New Product Management MKT 6329
Yu-Hsuan (Sharon) , Wu
Case write up 1 Optical Distortion, Inc.
January 27th, 2016
1. What characteristics of the ODI contact lens are likely to make it appealing/unappealing to different types of chicken farmers?
The ODI lenses designed for chicken change the depth perception and turn the color of their environment to red, which psychologically alter their condition in many ways: the change of appetite, higher rate of sexual maturity, and reduction of the cannibalistic tendency. For farmers who own medium to large farms with flocks over 10,000 birds, the solution can be very appealing. First, it lowers the general death rate to 4.5% (compared to 9% when adopting debeaking)and decreases the number of traumatized birds during installation of the lens, and it thus increases the efficiency of egg production. And even if according to experience the more productive the flocks are the more aggressive they could be, the ODI lens simply makes their sight blurred and reduces the destructive behavior. Second, the lens leads to a lower feeding cost. Debeaked chickens eat only if the feed is at least 3/8” deep in the trough due to their defected beaks, while with the lens, chickens with full beak can eat with the depth of 1”; in addition, the spilling happens less because the chicken would have complete beak to feed on. At $158 per ton for chicken feed, that would be a considerable save annually, “especially for large flocks”, as the article states. Furthermore, the savings in labor and time are also could be incentive. According to the article, the a crew of three people paid $2.50 per hour could debeak 220 chickens each person or install lenses to 225 chicken per hour.
However, for smaller, family-operated farms with 10,000 or fewer birds, this idea is less appealing. Firstly, although there are many benefits of installation of ODI lens, its novelty and relatively new technology would be hard for farmers to adopt;...