Brand recognition around lenses is something that suppliers have long wrestled with. Despite heavy spending on TV and newspaper advertising over the years, lenses have never commanded the name acknowledgement enjoyed by frame brands.
Deepcove is a relative newcomer to the UK market, focused on helping independent opticians both as the distributor for Optiswiss (Optician 13.12.19) and supplying lenses under the Deepcove banner with the aim of becoming a champion of independence within the eye care market.
Deepcove recently conducted some research among members of the public to understand more about their knowledge of the lenses they are wearing.
A worrying finding of Deepcove’s research was that only 2% of respondents could name the brand of lenses they were wearing and 0% respondents could recall being offered a lens choice of lens brands by their optician. This is despite 98% saying they considered lenses to be more important than frames, demonstrating the public’s desire to know more.Quality and precision
Roland Allen, director at Deepcove thinks these findings offer an opportunity for forward thinking independent opticians to differentiate their offer and talk to patients more about lens choices. Allen says Optiswiss has the goal to become Europe’s leading independent manufacturer, a brave boast but one he says Optiswiss can live up to. He puts this down to the range and exceptional quality of the products but also the ‘Swissness’ effect of Optiswiss’s Swiss lens production. ‘Patients appreciate discovering more about the provenience of the lenses they are buying and being made 100% in Switzerland reinforces the message of quality and precision.’
Optiswiss was founded in 1937, has produced lenses from the same Basel factory for more than 50 years and offers a broad suite of individualised lenses. Coatings are another speciality as are sports lenses and even freeform mineral lenses. It produces around 8,000 lenses a day from a very compact site in the centre of Basel and the emphasis is firmly on high quality, precision manufacture.
Another area where Optiswiss is particularly active is occupational lenses. Its occupational product is called Nearis, which has enjoyed success with a trial concept Deepcove is now bringing to the UK to help practices promote additional pair dispensing.
Under the Nearis Test programme the optician can give the patient a free-of-charge test frame with an uncoated 1.5 index lens, which allows the patient to experience the real benefits of occupational lenses by taking them home and testing without obligation to purchase.
This means the optician can let the patient judge the benefit prior to purchase. This tool is offered to the optician at cost price. In Switzerland the free pair has been offered proactively in some cases as a surprise test for the patient. Optiswiss reports a 66% success rate in converting to a second pair dispense making it the most successful promotion it has ever run. Allen says this is something Deepcove is keen to explore with opticians in the UK. He says it is all part of a process of partnering with independent practices and helping them make a success of being an independent.
‘We are aligned to the objectives of the independent optician rather than the independent optician being just part of our bigger corporate objectives. This means we are tied to the success of independent opticians, this ensures we are listening plus we are small enough to make rapid decisions to help improve the business opportunities of our partners. If something isn’t working for an individual store we can adjust and not just push it simply because of a directive from head office.’
Retail consolidaton
Prior to working for Deepcove, Allen spent more than 10 years at Transitions Optical where he gained a deep insight into the objectives of the major lenscasters and the future direction of the market. Allen predicts there will more retail consolidation driven by lenscasters and, as a result, more losses on the high street, but there will be room for a core of good independents that have a strategy to differentiate themselves from their competitors. ‘I firmly believe that in 15 years’ time there will be many fantastic opticians operating in the UK. How can we support them as a business? Be a true partner, offer great product, exceptional service and reasonable prices.’
Allen says the ongoing market consolidation will make it a necessity for the independent opticians. ‘Doing more of the same is not a winning proposition – independents must differentiate and offer patients a better experience.’ But there are also changes in the consumer psyche around sustainability and heritage that independents can leverage. ‘The consumer is one of the enablers because they are more and more asking themselves where is my product produced, where does it come from? What is the ethic of the company that it comes from?’ That will also become more of a consideration for the optician. ‘There has been a change of mindset. That means telling the consumer that the factory is in Europe and that it’s made in Switzerland and that it hasn’t travelled 20,000 miles before it got onto your nose, it’s produced locally and involved less CO2.’
In short, concludes Allen: ‘Our challenge is to build a partnership as an individual manufacturer working for and alongside independent opticians that enables them to thrive, a complete end to end independent optical network.’
