Why is the eyewear industry bad at branding? Part 1
Designer licenses anyone?
So Kering is going to produce its own eyewear for its brand portfolio: Gucci Eyewear, Saint Laurent Eyewear, Balenciaga Eyewear, etc. The possibility LVMH, Prada, Chanel, Ralph Lauren, et. al. might do the same poses an existential threat to many of the biggest players in the business.
If nothing else this should drive home a truth I think is universally recognized but seldom spoken: the industry is horrendous at branding.
Why is this?
It was through a series of historical accidents that optical dispensaries came to retail fashion product in the first place. There were some isolated forerunners: manufacturers like Tura and Optyl, retailers like Optique Boutique, Pierre Marly, and Lugene’s, but most of the rest of the industry was more concerned with science and medicine than style, which is what they were trained for.
Painting with the broadest strokes, here’s what happened:
Before the 1980s only plano sunglasses were generally regarded as fashion items. The companies that produced them used drug and department stores as their main retail channels. They were closer to fashion companies than optical companies. Beginning in the late 1970s a number of factors decimated that sector. It quickly declined. At this point optical companies that sold almost exclusively to optical specialty stores filled the vacuum and became the category’s fashion leaders, largely by default. The rapidly growing designer licensing paradigm helped make this happen.
Suddenly a part of the industry that had little prior experience creating or selling fashion product found itself controlling a vast, fashion driven market created over the course of 50 years by a separate, now effectively defunct, group of companies that had known how to create and build fashion brands.
Under these circumstances companies that could produce, sell and distribute the best became titans. From top to bottom B to B skills trumped marketing to the end consumer. Brand building was not a required part of the tool kit.
Until now.
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great blog
Why thank you Sicky!
Just like any other business or brand, you need to market yourself properly or else nobody is going to see your business. Whether you do it yourself or hire an outside company, you still need to make your presence known.
Eyewear industry is operated by one company and that company does the branding, so understanding this fact that we are *getting fooled* as it sells at a markup of 400% is the harsh truth of the Sunglass Industry.
At a certain point it’s up to the consumer to be informed about the value equation of what he buys. Some of the licensed stuff has been pretty nice. It’ll be interesting to see how product evolves now that the fashion conglomerates are making it themselves.
Interesting. I think most of the big fashion brands had the trickle down effect. They were once first clothing brands that eventually started offering sunglasses. It’s pretty bad that one manufacturer gets the lions share of the business.
There are still a lot of worthwhile independent brands out there if you look.