Nancy Richardson has worked as a digital marketer for some of the world’s most popular brands: Starbucks, Lululemon and now the Vancouver-based eyewear company Clearly. Each one has a knack for building brands that not only generate growing revenue, but also a loyal consumer following.
For Richardson, Clearly’s chief marketing officer, loyalty comes from having a mission beyond just growing sales. With Starbucks, it was connecting people over coffee. With Lululemon, it was empowering people to live healthier lives through high-end workout wear. And with Clearly, it’s about improving vision and well-being through glasses and contact lenses.
“It’s taking your health into your own hands, and I think optical is a space where there’s a huge opportunity for people,” said Richardson. “It’s giving people what they never knew they needed… There is a huge need for vision correction and the population of people who will need it over the next 10 years is growing… We are enabling people to access vision correction in an affordable and accessible way.”
For Clearly (which started out as an online retailer and now also has bricks-and-mortar retail stores), the mission includes educating consumers on eyewear fit and function, and using technology to make it easier for them to find the right pair of glasses or contact lenses.
Marketing recently spoke with Richardson, who will be among those speaking at Marketing Evolution Summit in Toronto on Sept. 21, about the digital evolution of brands, and how Clearly is working to get customers more comfortable with buying eyewear online. Here is an edited version of that conversation:
What’s the driving force behind your marketing strategy?
We are challenging the status quo of how people shop for glasses. What we know is that 4% of people purchase glasses online right now. The other 96% are still shopping in brick-and-mortar stores. What I really want to do is make the shift by putting people in charge. It’s not making them buy online or having that be their only option. In any brand experience, the best thing you can do is empower people with information so they are knowledgeable and educated and they’re in charge to make the decision. Omnichannel isn’t new news, but it’s new for optical.
How are consumers looking at brands today, online and offline, and how should marketers respond?
Starbucks and Lululemon were heavy brick-and-mortar and went digital, whereas Clearly started out as a digital-first company and then went to stores. Our store experience is from a digital mindset. I think that digital leaders think much differently. It’s almost like a different breed: we’re fast, nimble and agile. I’ve had a few people ask me how I would lead a brick-and-mortar company differently?’ I would put retail operations under ecommerce. It sounds crazy, but I think that would be really transformative.
What is the biggest challenge for Clearly today?
These aren’t new, but continue to be challenge: it’s size and fit for glasses, because you can’t touch them online. How do you build an experience that feels like you’re holding glasses in your hands? We do that in our mobile experience. It’s almost like you’re holding a pair of glasses in your hand. Through our MyFit technology, we teach you how to take the glasses off your face and look at the size on the arm and input that. It’s helping merge that online and offline experience so that it’s meaningful for people.
What do you feel is the biggest challenge for all marketers in general?
The landscape changes to quickly. How do you build your experience at the pace of the technology and how do you keep up with that and make decisions today that will create your future tomorrow? I often say, ‘we need to build for what we don’t know is coming.’ That means investing in platforms that will support ideas in the future, even through we don’t know what’s coming. It’s about making sure we’re building things in a sustainable and scalable way.
