66 I CATARACT & REFRACTIVE SURGERY TODAY I MAY 2002

TODAY’S PRACTICE

Last month’s column focused on the need to dif-ferentiate your services as a LASIK provider inorder to successfully compete in the refractivesurgery market. This position implied that other

providers are the LASIK surgeon’s main competitors.Now, let me turn the tables on you, and say that yourcompetition is not other providers at all, but actuallyprospective LASIK patients. That’s right, your competi-tion is patients, not doctors. In fact, the surgeon who

performs excellent LASIK surgery with few complica-tions is your best friend. Those you think of as “com-petitors” are doing more to help build your practicethan you’ll ever appreciate or acknowledge.

C AT EG O RY BU I L D I N GTo illustrate my point, let’s pretend we are all in the

business of marketing the relatively new technologycalled the “electric vehicle” to American consumers,who currently own and maintain over 220 million auto-mobiles that run on gas. We would all work very care-fully to build a favorable image of electric cars and thebenefits they offer. Far from striving to be the only deal-

er in town offering such novel technology, we wouldwant to see many other electric car dealerships andhope that the manufacturers promote these new vehi-cles. We’d treat those first customers like royalty. Andwe’d be glad every time we saw one of those cars on theroad, regardless of who sold it. Why? Because allproviders benefit as the consumer pool grows, theresult of the most effective marketing of all: word-of-mouth from satisfied customers.

Like the electric car, LASIK is a niche offering within amainstream category. But unlike the electric car, LASIKmarketing has not built solid foundations within theprovider ranks, in part because most providers think ofother “dealerships” as competitors rather than collabo-rators in building this new category. LASIK providers aretoo busy trying to outdo each other. There have beentoo many attempts to take nonmeaningful differencesin technique or technology and bill them as “innova-tions.” The result: too much confusion in the market-place.

The truth is that you, the surgeon, are competing fora piece of the prospect’s mind, a mind that has been

They’re closer than you think.

BY SHAREEF MAHDAVI

Marketing Mishaps

Who Is theCompetition?

TODAY’S PRACTICE

MAY 2002 I CATARACT & REFRACTIVE SURGERY TODAY I 67

filled with all sorts of misinformation about laser visioncorrection. Yes, you are fighting for the ownership ofpart of a potential patient’s mind and how it perceivesLASIK and you as a provider. Compounding the prob-lem is surgeons’ biases about the average person’sknowledge of refractive error or the available options tocorrect it. Even today, many people I speak with stilldon’t know that their astigmatism or farsightedness canbe corrected with a laser.

In these early years of refractive surgery, the industry’sgoal is to build legitimacy for LASIK. Ideally, refractivesurgery would have the same place that the more estab-lished options, spectacles and contact lenses, alreadyhave in the minds of providers and consumers. It’simportant to accept that refractive surgery still has along way to go to earn that place.

One way for LASIK providers to gain legitimacy is torecognize that typical questions such as “Why is it soexpensive?” and “Can you guarantee that I’ll have 20/20vision?” are smoke screens that mask the real issues athand. As I’ve said in earlier articles, the mind of theLASIK prospect is in conflict between desire and fear. Itis the resolution of this inner conflict that drives peopleto decide either for or against undergoing LASIK. Youneed to respect this conflict and, in fact, address bothsides of it. Here’s a closer look at each of these twocompetitors:

COM PE T ITO R N O . 1 : D E S I R EYou are competing with other desires—the cost of

having LASIK is right there with a nice vacation, a fullyloaded laptop, a sub-zero fridge…an endless list ofpotential uses for those discretionary dollars. The bene-fit of better functional vision is competing with thepromise of a sandy beach, the efficiency of faster down-loads, and the status that accompanies ownership ofthe ultimate kitchen appliance. LASIK faces stiff compe-tition from a whole host of competing consumer wantsand needs.

COM PE T ITO R N O . 2 : F E A RYou are competing with deep-seated fear—clearly,

this is the fiercer of these two competitors. As an eyespecialist, you know how much people value their eye-sight. They will do anything to protect it, includingkeeping you from doing something that might perma-nently harm them. This competitor often wins bydefault, as refractive surgeons typically do little tosquelch the concerns that prospective patients haveabout the procedure. It’s emotionally much easier toresolve the inner conflict by letting fear rule the day andpostponing surgery.

PATIENCE VS. PATIENTSStop worrying about what the other providers are say-

ing and doing, and begin focusing on how you’re going totame the real competition. Within this context, differentia-tion is reframed to mean separating what you do from allthe misperceptions that prospective patients have receivedvia bad advertising and negative publicity. It’s rare that yourun across someone whose mind is like a clean sheet ofpaper when it comes to LASIK. You may have to undo agood deal of negative programming before you see anysign of victory.

How will you know that you’re winning the war againstthe true competition? Far more people will begin toinquire about LASIK and refractive surgery. The lead ques-tion becomes, “Where should I go to have it done?” ratherthan “Should I have it done?” That is what happened withthe automobile, which has become indispensable to somany people that the decision process revolves aroundwhere to buy it rather than if it should be purchased.Clearly, LASIK isn’t there yet. It has a long way to go toreach the mainstream of vision correction, currently a $16billion annual industry in the US.

Don’t get me wrong. Competition is a good thing. Itkeeps us striving to do better. Our social structure andsociety are deeply rooted in the concept of winning, socompeting with or against others is part of the game oflife. But you need to ask yourself, would you rather have alarge slice of a small pie or a small slice of a much largerpie? It’s not a trick question, but the actions of mostproviders so far indicate they have been going after thelarge slice rather than helping to create the large pie.

It takes determination and guts to create a new con-sumer category…not unlike the strong stomach requiredfrom the first few million patients who are proving toeveryone else that LASIK is indeed safe and wonderful. Noone said it would be easy.

It will take a patient and determined community ofLASIK providers to earn a significant share of the con-sumer’s mind. The current course is not working out toowell, as fear reigns over all but a small percentage of moti-vated consumers. Build legitimacy for the LASIK proce-dure, fulfill desires that exceed that of a vacation, andstrive to reduce fear at every point of contact you havewith those trying to learn more about refractive surgery. ■

Each month, industry veteran, Shareef Mahdavi, looks ata different topic relating to the business of refractive sur-gery, exploring how mistakes from the past can be used byall providers for effective marketing. He was formerly thehead of marketing for VISX and is based in Pleasanton,California. Mr. Mahdavi may be reached at (925) 425-9963; shareef@sm2consulting.com