label consumers of eye care. Doctors and even opticians can get down-right petulant when discussing the topic. Often, the argument is made that the word customer should be stricken from the optical practitioner’s vocabulary because it implies a profit motive whereas the word patient implies a nobler more caring motive. Some of this touchiness may stem from the desire of many optometrists and opticians to take on a larger health care role, however I believe the argument is as pertinent, if not more so, to general health care, as it is to eye care.
As usual, I have a different take on the subject. I believe both health care practitioners and consumers of health care would do well to strike the word patient from their vocabulary. I would even go as far to say that use of the word patient and more importantly, the patient mindset, lies at the root of what is wrong with health care in the U.S.
While the term patient may have a noble connotation for health care professionals, it has far greater implications than mere provider intent; it assigns positions of power and control. The word patient is derived from the Latin pati which means to suffer. Merriam-Webster defines patient as 1b: the recipient of any of various personal services or 2: one that is acted upon. In essence, patient refers to a sufferer acted upon by a practitioner. Our use of the word places the practitioner in the position of control and establishes a mindset of dependency on behalf of the patient. On the surface this might not seem problematic. The practitioner is after all a caregiver, someone who is supposed to treat his patients with the same care he would give his own mother. Problems arise however when the practitioner is not that caregiver; the practitioner views the patient as someone who needs him rather than the reverse; or the patient submits to the care of a practitioner and abdicates himself of further responsibility.
Customer on the other hand is an empowering word. Customers look out for themselves while patients need to be taken care of. Customers have the power to choose where and how to spend their money while patients are told where to go for care. Health care consumers could have a significant impact on the heath care industry, if they only wielded the power of the customer and armed themselves with knowledge and knowledgeable advocates. I personally know several individuals who have benefited from and perhaps even saved their own lives by educating themselves and taking an active role in deciding the course and type of care they received rather than relegating themselves to the role of the patient. I know this to be true in optical as well, since not all optical professionals take the time to educate their patients about all their options. I understand this might not sit well with some who prefer to think of their customers as patients; those that would rather dictate to their patients than listen to their customers. But the simple fact remains there exists a sizeable profit motive for most practitioners (which is not always a bad thing). Therefore, it could be of enormous benefit to practitioners, their practices, and their patients, if they would think of their clientele as customers and employ the tenets of good customer service rather than use lexicon to maintain authority.
Holding on to the argument that using the word patient is somehow nobler because it does not imply a profit motive is quaint; reminiscent of a bygone era, but in today’s world is almost trite. How many people do you know believe health care practitioners are not motivated by profit on some level? For that matter, how many practitioners do you know that are not motivated by profit on some level? Keep in mind profit motive is not inherently evil. If profit motive leads to better care and more respect for your customers, and those customers return or even tell their friends as a result, everyone wins. I think insistence upon use of the word patient can consciously or subconcsiously be more righteous than noble. Moreover, the patient mindset whereby consumers give up responsibility for their own care is detrimental not only to themselves but to the industry as a whole.
Update:
Interestingly, I came across some comments from Paul King of Opticourier who passionately argues the opposing point of view from an optician’s perspective, even stating:
I feel that “customer” should be stricken from our optical vocabulary. I would like to start a grassroots push to change this mindset in the industry…
Paul King’s comments (last two paragraphs on the page)
Popularity: 37% [?]
Posted at 1:12 am | Comments (4)
18th September, 2007
Meet the Team
We’ve added a fun page to the Laramy-K Optical website where you can meet the crazy people behind the lab. We’re still adding profiles and photos so check back from time to time.
Enjoy.
Meet the Laramy-K Optical Team
Popularity: 26% [?]
Posted at 7:15 pm | Comment (0)
17th September, 2007
Funky Eye Friday
New Zealanders promote eye health and eyewear fun with children’s education day.
This Friday children across New Zealand will be designing eyewear while learning about the importance of regular eye exams, safety glasses, and sun protection. The Royal New Zealand Foundation of the Blind sponsors Funky Eye Friday in an effort to educate and inform students, teachers, and parents about eye health related topics. Children with the most innovative designs will have a chance to win sunglasses from down-under eyewear manufacturer Dirty Dog.
How could this get any better? You have a fun, innovate way to promote eye health and the potential to inspire future eyewear designers.
Popularity: 26% [?]
Posted at 10:23 am | Comment (0)
14th September, 2007
Even Microsoft Gets It!
(Read Advertising is Dead - Part I)
Popularity: 25% [?]
Posted at 8:52 pm | Comment (0)
13th September, 2007
Advertising is Dead - Part I
Why you shouldn’t waste your marketing dollars on traditional advertising
Years ago, the birth of mass media gave marketers amazing power to dictate what consumers should buy. Marketers advertised their products in newspapers, radio, and TV; told consumers what to buy, and consumers complied. As businesses grew, marketers reinvested in even more advertising to fuel further growth and the cycle continued. This advertising cycle was incredibly effective for years. Companies grew. Media outlets grew. Advertisers grew. Unfortunately, too much of a good thing can kill you.
The human brain is remarkably adept at filtering noise. We are continually bombarded with sensory stimulation of every kind. The brain, unable to process each and every message, must determine which stimuli are important enough to process and which should be ignored. In fact, inability to perform this kind of filtering is symptomatic in some forms of autism. So, as the numbers of advertisers, media outlets, and product choices grew, the volume of messages became too much for people to process, and our brains began to stop listening. Marketers realizing advertising was losing its effectiveness, but not really understanding why, became more desperate to attract our attention. They began to either shout louder and more often or they looked for new ways to interrupt and gain our attention. However, the more consumers were interrupted by advertising, the more advertisers were ignored. Eventually, advertising became less about selling and more about achieving brand recognition, largely the purview of deep-pocketed corporations, and still mostly ignored.
As the internet matured, marketers continued to see their powers of proclamation deteriorate. First, search engines leveled the playing field by enabling smaller companies to have their voices heard by markets traditionally dominated by large corporations. Second, the evolution of the internet as a social medium gave consumers the ability to discuss the faults and virtues of products and companies, all but removing the power of brand definition from the hands of the marketers. The marketers’ knee-jerk reaction was to combat negative comments on the internet by silencing them. Of course, this almost never works. As Joe Rogan’s character from the TV program News Radio put it, “Dude, you can’t take something off the Internet. That’s like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.” Actually, it’s even worse, since trying to remove content from the internet often results in amplification of the content you are trying remove. See recent stories about the hacked HD-DVD key and corporate Wikipedia edits as prime examples.
Marketers have been recognizing over the past decade that their days of dictating to customers are over and traditional advertising as a cost-effective means to sell goods and services is dead. To avoid being ignored, effective marketers (i.e. anyone interested in growing their business) must provide target markets with information they can use, engage customers in conversations, build relationships, and ultimately establish trust.
Many in the optical industry (who you would think should know better) are slow to catch on. I’ll bet you can name a few.
Read Part II: Breaking Through the Noise
Popularity: 28% [?]
Posted at 11:46 pm | Comments (3)
11th September, 2007
Marketing: A Four-Letter Word?
Marketing is a big source of confusion and consternation for many in the optical industry. Companies sometimes employ less-than-honest advertising and copy in their marketing campaigns. Lens manufacturers muddy the waters with overlapping designs and confusing nomenclature. They throw words around like quality, and best, and premium, as if they actually mean something, without evidence to back their claims. They dump their messages upon their target audience until the message is accepted or the audience tunes out. These all too common practices give many in the industry reason to sneer at the very mention of the word marketing. Some optical practitioners even avoid marketing their own businesses because of negative associations. However, effective marketing does not have to be this way. Marketing can and should be about connecting with your customers not confusing them, about building relationships not buying patronage, and about providing information your customers can use instead of information they are likely to distrust. Marketing is important to your business. Don’t neglect it simply because others are not good at it.
Popularity: 25% [?]
Posted at 9:39 pm | Comment (0)
4th September, 2007
Mobile O’s
The idea of the mobile optician is nothing new. Phillip Roman has found a profitable niche in catering to people that place a high value on time. Professionals, actors, athletes, CEOs, and single moms all utilize Roman’s Eyewear 2 U or E2U service. Roman uses technology to enhance his service by requesting emailed photographs and style preferences from his clients prior to meeting. He then visits his clients providing celebrity-like treatment with a personal stylist and custom selected eyewear.
However, customers of mobile opticians still have to make time to schedule an appointment and visit an optometrist for an exam and refraction, before scheduling an appointment with the optician. So, here’s a thought: make eye health more convenient too. Install an exam lane in the back of a bus or RV to provide a complete service, similar to the mobile dentist concept. Schedule visits at educational and corporate campuses. Corporations and employees both benefit from the timesavings. Best of all, no more driving home with dilated pupils.
Popularity: 26% [?]
Posted at 12:45 pm | Comment (0)
