Social Business: The design department

I am going to write a series of all the departments needed to cooperate a business that is running under the social model. The social business.
The design of the product or the service in the classic business model is mostly a one-man show. Generally someone knows how to produce a product, how to find this product and he has all the sources of the product or the service.
In the social business model this becomes opposite. The social contributors are able to help define the product or the service they should cooperate for. This is possible to be done with 2 ways.
The first way is to present different versions and designs of the product and call the social contributors to choose which one they would prefer. In this case in the eyewear industry, we could present 30 different models of sunglasses and the social contributors will come to choose 15 models that they would prefer and make pre-orders.
In the second way the solution comes from the source. We have social contributors that have interest to present their designs and versions of the product and wait for the approval of the other co-contributors.
In each case the approval means a pre-order of the product.
In the social business it's not bad to have organizers and people that have something to say. But the must rule is that the final decision is always taken by the social contributors. It's not bad to have people experts in the production procedure, as this way you help people who have no knowledge of the production to take decisions.These experts are not always coming from the organizer of the social business, but they come up from the social contributors. This is logical as an eyewear industry is expected to attract people from the industry inside.
What does the social contributor has to earn to do that?
1. He is taking product, as they pre-order.
2. He is a social contributor of the business knowing other members of the company that are aware of the industry. Generally the contributors of a certain business are tryin gto have PR in order to open doors to their careers. This model is open to that strategy.
3. If the social business has success, this success is credited to the contributors, who are the direct ones or the supporters. Generally a designer is expected to promote his good skill by contributing a good model of sunglasses in a social business collection.
4. The morale satisfaction that he is contributing into something new and known with other members of the community.

So as you understand the organizers are needed for the good run of th esocial business, but the 1st word always is on the contributors.

Can you imagine your design department contributed by thousands of people? Yes they are too much. But if they support you with pre-orders? Does this social business model in the design department could run?

The story of the future HIGH END brand names

The social thunderstorm of the last few months starting from the Linkedin IPO to the collosial IPO of Facebook coming by and the crazy new social trends like crowd funding and crowd rating, makes me wonder for the future of Fashion Brand names. Do these changes are able to remove the classical HIGH END brand names from their throne? At the end who has the power to change it? The marketeer or the consumer?

All these questions i suppose that come up to several people, as i have discussed with my friends and i see a gap in this direction. None is sure!

In the past we could not imagine that the power of the crowd organized through social networks could drive to revolutions, like Tunisia and Egypt, riots like Spain and Greece, funding projects like Kickstarter and its imitations, creating design through crowd designing, giving open source solutions not only to software products but also to hardware and many other expressions of social contribution.

Why not crowd through social networks to "run" a whole business? From the management of the business, to the marketing, production, design, sales, accounting and all the departments that are needed to exist this business? And why not to consume the products they are selling in this business? Is this utopia? Beware because it is coming!

People want to contribute, the reason to that, is to come closer each other. The capitalistic model has pushed the social life away. Now that the crisis of the capitalistic model is here, people want to remove the intermediates from their lives. They want to know the producer of the milk of their children, they want to know the materials a product they consume as they want to be eco friendly, they need to contribute in any effort that means something for them and finally they want to judge directly not through the political representatives who have disappointed them for many years.

We are all cautious if we do not know the true story behind the label!

But what the HIGH END brand names have to do with that? I think that the next HIGH END brand name will not come from billions of marketing! These days have passed. The next HIGH END brand name is going to be a social baby! All of us are expected to contribute to create the next HIGH END brand name.

I imagine the next HIGH END brand name to come from the crowd and be consumed by the crowd. This way not only they will have the product or service they like but also the moral satisfaction that they contributed for this. We all need to be credited!

In my next posts i will develop and explain the starting model of such a social business. Till then i hope that i have stated the problem.

Debtocracy vs Private Label

The new word that came up in our everyday life is, Debtocracy. Not only in Greece, where the national debt has crushed, but in the worldwide economy the Debt crisis has changed the status quo of the market. Psychology has reached nadir and consumption has been reduced. And whats all about with private label?
Private label products have made a massive increase in the demand instead of the high brand products. But what are the characteristics a private label product has to have, especially in the eyewear market?

1. Quality meets high standards. The advanced economies are not accepted to lower the quality of their products, so they push to good quality eyewear. 
2. Ecological methods of production, materials or recycling. Sunglasses and optical frames have made their first steps through this trend. 
3. Competitive prices (Value for Money Theory)

Debtocracy is the chance for private label to regain trust and loyalty.If you have seen the movie of Debtocracy you can understand that the turn of the customers, to private label products, is the next step of pressure to the markets.
Nea Optiki SA provides professional solutions for private label in sunglasses and optical frames with low limit order.

Private Label vs Quality

         The worldwide economical recession has affected the consumer principles and their preferences. The buying power of many millions of people is reduced and they have increased their preferences to lower price products. In the past the quality was almost same with brand loyalty. Nowadays, the quality has "divorced" from the brand awareness.

         In the eyewear market, as a mainly fashionable industry, the brand awareness is a big deal! Despite the economical recession the high brands have kept their connection to the high quality. The problem in that case is the price. The big players of the market, like Luxottica & Safilo, are running a more controlled production program in order not to flood the market with many expensive products and decrease their inventory turnover. Stock models for sunglasses, especially for Luxottica, are difficult to be found.

        The optician and in general the optical shop is called to buy Ray Ban in same price in wholesale and sell in a lower price due to low price demand. In order to raise the profit the private label products are more in the first place of their minds. But is private label good in quality?

        In this case the optician and the wholesaler has to be very careful. Chinese production most of the time is out of the box in quality control. The product genre is very important, especially the quality control and production. CE and made in EU or made in EU member is very important.

       The only barrier to this decision is the common mistake of the consumer to believe that Private Label products lack of quality. In this situation the optician first of all should be convinced 100% of the quality of the product. After that everything is easy, as the optician is the expert to suggest to his customer.

       Private label services in high quality products is the direct future of the eyewear market.

Angel Destounis is Financial Manager in Nea Optiki S.A.

Nea Optiki S.A. is providing high quality and flexible solutions about private label products in the industry of eyewear, sunglasses and optical frames.