Have you ever worn contacts?
I am lucky to admit that I never have! I was always jealous of my older sister growing up, since she wore contacts. This gave her the opportunity to pick any type of eyeglasses frame she wanted! She wore different designer frames from Gucci to Kate Spade (once you read my About Me page, you will learn that I absolutely love Kate Spade!) My sister always described her eyeglasses as a fashion statement, since she always wore a unique pair. The reason why I am referencing my sister’s unique eyeglasses frames, is because this is how the company Warby Parker comes into play.
What is Warby Parker you ask?
Well, this company started from a couple of classmates who got together in 2010. They created a company selling prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses without breaking the bank.
“You referenced they were classmates, so how did they not break the bank?”
Well, the answer is with the help of social media. Warby Parker would not be the company it is today without it.
Warby Parker is an online distribution that designs in house and sells only to consumers directly. Since consumers today are tech-savvy and expect to see brands, Warby Parker decided to get more innovative with their advertising.
What makes Warby Parker so unique?
Their business model focuses on online distribution, rather than showrooms that sell outside manufacturer merchandise.
Warby Parker is using social media to promote transactional communication with customers by communicating and responding to customer comments on their social media platforms. These platforms include Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. They try to comment on every post that they can to show customer appreciation.
A fun way Warby Parker engages in customer feedback is asking customers to post pictures of themselves wearing their glasses after they purchase a pair.
We already post pictures on social media, so this is easy!
Warby Parker’s social media strategy helped to reduce dissonance for consumers that consider switching eyeglass brands by utilizing social media to communicate with customers.
Today, Warby Parker has shipped more than 500,000 pairs of glasses in and employs over 100 people.
Since they started in 2010, that’s pretty amazing!
Warby Parker’s business strategy helps to provide an alternative narrative by creating “The Home Try-On Campaign.” This encourages customers to share the purchase with their personal social networks. Customers purchasing frames from Warby Parker are able to order five pairs of glasses online, which are shipped to the customers home to try on at no charge.
Wait, what is this Home-Try-On again?
This is a way for customers to “try-on” their glasses without purchasing them first.
Now, this is a complete game changer!
Since we already use social media every day, Warby Parker went ahead a few steps and decided to create their marketing strategy out of it.
Don’t forget one of the most important factors of this company- they even have a donation campaign. Warby Parker teamed up with another company, VisionSpring, to provide a pair of eyeglasses for a person in need for every pair of Warby Parker glasses that a customer purchases.
Now, how cool is that?!
This is a great way Warby Parker showed people (in a different way) of how important giving back and donating is to their company.
The takeaway from Warby Parker is they have created amazing results from the usage of social media.
So, what are you waiting for?! We use social media every day, so with the right tools and communication, we can end up creating a company like Warby Parker, too!
Social Media Explorer 