Bausch & Lomb Eyes Marketing Effort in Response to Fungus

[Guest guest]

Bausch & Lomb Eyes Marketing Effort in Response to Fungus

April 13, 2006

http://www.brandweek.com/bw/news/recent_display.jsp?

vnu_content_id=1002344139

BOSTON -- Bausch & Lomb doesn't have much time to act if it is going

to save its ReNu brand, some observers said Thursday.

In a conference call on Wednesday with analysts, CEO Ron Zarrella

said he was considering a marketing campaign to restore confidence

in the brand after it was linked to a serious infection-causing

fungus, but some observers warn that B & L has to speak loudly,

clearly and most of all, quickly if such a move is to succeed.

The Rochester, N.Y.-based company didn't return calls.

" They have to be open and upfront and not use marketing-speak, " said

Palombo, a director of brand strategy for Landor Associates,

New York. " You have to say what your action plan is and quickly give

people a comfort level that you are taking the right steps. "

On Monday, the Centers for Disease Control said it was investigating

109 reports of fungal keratitis—a fungus which can cause blindness—

and that 30 of those cases had been linked B & L's contact lens

cleaner Renu with MoistureLoc.

The next day, as retailers started pulling the product from the

shelves, B & L said it would not recall the cleaner but would stop

shipping it to stores. So far Sears, CVS, Wal-Mart, Rite-Aid and all

Albertson's-owned chains, including Jewel-Osco and Shaws, have

pulled this type of ReNu from the shelves. Walgreens has gone one

step further and pulled all ReNu products.

One problem facing B & L is that so far investigators have not been

able to identify what, if any, connection there is between the

cleaner and the fungus. The company may actually be suffering from

the success of its own branding. According to the CDC, out of the 30

patients on whom complete data was available, 28 were soft-contact

users, and all 26 patients who remembered the brand of cleaning

solution they had used before the infection said it was ReNu.

While the CDC report indicates a product-related problem, the very

low number of cases makes it difficult to determine if this is an

outbreak or just a result of better screening for the fungus. In a

statement on the agency's Web site, the CDC said the infection

occurred " rarely " with contact lens use.

Palombo said that overall brand success could aid B & L's efforts to

come back from this.

" When you have a strong brand, as B & L does, then the consumers trust

it and are willing to give you a little benefit of the doubt, " she

said.

Pointing to similar crises with other brands like Tylenol and Pepsi,

she said " it's not what you would wish for, but how you respond to a

crisis can really let you build trust with the consumer. "

In February, similar infections linked to MoistureLoc, which is

produced by B & L's factories in Italy and China, were reported in

Singapore and sales were suspended there and in Hong Kong. But no

problems have been reported with the cleaner in Europe.

--Constantine von Hoffman

[Guest guest]

Gee that's nice to know. Guess I should throw out the renu rewetting drops I

carry in my

purse.I don't wear contacts but I have a condition called Recurrent Corneal

Erosion, which

began 3 apartments ago

where there was dryrot and other nice things.How did I get to be so lucky?

Lori and Meow Cat