NEW EYES THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

By Jeff St Jean

Published June 09, 2019

How did Warby Parker use social media to break the mold of the traditional prescription eyeglass market without having a single, physical retail location? 

Social media, that’s how.  Now before you say that will never work, let me give you a little background on the company.

Who exactly is Warby Parker? Warby Parker is a company that was founded in 2010 by four classmates from the Wharton School of Business.  

With only $2500 in seed money, they launched a company that broke the mold on buying prescription eyewear by focusing on online distribution through the use of social media (Warby Parker, 2015).

So, how does it work?

It’s social media, people!

How exactly did social media technology aid Warby Parker’s alternative business model for selling prescription eyeglasses?

• ONLINE DIRECT SELLING.

Warby Parker believed that traditional eyeglasses were too expensive and inconvenient to purchase through traditional methods. By producing their glasses in-house and eliminating showrooms, they are able to drastically reduce the price of prescription eyewear by selling direct to the consumer online.

• COMMUNICATON VIA SOCIAL MEDIA

But, this model will only work if they can convince customers to buy their eyeglasses online. They use social media to communicate directly with customers, effectively converting them from previous, traditional buying consumers to the Warby Parker online business model.

To do this, WP had to debunk customer’s perceptions that low prices equal cheap glasses. They also needed to convince them that quality prescription eyeglass purchases could be made online.  This is where social media came in.

Through the use of transactional communicationWarby Parker manages to continuously engage their customers. They communicate directly with them on social media platforms. They religiously respond to customer comments that are posted on platforms. They create informative Youtube videos to help customers and encourage their customers to also make videos.

They inspire user-generated content on the media platforms by asking customers to post pictures on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter of themselves wearing the glasses. They want interaction; they crave user-generated content.

Warby Parker has “Home-Try-On,” a program that allows customers to go online, choose five frames and have them delivered to their home for free.  

This “try before you buy” test-drive allows you to try and ultimately pick the pair or pairs of frames that best suit your needs. The remaining frames are then returned to Warby Parker at no charge to you. What could be better than that?

Share It!

Customers who take this test run are encouraged to share pictures of their purchases to share on their social media accounts.  In effect, they are becoming unofficial influencers for family, friends and others who follow their profiles.

“We’re lucky to have some pretty special customers who use our glasses as a tool to accomplish some pretty great things” – Warby Parker

In perhaps their most exciting use of social media, Warby Parker has introduced  “Virtual Try On.” This proprietary software allows you to utilize the camera in your smart phone to allow you to virtually try on the as many frames as you want.  It even provides for photo sharing, allowing you to get input from your friends and family before you make a purchase.

• SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS

Still aren’t convinced that Warby Parker is “all that” and more? Then maybe their social conscious business strategy will make a believer of you. They have partnered with VisionSpringin an effort to provide glasses to those in need. For every pair of eyeglasses sold, they will donate a pair to charity.  

So, for those of you who have trouble rationalizing the jump from traditional to online eyeglass purchasing, this could be the hook that pulls you in. 

By the way, to date Warby Parker has donated over 500K pairs of glasses to needy recipients (Warby, 2019).

#NoMoreSquinting

A student in the Bronx wearing his WB eyeglasses 

KEY TAKE-AWAYS FROM THE WARBY PARKER MODEL

Through the use of social media, Warby Parker has transformed and yes, even “disrupted” (Mahoney) the traditional marketplace and media environment. 

What Warby Parker has done is used social media to turn an idea into a 1.2 billion dollar business.  They have used the following key elements of social media marketing to sell their eyeglasses:

• Mass communication is no longer seen as a “one-to-many” messaging. Target messages are more effective in establishing change in consumer behavior. 

Talk to me, know my name!

• Businesses can reach out and provide an alternative narrative which can reduce dissonance . Customer’s skepticism can be reduced or removed with offers and ideas that reduce any personal risk. 

Don’t trust the business model? How about free try-on and shipping?

• The use of social media allows for transactional as opposed to linear messaging. This includes back and forth communication with the customers becoming engaged and sharing their positive experiences with other potential customers. 

Now customers hear from someone they trust about a product, not from a big company with self-promotion at its center.  

#MarketingGenius

#SocialMediaVision

References

Glasses & Prescription Eyeglasses. (n.d.). Retrieved June 11, 2019, from https://www.warbyparker.com

Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2017). Strategic social media: From marketing to social change. Malden, MA: Wiley Blackwell.