2009.11.27 21:46:46

John McDaniel

The power of touch is immense and yet often ignored by most owners of optical businesses. If you sell tangible product such as frames or contact lenses you need to get people to touch them. Why? It increases what social psychologists call the “sense of ownership” of whatever item is being touched. Is this psychological “trick” worth the effort to employ it? Undoubtedly it is worth doing because we’ve seen clients improve their tangible goods sales number by over a third or more by employing just this approach.

Break the Glass Barriers
Are your frames displayed behind glass? No matter the reason you chose to use this display technique, you are losing sales because of it. The most common reasons cited for the glassed displays are:

• It is a classy, high-end display approach that increases the perceived value of what is behind the glass, or
• It reduces theft and protects my capital investment in inventory

Think about these two reasons for a few minutes. I’ll wait for you…go ahead…have you figured out the problem yet? Of course you have; all of my blog readers are geniuses! The obvious incompatibility of these reasons means one of them has to right and one has to be wrong. There is not a clear cut, always correct answer, but I can safely say that over 90% of the time the right one is that it reduces theft. Well, maybe. At the very least it gives the customers the impression that you are attempting to reduce theft. That means most of the time the perception of the customer is “they must have a lot of frames stolen” and not “these must be high end frames.”

Get your frames out from behind the glass and employ other methods for theft reduction. You need people to touch and try on frames to be able to sell as many as you can. Other research shows that you want to get customers to look at themselves in a mirror in addition to touching to further increase their sense of ownership of the product. That includes contact lenses. Even though they can’t see the product they can see the benefit of the product – clear vision without glasses.

The Contact Lens Test Drive
Just as it is important to get patients to touch and see themselves in frames, people need to touch, experience, and visualize themselves during the contact lens experience. The contact lens test drive puts patients in lenses, without a complete fitting, to have a risk free opportunity to experience life in contact lenses. Whether doing this while in the exam chair or during special days/times in the office, you will see a jump in the number of contact lens wearing patients in the practice. This approach is especially useful for “specialty” lenses such as multifocal or toric designs.

“What Do I Do With the Dozen or so AR Displays in My Backroom?”
Um…use them. Get patients to touch them and handle them. Get them to feel the difference between CR 39 and a high index material. Get them to see how a sample of Transitions works in the sunlight. Have them feel the weight difference between lighter lens materials and heavier ones. This tactile approach is the best method (no, I am not over stating this) for handling objections to lens enhancements and they are frustratingly under used.

Le Meas,

John McDaniel, OD, MLHR
President/Founder
Waugoo Consulting Group, LLC
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marketing | Consumer behavior | touch | product marketing | product sales

2009.03.28 14:30:12

John McDaniel

In the last consumer behavior blog I discussed the odd-numbered pricing theory.  A related, but distinct pricing theory is called the round numbers theory.  After some careful consideration it will become clear that if you follow the odd-numbered pricing theory to the fullest extent you will, by default, follow the round numbers theory as well.  That said, it is worth examining the two theories separately for two reasons.  First, many practitioners follow the odd-numbered theory selectively.  I commonly see people utilize the odd-numbered approach for materials but not for professional fees.  Second, if you aren’t going to follow the odd-numbered theory the round numbers theory can provide some improvement over the typical pricing approaches out there.

The round numbers theory says that the best pricing strategies never result in round numbers.  Round numbers are tempting for prices because they are easy for staff to work with.  If your primary pricing objective is the ease of the sales staff job then you have to reprioritize your objectives.  I commonly see professional fees priced in a way that violates this simple concept.  Even if calculations are used to aid in determining the fees there is a strong tendency to round the fees off for the sake of convenience.  Many times people feel that if they round up they will have higher returns than if they used the “ugly” calculated fee result.  Research shows that this is not the case.  Round numbers feel contrived, psychologically.  “Ugly” numbers feel legitimate and formulaic.  Go with ugly numbers.  Make the prices have cents; not just $0.80 but go for the $0.89!  At the very least the final dollars figure needs to be something that is not zero.

The next consumer behavior blog will discuss just noticeable differences and pricing.  Again, I’ll expect to see you sitting on the edge of your seat if not off the edge.

Le Meas,

John McDaniel, OD, MLHR
President/Founder
Waugoo Consulting Group, LLC
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pricing theory | marketing | pricing | Consumer behavior

2009.03.19 01:52:21

John McDaniel

The pricing of services and materials is often viewed as being extremely difficult and frustrating.  Even when a significant amount of analysis has gone into the pricing process the person doing the pricing is left with a sense of doubt regarding the results.  Pricing is a combination of art and science, without question.  In my experience, the scientific tools are seldom put to use in optometric practice.  The most common pricing theory I see in practice is the “I thought these prices would be easier to add up for the staff” theory.  This may shock you, but I am here to tell you that is not a recognized pricing theory.  The field of consumer behavior has given us a few general guidelines to be used when pricing.  While none of the guidelines will give you a formulaic answer that represents the “correct” price, they will help you get nearer to the “perfect” price and maximize the results of any pricing strategy.

The most basic of the pricing strategies is known as the odd-numbered pricing theory.  It is relatively simple as well.  It states that goods (products or services) priced with odd numbers will sell more than those priced with even numbers.  More specifically, the odd numbers need to occur in the proper places in the price.  The most impactful place to use odd numbers are the tens digit, the ones digit, and the one-hundredths digit.  In other words, use odd numbers where the X’s appear in the following price: $12,0XX.8X.  How well does this theory hold up?  Very, very well.  Why does this theory work?  There are several hypotheses but it is not clear exactly which one explains it.  It just works.

The next consumer behavior blog will discuss the round numbers theory and pricing.  I’ll expect to see you sitting on the edge of your seat.

Le Meas,

John McDaniel, OD, MLHR
President/Founder
Waugoo Consulting Group, LLC
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

pricing theory | marketing | pricing | Consumer behavior