• by Karl Greenberg , April 2, 2007

LensCrafters, a division of Luxottica, Milan, will break a new national branding and marketing effort this week via DDB, Chicago that hopes to awaken consumers to the possibility of optical glasses as fashion accessories, like shoes, lipstick, handbags and even cell phones.

The effort, using the tag-line "Open Your Eyes," includes two TV spots running in rotation and a series of print ads running in stores and 30 premium fashion, lifestyle, cultural and entertainment magazines for both men and women. It will also involve direct-mail catalogs and postcards, newspaper inserts, in-store graphics, public relations, online search ads and content on Lenscrafters.com.

Print ads show people wearing their favorite clothes, juxtaposed with the glasses they could be wearing, and a question that suggests they aren't quite finished donning "the look." One shows a guy stylin' in his favorite shirt. Below that is a photo of a pair of glasses he could be wearing. "Your lucky shirt turns you into the guy who just can't lose ... do your glasses?" Another shows a woman in a black dress heading to a party, also with an appropriate pair of glasses in a separate photo, with the text, "That dress makes you feel ten years younger ... do your glasses?"

The TV ads show different positive moments, and suggest there's a right style of glasses for each.

The Mason, Ohio-based company began a store redesign in 2005 to move LensCrafters up-market and toward an image of the brand as a fashion purveyor, not just an eyeglass retailer. The company has also moved away from messages touting deals and has been running salesperson training programs to focus consumers on finding the right style rather than the right price.

As part of its effort, the company has also redesigned its Web site this year, adding customizing tools for consumers, per the company. One of the features on the new site, for instance, is a face-shape selector where one can upload one's photo then get recommendations for frames.

Seth McLaughlin, senior vice president/marketing for Luxottica's North American division, says the effort is part of a move to reposition not only the LensCrafter brand but eyeglasses--which, by and large, are still seen as a necessary evil among many wearers.

"The key insight we learned and we are bringing to ads is that consumers are clearly underestimating the power of the right pair of glasses," he says. "When we talk to eyeglass wearers, they accept the need for eyeglasses, but they haven't realized they can have fun with eyewear, as they do with other accessories--from cell phones to shoes--things that make you feel great when you have the right one. It's the first thing people notice about you; so this is about helping people think differently."

He says the goal is to get consumers to think of optical glasses as they do about sunglasses. "If you think about the sunglasses category, they are well-known for designer brands; we are evolving to that in the optical category, where people are excited about their optical glasses, and where they have multiple pairs of each."

McLaughlin says that while LensCrafter is the largest retailer in the segment--with 900 stores in the U.S. and Canada--the market is highly competitive, because about half of all eyeglasses are purchased at independents, of which there are about 25,000. "But most eyeglass advertising tends to be focused on a price message, so this really has a chance to stand out," he says.