Customer Journey VIU

Persona

Research & Planning Product Discovery Purchase Use Loyalty

Paul needs new glasses, since his old ones are broken. He does some research online and asks his friends and family for recommendations. Paul is not financially stable at the moment, since he just graduated from uni. However, it is very important to him to look presentable and modern. Paul came across the brand VIU. He does some further research on their products. He compares prices and reads Google-reviews about the brand.

Paul visits the store in order to try out the glasses he looked at online. He is very happy with the professional consultation. Not only does the optician help him with finding the right eyeglass strength, but he gets advice on which pair of glasses looks best him. However, Paul isn‘t quiet sure about which glasses he wants to purchase. That‘s why he decides to visit the store again in a few days.

Paul re-visits the VIU store and decides on a model of glasses he wants to purchase. Paul is a bit upset, because the store is quite packed, which means he has to wait a while before an employee comes to help him. However, he is very happy to finally be able to talk to the same employee as he did when he first visited the store. After he made his definite decisions he walks to the checkout together with the employee. His mood lifts even more when he receives a goodie to go with the glasses he bought.

Paul wears his new glasses everyday, since he purchased it. He his very impressed by the high quality, since the price wasn‘t that high. He also receives a lot of compliments on his new glasses saying his glasses are very trendy.

Paul is very happy with his purchase at VIU and decides to write a positive Google review. Futhermore, Paul tells all his friends and family about his positive experience at VIU. Paul was so happy with his purchase that he decided to buy a pair of sunglasses.

Positioning

Brands that offer substitutional products in Switzerland to VIU are: Ace & tate, Götti, Nirvan Javan, Bonocler, Fielmann, Visilab, and Kochoptik. The latter three and Götti are more traditional brands with optician stores and a big product portfolio, some of them also sell glasses from other brands like Prada and Boss. Ace & tate, Nirvan Javan, and Bonocler are more contemporary and future-driven brands that have a great online presence and web shops to distribute their products.

Points of differentiation

. Price/Quality: affordability, value for money (handcrafted designs)

. Transformational: fashion brand, fancy and luxurious feeling in-store

Aesthetics/design: attractive, trendy, cool, fashionable, modern

. Technology: high tech, online, additive manufacturing

Country of origin: Swiss founded and based eyewear brand

. Emotion: confidence

. Brand story: handmade quality eyewear, cultural branding

Points of parity

. Price

. Problem solution: functional, primary job-to-be-done

. Usage moment: everyday use

Reliability: durable products, warranty

Positioning statement of VIU:

To the modern men and women who value good design and quality but don’t want to compensate in aesthetics, VIU is the affordable fashion and eyewear brand that provides the best price-to-value products. That’s because VIU designs all their products in Switzerland to provide the timeless and trendy designs that are handmade in Italy and Japan with attention to quality and care.

Targeting approach

VIU’s targeting approach is a differentiated, multi-segmented one. This is the case since they have multiple product lines and also different products within each product line that should cater to the different tastes of different segments.

Strategic Opportunity

We could identify VIU’s current strategic opportunity as market penetration. Their goal is to increase sales of its present products in its existing markets to increase margins, build market share, and attract new customers.

There seems to be an underserved market of mostly young people wanting to express themselves through fashion and want modern as well as stylish eyewear that doesn’t crash the bank. This underserved market is also recognizable since the market is not saturated at all and competitors were not so easy to identify in our research 1 .

VIU focuses on building secondary demand. They try to persuade people to purchase their products and not competitors rather than generating demand for the product category in general. (Kokemuller, 2017) They want prospective buyers to know the benefits of their brand. Their message is showing their positioning in the market, believing to be better than alternative brands.