{"id":417,"date":"2019-09-11T10:53:21","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T10:53:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/?p=417"},"modified":"2019-12-11T10:57:06","modified_gmt":"2019-12-11T10:57:06","slug":"the-fabulous-destiny-of-independent-brands-part-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/2019\/09\/11\/the-fabulous-destiny-of-independent-brands-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"The fabulous destiny of independent brands – part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This was the title of an article<\/a> on the portuguese magazine \u00d3pticaPro, written by Mario Torre, regarding the analysis of the independent eyewear brands phenomenon.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Actually, in the last decade, we have seen the explosion of this optics sector composed of new energies and ideas, born in various sectors, mostly european but not only. Now the question is: all these brands destiny was \u201cfabulous\u201d or, perhaps, we got overwhelmed with enthusiasm? But one thing is certain: the panorama has changed. Finally we can affirm that new realities are facing the optics market. But it is also certain that not for all these new professionals the success has been marked. It has been like a new gold rush that it didn\u2019t always bring to the expected Klondike. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, as often happens in the case history of successfull phenomenons, at a first stage we witnessed an explosion of new situations and new ideas that manifested themselves visibly especially during the classic trade fairs that have also resumed vigor and importance. The most important trade fairs (the classic 3 in Europe) have been accompanied by a series of small but very trendy local fairs (Firenze, Copenaghen, Hall of Frame etc..) that have revived the habit of visiting them as it was possible that at each edition there were news otherwise difficult to see. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have witnessed that the trend has been reversed: there was a moment when (in the 2000s) it didn\u2019t make much sense for an operator to attend an optics trade fair, except for spend a shopping weekend in Milan, Paris, NY or Munich. The optic was saying to us \u201cWhy should I go to a fair if the agents from the corporations come to visit me and make me see all the novelties and the new collections even a month earlier than the fair?\u201d It was true, we had become so capillary that our agents were reaching the optics stores even before the collection\u2019s launch in the trade shows, that at the time had become a socialization place among the operators. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, starting from 2010-2015, attending a trade fair began to have a new meaning and this moment coincides with the arrival of new brands on the market. Often these brands were so original and unique that they didn\u2019t have any agent in the territory, so the only way to know them (and we have to thanks the \u201cpioneer\u201d optics that have always sought for the new and the original) was going to the little and small fairs to discover them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like art and antiques collectors do, like little Sherlock Holmes, always searching for something unique. So,this is what happened and more and more trendy optics stores were spreading trough Milan, Paris, Lisbon, Barcelona. Also in the provinces new beautiful optics stores were born, the taste for beauty and for the refined hadn\u2019t borders. Regarding this, there have also been signs from the multinationals that have begun to take part in international fairs as protagonists and that have been interested in the phenomenon of independent brands. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, the new brands have multiplied over time at a very fast pace and have created an overlap in the brand offering. If we analyze the large bundle of independent brands, we realize that there are at least two categories: those that have managed to reach and overcome the point of equilibrium of survival and success and many others that, although presenting very original and interesting collections and ideas, can\u2019t overcome the minimum barrier that allows them to male the capital investment profitable. Most independent brands have based their story mainly on the concept of the product and, above all, the design. Care of the materials, of the lines, of the components, withouth however considering market aspects and branding.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many brands have been appreciated primarily by the point of sale (the optician) but they haven\u2019t considered the needs of the market, marketing and of the final consumer. Not always the classic support materials in the store have been appropriate but what is missing above all is a serious strategy to support communication. Many creators\/entrepreneurs have fallen into the slander of thinking: \u201c I create a beautiful pair of glasses, superior to others, surely they will sell themselves!\u201d. But this doesn\u2019t happen naturally if we don\u2019t make the effort to accompany the sales process with adequate communication. Since the communication strategies are completely changed in the latest 10 years, this situation has found both brand manufacturers and sellers tehmselves completely disoriented , because the classic offline channel has entered in a state of a deep crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just be careful, this is not because the offline channel is finished (nobody can support such a bestiality), simply he changed skin and rules. Is it possible that we don\u2019t want to admit that the technological revolution that is changing everything in our lives as human beings, should be take into due consideration also in the optical sector? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For years, only hearing the word \u201conline\u201d, the opticians uttered insurmountable walls, barricaded to defend their position as professionals. And what\u2019s the result? The consumer has gone elsewhere. Do we really think that consumption is going down? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do we really think that people don\u2019t use sunglasses anymore? Had these not become an essential fashion accessory? And what about the spectacles? Do we really think that there is no demand? With all these technological devices (pc, smartphones\u2026.) that strain the eyes at all levels ? The demand is growing and we must knoe how to intercept it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s look at what happens in other sectors: Zara and H&M are investing the impossible to reorganize the offline\/online forms of consumption. Travel agencies (perhaps the first to fall thanks to the use of internet) have knows how to reinvent themselves and today they are gathering and meeting centers where people talk about travels, books, adventures and organize trips with specialists. And what about the print media world? That had to completely reorganize the communication system at the beginning of the new millennium by reducing the printed copies in favor of digital reading of the magazine, newspaper or magazine by tens and hundreds of thousands? The current revolution is underway and it is normal and natural that there is always some resistance to the new. Do not think that the technological revolutions of past eras have not encountered intransigent detractors: when Gutenberg printed the first Bible in 1452, how do you think the scribe monks in Benedictine convents had taken it i? And when the first locomotives arrived and rail transport began to develop in Europe in the early nineteenth century, an extraordinary paranoia developed in Britain due to the damaging effects of the “new monsters” on society. Without mentioning the most tangible examples of our direct experience, such as the advent of new mass media (how many school topics on the subject!) That seemed to upset our lives as young people facing society (television, mobile phone, videogames\u2026)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not my intention to do an analysis of this kind here. The message is clear however, as history teaches, we always have the blow and the backlash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

the retail categories that are the offline’s visible flag must react in a positive way by trying to exploit their privileged position vis-\u00e0-vis the online just remember that Amazon has opened its first offline stores since 2015 and already has almost 500 in the US,Uk and Canada. Have you ever wondered why? The online wasn\u2019t enough? Clearly not). This topic is very vast and we will eventually face it on another occasion (also because there are phenomena in the eyewear industry which confirm this interesting trend).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To conclude and to return to the initial theme, the proliferation and the boom of the new independent brands coincided temporally with the internet revolution and could not take into due account the current change in the consumption system that moved from the offline to the online consumer interest and habits. After all, one could not expect much more from this industrial sector as by definition the (independent) owners of the new (independent) brands are first and foremost designers, style enthusiasts, they are artisans of the field. I don’t think we can attribute great responsibility to them for not being able to foresee the development and consequences of the phenomenon online. Indeed, to tell the truth, the internet age has benefited and supported the spread of independent brands thanks to the widening phenomenon of social networks, bloggers and influencers. But this probably helped more their sell-in and the good reception given to them by the traditional offline sales points that a real and growing sell-out in the stores, or at least not for everyone. A \u2018romantic\u2019 period of the phenomenon was experienced: the arrival of beauty and the original (independent brands) that immediately impressed the experts (opticians, distributors and agents).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conclusion, on the market there was a high offer of new product (brand) which was poured strongly on the points of sale and which generated a saturation of the offer as the final demand, which fortunately exists and is in excellent health, it is supplying on different consumption platforms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Those who have been studying for long and accompanying the question of coexistence between offline and online in an absolutely correct and professional way (both for the type of vision of the current and future and for its unfailingly pro-sector style and attitude) , is the multinational in the sector par excellence that has identified new support systems for B2B and B2C. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As previously claimed, changes must be addressed positively, with critical reading and analysis of appropriate solutions. I believe that opticians have a critical sense and a certain capacity to react to the new and will not be overwhelmed by the course of events. It is not desirable for the sector to implement a resistance similar to that of the “amanuensis monks” of the fifteenth century but on the contrary it is desirable that an openness to the understanding of the new commercial and developmental needs be generated.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This was the title of an article on the portuguese magazine \u00d3pticaPro, written by Mario Torre, regarding the analysis of the independent eyewear brands phenomenon. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":418,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":420,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417\/revisions\/420"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/418"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.opticapro.pt\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}