Building an Inclusive Brand: Insights and Examples from Eyewear Retailer Eyebuydirect

Beyond simply offering products and services, businesses and entrepreneurs must consider their brand’s core values. By doing so, they can better connect to their audiences and build meaningful relationships for lifetime value.

Among the values brands can champion is inclusivity, which is not a mere buzzword but reflects a commitment to support equal opportunities and celebrate the diversity of individuals across ages, genders, ethnicities, and backgrounds.

A previous post emphasized the importance of identifying first which type of inclusive brand you want to build when developing your branding strategy. In this case, you can look at various categories and see if they match your needs, values, and preferences. For example, the brand Patagonia is known for taking a stance on social justice issues. Meanwhile, the Rihanna-owned beauty brand Fenty Beauty promotes inclusion through a diverse range of shades for its makeup products.

Beyond the examples listed in a previous post, the eyewear retailer Eyebuydirect can also provide insights into successfully building an inclusive brand. Below, we briefly introduce the retailer before examining its strategies for developing and embracing an inclusive brand identity.

An Introduction to Eyebuydirect

Founded in 2005 by Roy Hessel, Eyebuydirect is one of the pioneers of online eyewear retail in the United States and worldwide. Among the brand’s core values is accessibility, which it achieves by cutting out the middleman throughout the supply chain. As a result, Eyebuydirect is catching up with other direct-to-consumer retailers of prescription and non-prescription glasses, sunglasses, and performance eyewear designed to reduce glare.

Eyebuydirect’s brand and overall operations are built on online offerings, but the e-commerce eyewear company has also started to venture into physical retail. In April 2024, Eyebuydirect opened its first physical store at Mission Viejo in Orange County, California. While setting up a physical kiosk means limiting the number of frame options from more than 3,000 online to 400, the retailer remains appealing to the Southern California locale through its affordable frames and best-selling styles.

The following section examines how Eyebuydirect positions itself as an inclusive brand, enabling businesses—even those outside the eyewear industry—to follow in its footsteps and achieve long-term success.

Inclusive branding strategies by Eyebuydirect

Making eyewear accessible through various price points

As discussed earlier, Eyebuydirect’s primary distribution channel is e-commerce. Considering that lack of accessibility is a prevalent concern among the visually impaired, the retailer expands its reach by offering a wide variety of glasses online — from prescription glasses for vision correction to polarized sunglasses for daily sun protection. However, the brand goes to greater lengths to make eyewear more accessible by offering it at various price points. Its inclusivity efforts are demonstrated by how the Eyebuydirect website displays not only frames from premium brands like Coach and Vogue Eyewear but also its in-house collections starting at $6.

This inclusivity that aims to accommodate different budgets can be attributed to Eyebuydirect’s unique selling proposition, which reframes the eyewear supply chain by designing, manufacturing, packaging, and distributing its own glasses and sunglasses. Thus, brands who want to follow suit can reevaluate their supply chains and ensure their offerings reach those who truly need them.

Partnering with creators of different identities and backgrounds

In addition to championing inclusivity through varying price points, Eyebuydirect’s inclusive branding is reflected in its efforts to collaborate with creators of diverse identities and backgrounds. While other companies settle for mere representation through endorsements, the eyewear brand works toward genuine inclusivity by working with minorities or marginalized identities throughout the entire process, from design and brainstorming to marketing and promotions.

For instance, Eyebuydirect has a long-term partnership with Tan France, a fashion expert on the Netflix show Queer Eye known for both his fashion-forward sensibilities and sense of inclusivity as an advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. The exclusive eyewear collection with Tan France highlights eyewear as a functional accessory and an avenue for self-expression, mainly through oversized and playful silhouettes inspired by iconic fashion eras like Y2K and the ‘80s.

Supporting diverse advocacies through donations

Lastly, any business aiming to build an inclusive brand can draw inspiration from how Eyebuydirect creates a positive societal impact through its diverse advocacies. Not only did its recent Pride On collection demonstrate the brand’s support for the LGBTQ+ community during Pride Month, but proceeds from the limited-edition frames were donated to The Trevor Project, a non-profit suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for queer youth.

The eyewear company has supported The Trevor Project’s 24/7 crisis support services, research, and advocacy efforts for five consecutive years, with total donations amounting to $215,000. This extent of support reminds brands aiming for inclusivity to demonstrate corporate social responsibility by donating to organizations with shared advocacies for diversity, equality, and inclusion — as opposed to only using inclusivity as a marketing buzzword.

For more branding guides and resources, check out the rest of the posts here at Personal Branding Blog.