By Mark Wright, OD, FCOVD,
and Carole Burns, OD, FCOVD
June 13, 2018
Do you know the kinds of marketing, and optical offers, that resonate with parents? Here is how you can ensure the messages you send to patients in your optical encourage sales of children’s eyewear.
Eyecare providers rated durable construction as the most important factor in selling eyewear to infant/toddlers (Age 0 to 3) and kids (Age 4 to 8), with 89.2 percent and 89.5 percent rating it very important respectively, according to Jobson Optical Research’s 2018 Children’s Eyewear MarketPulse. ECPs rated a good warranty policy as the most important factor in selling eyewear to tweens (Age 9 to 13), with 72.5 percent rating it very important. When it comes to selling eyewear to teens (Age 14 to 17), ECPs rated wide variety of shapes as the most important factor in with 68.5 percent rating it very important.
So, the simple read of this data is that up to age 13, your marketing for children should highlight durability and a great warranty. After age 13, fashion becomes more important and should be the focus of your marketing. Now, that’s not to say that you should forget fashion for those 13 and under, it’s just that durability and warranty are more important.
Your marketing tag line could be something like this for the under 14 patients: “We have durable frames with a great warranty that look amazing on your child.” For the child that is 14 and over, the marketing line becomes: “We have frames that will look amazing on your child, and have a great warranty.”
Take this week to look at your internal marketing on your frame boards. Can you stand at the entrance to your optical and see signage that is targeting your 14 and up population of patients? Now do the same exercise for the 14 and over.
Turn to your web site. Are the marketing messages there targeting the correct populations with the most effective messages?
Remember that you actually have two groups of people that you are marketing to when you are dealing with children. The most important group are the moms. Mom is going to make the decision to purchase. The second group are the kids. To be effective, you need to make sure your marketing addresses both groups. Words are important in this type of marketing, but so are visuals. The words tell the story, but the visual should evoke an emotional response.
Happy faces wearing stylish frames is what you are looking for. Your frame vendors will have marketing materials that you can use. Place visuals at mom’s eye level in the optical. (Never put visuals at the floor level.)
