Am I blind to your story? A profile on Ray Ban's digital storytelling ability.

To tell a digital brand story is to effectively encourage consumers to establish an emotional connection to your brand (Sawhney & Goodman, 2016). Especially with Gen Z easily switching their attention to new brands, it has become increasingly important for classic brands to establish a story with younger people. This is the case with Ray Ban.

Ray Ban is a leading glasses and eyewear brand that was founded in 1937 by Bausch & Lomb, an American company, and consequently sold to Luxottica Group (Italian eyewear conglomerate) for a reported $640 million in 1999. The brand is associated with their classic eyewear design of Aviator and Wayfarer lines. They are slightly skewed towards a male demographic (M: 55.59%, F: 44.41%), aged 25-34 (31.72%), as found from Similar Web. Their mission as a company is to “protect the eyes and enhance the faces of men and woman worldwide by manufacturing and selling quality, stylish sun and prescription eyewear”. With the brand values of timeless style, authenticity, and freedom of expression. Since the creation of Ray Ban, they have stuck to the same story of ‘living for the moment’ and creating memories. Ray Ban have curated themselves with a strong brand identity of classic, cool eyewear that can be supported through the listicles they can be seen featured in GQ magazines. They often emphasise their protective UV features, upping their identity of investment pieces and luxury for the masses.

Ray Ban carries a very strong story that is remembered by many people. In the 1930s, Ray Ban gave pilots in the war sunglasses to protect their eyes from the sun. This story can even be seen within the name of the brand, banning the rays of the sun from people’s eyes. The memorable story demonstrates their dominance within the eyewear industry. However, as a story that has been used for decades, it does bring into question how intriguing younger generations will find it as they make their way into Ray Ban’s target demographic. Consequently, Ray Ban may have to adapt or move its demographic to older generations. One way to interact with younger demographics is through the brand’s use of digital platforms.

Ray Ban uses a multitude of digital platforms, including social media and its website to promote its story. Through their own website, Ray Ban’s story is not overly present. To access said story, you must scroll all the way to the bottom and click on a subtle hyperlink. Yet, once the consumer is through, they proceed to detail their story as a brand through the decades of the iconic sunglasses. However, due to the complicated nature to find the story, it suggests Ray Ban is more focused on showcasing the collection instead of on its history as a brand. Thus, it gives the impression Ray Ban does not care about their story, bringing into question whether the consumers should care. Exploring their social media, Ray Ban focuses on Facebook as their main social media platform, especially due to the partnership between Meta and Facebook with a new line of glasses that can ‘capture the moment’.

Thus, customers are then encouraged to post their ‘memories’ on their Facebook stories, promoting more interaction between the brand and consumers. Therefore, it is not surprising that the majority of traffic to the website originates from Facebook (44.73%), followed by YouTube (39.18%) and Reddit (6.14%). However, the Meta/Ray Ban campaign was announced 2 years ago. Therefore, it could be quite stale amongst customers by this time. Previously, they used YouTube to show Ray Ban films detailing a central theme of “courage”. However, this cannot be seen in recent videos. It is not surprising they have switched their focus to short-form content due to the increase in popularity of TikTok with younger generations. However, there is no consistency to their postings on YouTube, with even long-form content being under 5 minutes. So, how does the majority of traffic come from YouTube when other platforms have more consistent postings? Well, there seem to be no links to their website on their Instagram bio. Thus, they are limiting omnichannel marketing as there is no ease between all platforms. Consequently, possible customers for the brand will be limited. Moreover, they are often posting on Instagram to promote their different lines, with a focus on celebrity partnerships, such as Charles LeClerc, Carlos Sainz, and Rose Villain. Celebrities detail their stories on the Instagram page of Ray Ban while showing off their collection with the brand. However, are Ray Ban focusing too much on other stories instead of expanding on their own? This could be an opportunity for Ray Ban to showcase the link between celebrities and the brand stories to encourage their consumers to forge an emotional connection to the brand.

Furthermore, their Twitter account tends to post a lot of the same content as their Instagram page. This is odd due to both platforms having very different strengths for brands to optimise. Ray Ban could attempt to perform a transmedia form of storytelling instead of repeating content throughout their platforms. It can be seen in effort due to a couple of tweets showcasing the strength of the platform and creating entertaining exchanges with the brand, but this is a rare occurrence. Finally, through TikTok, they do seem to optimise the platform’s difference to their advantage. There are some reposts from YouTube shorts but there is other original content as well. However, it is not overly intriguing or optimises any storytelling. It appears to focus more on the aesthetics of the products. Overall, they seem to be attempting to engage with younger generations using digital platforms, but they are playing it safe through product features. However, playing it safe does not attract the attention of potential consumers as they are not intrigued by the brand. Thus, customers will not form an emotional connection. Subsequently, when the partnership contracts come to an end, they could lose customers as they only cared about the celebrities and not the brand. To establish this emotional connection, Ray Ban should ensure they develop an engaging brand story. One way of creating this story is by learning which theoretical frameworks apply to your brand.

Many researchers have suggested different theories to understand which stories brands can tell and who they will target depending on their stories. Ray Ban has attempted to create a signature story for the brand with its establishment over the years. Creating a signature story involves having a story that is intriguing, and authentic with a compelling narrative. Ray Ban can be seen as authentic due to the help it provided pilots in their history during the war. It is a story based on true facts. It can be seen as intriguing because of how Ray Ban can be seen to innovate and adapt to each decade that is laid out in their story on the website. However, consumers may find Ray Ban's iconic reputation more intriguing (due to its authenticity) than the innovation aspect. This could be supported by their famous aviator sunglasses, which are often associated with Top Gun. Especially with the release of the newest film has helped generate more hype for the brand as sales of the aviators significantly increased. This helps promote Ray Ban’s story as a brand due to audiences remembering Ray Ban provided sunglasses for pilots, as Top Gun demonstrates.

Looking into the possible frameworks for Ray Ban’s signature story, the Hero’s Journey could be applied. Often characterised by the brand being seen as the ‘hero’ that overcomes evil, Ray Ban are ‘heroes’ to pilots during the war as they protected their eyes from the ‘evil’ rays from the sun. However, to really apply basic storylines, there should be a climax or conflict within the story, which Ray Ban does not have. Their story tells an upward trajectory and how they have always been the front-runner for sunglasses. Thus, if there was no conflict or problem for them to overcome, how can audiences be expected to form an emotional connection to the brand? Carl Jung put forward multiple ‘personalities’ that brands tend to fit into. Ray Ban would fit into ‘the explorer’ due to having a similar goal of living life to the full, which is in line with Ray Ban’s mission to capture memories with the thrill of new experiences. Consumers can empathise with the brand and relate their own experiences through the ‘explorer’ archetype. Thus, forging longer-lasting customer-brand relationships. Overall, Ray Ban a good use of theoretical frameworks to have consumers understand their mission and aim as a brand. Unfortunately, there is a limitation in intrigue for customers as the brand has had the same story with no climax for almost 100 years. Hence, consumers have a lack of emotional connection, which could result in a lack of loyalty to the brand.

In conclusion, Ray Ban has managed to establish itself as a brand many people aim to wear throughout their lives due to the long-lasting story of the brand and the traditions it set throughout its run. This can be seen through the ease at which people can remember the back story of Ray Ban and their popularity with the middle classes. However, with the new generations expecting more from brands than long-lasting history, Ray Ban must be able to upgrade its digital platforms to create a transmedia story for itself. This could be done with another event of showing how non-UV sunglasses can damage people’s eyes as many people are keenly aware of their health nowadays. Or they could pull on the jokes of pilots being the customers, and have a gorilla-style marketing campaign through pilots (wearing sunglasses) walking around cities asking people for directions because they only understand a bird’s eye view. This could offer the brand a virality appeal on popular apps, such as TikTok.