Student Blog

The power of social media in buisness

Company History

In going through and reading about the Story of the company Warby Parker you can learn several things from how the founders of the company used social media and digital marketing to create a space for themselves. Warby Parker was founded by four friends in 2010 at the University of Pennsylvania who were fed up with the price of current prescription eyeglasses. The four founders used $2,500 in seed money to help start their new eyeglasses company Warby Parker.

Marketing Intelligence

The founders of Warby Parker had to find a way to stand out from their competitors. In the eyeglasses industry there are several large companies that make up a significant portion of the industry. One of the largest competitors to Warby Parker was Lens crafter who currently holds almost 15% of the market share in the eyeglasses industry (Earnest Analytics, 2024). The founders began using social media to help spread the word about their company and how just because their eyeglasses were cheaper it does not mean they are a worse product. The company began offering things such as at home try on. In using at home try on the customer can choose five pairs of glasses to try on and have shipped to them for free. Once a customer chooses a pair that they like they can send the other four back to Warby Parker. This marketing approach allowed the company to gain trust from customers who could try on products before making a purchase. The company also began to use social media to market their glasses. The company created a trend where their customers would post themselves wearing their glasses they had purchased from Warby Parker. The company in creating this trend around their glasses gave Warby a lot of free advertisements. Warby also used their social media influence to share expert information on their products to help inform customers.

Giving Back

Warby Parker also used their social media fame to help others. Warby created a program in collaboration with VisionSpring that allowed the Warby Parker to give away a pair of glasses for every pair they sold. Warby Parker, since introducing this program, has given away over 500,000 pairs of glasses to those in need. Warby Parker has shown throughout its existence that it was created to provide a cheaper alternative pair of glasses that does not compromise on quality. Warby Parker, due to these initiatives along with others, has grown to be the company with the second highest customer retention rate in the eye ware industry, falling behind only 1-800 Contacts (Earnest Analytics, 2024).

Final Thoughts

In reading through and learning about Warby Parker’s story and learning how the company was founded and how the company uses social media to help spread its brand it can show several things. The largest lesson that can be learned in looking at the Warby Parker story is how powerful social media is in the modern business world. Warby Parker used social media to create the base of its business model with its try on program. Warby Parker could be an important story to look at for future business on how to establish brand equity.

References

Eyewear market share 2024: Luxottica loses sales to Warby Parker. (2024, November 12). Earnest Analytics. https://www.earnestanalytics.com/insights/eyewear-market-share-2024-luxottica-loses-sales-to-warby-parker

The article also contains imagery created using word presses Ai assistant.