Brand Review Opticians: which brand claims the strongest mental position among opticians?

Brandreview provides strategic insight into the positions brands occupy in consumers’ minds. Every month, Validators takes a closer look at a different industry. This month, we’re examining optical retailers, mapping out the mental market position of the five largest optical chains and independent optical retailers combined. Brandreview is part of the Consumer Behavior Monitor, an initiative by Validators and VU Amsterdam launched in 2020 to measure the effect of a crisis on consumer behavior. In this article, you’ll find the key findings.

The purpose of research is to identify consumer needs and perspective. By starting with the consumer (and not the brand), you get to identify what is really relevant to the target audience. What do consumers base their choices at opticians on? Validators came up with 16 key needs (Category Entry Points, CEPs) for choosing an optician. Of these, the chart below shows the two most relevant and least relevant needs.

Figure 1: top2 CEPs with highest and lowest relevance within opticians

'Expert staff' is the most important reason in choosing an optician, as many as 9 in 10 consider this a relevant CEP. At No. 2 are 'Good quality products,' which is indicated by 85% as a relevant reason. The two least relevant reasons are 'easy money back/other glasses' (70%) and in last place 'easy website' (47%). Interestingly, the younger 18-34 group (65% relevance) finds this CEP more relevant than the 35-54 (49%) and 55+ group (30%).

Market shares in optics industry

Pearle claims leadership in both perceived market share and actual market share, followed by Hans Anders and Specsavers. Although the opticians are virtually in balance—perceived market share is almost the same as actual market share—Specsavers has the most favorable position here. The situation for Pearle and Specsavers is that they are (slightly) less frequently considered than their market share would suggest, but are still often chosen (actual market share). If you want to grow your mental market share as an optician, you would be wise to be top of mind in the most relevant situations for choosing an optician.

The ideal position is to be "above the line" as a brand where there is growth potential, such as Specsavers. When a brand is considered more than chosen, there is a barrier present that prevents this full occupancy. The case for Specsavers is to investigate what this barrier is and remove it to achieve brand growth.

Figure 2: Mental versus real market share of opticians

Mental competition by CEP

The various CEPs measure the number of brands being considered. If many brands are considered in a category, then (mental) competition is greater. The number of competitors within opticians ranges from 2.6 to 3.1. In terms of ROI, it can make quite a difference in which need you want to grow. For example, the least competition is on "Good experience" and the most competition is on "Wide assortment. Based on this competitive analysis, it becomes clear for each CEP whether you will face a small or large mental battle in the minds of consumers. For example, for the smaller optician chains Eye Wish and Eyelove, it makes sense to pay attention to relevant CEPs where there are relatively few competitors and focus long-term communication here, such as 'Good experiences' (2.6 competitors, 80% relevance). An example of a brand that communicates this very well is Coolblue - "everything for a smile."

What does the competition score high on?

What is even more important is to know what the competition is doing. An important part in growing in mental market share is clearly mapping the competitive umbrella and what is happening here. On which CEPs does the competition score mentally higher or lower than your brand? In Figure 3, we zoom in on the CEP "Economical" on which Hans Anders scores high. This means that when another optician wants to communicate 'Advantageous' in campaigns, there is already one competitor (Hans Anders) that has strongly claimed this CEP. So it becomes more difficult for other opticians to link this association to their own brand.

Figure 3: CEP advantageous

Growth opportunities for brands in mental market share

Recently, Validators developed the Brand Growth Matrix as a validation on prioritization of growth opportunities on credibility/strength brand link, competition and relevance. The result is a matrix that makes it clear to brands where opportunities for growth in market share lie.

For the following example in Figure 4, Hans Anders was analyzed using the Brand Growth Matrix. Growth opportunities lie primarily in the yellow quadrant, where high relevance intersects with a moderate brand link—in this case, “Good eye examination equipment” (relevance 85%). Only independent optical stores are strongly linked to “Good eye examination equipment”—not a single major optical chain has claimed this CEP. If Hans Anders wants to grow its mental market share, the brand would be wise to link itself more strongly to the need for “Good eye examination equipment.” That is the direction for long-term communication, rather than focusing on the moderately relevant CEP “Affordable”—which, incidentally, has yielded a strong brand link.

Figure 4: Brand Growth Matrix Hans Anders

What is the media budget being spent on?

Share of Voice (SOV) tells us how much a brand has spent on media relative to total media spend in the overall market, in this case the opticians' market. Specsavers takes a whopping 52% of total media spend over the past 4 years, which should mean significant growth in market share.

When we examine the communication of this brand, we find that Specsavers primarily drives the need "Actions and Discounts. This is also evidenced by the strong brand link Specsavers has with this CEP. Nevertheless, targeting 'Actions and discounts' will not make the brand conquer the market, given its mediocre relevance (71%). If Specsavers were to bet more on a CEP with higher relevance with this budget, it increases its chances of gaining market share. The highly relevant CEP 'Expert staff' is a good example of this - competitor Pearle (as the only one) steers on this in its media communications but has a significantly smaller SOV (24%).

Structure Brand Review

In 2018, VU Amsterdam and Validators launched the Institute for Brand Analytics. The goal of this collaboration is to make brands steerable and market share measurable in the minds of consumers. After four years of research on over 300 brands, we arrived at a method that could measure the strength of brands and make predictions about market share. Starting in August, a specific industry will run each month as part of the Consumer Behavior Monitor. First, an online qualitative preliminary survey tests consumer needs (CEPs) and then a Brand Review measurement.

This article also appeared on MarketingTribune.