Bausch & Lomb looks to make eye contact with youth

Chennai, June 27:

Bausch & Lomb Eyecare Pvt Ltd, the market leader in contact lenses, has changed tack in a bid to make the product more attractive to consumers. Instead of focusing on the functional benefits, in a new marketing effort for its latest product SofLens 59, it has taken the emotional plank to get youth to connect with it.

Mr Harish Natarajan, Managing Director of the company, told Business Line research showed that those in the target group (15-24-year-olds) just didn’t feel the need to wear contact lenses. A Rs 120-crore market, the category has been growing only in the last couple of years and has not kept pace with other lifestyle categories such as apparel, mobile phones and accessories, he said.

Despite big improvements in the quality of contact lenses over the last 20 years and past advertising focusing on disposable lenses’ superior benefits, potential users still harboured the misconceptions that they were challenging to use and expensive. So the current ad campaign, which goes with the tagline “Ankhon Ki Antakshari, Khelte Raho”, focuses on using one’s eyes to express feelings, Mr Natarajan said. The company no longer thinks it necessary to “oversell the features and benefits” as has been done for many years.

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