As we all know, digital environment has penetrated so deep into our way of doing business that, recently, we have found many cases where technology underlies to the point of standing the business on its shoulders. It is a utopian fact that thirty years ago would seem to be impossible! It has become, rather than an update, a Copernican shift. A change in the way of doing business, in the client-company relationship and their behaviour. As an example, in the following article I will write about the Spanish start-up Hawkers, a company that owes its massive success to its digital business model.

So far, everything looks like a Hollywood script. A bunch of young Spaniards, in the middle of an economic crisis, making an investment of € 300 to start a business. Soon they become millionaires, having more than $60 million revenue by the end of 2017 (Berman, 2017), selling in more than 50 countries (Forbes, 2017) and competing face to face with the market giants. Do you still believe it is just luck?

In fact, it is not. The company’s success does not lie in luck. Not even in the quality of its products. The main factor of the absolute triumph of Hawkers lies in the use of digital models. However, to begin with we must know what the main objective of the company is. As they say in their KickStarter website:

“Hawkers Co. wants to disrupt the market and put an end to the monopoly by creating the most awesome quality sunglasses at a fair price”.

To carry out its mission, Hawkers has developed its business by valuing the huge importance of social networks nowadays. The company has also not been as publicized as its competitors, but it took a different approach to advertise itself: Individual targeting.

Spending time on individual people on social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, the company has managed to attract a loyal following and created a buzz that has ignited word-of-mouth advertising. The first company mentioned, Facebook, played a main role in the very first days. The social network created by Mark Zuckerberg allowed them to reach many people with a small budget. They started using their advertising tool (Facebook Ads) which at that time few people used. Starting with a moderate budget, they reached a point in which they were investing €10,000 per day (Doofinder). Their Facebook Ads page let them reach their target audience by showing different styles and attributes depending on the potential buyer’s characteristics.

It was also vital the use of retargeting techniques, such as promotion codes. One of the techniques that Hawkers uses is based on the insertion of a code in a website that generates a discount voucher for the user that visits the website. There is a well-known example this the Spanish Forum Forocoches, which has a partnership with the brand. They offer discounts for users of the forum, which it is semi-private (You can only access to the whole content if you are previously invited by other user). This colaboration provides a great expansion of the brand, since Forocoches has a monthly traffic of 17 million users approximately (Libre Mercado, 2017). The alliance has become that strong that Hawkers has even created a line of glasses with special Forocoches design (El Economista, 2015).

In addition to that use of Social Media and sponsorships previously mentioned, Hawkers’ marketing strategy is also to use celebrities and influencers to promote its products (Living Room 128). Thus, the company uses the impact of celebrities to achieve millions of online followers. It is necessary to think about how many million people received the influence of the brand, as the list of notorious people that work with Hawkers is not small. Some examples are Lionel Messi (Prnewswire, 2017), who has 109 Million followers on his Instagram account, or Steve Aoki (Manintown, 2016), with more than 8 Million followers on his Twitter profile.

Although these techniques are not innovative (they are not the first to do so) they have managed to obtain an excellent performance from their use. Nevertheless, it is great to see how many alternative paths to promote the brand have used, as the creation of Hawkers Parties, which took place in different Spanish locations and were broadcast via Streaming (La Razón, 2015). In spite of the fact that social networks factor exists, Hawkers also succeeds because its products are easy to understand and to buy: everyone knows what sunglasses are and how easy to adapt to trends are. Moreover, it is a product that is sold with an almost impulse price (around 20-30€), so people do not have to think much to buy them.

Its business is based on digital media, both in its distribution, production and promotion. Thinking about this company without a digital business model would be just an illusion. Therefore, and taking Hawkers as an example, I am convinced that with these disruptive models the way we do business has changed. It is not a 2.0 model, but a new way of creating business…

…and it is there, waiting for us to take advantage of it.

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References:

Arce, M. (2017) Forocoches o como facturar un millón al año con un solo trabajador [Forocoches or how to bill one million a year with just one worker] Libre Mercado. Retrieved from: https://www.libremercado.com/2017-09-23/forocoches-o-como-facturar-un-millon-al-ano-con-un-solo-trabajador-1276606347/

Berman, Nat (2017). The Future is Looking Bright for Hawkers Sunglasses. Money Inc. Retrieved from: https://moneyinc.com/hawkers-sunglasses/

Doofinder. Hawkers: The E-commerce beast of Facebook Ads. Doofinder. Retrieved from: https://www.doofinder.com/en/blog/hawkers-the-e-commerce-beast-of-facebook-ads

ElEconomista.es, (2015). Hawkers se alía con ForoCoches para disparar sus ventas con promociones exclusivas para la comunidad [Hawkers teams up with ForoCoches to shoot their sales with exclusive promotions for the community]. El Economista. Retrieved from: https://www.eleconomista.es/tecnologia/noticias/6909687/07/15/Hawkers-se-alia-con-ForoCoches-para-disparar-sus-ventas-con-promociones-exclusivas-en-la-comunidad.html

Franco, A (2017). Hawkers ya es historia del comercio electrónico español [Hawkers is already history of the Spanish e-commerce]. Forbes. Retrieved from: http://forbes.es/business/11061/hawkers-ya-es-historia-del-comercio-electronico-espanol/

Hawkers´ Facebook Ads website: https://www.facebook.com/business/success/hawkers

Hawkers’ Kickstarter website https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/306180593/the-sunglasses-that-will-change-the-business-forev

Hawkers, (2017). Nothing is Impossible for Hawkers: They Reach an Agreement with LEO MESSI. Prnewswire. Retrieved from: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nothing-is-impossible-for-hawkers-they-reach-an-agreement-with-leo-messi-300502818.html

La Razón, (2015). «Hawkers» revoluciona la industria de las gafas [«Hawkers» revolutionizes the eyewear industry]. La razón. Retrieved from: https://www.larazon.es/lifestyle/tendencias/hawkers-revoluciona-la-industria-de-las-gafas-BY9427517

Living Room 128. How Hawkers Co’s business benefited from influencer marketing. Living Room 128 https://livingroom128.com/hawkers-benefited-influencer-marketing/

Manintown. Neon: sunglasses limited edition signed by Hawkers and Steve Aoki. Manintown. Retrieved from: http://www.manintown.com/neon-la-limited-edition-occhiali-sole-firmata-hawkers-steve-aoki/2016/07/22/?lang=en