A Taste of OTC?

I wrote yesterday about the introduction of SoundControl hearing aids from Bose. You know I wasn't that impressed, but I was thinking, do they care? I am most definitely not the target market. Nor funnily enough are the people who currently purchase hearing aids in the traditional provision market.

The target market for these devices is in fact the large per centage of people who don't purchase hearing aids in the traditional manner for differing reasons. For some people, it is price, for some it is personal control, for some it's simply convenience.Whatever the reason is, the traditional model does not suit them.

In the traditional market, device manufacturers are blurring the lines between consumer electronic, integrated communication device, wider health monitoring and hearing better. Simply put, they are pushing the boundaries of hearing aids to deliver something more. All the while this is going on, Bose, a giant of consumer electronics, delivers a hearing aid from 2009 DTC. What gives?

It occurred to me that I was judging it by insider standards, not by target market standards. That, is a very stupid thing to do, and not something I do often. Bose is betting that the unserviced market just wants to hear a little better for a nice low price, they aren't yet concerned about the wider possibilities offered by modern hearing devices.

I don't know if that is true, especially with the cohort of people with mild to moderate hearing loss. Both NuHeara, and Alango technologies have decided on a different approach to the same market place. While both companies are pretty innovative, they both know that their offering, and form factors are designed for situational use, as opposed to the long term, daily use that the Bose design offers.

It makes me wonder, while we, and by that I mean all of us in the industry, are really focused on the wider holistic device offering that modern hearing aids are, are we missing the fact that a huge proportion of unserviced users just want to hear better at a lower price? I have said time and time again, no matter what bullshit you hear, it is always about price.

I constantly hear this rubbish about the perception of value etc. I published an article recently about surveys we were undertaking, the key thing, the very top need was price. Some gobshite commented that the answers were bogus because you know, comfort was lower than price. It seems that no matter how much consumers tell you affordability is an issue, you don't want to believe it.

Anyway, maybe Bose, as an outsider, without all that fluffy bullshit about value as a perception, believes the unserviced majority when they say price is an issue. What strikes me though, is that the Bose price, is closely matched by some offerings from national traditional retail audiology businesses. For instance, for under a thousand pounds sterling, you can purchase a set of Widex entry level hearing aids at Boots in the UK.

Not only will you get the hearing aids,you will get a quality, in-depth hearing test, a pretty good fitting experience and finally, a really strong aftercare experience for many years. I would hazard a guess that Boots, is probably not the only one to offer a similar product position and experience. While Boots play in a different marketplace entirely, it still strikes me, why have we not captured the imagination of the unserviced majority?

Even with an outstanding offering from Costco in the US, they still aren't increasing the capture rate in that unserviced market. I think they are making somewhat of a dent, but not what you would hope. So, is $849.95 the magic number for market penetration? Not sure really, but it should be interesting to find out.