MEDIA & MARKETING:Retailer's tagline has clearly struck a chord – it controls almost half the Irish market

LOOKING FOR proof that advertising works? Well, even the most short-sighted could pick out Specsavers as one of the best examples around. When new Mary Mitchell O’Connor TD took a wrong turn and drove down the steps of Leinster House, she was quoted as saying: “I should have gone to Specsavers.”

You know you’re winning in advertising terms when your ad slogan enters the vernacular. The “should’ve gone to Specsavers” line was dreamt up by the optical group’s creative director, Graham Daldry, nearly two decades ago.

Those four words have underpinned the company’s advertising creative ever since, and the result has been scores of humorous commercials that have obviously struck a chord with consumers.

This month, Specsavers is marking its 20th anniversary in Ireland with the opening of three new stores to bring the total number of its shops in this country to 39.

Thanks to a sustained and aggressive advertising spend, the UK retailer claims to have a market share of close to 50 per cent of all transactions in the opticians market in the Republic.

Doug and Mary Perkins were the far-sighted optometrists who saw an opportunity to change the optician care market after the sector was deregulated in the UK in 1983. Turnover at the privately held company was £1.36 billion last year and the group’s growth has been accelerating in recent years, with 250 Specsavers stores opened in Australia and New Zealand since 2008.

What’s remarkable about the Specsavers story is that this family business has become a global player in its sector without the requirement of outside capital. Growth has been self-funded and organic and central to that growth has been building the brand.

According to the Centre for Integrated Marketing at the University of Luton Business School, the lesson from the Specsavers experience for other businesses is that advertising and marketing communication is most effective when it has the following dimensions:

* Communicating a clear and powerful value-generating idea, such as the brand promise of a new product concept;

* Building relationship and emotional loyalty;

* Activating sales;

* Giving customers help – educating them, solving their problems;

* Creating an experience of the product/service.

Outside of the UK, Specsavers stores are run as joint venture partnerships, a variation on the franchise model. Sean McCauley, a director of the Specsavers outlet in Sligo, is chairman of the business in Ireland and he notes that central to the Specsavers branding promise is that all aspects of the business are designed around delivering the brand value promise.

Specsavers’ marketing communication is originated from an in-house creative agency which then works in partnership with two media agencies and a market research agency. The company’s database extends to 14 million people and Specsavers mails out 250,000 letters a week reminding customers that they are due an eye check.

Apart from press ads with specific price offers, Specsavers’ television ads are not localised for the Irish market. However, McCauley says that is going to change.

“There is now a realisation in head office that Ireland is a different market to the UK. Our ‘Mr Men’ animated commercial last year was piloted in Ireland before it ran in the UK. We have tailored promotions specifically for Ireland and we recently ran a three-month discount eye test promotion which brought more people into the stores.”

Flying in the face of conventional wisdom where companies generally have one main TV commercial airing, McCauley says Specsavers sees nothing wrong in running two or three distinct campaigns at any one time. “It can be tricky when sometimes we are telling people about various offers at the same time,” he says.

Despite the plethora of messages, there are key themes that run across all Specsavers commercials. They all have some humour, they all include the “should’ve gone to Specsavers” tagline and they all end with a concrete offer, whether it is “buy one get one free” or a price discount of some kind.

The latest TV ad on Irish screens is “the station”, where a pretty young woman is meeting her boyfriend at the train station and kisses an old man instead. Also airing is an ad targeting elderly customers, which features a retired couple mistakenly ending up on a Blackpool rollercoaster. The humour theme is implicit too in the Specsavers brand adorning referees in Magners League rugby matches.

Says McCauley: “We have reduced our advertising spend because ad prices have been dropping. It’s all about getting more bang for our buck. TV works best for us when it is supported by press ads. Retailers in Ireland benefit from the spillover of Specsavers advertising on UK television stations, but it’s important for us to be identified in the Irish media too.”

In the UK, Specsavers faces vigorous competition from Boots, supermarket chains Asda and Tesco and rival opticians chain Vision Express. This latter company has eight stores in Ireland and adopts eye-catching advertising strategies too. In January, Vision Express block booked an edition of the Evening Herald with 19 ads to promote its frames, eye tests and designer glasses range.

But they’ll all need deep pockets, and equally clever advertising, to catch up with the market leader.

siobhan@businessplus.ie