Warby Parker Fall 2014: More than just ‘makers’ of eyewear

Design is a lot like life; if you keep doing what you’ve always done, chances are you’ll remain where you’ve always been. Great design moments throughout history were those that shifted the scope of broad collective thinking into a new era. In recent memory for example, the iPod became one of those major shifts because of the way it changed how we carried and purchased our music, while also laying the foundation for the products that followed it. Effective design is able to transform the way we live, plan, and shape our lives. Since its inception, eyewear brand Warby Parker has managed to bring to life those great design moments through their “rebellious spirit” and “lofty objective”. The brand takes a “socially-conscious” approach to eyewear design and construction. Warby Parker’s Fall 2014 collection will be available starting from 3 September 2014, and we at Phsics Media are excited to contribute towards this great collection’s exposure.  

When viewing Warby Parker’s Fall 2014 collection, thoughtfulness and personality are the first things that come to mind. This new collection proves that Warby Parker are more than just makers of eyewear. Each piece reflects a push towards a broad-minded kind of thoughtfulness: one that is aware and forward-looking. The nine piece collection is comprised of updated acetate frames with titanium temples, brand new styles in crystal, and angular silhouettes. They’ve also added two new hues, namely the Stripped Pacific and the Petal Tortoise. We love how each style is able to speak the personality of its wearer. This shows that great product making takes place when nobody is excluded, and that’s powerful. Go do great things!  

The Warby Parker Fall 2014 collection can be viewed here 

Images courtesy of Warby Parker 

Brand Constancy in a rapidly changing macro-environment

the below piece was originally published in PhsicsMag's Private issue 

Trading down is an interesting but controversial notion. As you would recall, Aquascutum, the 150 year old British luxury fashion brand, filed for administration in April 2012, which led to the house subsequently being taken over by a Chinese consortium called YGM Trading Ltd for a fee of USD 24 million; shockingly absurd don’t you think? For a brand with that much history and tradition, one which is considered as an icon of British culture? In her Redefining the Luxury Concept working paper, Uché Okonkwo introduces two notions; trading down and trading up. In her argument, taking into account today’s macro influences such as a surge in wealth accumulation and the wide accessibility of upscale retail establishments, Ms Okonkwo points out that “fashion brands are for the mass market, whether they are of high quality or not”, and she goes on further to identify luxury brands as being “for a distinct narrow market and are defined by high quality, differentiation and precision in product design and manufacture”.

               all digital marketing enthusiasts, order the book Luxury Online by Uché Okonkwo

According to Uché Okonkwo, the existence of “mass-premium” branding has created a situation whereby the Marketing Mix of an H&M or a Zara for example, no longer reflect that of a low to mid-range retail establishment. To counter claim her latter observation, one would agree that indeed there has been a blurring-out of the differences in the Marketing Mix between low to mid-range brand and retail establishments with luxury ones, but there hasn't really been an effort by luxury brands to justify their high prices effectively, because Zara, H&M, Uniqlo; all these fast fashion establishments are proving to be more relevant on the high street each day. In trying to understand the trading down concept, and whether it contributed to the likes of Aquascutum’s demise, I would like to introduce the notion of brand constancy.

Unlike Burberry, Aquascutum tended to target older and slightly more sophisticated consumers. Unlike Burberry, Aquascutum didn't really have a consistent communications strategy. Unlike Burberry, Aquascutum didn’t evolve into a web 2.0 luxury brand in time, and looking at the company’s history, its previous owners tried their best to keep it rooted to 19th century British ideals. If trading down caused established makes such as  Aquascutum to go bankrupt then why didn't it happen to the likes of Burberry? Trading down reflects directly on a brand’s constancy because consumers will be loyal to the brands which have been relevant to them throughout. Brands that die-out in the minds of consumers will simply become replaced. I do agree that the “mass-premium” approach is making it easier for high income consumers to trade down, but does this mean that there isn’t a middle segmented consumer base which is willing to trade up anymore?