viewpoint
Put the Market in Marketing

There are many things I didn't study in school, but that never kept me from acting as though I did. I know little about marketing, except what I learned by doing it poorly, and my experience with doing it wrong makes me a paper expert on what not to do.

Generally, when a new product or procedure becomes available, the company comes to me with a glossy and beautiful marketing campaign. Usually, the campaign consists of several "modules." They're always called modules and never sections, chapters, books, or projects. I do not know where module came from, but there it is.

One module is always devoted to print advertising. There's an assortment of camera-ready art, different styles, some in black and white, and others in color. The name of the procedure is in large and bold letters followed by a more modest "...is now available for your surgical pleasure exclusively at..." followed by a small blank space where the practice can insert its name. Theoretically, patients who have been impatiently waiting for this procedure or that one will flock to the door. The only problem is, most patients have never heard of these things, so they aren't looking for them.

Just before press time for this issue of Ophthalmology Management, Ophtec and AMO received FDA approval for their phakic IOL. Other approvals will likely be close behind. Undoubtedly, each of the companies will ask me to advertise its specific product in its coordinated marketing campaign. Their experts will send me beautiful modules, but that's not what I want.

Here's What Would Help My Practice

I want the companies to pool their resources and blanket the country with ads promoting phakic IOLs as an alternative to LASIK. Generate an ad campaign similar to that put out by the trade group for milk ("Got milk?"). If you advertise the lens as an alternative ("Pork, the other white meat"), you can build up awareness for these implants among patients, so when they walk into our offices they will ask, "Should I have LASIK or a phakic implant?"

That, my friends, would be a successful campaign. A lot more lenses will be used if patients are aware they exist. It would let a market develop first, instead of having the companies fight for a share of a market that isn't there yet.