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This excerpt taken from the EYE 10-K filed Mar 1, 2007. Sales
and Marketing. Our sales efforts and promotional activities
with respect to our cataract / implant and laser vision correction products are
primarily aimed at eye care professionals such as ophthalmologists who use our
products. Similarly, our sales and promotional efforts in contact lens care are
primarily directed towards optometrists, opticians, optical shops,
ophthalmologists and consumers. We often provide samples of our eye care
products to practitioners to distribute to their patients to encourage trial
use of our solutions. In addition, we advertise in professional journals and
have a direct mail program of descriptive product literature and scientific
information that we provide to specialists in the eye care field. We have also
developed training modules and seminars to update physicians regarding evolving
technology. A number of our marketing programs include peer-to-peer marketing
with practitioners educating other practitioners about the benefits of our
products.
Recognizing the importance of our sales force’s expertise, we invest significant time and expense to provide training in such areas as product features and benefits. Training for our ophthalmic surgical products sales force focuses on providing sales personnel with technical knowledge regarding the scope and characteristics of the products they are selling and developing skills in presenting and demonstrating those products. In addition to providing product knowledge for communication to eye care practitioners, our eye care products sales force focuses on developing the necessary skills to sell to buyers for mass merchandisers and large drug store chains. This sales force also seeks to develop relationships with eye care professionals who may purchase our products and recommend them to their patients. 7 Each of our products is marketed under its brand name and our corporate name. We have a worldwide marketing organization which helps us to set overall marketing direction, promote consistent global brand positioning and allocate marketing resources to products and regions offering the greatest return. In order to remain sensitive to cultural differences and varying health care systems throughout the world, tactical execution of marketing programs and all sales activities are carried out at the regional level. We also use third-party distributors for the distribution of our products in smaller geographic markets. No individual agent or distributor accounted for more than 10% of our net sales for the years ended December 31, 2006, 2005 and 2004. Traditionally, we have realized a seasonal trend in our sales, with the smallest portion of our cataract / implant business sales being realized in the first quarter and with sales gradually increasing from the second to fourth quarter. This has been driven predominantly by seasonality in the sales of capital equipment when customers increase spending as they reach their year end and are able to spend the remainder of their annual budgeted amounts. In the laser vision correction business, the seasonal trend favors the highest portion of sales in the first quarter. This excerpt taken from the EYE 10-K filed Mar 14, 2006. Sales
and Marketing. Our sales efforts and promotional activities
with respect to our ophthalmic surgical products are primarily aimed at eye
care professionals such as ophthalmologists who use our products. Similarly,
our sales and promotional efforts in contact lens care are primarily directed
towards optometrists, opticians, optical shops, ophthalmologists and consumers.
We often provide samples of our eye care products to practitioners to
distribute to their patients to encourage trial use of our solutions. In
addition, we advertise in professional journals and have a direct mail program
of descriptive product literature and scientific information that we provide to
specialists in the eye care field. We have also developed training modules and
seminars to update physicians regarding evolving technology. A number of our
marketing programs include peer-to-peer marketing with practitioners educating
other practitioners about the benefits of our products.
Recognizing the importance of our sales force’s expertise, we invest significant time and expense to provide training in such areas as product features and benefits. Training for our ophthalmic surgical products sales force focuses on providing sales personnel with technical knowledge regarding the scope and characteristics of the products they are selling and developing skills in presenting and demonstrating those products. In addition to providing product knowledge for communication to eye care practitioners, our eye care products sales force focuses on developing the necessary skills to sell to buyers for mass merchandisers and large drug store chains. This sales force also seeks to develop relationships with eye care professionals who may purchase our products and recommend them to their patients.
Each of our products is marketed under its brand name and our corporate name. We have a worldwide marketing organization which helps us to set overall marketing direction, promote consistent global brand positioning and allocate marketing resources to products and regions offering the greatest return. In order to remain sensitive to cultural differences and varying health care systems throughout the world, tactical execution of marketing programs and all sales activities are carried out at the regional level.
We also use third-party distributors for the distribution of our products in smaller geographic markets. No individual agent or distributor accounted for more than 10% of our net sales for the year ended December 31, 2005.
Traditionally, we have realized a seasonal trend in our sales, with the smallest portion of our cataract surgical business sales being realized in the first quarter and with sales gradually increasing from the second to fourth quarter. This has been driven predominantly by seasonality in the sales of capital equipment when customers increase spending as they reach their year end and are able to spend the remainder of their annual budgeted amounts. In the laser vision correction business, the seasonal trend favors the highest portion of sales in the first quarter. We expect to realize less seasonality in future periods as we seek to diversify our sales geographically and with more products that are less seasonal.
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