CLINICAL

  OPTICAL

TELLING THE BRAND’S STORY

PROVIDE INFORMATION ON EACH PRODUCT LINE TO CREATE VALUE

WHEN CONSUMERS find themselves too busy to research a purchase, they often turn to brands they already know and trust. As a result, consumers are willing to spend more on brands they recognize or had a positive experience with, and that makes building a strong brand for your practice — and using quality brands in your optical — increasingly essential.

One way to add value for a brand of frames — the items that garner the most consumer attention — is to tell its story. The reason: Stories can create a positive emotional reaction in the consumer, which can increase the likelihood of a sale. For example, maybe the frame makes the consumer “feel” important, attractive and/or successful.

In my practice, we do this in two ways: small branding plaques and personalized patient portfolios.

CREATE SMALL BRANDING PLAQUES

The plaque displays three bullet points offering information, such as where the frame was made, the unique styling of that brand or other interesting aspects of the frame and its history.

This information is easily found at the manufacturer’s website or discerned from the sales rep. You can print the information in office, and place it in clear plastic holders you can get from a local craft store. Total cost: about $25. We place these plaques with each frame collection so that patients can gather the information as they browse.

MAKE PERSONALIZED PORTFOLIOS

In my practice, we use a cloud-based application that allows us to print personalized patient portfolios containing information on his or her selection. It includes a description of both the frames and lenses, benefits of each and a thank you from our practice. We give the branded portfolio to consumers at dispensing.

Your staff could create small information cards for each frame and lens brand and give those to patients when they pick up their glasses.

A small branding plaque tells the story of the brand in three bullet points.

NOT JUST FOR PATIENTS

The branding plaques and patient brochures also help my staff to stay familiar with the features of the various brands we carry, making them better salespeople.

DON’T DELAY

Many opticals would increase their capture ratio and grow revenues significantly if their owners treated them like the stores they are and, therefore, placed an emphasis on branded frames and lenses by actively telling their stories. OM

DAVE ZIEGLER, O.D., is a senior partner at Ziegler Leffingwell Eyecare in Milwaukee, Wisc., and a fellow of the American Academy of Optometry. Email him at daveaziegler@gmail.com, or visit tinyurl.com/OMcomment to comment.