How Warby Parker Disrupted the Eyewear Industry with Social Media

A group of Wharton students who could not afford decent eyeglasses did not actually complain, instead they transformed an entire industry.

The Problem with Traditional Eyewear

To be frank about it, the sale of glasses was a torture. Expensive pricing, interminable showroom marathons and this sense that you are being overcharged on something you just need to physically check out. This frustration led these founders of Warby Parker to a very simple question: Why does it need to be this way? in 2010.

Their answer? It doesn’t.

By eliminating the middleman and directly selling its products to its consumers online, the Warby Parker organization had reduced prices, but quality remained. The trick is though here, how do you get people to purchase eyeglasses online and have them wear them even though they have not seen them first? That’s a tough sell. This is where social media came their way as a secret weapon.

Social Media as the Great Dissonance Reducer

Consider it: Would you buy on-line glasses of a brand of which you had not heard? Probably not. Warby Parker realized that no traditional advertising effort could increase this trust gap better than user-generated content could.

See the smart Home Try-On Campaign. Customers were also allowed to order five pairs of glasses to be delivered at home where they would be given to sample. The genius move? Promoting individuals to post pictures of themselves with frames on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Now, the real people that are not models appeared demonstrating the product.

This was a strategy that directly addressed consumer dissonance. When you happen to see your friend or some person you trust put on Warby Parker glasses, and when he/she extols about the glasses in social media or social networking, then that distrust disappears (Mahoney & Tang,  2017). It has been found that 92 percent of consumers trust personal recommendations more than any type of advertisement made by persons they know.

Beyond Selling: Creating Conversations

The most interesting thing about Warby Parker is the fact that they are not employing social media as merely a tool to deliver sales pitch. They produce educational content YouTube films on how to select the correct frames, professional guidance on eyewear, and the contents that discuss the real-life dilemmas of customers.

Otherwise we do not shout and tell you to buy our glasses. they are telling them “We want to make you know more about eyewear. Transactional communication at its best. They reply to their comments, socialize with customers on a personal level and they make social media participatory.

Doing Good While Doing Business

This is where it is even better. Warby Parker gives away a pair of glasses with each pair of glasses bought by helping back VisionSpring. Over 500,000 pairs donated to date! This is an environmentally friendly approach that allows the customers to have something strong to tell their networks and make a purchase meaningful.

Telling about their new Warby Parker glasses, a person does not only show off the product but a product. They are telling a tale of how they advocate a firm that is concerned about the world effect. Such a story is the one that propagates naturally in social media.

The Takeaway

Warby Parker has demonstrated that social media is not merely a marketing channel, it is an opportunity to fully re-invent the manner in which businesses engage with their customers. They made the skeptics become the kind of loyal advocate by alleviating the feelings of purchase anxiety with user-generated content, creating authentic conversations, and providing people with the story they would want to share.

Warby Parker would have had to spend millions of money in advertisements before competing with the established brands of eyewear in a traditional media environment. They would rather have their customers form their marketing division. That is, friends, is the strength of strategic social media.

What do you think? Would you purchase glasses online generally as recommended by your friends in your social media? Write in the comments below!

References

L Meghan Mahoney, & Tang Tang, (Writer On Social Media. (2017). Strategic social media : from marketing to social change. Wiley Blackwell.