VisionTrak is designed to help the major manufacturers in the optical industry to identify opportunities, understand their competition and target consumers in Great Britain, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. This is achieved by collecting information on contact lenses and contact lens solutions and then looking at which brands consumers buy, why they choose those brands, and the source of purchase.

"The service should help manufacturers with media planning, targeting, understanding the competitive environment, and other marketing applications, " explains Matt Stockbridge, Director, Taylor Nelson Sofres Consumer Usage Panels. "For example, we have discovered that over 50 per cent of lens wearers use the brand recommended by their optician, and that discomfort is the primary reason why over a third of lens wearers give up wearing contact lenses. This may well help manufacturers with their product development plans."

VisionTrak conducts between 10,000 and 12,000 interviews a month – at least 2,000 per country – using the Ncompass omnibus service from Taylor Nelson Sofres. The service will reach over 6,000 contact lens wearers a year.