Tag Archives: Vision Monday

Cliff’s Notes on the Vision Monday Global Leadership Summit

March 15, 2013 By in Luxury Tags: , , Leave a comment
I had the opportunity to attend the VM Global Leadership Summit yesterday and I was amazed at how the themes of the event were so in tune with all I have been writing about in the past year or two.  The title of the event was “Imagination – Invention, Succeeding in a Culture of Change“.  That says it all.  Every presentation touched on how business is changing so rapidly and how ECPs and all retailers need to have a strategy to adapt to this change.  Some quick takeaways for me (and please refer to the CE class I have written for more a more detailed discussion):
1.  Nothing says “new strategy” more than a change to product assortment.  No one is saying a major overhaul – but a tweak in product will do so much to help you stand out from the crowded marketplace.
2.  Look at your service model.  In the age of Amazon and Zappos and “on demand” buying and service, all ECPs must look at “service” as a means to stand out from the crowd and compete with the omni-channel retailing that is all around us.  ”Service” (and of course product assortment) is why consumers will come to you as opposed to shopping somewhere else.
3.  Digital — what is your digital strategy??  I am not advocating selling product online (this will become more important with time but will never overtake the entire market the way some people say) but I am fully advocating having a digital strategy.  It could be just a new way to communicate with your customers or it could be a way to better manage the patient experience… but you need to be doing SOMETHING!
Be on the lookout at Visionmonday.com for a slide presentation from the event.  It is WELL WORTH reading!  A BIG thanks to Jobson Publishing and the Vision Monday team and especially Marc Ferrrara and Marge Axelrad for putting on such a great event.  Some specific highlights for me:
- Marc Ferrara in his opening remarks said: “As an industry we are kind of boring our fan base and we need to entertain them more.”   He could not have said it better or more succinctly.  He also said the day was “all about asking questions”.  I think he stole that line from me!  That’s the best way to challenge your status quo and own your strategy.  Ask yourself questions and come up with NEW answers!
- Francis Jean, OD, President/CEO of Iris The Visual Group — he gave a great presentation on how ECPs MUST use service and product to compete. And he does NOT have an online sales strategy – but uses digital to communicate and offer information to his patient base.  Very compelling.
- Frank Moss, PhD, Director of the New Media Medicine Group at MIT Media Lab — spoke about the need for creativity and enabling people (your team) to think out of the box and come up with new ways of doing EVERYTHING.  A great quote: “Disruption starts with NOT knowing what you DON’T know.”  Love that one!
- David Golden, OD, Co-Founder of EyeHome Network and PERC — his quote says it all: “Evolve or get replaced”.
- Robert Safian, Editor and Managing Director, Fast Company Magazine – he spoke a lot about Steve Jobs and painted a great picture illustrating the need to always challenge status quo and always be looking to reinvent your business or processes.
Conferences are a great way to get out of the day to day doldrums of work and open your mind and challenge your accepted practices.  That’s why I like to attend them and that is why the VM Summit is always such a great day…. and always nice to see old friends!

VISION EXPO 2012: Think Different (part 2)

March 21, 2012 By in Strategy Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Last week, at MIDO in Milan, Steve Jobs was on my mind.  This week in New York as Vision Expo gets underway, he is on my mind more than ever!  I am sitting here (in a break) at the annual VM Summit which is always a great day of idea sharing, discussion of new trends, and a chance to see old friends and colleagues.  This year’s summit theme is “Innovation Everywhere”.  They could easily have stolen a page out of the Jobs playbook and called it THINK DIFFERENT.  Given everything I have been writing about in this blog, this topic of innovation is very timely and obviously very near and dear to me personally. My mission in writing this has been to share my experiences to help ECPs  grow their practice and be more competitive in the new retail environment.  Today’s morning panel discussion has crystallized many things we have discussed over the past months. Here is what it means to THINK DIFFERENT:

  1. Innovation (defined as solving real problems for real people) is key to an enduring company – if we do not innovate, we will be left behind.
  2. Disruptive technology and disruption in general is changing our entire landscape.  We need to embrace new ideas and new technology and new products, or we will be left behind.
  3. The future is sooner and stranger than you think – if we are not planning for this new future, again, we will be left behind.
  4. We need to surprise and delight our patients/consumers/customers.  What is least expected is what is MOST valuable.
  5. Consumers today crave information – we need to be information and service providers and be patient-centric.  Not transaction-centric.

To summarize this, the focus of the panel discussion was about providing a unique experience.  And this made me think about a post I did back in November on Strategy Development.  As you think about your strategy, you MUST think about the 5 points listed here.  And as you think about your strategy, think about how unique product and providing a unique experience will help set you apart from the competition.  Think about how to THINK DIFFERENT.

Thanks to the people at Jobson and Vision Monday for sponsoring such a great annual event.  Enjoy Vision Expo!

Back To Strategy

February 23, 2012 By in Luxury, Strategy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

We have spent the past few weeks talking about the “HOW” of a potential luxury strategy with a focus on buying.  Today, I want to go back and reinforce “WHY” luxury is so important. Here are some recent quotes from articles in The New York Times, Women’s Wear Daily, and Vision Monday – a good cross section of publications and viewpoints.

Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

The New York Times – Wednesday February 22, “High End Retailers Report Strong Profits, but Walmart Shoppers Still Struggle.”

  • The holidays turned out to be a lot brighter on the high end judged by the results of four major retailers.  While Walmart had to lower prices so aggressively that it hurt its profit, retailers focusing on higher-income customers crowed about the solid prices those shoppers paid.
  • “I think there is generally more confidence today than there was at this time last year” – Terry Lundgren, Macy’s Chairman and CEO. He added: “Bloomingdale’s business was particularly strong.  The Bloomgdale’s customer is categorized as one who’s buying more luxury product and that business was very good, and you’ve seen that from the other luxury retailers.”
  • Price cuts meant Walmart’s margin decreased by .4%
  • Saks Fifth Avenue has historically high gross margin rate performance.  Reduced promotional activity and increased full price sales led to a .7% increase in margin.  Net income in Q4 rose 48% while sales rose 7.7%.

Women’s Wear Daily – Friday February 16: “Nordstrom Gains With Rack, E-Commerce.“

  • Nordstrom sales rose 7.2% for their current fiscal year. Net income rose 11.4%.  This year, Nordstrom expects sales to increase between 4% and 6%.
  • “Regular price selling remains at historically high levels” – Blake Nordstrom, President.

Vision Monday – Friday February 17, 2012: “2012 ‘Off to Stronger Start,’ Says Optical Business Barometer from Jobson Research.“

  • “With the January 2012 Jobson Optical Business Barometer Rating, the new year appears to be off to a strong start, and continues a strong showing that began in November of 2011,” In December, the index saw a significant improvement when the Barometer rose 0.3 from November’s index of 3.5. The January 2012 and December 2011 ratings for overall optical business are the highest since March of 2011 and higher than any month in 2010.
  • The U.S. economy isn’t the only thing that seems to be strengthening and stabilizing. Numbers for the vision care industry are on an upward trajectory as well with total U.S. revenue at retail of all vision care products and services generated during the 2011 calendar year growing to $32.8 billion, representing an increase of almost 3% from 2010 when revenue hit $31.9 billion, according to VisionWatch, a research study conducted by The Vision Council.
  • Overall units for complete eyeglasses (frames and lenses) sold increased marginally, with less than 1% gains in both frame and lens sales during the year-ending period December 2011. In dollar revenue terms, there was a healthy growth of 3% for frames and 1% in the lens market. Approximately 67.1 million pairs of frames were sold during the year-ending period December 2011, worth $8.4 billion at the retail level. During the same period, approximately 75 million pairs of Rx lenses were sold, worth $9.6 billion at the retail level.
  • Dollar sales of plano (non Rx) sunglasses increased almost 5% in the year-ending period December 2011—the highest growth rate since the recession started, to close out the year at $3.4 billion for 92.2 million pairs sold. The increase is attributed entirely to rising prices in the sunglass market as the number of units sold did not change from 2010.

What does all this mean for you?  A strategy that includes luxury product will lead to increased sales, increased margins and an overall unique point of view at retail that can help you stand out from the crowded sameness of our market and retail in general.  See the Top Reasons I had printed weeks ago.  It rings very true in light of the recent news articles:

7 key reasons luxury product should be part of your overall retail strategy

  • Luxury sales are growing at a faster pace than other price point categories.
  • Luxury attracts affluent consumers – they are more loyal, they are wealthy, they are networked and thus they tell friends about you if they like you.
  • Luxury usually means local and NOT chain stores.  Americans like to shop. They like to spend money (despite the current crisis). And they like to do it locally and not in chains.  They want something special and they want it locally.  Don’t give the business away to a chain.
  • Luxury means generally higher margins on all sales
  • Luxury means higher retail price points which means greater sales volume.
  • Luxury means higher sales per patient visit/transaction –All of this means you can increase your sales without even increasing your patient base or the amount of people coming through your door.  You can increase sales without increasing any marketing or outreach expenses.  (we will discuss this in more detail in a future post)
  • Luxury product is the best way to stand out from the competition. It’s the best way to stand out from the chain stores that all look the same.  And it’s the best way to fight the ever present internet and all the discounts you can find there.   In short, luxury product is the means to creating your own point of view at retail.
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