Context

The Rodenstock Group is one of the world's leading manufacturers of high-quality spectacle lenses. With the philosophy "B.I.G. VISION® FOR ALL", the lens manufacturer stands for a paradigm shift in individual progressive lenses. Founded in 1877 and headquartered in Munich, Germany, the company employs around 4,900 people worldwide and is represented by sales offices and distribution partners in more than 85 countries. Rodenstock maintains production facilities at 14 locations in 13 countries. For more information, please visit www.rodenstock.de/presse.

The eye health journey for spectacle wearers very often starts with an optician, who is supporting his/her customers with the diagnosis followed by a recommendation and sale of a pair of spectacles (frame & a pair of lenses). After the sale, the customer has to wait between 1-2 weeks for the spectacles to be manufactured before they can be fitted and picked up at the optician. After the purchase, it takes about three years for the customer to buy another pair. Rodenstock’s objective is to offer additional value to the customer during these times to create new touchpoints, retain them as customers of their Rodenstock opticians, and ideally even shorten the time between repurchases.

Rodenstock is working closely with it’s their partners (opticians) to enhance services for them and their customers but remains a rather functional brand that is often unknown to the end consumer.

Rodenstock wants to explore how it can add value directly to the end consumer (spectacle wearer) and to the optician (with a clear consumer relevance). Keep in mind, that the eye health journey usually begins with the first pair of glasses. Potential services can happen at each stage of a buying journey and happen on- as well as offline.

Task

Your task is to develop ideas for new value-added services for spectacle wearers.

The following essential criteria are required by Rodenstock for this challenge:

• The service should focus on healthy vision, eye health and/or spectacle lenses
• The service should be anything that delivers additional value to customers
• The service could be a solution for addressing needs of the consumers between purchase and pickup
• The service could be a solution which decreases the time between pickup and re-purchase
• Ideally the service increases loyalty between the optician and Rodenstock, Rodenstock and the end consumer and/or the end-consumer with the optician who distributes Rodenstock

Put yourself in the shoes of the user:

• What would they value before entering the optician for the first time?
• Which needs could be addressed when thinking of services for different buyers, e.g. the enthusiastic, well informed, insecure, indecisive?
• What would consumers value between the purchase decision and the arrival of their first glasses ?
• How can decisions be re-confirmed, waiting times be shortened, additional arising questions be addressed?
• Which services would they value while using them in the first weeks, first month, first year ?
• Which services could turn them into loyal customers of Rodenstock and/or the respective optician?
• Which services can help shorten the repurchase cycle?
• Which of these services would you expect as a minimum offering from a premium brand, and which would you regard as extraordinary?

Timeline

• Start of the contest: Feb 24, 2022
• End of the contest: Apr 6, 2022, 23:59:59 CET
• Winner Announcement: May 6, 2022