The marketing platform for opticians

With the design agency Gravitales, I have accompanied Foconn since the startup phase. Together with the founder, our team has attended the business modeling, first market tests up to prototyping, product development, and the platform's launch with the founder.

The shift from offline to online channels

In the optician industry, communication channels to the customer are shifting from offline to online media. However, the industry has a high average age and lacks digital competence among opticians. They find it difficult to establish online communication.

Marketing for opticians as easy as online shopping

Foconn offers the optician industry standardized marketing packages that support retailers in customer acquisition, sales promotion, and advertising campaigns. Opticians and manufacturers can easily plan and control their online marketing from one central location on the platform.

The Foconn tickets

With Foconn, users can create a profile and easily purchase marketing services such as "tickets." The tickets are based on years of marketing and industry experience - they range from logo design and setting up individual social media channels to content subscriptions to publish content regularly. Foconn gives opticians complete control and transparency for their digital marketing with the ticket store.

Cooperations and exclusive content

Foconn not only offers numerous benefits to retailers. Manufacturers also find unique access and insights to regional retailers through the platform. They can also play out targeted content and offers at special rates or as attractive media packages to opticians with exclusive manufacturer tickets.

From the idea to the market launch

As a Creative Technologist, I was responsible for business modeling and testing, especially the technical architecture design and development of the first platform prototypes.

Design Sprints

We relied on several design sprints to answer critical business questions and prove the business model logic. This approach combines the best of various innovation development and UX design methodologies - such as design thinking or lean startup.

A sprint lasted five days and included conception, design, prototyping, and testing with potential customers. This approach allowed us to quickly deliver market-relevant results for Foconn and minimize the risk of developing the wrong features.

Technology

We build the MVP on the full-stack JavaScript framework Meteor.js with a React frontend for rapid prototyping. Meteor provides the user management, authentication, a Node.js backend with direct MongoDB integration. The user interface was developed with Sass and Materialize.css. For the marketing website, the static site generator Gatsby.js was used. Both the app and website were hosted on AWS.

Hotjar and Google Analytics were integrated via Google Tag Manager to measure success and evaluate user behavior. For the user onboarding, we relied on Intercom.

Summary

This project has shown me that building creative technology solutions requires customer understanding and trust, competence, and method. It was possible to move quickly and develop a unique platform for the optician industry with partners who dared to break new ground and appreciate good design and great customer experiences.