When it comes to spectacle lenses Nikon is perhaps the biggest brand you do not know that much about. Nikon Optical UK’s new managing director, Arnaud Dupont, intends to put that right.
He says because Nikon concentrates on the independents that gives less visibility than if supplying the chains. But accepts the premise that for a superbrand like Nikon there is room from expansion.
Dupont is a veteran of Nikon marketing having spent 20 years in subsidiaries around the world. His most recent role being head of global marketing and development for all markets outside of Japan. The fact that Nikon has chosen such a big hitter for the UK market indicates Japan’s ambition for the region and ophthalmic lenses.
Although most people might associate Nikon first and foremost with cameras its roots lie in high quality lenses. It was set up in 1917 to manufacture microscopes and launch its first ophthalmic lens in 1946. ‘Nikon has always been about high precision optics and had developed mineral lenses that were clearer than other optical lenses,’ says Dupont. This gave the firm an advantage when it turned its attention to ophthalmic lenses. It was a year later that Nikon made its first camera. ‘Nikon is most famous for cameras but the ophthalmic lenses came first.’
Dupont is keen to point out that Nikon’s technical expertise continues. Cameras remain a huge part of the business but not in the way you might expect. Nikon’s second largest business is in semiconductor manufacturing machinery something which operates on an ‘atomic scale’. The precision of the ray is akin to scoring a hole in one from the moon, says Dupont.
Technology used in that chip manufacture can be leveraged to be used in the ophthalmic market and has already given Nikon market firsts. Its coating technology gave it the first blue light filtering lens. ‘This is a lens that aims to improve your contrast in front of screens and make it more comfortable for you, there’s no medical claims, that’s just one good example of our R&D being shared.
‘This year will be our 20th anniversary of the company being in the UK,’ says Dupont. Milton Keynes was set up with a manufacturing lab, it serves the UK market but exports to Europe and other markets too. ‘We offer all materials: 1.5 Trivex, 1.6, 1.67, 1.74 we do clear, Transitions and polarised, we have our full range of coatings including SeeCoat Blue and SeeCoat Bright which is the latest coating.’ This is a specific coating for enhancing colours for low light conditions. ‘Some people complain that they can’t read a menu in a restaurant, this will fix that for them.’ The Milton Keynes facility also has an extensive glazing department with experienced staff and it recently gained Lindberg approval.
The plant employs 106 people and it manufactures tens of thousands of lenses a month. Beyond that the new MD is not keen to talk numbers. ‘That’s confidential,’ he says, but his arrival marks a change in attitude towards marketing the capability Nikon has within its UK subsidiary.
Dupont says when consumers are asked about Nikon as a brand words like: quality, reliability, precision and technology come up. He says having control of the manufacturing is key to delivering that. ‘We manufacture in the UK and we export some of our production. Because Nikon lenses are renowned for their quality this is something that is extremely important for Nikon. Where Nikon has been good is in keeping that positioning and not compromising. It’s very easy to compromise on some of the quality elements.’
Nikon museum
Many lens suppliers in the UK have formal links through clubs and approval schemes so is this the way forward for Nikon?
‘We have practices that we are very close with,’ explains Dupont, saying it operates like many of the lens company loyalty programmes but is not branded. ‘We are offering bespoke promotions, we talk to them on a regular basis, we offer them specific conditions on services and prices.’ He says this helps Nikon pursue its value for money approach enabling it to offer high quality lenses without being perceived as expensive. He says if ophthalmic lenses are presented in the right way, have the right quality and are bringing a specific benefit they do not necessarily need to be perceived as expensive.
‘With technology, the quality and brand that we are bringing perceived value for money is actually quite good.’ Having said this there are lower value lenses so all customers can be catered for. ‘Nikon has so much to bring in the United Kingdom and something I intend on developing more.
‘I think there are three things we can bring to the independent practice: technology, the retail approach and the brand.
‘In terms of technology Nikon has been at the forefront of many innovations that were adopted by the whole market. Nikon was the first to launch 1.74 lenses in 2000 in the UK. We were the first to launch double-sided customised single vision and progressive lenses in the early 2000s. This was made possible because of the expertise Nikon had in other areas. When digital freeform generation came along the lens manufacturers were faced with developing lenses for the new equipment.’
Nikon had already developed a very powerful calculator called the Nikon optical design engine which was already used by the R&D of Nikon when they developed products in other areas to calculate the design of lenses. ‘When digital surfacing came along we just had to plug our designs into this calculator,’ he says. To this day, to live up to the quality Nikon demands, all of the lenses that are manufactured in Milton Keynes are calculated in Japan.
Nikon lenses manufactured in the UK
That Japanese connection appears important to Dupont. Despite Essilor’s joint ventureship with Nikon in the lens business he says: ‘We are working very much as separate entities, I report direct to Japan and the products I get are developed in Japan.’
He adds that Nikon spends a lot of time in R&D studying lens materials, physiology and understanding how people use their eyes and other aspects of optics that also allow it to apply other techniques to optimise vision. He gives the example of SeeMax which recalculates the prescription gradient of the lens depending on the shape of the frame. Most producers use a simple algorithm for how the prescription should change across the lens, he says. ‘What we are doing is pushing out the aberrations to the areas where they will be cut out of the lens. SeeMax single vision wearers really see the difference especially for high cyl wearers who see the distortion in standard lenses. We apply this technology also for our progressives. We have a great deal of experience in optics and managing the aberrations and the aspherisation of the lens this also allows our lens to be flatter to stick to the base curves of the frame and to look better.’
Coating is another area of technology Dupont is keen to discuss. Back in the 1980s it was Nikon’s coating for plastic lenses that sparked its international expansion. He says just as with blue coatings in 2011 Nikon is leading the way with SeeCoat Bright. ‘For those who need more light it’s a system that will rebalance the colour perception to ensure that you get as much contrast as you can. It’s at the forefront of technology in the same way Blue Coat was.’
Dupont points out that in Japan product development is the most owerful form of marketing. ‘In Japan the product is often seen as the way for retailers to differentiate themselves so there is a big push for innovation in the market so there is a high demand for new designs and new concepts. The Japanese market is a great inspiration for R&D.’
So where does the technology go next? ‘I think driving is definitely an area that we are planning to develop. We are also looking at new ways of adapting our lenses better to the specificities of each wearer both in single vision and progressives. The personalisation will go further than it is today to offer the perfect lens for adaptation.’
Within the existing lens portfolio he also thinks there is scope for development of vocational lenses as the multi-pair message develops in the UK. This trends offers a way to bring great benefits for the wearers and revenue for practices.
In practice this is backed by dispensing technology. ‘We tend to favour a mobile approach in store, it’s more flexible, everybody has a different approach. I think digital dispensing is something that will not only improve the quality of the lenses you are providing but will demonstrate the expertise of the practitioner.’
He says there are some interesting technologies coming out of Japan but also some useful cultural cues. ‘That brings me to my second point: dispensing and retail. They [the Japanese] produce processes to make the explanation of the benefits of the lens as straight forward as possible for consumers.’ This covers everything from the wearers’ experience to the choice of words that explain the lens, its benefits and the technology. Simple but efficient.
Another reason the Japanese market produces a lot of ideas is because the regulations are not as stringent as they are in a market like the UK. ‘The retailers tend to have a very retail approach to dispensing lenses so they come up with very good ideas that are very efficient in terms of retailing.’ These ideas can then be tailored for use in markets such as the UK.
Nikon museum
One of the key learnings from the Japanese market is that these dispensing techniques are a great way for stores differentiate themselves and explain the expertise of the practice, he believes. This is something that Nikon is hoping to reinforce in the UK to get practices to use lens dispensing as a way of demonstrating their expertise and capabilities.
‘When it comes to independent practices I think service and expertise are the key ways to differentiate versus low price. You will not win if you are trying to compete on every aspect but patients are very sensitive to a practice they feel is giving them the right vision care service. This is not about clever tricks or fooling the patient. It’s all about assessing the needs and providing the right solution,’ he says. ‘When you do all that patients are wowed by the experience.’
There are not many better recognised brands in optical lenses than Nikon and Dupont’s final point concerns the role branding plays in optics. ‘A brand can do many things for a store and practices are very aware of that when it comes to frames. A brand you carry will define your store they will attract a specific customer base, brands can also be great for loyalty. This is what you are getting here and you will not get it across the street.’
The Nikon brand is very strong, but Dupont says if consumers are asked if they knew that Nikon makes ophthalmic lenses the answer is often no. ‘Let’s be open about that. What do they assume these lenses would be like? That’s when they come up with the quality, the precision, the reliability, the technology. So when you are selling a Nikon lens you don’t need to explain about the brand, you have a few words about it and why your practice chooses Nikon but I would say they [patients] are already sold on the quality and you just need to explain why that lens makes sense for them.’
He said as far as differentiating a practice Nikon can play a powerful role. ‘This is something that I intend to reinforce in the market and help our customers to use this in order to differentiate themselves.’ The jury is still out on exactly what this will look like in practice. ‘I think we will push the brand visibility a little bit harder,’ he says, but says the full-on approach taken by brands such as Kodak is ‘a little too extreme for us’. It is about finding the right balance, he says, giving the Nikon brand more visibility but allowing the independents’ brand to express itself. It is still early days for details of the plans but Dupont has a clear understanding of what the brand can do for practices in terms of highlighting their expertise through association with the Nikon brand. ‘Today we are a recognised provider of premium products. The next step is to be seen as a partner with practices for differentiation.’
He says that while the market continues to polarise Nikon is a perfect partner for practices that have chosen the quality route. ‘We are a good provider for the premium practices,’ he says. He can work with these practices to help them develop, this is where he sees the majority of growth in the market coming from. But he would also like Nikon to become a partner to support those practices who are still looking to reposition themselves in the market.
‘They need to “get it” and understand what Nikon can bring for them. These are the practices that we need to go to and support.’ He says he wants to get across to practices that Nikon can offer something different and create memories for customers that will stay with them and which they will share with others.
‘It’s not easy marketing ophthalmic lenses,’ says Dupont. ‘Consumers don’t always show an interest and there’s not much to see that’s different. You have to explain benefits that are apparent to them and they will remember it.’ This is another area the Nikon brand can help, he says. Most spectacle wearers do not know the brand of lenses they are wearing but those who are wearing Nikon lenses have a high rate of recollection. ‘It’s the power of the brand. It’s a unique experience for them. “My lenses are special, not just my frame.” You create that memory that then creates word of mouth. For me it’s all about offering this differentiated experience for patients. It’s not as easy or straightforward as it sounds. It’s not just what happens in store but about everything behind it [the lens]. That is why we pay so much attention to our glazing quality for example.’
Refreshingly Dupont has a positive take on the health of the market in the UK. He says faced with polarisation some markets have reacted very badly and the independent sector has suffered. ‘You have markets that react better and I believe the UK is one of them. Independent practices here are quite business-savvy and they have a sense of pride for the quality of service they are offering.’ Practices understand they have to be different and that they cannot compete on price.
A phenomenon he has seen across many UK markets is that when a successful formula is discovered it is replicated. In other countries that doesn’t happen. A successful restaurant will remain a single successful outlet, in the UK it’s likely to be expanded out.
‘Practices have the same mindset, they try and find the right approach and then they expand it. If you are a restaurant and do that then a fast food chain is not an issue. It’s all about differentiating your offer and having the right tools to do so and I think the UK market gets it.’ It is not easy and you may have to change the way you do things but, he says: ‘There’s a lot of independent practices here who have the capability to bring that and that’s why I believe the strategy of giving them the right tools to do so is the right one. These are the things that I am intending on developing further in the market.’
The fact Nikon has brought a marketing expert to head up the UK is not by chance, says Dupont. ‘This view that there is a great potential for independent UK practices to differentiate is shared at the headquarters in Japan and its happening now.’
Dupont also believes optometrists have a bigger role to play in selection of product. ‘Independent practices are looking for differentiation through vision care but the optometrist is often left out of that process and for me this is a key missed opportunity. The emphasis is on eye care but it seems like the optometrist does not get involved in making sure the patients get the best vision correction solution. It is very detrimental to the business of independent opticians because a recommendation coming from the optometrist is definitely stronger.’
He says he does not want to generalise and while he understands that many optometrists do not want to be seen to be selling, they get 30 minutes with a patient. The DO often does not get this long has does not have access to the patient information the optometrist has. He also understands that no one wants to be pushing things at the patient when we are talking about healthcare.
‘I think stores today are selling two things: an eye exam and then they are selling a pair of spectacles. I believe the opportunity is in selling a vision solution and that means bringing it all together.’