Beyond Function, Beyond Fashion: Know HOW this brand revolutionized the eyewear industry with this strategy!
If you are new to RDS, it is basically a framework structured like a pyramid, featuring 11 principles and 3 foundational elements. When effectively implemented, these principles help both businesses and individuals achieve their organizational and career goals. Today, let’s focus on the 2nd and 5th principles of the RDS framework: Fulfill Otherwise Unmet Customer Needs and Innovate Offerings. Are you ready? Dive into this article to discover how this eyewear brand succeeded by meeting customer needs with creativity and innovation.
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Beyond Function, Beyond Fashion: Know HOW this brand revolutionized the eyewear industry with this strategy! American actress Mary Lou Cook once said: “Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” This means by being creative, people discover innovative solutions, express themselves, and enhance their cognitive skills, thereby making life better. However, what is creativity if it’s not tied with functionality? A form of art? An imagination? An expression of feeling? Creative works that lack functionality aren’t inherently bad; however, these two elements can exist in harmony like yin and yang. While functionality ensures efficiency and reliability, creativity infuses life with color and possibility. So, what happens when you put these two elements together? An innovative AND effective solution emerges! In 2011, a South Korean eyewear brand set its sights on blending practicality and imagination in its products. Let’s see how this brand crafted its visionary lenses that triumphed in the eyewear market… Breaking Boundaries: How Gentle Monster Redefined the Eyewear Industry Gentle Monster is a South Korean sunglasses and optical glasses company founded by Hankook Kim, a former art curator and English professor, in Seoul in 2011. The brand’s name is made up of two elements: “gentle” representing the soft, delicate, and humble aspects of the brand, and “monster” embodying the brand’s boldness and uniqueness. Gentle Monster started off small, with its founder having a vision to revolutionize the eyewear industry with creativity. Kim thought that the market was too heavily controlled by BIG eyewear manufacturing hubs, which made all these eyewear seem generic. So, how did Gentle Monster stand out from these eyewear giants? The answer lies in creativity and innovation.
Due to the stringent manufacturing process of eyewear in South Korea, there was limited innovation and artistic exploration within the industry that Kim eagerly wanted to change. With his creative vision, Kim focused on creating eccentric yet wearable eyewear products and pioneered artistic retail spaces that look like literal art exhibits. That’s not all! Gentle Monster also understood the demand of Korean women for other styles of sunglasses. This was because prior to the company’s entry into the market, customers were only able to buy small frames, which was a Western standard. Gentle Monster saw this gap and decided to create oversized glasses that were positively received by the Korean market. The brand’s visibility widened even more in 2013 and 2014, when Korean actress Jun Ji-hyun wore Gentle Monster glasses on the show, “My Love From the Star.”
By setting its sights on providing the needs of its consumers while being creative, Gentle Monster became a brand known for its artistry and innovation… and the outcome? The brand’s vision came to fruition! According to M2 Retail, a retail store display supplier, Gentle Monster generated USD 40 million in revenue in 2014. In 2015, the brand’s revenue quadrupled to roughly USD 160 million, and by 2016, the brand amassed USD 250 million in revenue with 10 direct-to-consumer retail stores. The trajectory of Gentle Monster’s success did not stop there… In fact, the store’s expansion continued abroad with more than 450 stores stocking the product, including Harvey Nichols and Nordstrom. In 2024, the brand achieved USD 444.3 million in revenue with an operating profit of USD 110.4 million. This is a 48% increase from its 2023 revenue of USD 299.5 million. See? By perfectly fusing creativity and functionality, Gentle Monster continues to soar to new heights! Framing Perspectives: Setting Your Sights to Success Professor Joel Litman and Dr. Mark L. Frigo highlighted in their book, “Driven,” the significance of meeting customer needs that haven’t been addressed before, as well as creating new products or services. These points are explored more in Return Driven Strategy’s (RDS) Tenet 2: Fulfill the Otherwise Unmet Customer Needs, and Tenet 5: Innovate Offerings. First, Gentle Monster achieved Tenet 2 by identifying the gap in the market. By looking at the sunglass needs of Korean women, which were not addressed before, Gentle Monster was able to provide a solution that made consumers happy and satisfied. Meanwhile, in Tenet 5… Professor Litman and Dr. Frigo emphasized that innovation is crucial for the success of any business—both in the short term and for long-term sustainability. By taking a look at this principle, it’s clear that Gentle Monster executed this through its artistic retail spaces and unique and experimental sunglasses and frames. Instead of boxing itself in a traditional retail experience and focusing on creating classic frames, it decided to venture into the eccentric and artistic approach. In turn, this made the brand unforgettable to its customers. Clearly, through Gentle Monster’s bold and strategic blend of creativity, innovation, and functionality, the brand has not only achieved success in the short term but also secured its position in the ever-evolving world of eyewear and fashion. — If you’re looking to gain a better understanding of Return Driven Strategy and Career Driven Strategy, we highly recommend checking out “Driven” by Professor Litman and Dr. Frigo. Click here to get your copy and learn how this framework can help you in your business strategies and ultimately, in ethically maximizing wealth for your firm. Hope you found this week’s insights interesting and helpful. EXCITING NEWS AHEAD The world of work has shifted, and there’s no going back. The barriers to entry have never been lower for talented professionals to work independently, and today’s massive external workforce is hardly a pandemic-produced fad. Business owners can only survive in the new work landscape by partnering with this deep talent pool. With decades of experience in both small-business entrepreneurship and executive management at PwC, I truly believe that the future of work is independent. With that, I’m happy to share with you that my book, co-authored with Walter Scott Lamb, is now available for pre-order on Amazon! Free Birds Revolution: The Future of Work & The Independent Mind This is an essential read for both independent professionals and corporate executives. Here, we provide educational and practical guides to unpack the ever-growing workforce and offer you crucial ways to become a client of choice. Click on the link above to pre-order your copy. Let this book help you future-proof your career and organization in the new world of work. Stay tuned for next Tuesday’s Return Driven Strategy! Embarking on an adventure, either alone or with the people we love is like unlocking a world of endless possibilities. Learn more about this company’s rebrand through the lens of RDS’ Tenet 6 in next week’s article! |
