Warby Parker

“Warby Parker, a new brand and way of selling prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses”—Mahoney and Tang.

Social Media Marketing (SMM) is changing the game for reaching and growing an audience for prescription glasses and sunglasses.

The 2010 classmates at the University of Pennsylvania, Warton School evaluated a current marketing problem and posed the question:

How can they increase customer loyalty and effectively grow their customer base?

Breaking away from traditional social media marketing techniques, the students established a new business model and reshaped the approach to the marketing campaign. They improved their method by adding different buying options. The current model forced consumers to make appointments in advance, drive potentially far distances for show rooms, and have to deal with exorbitant costs just for undesirable measures.

This new business model brought production in-house, lowered purchasing costs, and sell directly to their consumers. This led to the “Home Try-On” campaign. Consumers can try 5 pairs of prescription eyeglasses/sunglasses for free, return the pairs they don’t want and buy the ones they do  without shipping or return charges (Mahoney and Tang).

Warby Parker’s SMM effectively reached out to their target audience, providing transparency with their customers about the beneficial changes and the removal of past complications. They created incentive by partnering with VisionSpring, who donates one pair of eyeglasses to someone in need for every sale. This partnership builds community, helping consumers bond over the natural desire to make a difference in the world and gain meaningful global involvement. (Mahoney and Tang).

SMM can effectively connect businesses, causes, and consumers. Traditional methods rely on passive audiences – through one way communication which creates customer dissonance, loss of loyalty. Warby Parker encourages active audiences through transactional communication pathways for customers to leave feedback, post reviews, and reach associates on prospective media platforms. Social media platforms, like YouTube are used to create informational videos, and spread updates on their products and incentives through various channels like Instagram, and X (formerly Twitter) in order to reach a broader audience. Warby Parker also uses

The company is only successful if they can gain the loyalty of their customers.  

Linear advertising is no longer a cornerstone for social media marketing. Warby Parker does not rely on self-promotion strategies to highlight and market their product, but rather use transactional communication as a way to reach their audience, encourage audience/consumer participation, and increase opportunities for their audience to connect and hear about the products through a trusted source such as a community member. They set up open channels of communication through their social media platforms; created content that provides information about their products and their business model new marketing/branding strategy through these informational channels.

Warby Parker demonstrates just how new age social media marketing strategies can alter the success of a product. The more essential your audience feels in their purchasing decisions, community involvement, and information distribution, the more power and feeling of importance they gain.

This new SMM strategy and desired incentives account for the needs of the overall global market. It creates chances for expanding an audience through product reviews, word of mouth from trusted customers, and open channels of communication.

Warby Parker has changed the game for expanding access, affordability, and easy of use for their current and future customers. Share your reviews, your comments, your experiences.

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