How to increase sales #3: Should’ve gone to Specsavers

David Pinkham, Partner

Much to my surprise I wasn’t asked to report to the optician’s shop on the High Street but to their house. I was shown into a large room where six desks were neatly arranged facing inwards. Five of the desks were occupied. I introduced myself to the occupants who included the financial controller, operations manager, secretarial and admin staff.

The sixth desk was unoccupied except for an exceptionally large pile of printed leaflets, a larger box of brown A6 envelopes and a strange contraption consisting of a plastic tray, a sponge, and some liquid. This desk was to be my working-hours home for the next six weeks.

My task was carefully explained to me by one of my new colleagues. She must have been my line manager but back in 1979 we didn’t worry too much about official titles. She said “call me Debs” in an Australian accent. I did as I was told. I was instructed to take a leaflet, neatly fold it in two precise places and slip it into a brown envelope. I was then to use the sponge to wet the glue and seal the envelope. It was important I did this correctly as Debs had clearly spent several weeks typing addresses on each envelope. I didn’t mention the Tipp-Ex marks.

I was given a seemingly impossible daily target to achieve. However, being completely gullible, I managed to exceed this target every day, but only by ignoring the contraption and adopting my own method. I can still taste the brown envelope glue to this day. I didn’t know it at the time, but what I was doing was called “marketing.”

What I didn’t know was that there were severe legal restrictions on what the business was able to say in its marketing material. For example, you couldn’t advertise the price of glasses or the speed of service as this was outlawed by The Opticians Act 1958. Their marketing was severely hampered by this legislation.

Even though I say so myself, I must have done a fantastic job as I was frequently invited back to work for the company during school holidays. On each subsequent visit there were more people, largerpremises and lots of activity.

My first proper job
After a few years away at University, I returned to Bristol to start my career as a Trainee Chartered Accountant. I was soon sent overseas to a Guernsey-based client as part of the audit team. Through one of those unexpected coincidences, we all experience in life, the company I was auditing was the latest incarnation of Doug and Mary’s opticians’ business, now also wholesaling and joint venturing with other optical practices

The other change that had happened just a year before, was that Opticians were now permitted to advertise their services without the restrictions of the 1958 legislation. The company, which had been used to navigating under the strict old rules, was now able to flex its marketing muscles under its new brand of Specsavers.

Marketing success
What started out with the humblest of beginnings, built into a gigantic marketing success story resulting in the creation of the “Should’ve gone to Specsavers” slogan in 2002. Their ad campaign to sponsor referees, umpires and other match officials, rather than expensive sports stars, was simply brilliant. A recent survey of slogans most frequently used in everyday speech ranks the Specsavers slogan ahead of the likes of Nike, Marmite, KFC, and McDonalds.

Fast forward to today and the business is the world’s largest privately owned optical business with annual sales of around £4 billion from stores across the globe. I’m not sure I can claim any credit for this, but I am proud to have been involved in both the marketing and financial side of the business in an extremely small way.

Valuable lessons
What I learnt during my visits to Specsavers was that whatever size of business you are, if you make a product or provide a service that improves peoples lives, and do so consistently and with good humour, and find a way to let people know about it, you add value to society and you will also be a beneficiary.

Whenever I am struggling to find marketing inspiration, I think back to my experience with Specsavers. Irrespective of the challenges of legal restriction and primitive IT, not to mention running an opticians practice alongside, they kept their eye on the ball, and acted quickly, rarely letting a marketing opportunity pass them by. Think of that next time you walk by your local Specsavers branch.

I thought Doug and Mary were opticians, I discovered they were also visionaries!