One day at the University of Pennsylvania in 2010, a group of classmates agreed that options were difficult for those needing prescription glasses. It’s no secret that every good business idea begins with a problem. These classmates found that costs of frames and lenses were too high, and that it could be difficult to schedule an appointment for an eye exam and travel to a showroom to pick out frames. If this small group of students felt this way, surely there are others who would agree, right? While it’s easy to agree with a problem or inconvenience, it’s another thing to completely change your behavior as a consumer. With a $2,500 seed investment, an innovative idea, and lots of ambition, these students set out to disrupt the market. They launched Warby Parker with some strategic social media marketing and the rest is history. Today Warby Parker has sold over 15 million glasses! (Warby Parker, 2025)
“Warby Parker was founded with a mission: to inspire and impact the world with vision, purpose, and style.”
(Warby Parker, 2025)
How did they do it?
At the time Warby Parker was founded, there were not online retailers like there are today. Warby Parker had a lot working against them, as consumers tend to do business where they’re comfortable and familiar. Buying glasses online was not the norm! Consumers may have thought that eyeglasses were too important to buy online, or that the low cost of Warby Parker’s glasses meant they were poor quality. Without proving them wrong, Warby Parkers’ innovative idea would have come to a screeching halt.
Warby Parker leveraged social media technology to promote their alternative business through showcasing their risk-free purchasing approach (the Home Try-On Compaign), launching a socially conscious business strategy (teaming up with VisionSpring), driving consumer engagement, and providing information/expert advice. (Mahoney et al, 2016) Through these practices, Warby Parker was able to gain consumer confidence, decrease dissonance, and disrupt the marketplace. Warby Parker likely would not have been able to disrupt the marketplace without social media. Other marketing avenues that Warby Parker could have used include print-ads, radio, billboards, etc. and these forms of marketing are extremely expensive. Given their very small seed fund, these were not marketing options for them.
Warby Parker is using social media to promote transactional communication with customers by driving consumer engagement online. By responding and commenting to customers on social media platforms, asking questions to generate conversation, and encouraging customers to share photos of themselves in their new glasses, they’re able to build trust online. This is especially important when trying to establish a new consumer behavior or disrupt a marketplace. User-generated content plays a pivotal role when it comes to gaining consumer confidence and trust. A consumer will listen to and trust a friend advocating for a brand or product more than that same consumer will listen to a linear ad they see. (Mahoney et al, 2016) The graphic below is an example of how Warby Parker engages with consumers on one of their social media platforms, Facebook. Click on the photo to see more!
More on their socially conscious business strategy….
By demonstrating social responsibility, a business like Warby Parker can encourage consumers to do business with them on the basis of “feeling good”. Warby Parker teamed up with VisionSpring for their “Buy a pair, give a pair” campaign. (Mahoney et al, 2016) It’s exactly what it sounds like… For every pair of glasses that are purchased, one is donated. That makes 15 million pairs of glasses to date! (Warby Parker, 2025) Wouldn’t you feel good knowing that you’re the reason someone less fortunate can finally get a pair of glasses? The social responsibility may not be enough by itself to change consumer behavior, but when paired with their Home Try-On Campaign, a consumer truly can say “well why not” and give this new alternative approach a try. Warby Parker has been able to earn the business of millions of consumers using this approach, and has also earned their loyalty. The images below are directly from their website, warbyparker.com. Click on them to learn more about the program.
Rural Thymes 
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