A New Type Of Contacts

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Mark268 Business to Business Marketing

Instructor: Wesley Zaboschuk

Fang Zhang

2/15/2013

Table of Contents

Situation

A new type of contacts, called conversion contacts, will be sold by Theia Lenses. The name Theia comes from a Greek mythological story of the titan of sight shinning a light into the clear blue sky. Theia Lenses` mission is to help people improve their vision, with both prescription and the ability to shade the sun and protect consumers eyes from harmful UV rays, while providing a new kind of style. Their mission statement is See Past the Light, Free Your Eyes.  The idea of conversion contacts, which are contact lenses that will automatically shade your eyes from UV rays when you are in the sun, came from the basic idea of conversion glasses. Many people hate wearing glasses and everyone has dealt with the pains of sunglasses, if they don’t fit on your face properly they fall off, sometimes they aren’t dark enough to block out the sun and even the constant troubles of losing them, or misplacing them. Theia Lenses plans to solve and erase all of these problems by creating conversion contact lenses. People like contacts because they’re easy, you can put them in a completely forget about them. Contacts are easier to use and improve vision more so than glasses or sunglasses. Because they’re contacts they fit to your eye perfectly and because they darken and lighten to the UV rays hitting your eyes they will always be the perfect shade to block out the sun, to let the light in. They also completely eliminate all types of blind spots that can be created while wearing sunglasses. Conversion contacts completely protect your eyes and even make seeing easier. As mentioned earlier one of the biggest problems that arise with sunglasses is misplacing them or losing them, even scratching them or breaking them. No one wants to have to look through their purse or their car for their sunglasses. Conversion contacts are already there, automatically working when you need them to. The process of switching from contacts to conversion contacts is easily done for people who already wear contacts for the prescription, but what about people that don’t need contacts to see? Conversion contacts make a big difference in daily activities and sports; they even make a difference with styles. They come in many styles, colors and types of shade they will provide. The intent is to sell this product though eyeglass stores, optometrist’s offices and other types of sunglasses and glasses wear stores. These contacts are included in the same benefit plans that companies offer their employees. The entry level price will be $299 for a basic contact set including cleansing solution and a case. Prices for customizable shapes and colours will vary from $399 to $699, including a variety of brands such as Nike, Oakley and D&G. Promotion will be done through banners, signs and T.V commercials. Banners and signs will be placed throughout stores that our target audience often frequents. These include sports stores such as Sportcheck, and other high fashion stores. These will be used to inform consumers of conversion contacts and show them how they are able to help improve their performance in the sports they place and even show how they can add onto trend and style.   

Target Market

Theia Lenses` largest target audience are athletes and people with an active lifestyle; consumers that will use this product daily because it helps them make their lifestyle easier and better. Their secondary target audience will be those looking for a new style and trend. Because this product will be new, people will want it and it will offer a change that hasn’t been seen before. The general age region is young adults from ranging from ages 16 to 40 who tend to put more focus on being in shape, active and fit.

Conversion contacts can be sold anywhere throughout the world. Contact lenses are a very large market because many people have trouble seeing. Theia Lenses can be sold anywhere that contacts are already sold today. Most likely, conversion contacts will be sold in urban areas. Sports are more widely played by people living in cities and are taken more seriously, with more emphasis on playing well. Style and fashion are also more important in bigger cities. Climate doesn’t make a difference in demand for these contacts. They can be used in warm places for sports such as soccer, baseball, football and lacrosse or in colder places with sports such as skiing and snowboarding. Conversion contacts can also be used in rural areas for sports such as rock climbing. Although Theia Lenses main target audience are athletes, they can also be used in the business world. Conversion contacts can help consumers that work outdoors see past the sun and directly to their work. They can easily aide construction workers, carpenters, and scaffolders. It’s important for these people to be able to see clearly what they are doing because it can be very dangerous otherwords.

The general age Theia Lenses hopes to target is young adults from ages 16-40. Many people from this age range are very focused on being in shape, active and in style. They place much more emphasis on competing in sports and wearing the new trends. Conversion contacts will focus on targeting both men and woman through sports, activities such as outdoor yoga, and style. Both men and woman are very involved in all aspects of our market. Depending on the type of contacts the consumer buys their income will vary. Prices range from $299 for basic contacts, the majority of which will be covered by benefits. These are aimed at lower income based consumers. Higher grade brands and customization will be aimed at higher income consumers. Theia Lenses will direct conversion contacts to consumers of all generations, ethnic origins and all education levels and family sizes.

Theia Lenses will focus on consumers with an active lifestyle. Many consumers that will use conversion contacts are always on the go, may it be sports, outdoor activities or even just driving. Sunglasses and glasses may not be an optimal choice for active people. Conversion sunglasses help to keep life a little more simple when it comes down to always being on the go. It helps athletes improve in their sport by increasing their focus point and eliminating blind spots, while shading out the sun. Depending on the type of conversion contacts and the brand, Theia Lenses will aim to provide all social classes with the ability of sight. Brands with higher prices will be aimed towards higher social classes that want the highest of brand names and the more basic contacts for the lower and middle social classes.  

People involved in an active life style will use our product for the complete benefit of helping shade their eyes from the sun during activities. Other benefits offered are high quality, long term reusable contacts and convenience. These conversion contacts are much more convenient than glasses or sunglasses. At the beginning of your day during your morning routine it takes thirty seconds to put them in and forget about them. This eliminates all fumbling with glasses, cleaning them throughout the day, looking for them or even losing them. Conversion contacts will help Theia Lenses develop a high loyalty from out consumers when it comes to the increased performance when playing sports or participating in different activities by shading out the sun that can distract the consumer and even lower performance. Some of our consumers will be non users and regular users. Some may already use contacts to help increase their sight and others will be first time users that will utilize the product for its benefits. Many of the consumers of conversion contacts will be unaware of the product and its benefits. At the beginning of the product life a large portion of advertising will go towards informing people of our product and how it can help them in their every day activities.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths

Conversion contact lenses are a more optimal choice when playing sports or other outdoor activities. When playing outdoor sports such as soccer, football or rugby sunglasses would often just fall off. Contact lenses are directly on top of your eyes, blocking out the sun and dangerous UV rays. They give the player the ability to block out the sun and still be able to run around, even increased performance. Players will be able to see competitors, teammates and even the ball better without the sun glaring in their eyes. Conversion sunglasses make every day activities such as driving safer for everyone. Instead of fumbling around in your car for your sunglasses your contacts will automatically shade your eyes. In instances where you drive under a tunnel or through a parkade, or even if the sun just goes behind a cloud, instead of having to take your sunglasses off and find a place to put them, your contacts will automatically lighten up to the appropriate shade to keep your eyes safe. Although this is just a small change it can make driving that much easier, and keep your attention on the road keeping you that much safer.

For sports such as rock climbing where having a blind spot in the corner of your eyes is dangerous, conversion sunglasses will help. These contacts have a 100% field view with no blind spots. Your whole eye is shaded from the sun and mobility increases. This is also important in driving; making sure you can see everything around you and completely dissolving any issues and dangers resulting from blind spots.

Another big difference that these contacts have over sunglasses is accessibility. If you don’t need contacts for the help of eyesight and the prescription you might need them just for how easy they are to use and access. How often do you leave the house and forget your sunglasses? Or you misplace them and can’t find them when you need to. Even trying to carry them when you don’t need them is difficult. Women can’t put them into their purses without them getting scratched and possibly breaking them and men don’t have anywhere but the top of their heads to put them which makes it a lot easier to drop them or lose them. With conversion contacts, they’re always with you. There’s no chance of you leaving them at home and no time spend looking for a place to keep them from getting ruined. When you don’t need them they lighten up for perfect vision and when you do they automatically darken, helping your eyes.

Conversion sunglasses come in many different styles and all different colors. Depending on what you use them for and how dark you want them to be. Every aspect of the contacts can be customized to however you want it and you need it. You could have a different color of eyes every day of the week, If your eyes are more sensitive to the sun, the shades can be darker to better protect your eyes.

Threats

A major issue our company has to face is the cost of the contacts. Some we will be able to mass order and sell on shelves for people that just want the basic eye coverage. These we will be able to sell at a smaller price because of a discount we will get for the mass purchase. The issue comes into place when things such as prescription, color and customization come in. Prescription will be one of the easier problems to solve. Most users of contacts are covered through benefits. Conversion contacts will just be an option offered to these customers when they buy their contacts. When customers want to customize their contacts the price will be higher because we will have to design and order their contacts specifically.

Another threat we will face is sunglasses. People who don’t like contacts will still resort to these. Some people just wont want to make the change from sunglasses to contacts or might not be able to afford them compared to inexpensive sunglasses that are on the market today.

Opportunities

Trends, style and fads are always changing. People want the ability to change what they look like on a daily basis. Things such as hair dye, make up and clothing on the market help them do this. Contacts are just another way people can make a change. With customization, people can have different coloured contacts and chance their eye color whenever they feel like it. Different endorsements such as sports companies and even fashion companies will help us sell our product through style and trends.

People also like the choice of customizing and getting exactly the product they want. Getting customized contacts will be much easier for the consumer than buying customized sunglasses. They will have the ability to change the color, shade, darkness and uv protection to whatever they want, even the brand of the contacts can be a decision completely up to them.

Weaknesses

Sunglasses are still very high in the fashion world because you can match them to what you’re wearing and even the shape of your face. These transition contacts will be more expensive than regular sunglasses, especially if you customize the colour of the lenses. Some consumers are already extremely loyal to brands in the sun glasses market, such as Oakley and D&G, convincing this market will be challenging.The speed of the transition may not be fast enough for some users of the lenses. Prolonged use of these contacts is not healthy for the eyes, some users may experience blurred vision or headaches if the contacts are not removed at the end of each day. For cleaning the lenses will need to be put into a chemical cleaning solution which adds and extra cost to the consumer. The durability of the contacts will be weak since they are a thin film material pron to rips and tears.

Positioning Strategy

Theia Lenses differentiates itself from sunglasses by providing a product that is able to help consumers see past the light and free their eyes by adding the simple factor of shade to every day activities and sports, whether recreational or competitive. Their positioning strategy is to redevelop a current product to make it better and more efficient for the consumer. Theia Lenses has several comparative advantages over regular contact lenses or glasses and sunglasses. They will be competing with sunglasses, a product that consumers are used to, and although they will be entering the market with higher prices, they will offer the same brands as sunglasses at an equal, if not, a lesser price for a product that offers so much more. Examples of these are increased mobility, increased vision, new styles and trends and the ease of going outside. Their positioning strategy will be to offer more for the same, when it comes to brand name sunglasses, and more for more when it comes to regular contact users switching from disposable contacts to Theia Lenses reusable contacts. Theia Lenses primarily targets people involved in these activities and offers them a simple solution to a problem that so many companies have over looked; the solution of seeing past the sun and into what’s important to the consumer. Although there are transition glasses and sunglasses on the market, they don’t help the consumer stay mobile. Theia Lenses conversion contacts do. The company will be entering the market at a higher income clientele using a price skimming strategy while still offering lower income consumers a basic product at an affordable price. Consumers will also have the option of using benefits to help reduce the price of the contacts and make it more affordable for every day people to purchase. Theia Lenses will help their consumers make every day life a little easier without breaking the bank. Anyone who wishes to purchase a set of conversion contacts has many different ways to do so. They will be sold in most sport specialty stores, high fashion stores and online, all of these with the option of choosing the brand they want, adding a prescription or customizing their own design. The image of transition contact lenses appeals as a highly valued product, the style and technological experience of clear sight that it provides to the users will be a revolutionary change in UV protection. Theia’s products will be given to household name athletes, which will appeal to their fans and inspire them to purchase their own transition contacts.

Product Mix

Product

Conversion contact lenses can be classified as two different types of product, depending on the consumer. For consumers that use contact lenses frequently, conversion sunglasses would be a shopping product, in which the customer characteristically compares on the bases of sustainability, quality, price and style. Consumers who already use contacts for the prescription and freedom from glasses may shop around looking for the best type on contact lens for them. Others who don’t normally wear contacts conversion contacts are classified as a specialty product, in which the product has unique characteristics for which a large number of buyers is willing to make the special purchase effort. These consumers may be athletes, looking to improve their performance, and people looking to follow or start new trends.

Theia Lenses` conversion contacts are defined in the three following ways:

Core benefit

The core benefit of conversion contacts is to help people improve their vision, with both prescription and the ability to shade the sun and protect consumers eyes from harmful UV rays while providing a new kind of style.

Actual Product

"Theia Lenses" is the company that produces these conversion lenses, striving to give consumers the highest level of quality for the reusable and long-term conversion contact lenses. Features include such things as quick transition from outdoors to indoors and a change in the level of light, a chic and new type of style that has yet to be introduced to the market, and the ability to improve the area of focus and vision. Conversion contacts will be sold in the same way that glasses and sunglasses are now. Every company that Theia Lenses works with will create their own design for their contacts, with features including color, shape, and design that they put into the contacts. For example if Theia Lenses has a contract with Nike to use their name to sell their product, Nike can pick any colors, or shapes they wish to include in the contact. To create brand awareness and sponsorship Nike may even put their trademark check mark onto the contact over the eye, creating a whole new style that consumers have never seen before. This means that when consumers buy contacts from Theia Lenses, depending on what brand they chose, they design will vary. When a consumer purchases a product from Theia Lenses, along with the contacts they receive a case with the brand name of the contacts on it which can be used to clean and store the reusable contacts. Customers also have the option of customizing their contacts. There are many personalized choices including the shade of the contacts. If the customer is more sensitive to light the contacts can be customized to be darker, or lighter if not. There are a variety of different shapes, colors and designs that can also be added. Theia Lenses will use as little packaging as possible while keeping the contacts intact and safe. By doing this they will help to reduce waste and garbage from over packaging. Packaging design will differ between all the different brands involved.

Augmented Product

Theia Lenses offers a partial warranty for any scratches, breaks, creases or holes that may happen to the contact lenses. By offering a partial warranty on contact lenses, Theia Lenses is encouraging consumers to take care of their contacts and make sure they are worn and stored in the proper way, but will still be there to help them just in case a contact is lost, or is harmed. Theia Lenses also offers a solution for contact lenses, to clean them and to store them in and provides a case for them to be cleaned and stored in. Theia Lenses also has an online store. Customers can browse through the different brands that are offered, create their own customized product and even send an order to the company. All products that are ordered off the website are shipped directly to the customer’s home with no delivery or handling fee.

Price

Prices will be more expensive than that of sunglasses or contacts that are on the market today. These companies have the ability to mass produce, mass order and mass sell their products. Our product is customized to every individual person that orders it. From the color and the prescription to the design and variations and shade of the contact lenses. Theia lenses will be using the price skimming strategy and enter the market with a high price, introducing the product at a high price to sports activists and fanatics who can afford it. By doing this the company will maximize revenue and show value to the customers that the brand image of Theia lenses, is of the highest prestige. The product will eventually lower enough in price, yet still remain high enough to show value and brand positioning, so that it can be afforded by the majority of the public, by this time the promotion for these transition contacts will have reached out to everyone with an active lifestyle. People will see that these products that were once highly priced, are now highly popular, and much more affordable. This price skimming strategy will be extremely effect and most profitable for Theia Lenses.

Place

Theia lenses will able available at most sport specialty stores, golf country clubs, outdoor sport stores, extreme sports stores, high fashion stores, through online sales from the website, and optometrists clinics. These locations will have demonstrations set up so consumers can learn about the product, how it works and how it will be able to increase performance for sports and other activities they can be used for. By informing the consumer, they will better understand the product; this increases the possibility of selling the product. The regular lenses or non-prescription lenses will be able available at more places than the prescription lenses, for the prescription lenses will have to made to fit the customer’s specific eyesight needs. For completely customized lenses the customer will have to make an order either through one of the optometrists that carries our products or through the companies website, keep in mind that prescription lenses are not available online. Other places that will aid Theia Lenses will be also be available at the majority of sportsman shows, where booths will be erected for spreading our message of "Seeing past the Light, free your eyes." as there will be Theia Lenses’ athletes giving their testimonials to the masses whilst signing autographs and meeting their fans. This will help add value and sell the product because consumers are loyal to the athletes of their favourite sports teams. Theia Lenses will actually belong to both the direct and indirect marketing channels. The company will be able to use the  direct marketing channel because customers will able to order their fully customized lenses through the company’s website. Customers will also be able to get their premium UV blocking contact lenses through some of Theia Lenses’ retailers, which leads to Theia Lenses’ second distribution channel, of indirect marketing channel. some of the retail that will carrying Theia Lenses would include places like, Sport Chek, Golf town, other sport of specialized stores, and optometrist’s offices that carry and prescribe Theia Lenses. Because of these two different marketing distribution channels, Theia Lenses will classify as having a multichannel distribution system; this is because of the company using both direct and indirect marketing distribution channels at the same time, this channel is also known as hybrid marketing channel. It will allow Theia Lenses to be able to reach one or more customer segments, which in turn will allow for greater sales and a greater number of customers.

Promotion·        

Theia Lenses will first need to inform consumers of how conversion contacts work and how it will affect their lives for the better. In order to do this, they will use television advertisements showing athletes, that consumers are loyal to and trust, to show how their product works and how it will be able to better their lifestyles. Theia Lenses will use personal selling tactics and public relations by using athletes and brand names to endorse and sell our products consumers will be quick to learn about conversion sunglasses and by using demonstration booths in stores to show how our product works. Theia Lenses has also selected specialty sports stores such as Sportcheck and golf town, along with high fashion stores, optometrist’s offices and sunglasses and glasses stores to display our products, sell our products and put up advertisements such as posters and demonstrations. In our advertisements we will use our mission statement, see past the light, free your eyes, to create brand awareness. Theia Lenses wants consumers to recognize the company by just their mission statement, and what will be the slogan. Sales promotion will be easily used with benefits offered to employees by the companies they work for and users of blue cross. Just by putting conversion contacts under optical benefit plans it saves consumers a large percentage of the cost of these contacts and offers an incentive to try something new, and to try conversion contact lenses. In order to set a foundation for direct marketing, Theia Lenses asks consumers to visit the website and browse through all the different types of customization features and brand names that they offer. Once they have done this if they wish to purchase the product or are even just interested in it, they can sign up to be sent emails about any new products or offers they may be interested in. These emails will be customized to exactly what the consumer told the company they were interested in; they won’t be notified of any other product. Theia Lenses will use a push strategy promotional mix. Although consumers can buy products directly from the website, the majority of products will be sold through other retailers and wholesalers such as sports stores, fashion stores or optometrists offices. Conversion contacts will also be advertised through these businesses. Consumers are already loyal to these branches so Theia Lenses will have no problem getting consumers to see their products.

The marketing's social responsibility refers to a company's marketing behaviour while seeking how the company brings benefits to customers. Theia lenses will give dual attention to the social impact which the marketing behaviour produces, and the interaction between the enterprise developments with the total social welfare growth, using the strategies that both sustain the environment and produce profits for the company. Theia lenses’ social responsibility is to it’s customers. Products will be packaged in pre-sealed solution packets, cleaning solutions will always be tested before sale, and high quality manufacturing products will always be used to ensure safe use of transition lenses. Theia Lenses responsibility to the environment is a promise to use less plastic and packaging, which will reduce the garbage and waste in landfills. As these lenses are targeted at an audience with an active lifestyle in sports or other recreational activities, Theia Lenses will encourage a more active lifestyle by doing presentation in schools and information kiosks in malls, about sports and healthy choices. For every contact sold, $1 will be donated to charity organizations for the blind. Theia Lenses will support the summer and winter Olympics with donations, transition contacts will be provided for athletes competing in outdoor sports so their sight can be clear to compete in the games.

Implementation Plan

    Theia Lenses will sell transition lenses to brand name sunglass companies, such as Oakley and D&G, to manufacture their own designs, colours and  styles. For this company to be successful in the future it will have to meet the challenge of penetrating the tight knit group of sports gear and change the norm of wearing sunglasses. Theia Lenses will have to be able to gather a strong customer loyalty through the testimonials of its athletes, advertising and promotions. This may be easily done becasue of the loyalty consumers have to the locations the conversion contacts will be sold in.With the convenience that Theia Lenses brings, once an athlete tries them, they themselves will notice the freedom that the lenses bring to their game. There are several factors that Theia Lenses must overcome to assure a successful future. These include, attempting to find athletes who will be willing to endorse the lenses, showing how safe the lenses are from repeated use, and through the sponsorships of all the different sport athletes and sport events. Theia Lenses must be able to penetrate every niche of the giant world of sports, by doing this it will lead to a greater audience for advertising, a larger target market, and even the availability to use the data from all their athletes for researching new product innovations from their reviews and experiences with the product. Contact lenses is a industry of constant innovation, so Theia Lenses must continue to keep research and development contstant through customer and athlete experiences. The thoughts of the product are going to aid Theia Lenses into becoming one of the forefronts of contact lenses and sport technology. Such research could include the search of most breathability, thinnest, and robust materials to make the contact lenses for its clients. Finally the last and one of the most important part of Theia Lenses, is the ability to customize the lenses so your lenses perform the way you want them to perform.