A case study can provide valuable insights and lessons that you can use to emulate successes, avoid failures, solve problems, detect industry trends, do strategic planning, and more. A case study on Ray-Ban is an eye opener (pun intended).
Background
When talking about eyewear, Ray-Ban immediately comes to mind. Its impact on the global industry is undeniable, even as trends change and new players enter the scene. Under the eyewear manufacturer EssilorLuxottica, profitability remains strong even amid widespread economic insecurity. The company reportedly saw a 3.7% revenue increase in 2023, its third consecutive year of revenue growth.
These numbers are encouraging for aspiring business owners to see, especially considering the eyewear brand’s humble origins. From a small business built by immigrants in the 1800s, Ray-Ban has since blown up into an enduring luxury label that remains a staple in the 21st century. With its success, there are a few key concepts that budding entrepreneurs can take away.
Constant innovation
Ray-Ban has been able to move with the times because it is unafraid to experiment with its products, including ones considered staples of the brand. From the aviator sunglasses that started their mainstream explosion, they moved to state-of-the-art Ray-Ban eyeglasses with light-responsive frames and smart glasses that allow wearers to go on video calls, stream live, and even listen to music. These innovations retain the core aspects that make each pair recognizable under the brand but still flip the script to keep things moving forward. Where other brands were afraid to touch hallmark pieces, Ray-Ban went for its iconic Aviators and Wayfarers and reintroduced them with its Reverse collection. The lenses from this line feature a concave design that inverts the usual lens form to create sharper vision and a unique aesthetic.
As a small business, starting with a deep knowledge of your brand messaging and critical features is good, so you know exactly how to innovate without straying from what you’ve established.
Going beyond groupthink
Knowing the distinction between relevance and mere conformity is essential for a business to thrive. Renowned sociopsychologist Irving Janis coined ‘groupthink’ as a phenomenon where people make poor choices because they don’t want to disagree with the majority of the group. This concept arises all too often in the realm of business and can lead to creative limitation, poor decision-making, and unhealthy work environments. While many businesses have turned into statistics on the pitfalls of this mindset, Ray-Ban is a hopeful example on the opposite end of the spectrum, showcasing exactly why it’s worth rejecting groupthink. This is most clear in its early noughties phase when the brand returned from the brink by overhauling key aspects. Ray-Ban retooled product materials and introduced lightweight carbon fiber. Furthermore, they entered the prescription optical market and built a steady base there while other luxury brands tried to minimize their collections.
Small businesses can do the same. For example, eyewear brand Coco and Breezy took a different approach to challenging the status quo in the industry. Rather than creating collections specific to men or women, founders Corianna and Brianna Dotson wanted to create genderless products for people who feel ignored by traditional manufacturers. With stock at Nordstrom and in 400 optical stores, the identical twin sisters behind Coco and Breezy have succeeded in putting their inclusive and universal products forward, focusing on eyewear that can work for different cheekbones, nose bridges, and face shapes.
Strategic collaboration
The key to building brand loyalty is connection with a purpose, and this principle applies to the opportunities you can use for growth and expansion as well. Ray-Ban famously partnered up with tech giant Meta to create the Ray-Ban Meta smart glasses. This brought in a new niche market and carried over consumers from both sides. The collaborative project has been successful and even led Meta to consider investing in EssilorLuxottica, eyeing a 5% stake in the company. This also comes hot off the heels of Google trying to replace Meta AI’s integration in the glasses with their own Gemini AI.
Strategic collaboration can also apply to the community you’ve built. Ray-Ban Remix remains a popular feature worth emulating, as it allows users to design every aspect of their eyewear for a truly personalized style. These efforts give your target market a sense of trust and freedom, encouraging repeat conversions. As always, however, knowing your target audience well can lead to excellent collaboration.
Just look at a small business’s strategic collaboration. Indy Sunglasses, which has around 21,000 followers on Instagram, recently partnered with Nütrl to create fruit-colored sunglasses matching Nütrl’s signature vodka seltzers in pineapple, black cherry, and orange. Indie McFarlane, founder and CEO of Indy Sunglasses, pointed out that she personally enjoyed drinking Nütrl at music festivals and kept that idea in mind – creating trendy sunglasses with transition lenses that transform from dark to light, allowing wearers to stay accessorized all day long. Being a part of the community you seek to serve can enable you to collaborate on unique products that meet their specific needs.
Conclusion
Small businesses can learn a lot from Ray-Ban’s storied history, applying these lessons to their own unique formula within the industry.
Read more concerning groupthink here in this blog.
