Bangalore Management Academy | A report on “LASIK Eye Surgery : A consumer’s dilemma “ | Marketing Management and Analysis | EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

LASIK eye case study is about the important choice of a customer willing to perform an important optical surgery. Since the charges of the operations are not going to be covered by her insurance and due to her limited income, she has to come up with a strategy where she will spend the least minimum. Due the clinical advertisement and her friends’ testimony about the operation, she got enough motivation to undergo the operation. This report highlights how Linda came to make her decision, what are the benefits? Is there some drawbacks?

INTRODUCTION

The LASIK eye case concerns consumer buying process, how a consumer evaluates his options, alternatives before deciding to go for a brand/product. In order to decide, she went through some collection of data from many sources like her friends, federal us agency (FDA). From that, she narrowed down her choices to LLV-Canada and PCLI clinics for her operations. LLV-Canada has experienced surgeons but their released legal documents gave her second thoughts, on the other end, PCLI is expensive but has a real 'patient care' service. How is she going to solve this dilemma? What is she going to do?

CASE ANALYSIS

Problem: The problem is to understand the cues that brought Linda to make her choices. What did she take into considerations? What kind of consumer is she?
Analysis: Linda has to make an important choice that will impact on the rest of her life. She made a lot of inquiry before narrowing down her choices by going on internet get more information, by inquiring her friend, by listening to testimonials. Such involvement and thoroughness before making her choice can be categorised into the complex buying behaviour and dissonance-reducing buying behaviour.
“Consumers undertake complex buying behaviour when they are highly involved in a purchase and perceive significant differences among brands” (Kotler & Armstrong, 2010, p.130). That is showed when Linda narrowed her choice to two (02) clinics, and was trying to differentiate them by their advantages and flaws.
Kotler and Armstrong assert that “Dissonance-reducing buying behaviour occurs when consumers are highly involved with an expensive, infrequent, or risky purchase, but see little difference among brands” (2010, p.130). Linda surgical operation is risky, the first time for her, expensive and if everything goes right, won’t have to do it again. The way and the time Linda took to make her decisions highlight how important and difficult the choice was for her. First she had to decide what kind of operation she was going for, either PRK (Photorefractive Keratectomy) or LASIK (Laser in-situ Keratomileusis). After her own researches, hours of videotape she watched and testimonials from recent patients, she finally decided that LASIK surgery was the way to go. Then another big issue come up which was the choice the clinic. She got enough feedback from PCLI patients to get an idea what kind of clinic it is, also through PCLI’s web site. In addition to that she browsed to the LLV-Canada web site and found it very helpful since she got history surgeon’s profiles and a brief history of LLV. She got a step-by-step process that a patient would follow during preoperative, surgery and postoperative stages. Apart from the choice of the clinic, the other big problem for Linda was the money. Her insurance was not going to cover her operations so she has to make a wise choice because she would have to provide the travel, accommodation, pre and post operations charges herself. Even though he could benefits from her employer flexible medical benefits plan, it couldn’t cover her travel and hotel expenses. Is Linda able to able her LASIK operation? To answer that question, she would have to decide where she is going to perform the operation.

CONCLUSION

Linda’s decision will depend on price and risk factor either with LLV or PCLI for her LASIK operation. For PCLI the price is high but risk can be recoverable and for LLV the price is low but damage is not recoverable. PCLI USA has some advantages over LLV clinic in CANADA. Good quality and highly experienced clinic with highly experienced surgeons. The clinic is good quality and very experienced with experienced surgeons. It is also very well organized and equipped so the surgery is more likely to be a success. Surgery is marked by the FDA as a compromise which means it can be done by certified medical professionals. The treatment is convenient for Linda, because she will not be able to travel and she can stay in touch with his family who will give him emotional support. She did not sign any document that will help to make a claim for damages based on the benefits provided by the PCLI because risk factor is low. She must therefore take into account the risk factor and other benefits instead of price; it must choose PCLI for clinical treatment.

REFERENCES

1. Kotler, P., Gary, A., Prafulla, A., & Ehsan, H. (2010). Principle of Marketing. Dorling Kinderley Pvt. Ltd. 2. http://costlasiklasereyesurgery.wordpress.com/