Glasses For the Masses

September 7, 2025

How Warby Parker Changed the Options for Eye Wear

This is part one of many explorations on companies and their effective uses of Social Media.

Warby Parker, the glasses company. We’ve all seen the commercials on TV or while waiting for our latest YouTube video to load. They sell glasses, they send frames in the mail for you to try before you buy.

We’ve all heard the “try before you buy” from a lot of companies lately, but what makes Warby Parker’s campaign so different and successful?

Their connection with their customers.

From the beginning, the creators of Warby Parker (Neil Blumenthal, Andrew Hunt, David Gilboa and Jeffrey Raider) found a problem with the traditional process of getting glasses and frames. They addressed some of the biggest issues associated with glasses and frames: cost, availability, and time. They changed the game with the customer in mind and were able to change the process into something much easier for the consumer.

Warby Parker has challenged many assumptions since their founding in 2010, including the dissonance of buying glasses online and not from a brick and mortar store, the assumption that due to the price, the quality would be lower, and even the assumption of the authenticity of the idea of selling glasses online. How did they overcome most of these obstacles?

By connecting with their customers on social media and letting their customers on social media spread the word to their followers and friends. Warby Parker “encourages transactional communication by consistently communicating with and responding to customer comments on their social media platforms.” (Mahoney & Tang, 18). They also prompt their customers to participate in creating their own content with the users wearing the glasses frames on social media platforms. They used their customers and their genuine reviews to build communication and trust with their future customers. In addition to social media, they helped educate others with educational YouTube videos.

They have done all of these things by focusing on the consumer and the problems the consumer faces concerning glasses and frames. By encouraging users to post their own content on social media, they’re building relationships with potential customers before they’ve even considered Warby Parker to buy glasses.

Not only that, but Warby Parker has built up credibility and further problem solving by teaming up with another company (VisionSpring) to offer a pair of glasses for someone in need for every pair of Warby Parker glasses a consumer buys. Talk about helping others and building a sustainable brand, all while helping customers and those in need. I always love hearing that my purchase of something I need (like glasses) can also help someone else.

Warby Parker has focused on helping their customers with problems they’ve faced rather than forcing customers to buy their product in every social media post or YouTube video. By focusing on their customers and their problems and allowing them to join the conversation about their products and problems, Warby Parker has made big strides with how customers engage with companies on social media.

After all, social media should be a conversation and should be social. It’s right there in the name.

The idea of glasses that don’t break the bank, help someone else in need, and that I can try on before I buy is really tempting.

My eye exam is coming up. I think I’ll check out Warby Parker.

Anyone else want to join me?

breobrienlove

school, schoolwork, social media

connection, glasses, school, social media

3 responses to “Glasses For the Masses”

Ira Maxwell

September 12, 2025

Hi Bre,

Warby Parker has developed a marketing strategy that addresses the needs of its target audience. Marketing’s major concern is satisfying customers’ wants and needs of the consumer (G.Brint Ryan College of Business.2025). The heart of Marketing is matching supply and demand in a complex, advanced economy (G.Brint Ryan College of Business.2025). Marketing consists of many activities including: identifying customer needs; developing goods and services to satisfy those needs; communicating information about products to potential customers; and logistics and distribution management, which assures that products are delivered to customers as needed (G.Brint Ryan College of Business.2025). Warby Parker understood who their target audience would be and the needs of those same consumers. I like the point you made about the price, availability, and time. This is a concern of many consumers when purchasing eyewear. The goal of brands is to find a way to solve a problem that a potential consumer might have. The many years that I worked in retail, that was the main job of a salesperson is to solve the potential problem and deliver value that met the need of the consumer. Warby Parker did just that by adopting a direct to customer model which saves time, focused on customer engagement, innovative technology, and using brand storytelling. The use of social media opened the door to Warby Parker really connecting with its customers as well as customers being able to interact with each other. This solved a lot of the reluctance of potential consumers to try the products and services. In this process, Warby Parker was able to effectively utilize social media to communicate with customers, change these narratives, reduce the dissonance, and eventually capture their loyalty. Today, Warby Parker has shipped more than 500,000 pairs of glasses in and employs over 100 people (Mahoney, L. M., & Tang, T. (2016).

To be a good salesperson, I learned that if the customer can relate to other people’s experiences and that the product meets their needs, they are more likely to move forward with a purchase. All of a sudden, the price doesn’t matter. Customers want to feel confident in their purchases.

Loading…
Ieshia Eustace

September 11, 2025

Bre,

I loved your post and I can definitely relate. Seeing as I wear glasses myself, I am very particular about how I like my glasses and what suits me. I love the fact that Warby Parker gives the option to try before you buy. It’s a huge competition within the other glasses companies like Zenni or Zeelool where you have to buy and if they don’t work out then you have to send them back. I also liked how you touched on WP putting their customers first. How they are interacting with future customers based on their testimonies instead of having the business vouch for itself. Great job!

Loading…
klloyd2015

September 9, 2025

Great job on your blog post Bre!

Warby Parker does a great job of incorporating user-generated content as a tool to advertise prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses. “Through social media marketing, the marketers capture the traffic and the attention of various customers to their company, expose their business and cut a considerable amount of cost that they would have spent on other types of marketing and communication tools” (Zahoor, 2017, pg. 2). Through the use of user-generated content, Warby Parker is building relationships with consumers by choosing authenticity over advertising. Warby Parker is allowing consumers to create their own content to contribute to the conversation about relatable difficulties of finding the right prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses. Instead of paying to target consumers to immediately buy prescription eyeglasses and sunglasses. Warby Parker is connecting back to communities by offering a pair of prescription eyeglasses or sunglasses to someone in need with every purchase. This is creating brand loyalty and trust with consumers.

References

Zahoor, S. Z., & Qureshi, I. H. (2017). Social Media Marketing and Brand Equity: A Literature Review. IUP Journal of Marketing Management, 16(1), 47–64.

Loading…

Bre Writes Books