With innovation and originality at its core, Warby Parker took ‘understanding the market’ to a whole new level. It all started when four college students asked themselves, “why is eyewear so expensive?”

Then, they invested their life savings towards building a brand that filled a gap in the market, curated a unique customer-focused experience, and dedicated their brand to a charitable cause. Their passion drives a mindset that keeps their eye on the ball throughout the entire growth and development process of their brand.

Filling A Gap

“It was really about bypassing retailers, bypassing the middlemen that would mark up lenses 3-5X what they cost, so we would just transfer all of that cost directly to consumers and save them money.” – Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Neil Blumenthal

You’re not just marketing a product, you’re selling the“job” you’re able to fulfill for your target audience – one that’s currently missing in the current market.

Before Warby Parker, most consumers weren’t aware about industry monopoly and markups – and so the company was able to use this information as a backdrop to their brand positioning strategy. This reinforced the perception of their value proposition and their story truly drove brand loyalty.

Customer-Focused

Warby Parker has been able to stay ahead of the game because they’ve curated their brand around an exceptional narrative, building meaningful relationships, and being incredibly transparent about what they care about.

1. Exceptional Services

They deliberately set the intention to re-imagine the eyewear shopping experience through personalization, facial recognition technology, and of course, world-class customer service.

2. Original Experiences and Earned Marketing:

  • #warbyhometryon community: Warby Parker would directly mail their consumers samples, who would post it online with this hashtag to ask friends, family, and hashtag community members for their opinion.
  • Word-of-Mouth Testimonials: Your product is only as good as what consumers say about them – and when your customers are raving about your product to their friends and family, what better trust factor is there?
  • Warby Parker Travelling Experiential Bus: Eyeglasses on wheels! This photo-worthy pop-up shop gets online buzz, creating an iconic attraction that is memorable, unique, and eye-catching.
Image from MultichannelMerchant

3. Keep Your Eye On The Ball

Vision drives big dreams, and helps you create a focused blueprint to achieve your goals. Warby Parker’s commitment to affordability, action, and advocacy keeps them ahead of the game against copycats. As the e-Commerce space is getting more and more crowded, they have never strayed from their core values.

Social Mission

Millennial and Gen Z consumers are becoming more conscious of a brand’s CSR and social awareness. It’s both an understanding and a desire that we’re all connected to something greater than ourselves.

Their ‘Buy One, Donate One’ campaign gives a pair of glasses to a non-profit partner for every pair sold. As a core component of their business model, Warby Parker’s “Do Good” mission has helped to engage socially conscious consumers and generate press. Today, they are a leading example of a social-impact business.

Final Thoughts

As we move forward, it is important to be aware of the negative impacts of consumerism and discover ways we can contribute to education, awareness, and change the way we do things for the better. As they say, we vote with our dollars, and where we put our money can speak volumes on where our future generation of shopping will head towards.

Interested in seeing how we can support you and your business in your innovation initiatives? Book an introductory call with Victor Li, Founder & CEO of Onova.
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