Vistakon
Introduction
In 1993 Vistakon developed a revolutionary product offering – 1 Day Acuvue lens, effectively introducing a new category in the vision correction market. Following the regional launch in 1994, Vistakon set out to work on alleviating barriers to product and maximizing efficiency of its customer acquisition efforts. The main business problem for Vistakon is to expand the market for the newly created category and sustain long-term leadership in the contact lens market.
Competitive advantages and sustainability
Vistakon had three major sources of competitive advantages that helped the company sustain its growth. First, without sacrificing flexibility, it was a part of a large organization with enormous resources, readily available for product development and marketing initiatives. Second, Vistakon extensively used innovations to develop a unique manufacturing process to attain low cost and high volume production. Third, it developed strong relationship with a wide network of eye care professional (ECPs). While the first two competitive advantages are sustainable because it is quite challenging to replicate them (and almost impossible to take away), the sustainability of the third is less obvious – competitors can potentially attract ECPs with better incentives. However, ECPs care a lot about the product quality (discussed below in more details), and Vistakon’s competitors currently don’t have superior product nor can they offer more lucrative business model. Therefore, relationships with ECPs can also be considered sustainable, at least mid-term.
Decision making process of patients and ECPs
The cost and comfort are the ultimate factors that drive the patient’s decision to change their behavior in regards to the usage of vision correction products. In analyzing Vistakon’s decision to develop daily disposable lenses, it is important to think of consumer needs that the company was able to address with the revolutionary product (please see Exhibit 1 for
In 1993 Vistakon developed a revolutionary product offering – 1 Day Acuvue lens, effectively introducing a new category in the vision correction market. Following the regional launch in 1994, Vistakon set out to work on alleviating barriers to product and maximizing efficiency of its customer acquisition efforts. The main business problem for Vistakon is to expand the market for the newly created category and sustain long-term leadership in the contact lens market.
Competitive advantages and sustainability
Vistakon had three major sources of competitive advantages that helped the company sustain its growth. First, without sacrificing flexibility, it was a part of a large organization with enormous resources, readily available for product development and marketing initiatives. Second, Vistakon extensively used innovations to develop a unique manufacturing process to attain low cost and high volume production. Third, it developed strong relationship with a wide network of eye care professional (ECPs). While the first two competitive advantages are sustainable because it is quite challenging to replicate them (and almost impossible to take away), the sustainability of the third is less obvious – competitors can potentially attract ECPs with better incentives. However, ECPs care a lot about the product quality (discussed below in more details), and Vistakon’s competitors currently don’t have superior product nor can they offer more lucrative business model. Therefore, relationships with ECPs can also be considered sustainable, at least mid-term.
Decision making process of patients and ECPs
The cost and comfort are the ultimate factors that drive the patient’s decision to change their behavior in regards to the usage of vision correction products. In analyzing Vistakon’s decision to develop daily disposable lenses, it is important to think of consumer needs that the company was able to address with the revolutionary product (please see Exhibit 1 for