- Hi guys.
In this video, I'm gonna talk about the three reasons
that hearing aid companies private label their hearing aids
and why they may or may not be right for you, comin' up.
(upbeat music)
Cliff Olson, doctor of audiology
and founder of Applied Hearing Solutions,
and on this channel I cover a bunch of cool,
hearing related stuff.
So if you're into that,
consider hitting the subscribe button.
When you think of hearing aids,
six major brands should come to mind.
Phonak, ReSound, Oticon,
Starkey, Signia, and Widex.
No matter what clinic you go to,
there's a high probability that you'll be fit
with one of these major manufacturer's hearing aids.
Now some of you out there
who are more familiar with hearing aids
might be used to seeing brands
like Kirkland or Beltone or AGX.
Now if you recognize the brand ReSound,
you may or may not recognize the brand Beltone,
but Beltone is ReSound.
They're just branded a different name.
And when I say that they're rebranded, that is it.
They are literally identical hearing aids
that you would get
as if you'd purchased them
from one of those six major manufacturers
with their brand name on it.
Now why would they make private label hearing aids,
you might ask?
Well that's a good question.
There are three reasons.
Reason number one, brand recognition.
For years, hearing aid manufacturers
have been building up their brands
to become as recognizable as they are today.
One problem with this is that it only brands the technology
from that particular manufacturer,
and when you go into
hearing aid dispensing clinics,
if they want to sell multiple brands of hearing aids,
it can become very confusing for a patient.
Now private labeling these hearing aids
allows that one hearing aid clinic
to sell multiple lines of hearing aids,
but under one name,
thus making it less confusing for a patient.
One of the companies that I mentioned earlier,
Beltone, actually does this to establish
their own brand recognition.
They have their Beltone hearing aid clinics,
and they have their Beltone brand hearing aids.
When you buy a Beltone hearing aid,
you are essentially buying a ReSound hearing aid.
I think this is one of the positives
of private labeling hearing aids,
because you can essentially take the onus
away from the hearing device or the widget
and have it be more focused on the service
that you provide,
which is arguably,
maybe not even arguably,
more important than the hearing aid itself.
All right, reason number two is price comparison.
Since most hearing aid dispensing clinics
sell the same exact hearing aids,
it's very easy for a consumer
or someone like you
to take a recommendation from one of those clinics
and take it over to a different clinic
and compare it based on price.
Private labeling prevents this kind of direct comparison.
Now you could technically take a private labeled hearing aid
from one clinic and compare it to a name brand hearing aid
from another clinic if you know what you're looking for,
but private labeling makes that much more complicated.
Personally, I think that private labeling hearing aids
for the purpose of preventing price comparison
is a bad thing.
I believe complete transparency is the best way
to run a business,
and I don't like anything that prevents me
from being able to do due diligence as a consumer myself.
That being said,
I don't like when someone uses price comparison
as a reason to pick one clinic over another clinic.
The hearing aid itself is such a small component
of success with hearing treatment
that if you do price comparison on the device alone,
you could be missing factors
like the service and the quality of care that you'll get
from one clinic versus another clinic.
The majority of success has to do with
the hearing care provider that you see,
and their willingness to use best practices.
So just make sure that you keep that in mind
before you make a decision on where to go
based on price alone.
And reason number three, and my personal pet peeve,
is it prevents you from going anywhere else for your care.
If you do happen to purchase a hearing aid
from a clinic that's private labeled,
you've essentially just signed on
to go to that clinic until it's time
for you to get a new hearing aid.
Private label hearing aids are often locked,
and what I mean by locked
is when you get fit with that hearing aid
with the software of the clinic that you bought it at,
that hearing aid can't be taken to another clinic
and reprogrammed or adjusted at all
because the programming inside of it is locked.
Now if your hearing care provider is doing a good job,
they'll be making adjustments pretty often,
and if that's the case,
you can't go to a new provider
even if you move to a different state
because they're not gonna have access to the software.
Now I have a patient who just moved to Arizona
from Missouri
and has an AGX branded hearing aid
that was made by ReSound.
Now I work with ReSound and I love working with ReSound.
The problem is is that he needs adjustments
to be made on that hearing aid,
and I can't make them because I don't have access
to the software,
so this patient's options are
to buy new hearing aids,
and his hearing aids are only a year old,
or to drive an hour into town
and to a provider that works with AGX.
Another negative is that if he purchased that hearing aid
under a bundled model of care,
it included all the services
with the cost of the hearing aid.
So even though he's already paid for service,
he has to re-pay when he comes to me
or goes to another clinic
because that money was kept by the clinic
that sold him the hearing aid.
If you want to know more about bundling versus unbundling,
I will list a video that I made in the description below.
From an industry perspective,
private labeling hearing aids makes sense.
From a consumer's perspective, not so much.
Personally, even though I'm in the industry,
I'm not a fan of private labeling hearing aids.
I believe it restricts access to hearing care,
and I believe that it decreases transparency.
The one case that I do recommend,
going with a private label hearing aid,
is if you found an excellent hearing care provider,
whether it be an audiologist
or a hearing instrument specialist.
If you find an excellent provider,
I don't care if they sell you a hearing aid
that is not made by one of the major six manufacturers.
You go to that provider,
'cause you will have much more success
with a great provider,
but not so good of a hearing aid,
than you will with a great hearing aid
and a horrible provider.
Just know that if you go with a private label hearing aid,
you are essentially marrying that clinic
that you bought it from.
Now if that hearing care provider ends up
leaving, quitting, getting fired,
getting hit by a bus,
you're still stuck with that clinic
even if they bring in a provider
that you don't particularly like.
That's it for today's video.
If you like the information,
give it a thumbs up
and feel free to hit the subscribe button.
I'll see you next time.
(upbeat music)