Pricing as individual branded products vs. "category pricing".

[drk]

The way we do things now is to develop a bit of a "formulary" for PALs that we use, or coatings, or high index materials and price them individually (ex: PAL "brand A" is $234, PAL "brand B" is $245, etc. AR coating "C" is $99, AR coating "D" is $105, etc.)

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be easier to make big lumps, such as:

Budget PAL: $x
Traditional PAL $xx
Custom PAL $xxx

and then just use whatever lens in that category that we want.

Same with coatings:

Budget AR: $x
Premium AR: $xx

and so it goes.

What's more, our print outs would be "brand free".

There are pros and cons to this. On the one hand, using all the jazz marketing that essilor or Shamir (essilor) or Zeiss put out does kind of show that you're using high-quality products. "Crizal...the only AR in the world that matters". "Transitions...wow". "Varilux...whatta design!" Hey, leverage their marketing dollars. Show them that you're not some awful online optical or a big box of bleh.

The cons would be that the patient may become slave to a brand, and less dependent on you to sort through the marketing junk that's out there and present the "best options", "forget the rest options". As Johns (may he rest in pieces) used to say "YOU are the brand...belch". Lenscrafters used to do this, too (when they actually mattered).



What do you do?

[Don Gilman]

I suggest you come up with your own brand name and spend a few bucks on counter signs and promotions etc. After all is said and done there really isn't a heck of a lot of difference IMHO. It's more marketing than anything else. Is there really a significant difference in a Chevy, Ford, Camry yada, yada yada.

[Chris Ryser]

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be easier to make big lumps, such as:

Budget PAL: $x
Traditional PAL $xx
Custom PAL $xxx

and then just use whatever lens in that category that we want.

Same with coatings:

Budget AR: $x
Premium AR: $xx

and so it goes.

What's more, our print outs would be "brand free".

drk............................you just came out with a superb and simple proposition, and easy to try out on your patients.

Maybe you should add, that you are using top of the line quality products for the price they are paying, and nothing less, because the market is full of brand name advertising by the manufacturers to influence the consumer.

[Kwill212]

This is exactly what we do Drk. As far as customers know we have 2 PALs at 2 price points, and the only time we use the lower tier PAL is if someone really balks at the price, or for backups, computer pals, shop glasses, etc. We don't sell coatings though, everyone gets premium AR coating unless is contraindicated by their work/hobbies. Educated the customer and ultimately all they have to do is pick a price tier. After that I decide what material, designs, and coatings will work best for them in that tier. Everything is bundled except photochromatics. It makes things very simple and straightforward. Printed invoices simply have the names we made up for our lenses and coatings. I could not imagine having to sell everything a la carte.

[bta89]

Drk how much do you know your products? Do you wear progressives with AR? Do you have a set of photochromatics? Usually when a patient comes in to a practice, if the doctor doesn't mention anything to them it must not be important. I've worked for some doctors who really explain to the patient what they need to get and I've worked for some doctors who bring the patient out to me and expect me to "sell" the patient on their needs. When the doctor does the explaining and the recommending to the patient it's a lot easier. What I see is that a lot of times, by the time an optometrist has gotten out of school they are a fairly good doctor, but they don't teach you how to run a business at all. I think this is what a lot of doctors lack most. Just looking at your example of the budget AR and Premium AR, I would go with the budget. I would be saying to myself that if the premium AR is only $6.00 more, how much more premium can it be. Same thing with you progressive. Of course the people over where you are could be a lot different from the people that I see.