GC 3710 explores the role of communication in brand creation and the processes involved in the development of a brand. We evaluate popular brands and understand their influence on consumers and the industry. For this course, I was assigned the role of Team Lead by my professor. Lead positions were awarded with students with the highest grades on the first assignment.
The brand my team chose to innovate is Warby Parker. But, we didn’t think it was sustainable for them to do it alone. With the popularity and exclusivity of brand collaborations, we thought this market would be perfect for Warby to tap into. 4 quarterly collaborations were made to get new and existing customers excited for what Warby had to offer.
See yourself clearly.
The pivot:
With one week until final presentations, we were asked to adjust our prices for inflation. We had to cut our marketing budget by $1 million. Then we were given a choice: either cut the budget by another $1 million to keep the price of the product the same or let the customers deal with it. We chose to take the budget cut to keep the prices the same for our customer.
Our key insight and the drive of the campaign was to "see yourself clearly.” Each quarterly collaboration name is a play off of this saying.
The second collaboration is with OnCloud: See Your Dreams Clearly.
These glasses are lightweight, aerodynamic glasses using OnCloud's classic colors. This collaboration will be active from January-March, just in time for New Year's resolutions.
We wanted to align performance goals within health and wellness products. For our activation, we picked two athletes to answer questions about their performance goals and workouts. The goal of this activation was to encourage all athletes, big and small, to create posts with the hashtag #SeeYourDreamsClearly.
The next collaboration is with Madewell: See Your Good Clearly.
Madewell designs clothes for real life, so we want to use this collaboration to blend their vintage charm with modern fashion. This collaboration runs from July-September, just in time for back to school season.
This activation is inspired by seeing and doing good. We want to use small, fashionable influencers to spread the word of our campaign. Utilizing back to school content will be key in attracting the college audience to Warby Parker.
As the chosen team lead, I was responsible with keeping my team on task, finalizing ideas, and creating a team bond. This team was one of my favorites to work on during my time at Clemson, and I am proud of the work we accomplished.
Through our research, we found key consumer insights that helped shape the strategy of our campaign. Eyewear is more than just something to help you see, it is a stylistic choice and a part of your identity. We wanted to make pieces that consumers can align with and be excited to purchase.
The first collaboration is with Patagonia: See Your Future Clearly.
Running from October-December, the goal of this campaign is to use materials from recycled plastic to create durable, lightweight glasses perfect for hiking.
For our activation, we created a 3 part docu-series that tells the story of the collaboration. From showcasing the environment damages to evoking emotional connection by capturing authentic moments of children receiving glasses for the first time, we wanted to position this was more than a collaboration. It's a mission aligned partnership with real human benefit.
The last part of the series celebrates global connection and positions this collaboration as a movement, not just a product.
The next collaboration is with Wisdom Kaye: See Your Style Clearly.
Wisdom Kaye, a popular fashion influencer, is the perfect collaboration to push Warby Parker in a high fashion direction from April-June.
For our activation, we want to utilize Wisdom's content creation skills to push our line to his followers. Pushing the boundaries of fashion by mixing high fashion and daily wear, Wisdom appeals to a mass array of audiences.
After our pivot, we had cut our budget by $1 million. That being said, we had to scale back our activation ideas and make them feasible given our new budget. We still allotted the most amount of money for Patagonia, as our three-part documentary series is going to take a lot to produce.
Not only did our budget get cut, but also we had to adjust for the new tariffs. Since these tariffs aren't just effecting Warby Parker, we thought it would be best to raise the prices. Our thought process was that everything will be raising in prices, so we will raise ours by a little bit too. If we didn't raise prices, we would have needed to cut our budget by another million. As our quarterly collaborations are our whole campaign, it was important to us that we had enough in the budget to market these campaigns effectively.