Reference no: EM133313663
1. What is something you learned as a result of reviewing their project?
2. What is something you want to learn more about as a result of reviewing their project?
Align Technology, Inc and it's iTero intraoral scanner product line is the subject of my course project. My favorite section is the introduction of the company and challenges it faces with iTero adoption rates, fully scaling its distribution channels, and staying ahead of competitor advances/pricing strategies. Align Tech is well known for it's main primary product: Invisalign but is a strong competitor in the intraoral scanner arena. Take a moment and read through my summation of these challenges.
Introduction
Align Technologies was founded in 1997 with a vision to leverage technology to straighten teeth. In 1999 it released and marketed the first ever invisible orthodontic tool, Invisalign. Align Technologies quickly realized that there had to be a more efficient and cost-effective way to take dental impressions which are used to manufacture Invisalign products instead of using traditional poly-sulfide rubber foam. The technology of Invisalign evolved over the years with Align's development and introduction of the first intraoral digital scanner (IODS) in 2007 called iTera (Align Technology, n.d.). As revolutionary as the iTera line is, Align has failed to fully capture the attention and respect of independent and equity dental firms who do not wish to offer Invisalign. However, the iTera line could be leveraged for other dental treatments like braces, partial dentures, bridges, and crowns.
Analysis
Align Tech has relied on the Invisalign name brand in its advertising, advanced research studies to validate iTero's accuracy and ease of use (Ender et al, 2016), and liberal financing programs to market to and persuade dentists to buy into the iTero IODS product line. Additionally, Align has leveraged public relations events like charitable donations to nonprofits such as America's Tooth Fairy and Operation Smile (Align Technology, n.d.) to engage consumers and dentists alike.
To improve iTero's acceptance rate with dentists who question its cost, accuracy, dependability, and impact on profits, Align must fully exploit the product and marketing concepts of marketing orientations to improve market share. From a product perspective, dentists need to be educated about iTero's newest tech improvements such as accuracy, weight, and size. From a marketing perspective, Align must understand dentists' needs and wants from iTero and deliver them.
Microenvironmentally speaking, iTero's competitive landscape's most influential actors are competitors' and dentists' opinions of the product. Many dental tech companies are releasing new product lines like Carestream's CS3700 that is just as accurate as and more affordable at USD 11k (Coachman, n.d.) than the iTero Element Flex which is priced at USD 16k (Mangano et al, 2020). If the price is not a concern, then the dentists' opinions regarding traditional proven methods are, and Align Tech must address this urgently.
Macroenvironmentally speaking, Align must consider the demographic challenges like the professional tenure of the target dentist or hygienist. Are recent dental school graduates more inclined to purchase from the iTero line when compared to more established dentists? Secondly, the innovation in the IODS arena is ramping up quickly and if Align does not keep pace it will be late to market instead of setting the pace. According to Allied Market Research (2022), the IODS global industry will exceed $876MM globally by 2030 with an 18.6% compound annual growth rate.
Align must improve its existing dentist business-to-business marketing strategy to gain a clearer understanding of the buyer's thought processes and decision-making logic. Specifically, Align must identify and reinforce the financial and patient-centric gains that can be had by employing any member of the iTero product line. Secondly, the expectations around product specifications must be fully vetted by the dentists. For example, does the iTera product line offer best-in-class accuracy, ergonomics, efficiency, and price point? Lastly, Align must embrace the power of word of mouth and convert skeptical dentists into lucrative marketers for iTero. Match each dentist's demands to the iTero product that best addresses performance specifications and produces the desired financial and patient satisfaction gains.
In addition to the above considerations, Align must take advantage of the factors that influence whether dentists will purchase from the iTero product line. The two buying influencers are the environmental influencer of competitor distributors of IODS and an organizational influencer of growth strategy. Align must point out and prove its competitive advantage that an iTero product will improve patient satisfaction with more precise dental scans which result in a better-fitting prosthesis or aligner. Align must prove that iTero is the most innovative tech available and that patients will be more satisfied resulting in improved market share and higher profits.
As it stands today, the adaptation of the iTero line of IODS has been less than stellar. There is notable adaptation stagnation with the more seasoned dentists and risk-averse new dental school graduates. Both groups are conservative and skeptical and tend to wait until innovative technology is proven before buying in. According to the diffusion of innovation curve (Kotler, 2020), iTero exists in the early mainstream adopter section mostly due to corporate-owned dental chains, called Dental Service Organizations (DSOs), who quickly capitalized on the innovation that the iTero product line has to offer and profit margins associated with Invisalign. The challenge for Align is to push through the early mainstream designation and power into late mainstream adopters.