Client: The Safilo Group designs, produces and distributes sunglasses and eyewear. It is the world’s second largest company in the eyewear industry, with 8,000 employees in 130 countries. Originally founded in Italy in 1934, Safilo now owns 5 house brands and 28 licensed brands. Its retail strategy for China is to develop a new wholly owned retail brand called Eyedonist.
Case: Labbrand assisted Eyedonist to learn more about the Chinese luxury market and whether the brand’s current retail concept would be appealing to target consumers. Eyedonist also wanted to better understand the expectations and needs of their Chinese customers.
Solution: Labbrand first conducted a market positioning analysis of the different eyewear retailers in China. This identified the reasons why three brands were considered by consumers as key competitors to the newly established Eyedonist brand. Then, Labbrand focused on identifying Eyedonist’s target customers through a qualitative study that pinpointed their needs, expectations and brand perceptions. Through several focus groups and interviews, one core and two secondary targets were defined. To improve the in store experience, Labbrand developed several surveys conducted within an Eyedonist store itself. The information collected from these surveys helped to analyze visitor profiles, shopping behavior, and to benchmark the performance of new outlets. A qualitative study on the shopping experience determined the prioritization of improvements to be made to current locations. The final deliverable included a review of the current branding strategy and how research findings could be used to readjust the current positioning to make it more relevant for the identified consumer targets. This analysis built a broad platform for future marketing activities.