The giant Panasonic Corporation in April announced that they were going to market their existing line of aids in the USA. Has anyone found a retailer or professional offering these products?
The introduction of aids from a giant mass producer like Panasonic could have a profound effect on marketing and prices, breaking the virtual stranglehold of the European manufacturers. It might even push the FDA to cease their out dated regs that drive up prices. Ed
Existing thread: Hearing Aid Forum - Active Hearing Loss Community
they have a long long long way to go. If they buy siemens tech, they will be able to do something. They need to build a portfolio of products. We all know what happens to
Phillips, 3m- they have a long long way to go before they catch up. Hope they buy siemens
I doubt very much that Panasonic will have any difference in the so called European stranglehold. Panasonic, like every other corporation is there to make money. Isn’t Panasonic located right next door to Toyota?
IIRC the hearing products division is based near Kobe.
One thing you can be fairly sure of is that they won’t be buying Siemens tech in, when they’ve got thirty years or more of R+D in their domestic market and Noah based product ready to run.
It’ll just be interesting to see how they intend to introduce the product: whether they go through the ‘saturated’ existing channels or via another method.
Um Bongo et al: What channel exists for high volume in the USA other than the traditional route…the pro’s and the fitters?
Guess they could try mass Advertising and use the internet?
Under the present FDA regs their choices are limited. Ed:o
Do you already have Panasonic branded shops on the high street? Perhaps even ones with closed-off ‘sound theater’ areas?
They could go ‘viral’ with it and create demand down existing channels.
They could place it in a ‘pod’ system to retail through somebody like Walmart.
They could get a study done by a leading research center to ‘push’ the product through existing lines.
There’s loads of options for such a high profile brand - including all the above or none of them. It’ll get decided at a strategic level.
You can always pull the right staff in for the right kind of deal.
To the best of my knowledge hearing aids in the USA can only be sold by state licensed persons. This cuts down the number of possible purveyors to just audiologists and licensed fitters. Also manufactures must obtain FDA facilities approval. Ed
Looks like they have it worked out already.
Is it really ? i have heard this news , but i think they have a long way to go , in the meanwhile, i would like to say that Panasonic will keep having the important effect on the market .
Until the US abandons its unreasonable restrictions on hearing instrument sales it may be useful to consider some half-measures.
As I understand it you can buy a cell phone unlocked then bring it to a carrier (ATT, Verizon, etc.) and have it set up to use with that carrier.
Perhaps in the US rather than prohibit sales of hearing instruments to the user except by licensed dispensers, users could be permitted to buy hearing instrument through any channel provided they are locked.
The user could then take his/her hearing instrument to any licensed dispenser and get it unlocked for a fixed charge. In the process the dispenser could be required to do a certain minimum amount of fitting (audiogram etc.). Companies like Panasonic would publish a list dispensers interested in this “unlocking” business and equipped to perform this function.
Then if the user felt he needed it, he could make arrangements with any fitter to extend the fitting process.
This would tend to unbundle the instruments from the services while addressing the concerns (real or not) that the regulators have that users left to their own devices will destroy themselves with their consumer audio electronics devices.
The next step of course would be removing these unreasonable restrictions on hearing instrument sales.
While I don’t necessarily like the current model, this scenario would not be an improvement IMHO. There’s no free trial period, among the other problems I could envision with this go-to-market model.
Most large retailers will take back and refund 100% if not satisfacfctory within usually 60 days. Over the counter sales if legallized would probaly fall under this arrangement. Ed
Good point. If you can return your Chevy or Dodge to the manufacturer within 60 days, the option to return a pair of hearing aids to a company like Panasonic would seem to be a possibility, particularly if the company saw it as part of a more efficient distribution strategy and if it permitted them to take advantage of their in-place retail distribution channels.
If hearing instrrument retailing and professional services were separated there would still be a strong requirement for expert (and most likely expensive) follow-up fitting and those users might find that over-all cost is not reduced. The re-alignment of incentives however would work to reward better fitter performance and the intensified fitter competition would be likely to hone the industry’s fitting expertise instead of its retailing prowess.
If that happens many users would benefit by a much better result and a lower entry cost if not lower overall cost. However in those instances where significant refining isn’t required, overall (total) cost to the user could be very significantly reduced and low income users could afford much better instruments initially, investing in refinement over time as means permit.
In addition, once fitting and hearing electronics retailing are clearly separated, it would be much easier and more likely for insurance companies to offer plans that covered hearing instrument fitting but not hearing devices.