The problem
It was late 2016, and Sneaking Duck sales were stagnating. Our most popular glasses had sold out months ago, and new competitors were entering the market with much cheaper offerings.
At the same time, a growing number of customers were facing the same problem - they loved their Sneaking Duck frames, but their prescription lenses had expired or suffered from years of wear and tear. Could they keep their frames, but get new lenses?
The solution
Enter Clens. It would keep all of the best parts of Sneaking Duck - free delivery and returns, affordable prices, health fund coverage, quality customer support - but without the frame part. Customers would send us their old frames, customise the prescription and lens type, and we'd refurbish them and send them back within days.
We decided to create a separate brand to Sneaking Duck, to encourage customers to use our service for non-Sneaking Duck branded glasses too.
What I did
I came up with the name Clens (the other alternative was 'Lens Ninja'), and assisted with writing copy for the new website and running the operations side of the business.
Although I was given a budget of $0, I helped generate brand awareness by first promoting Clens to existing Sneaking Duck customers. This was achieved via email campaigns, social media posts and blog articles.
We also approached Startup Daily, TechInvest and OzBargain to spread the word.
The results
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While I don't have any specific numbers, within months Clens overtook Sneaking Duck in terms of weekly sales and revenue.
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Feedback was also extremely positive - many customers sent us multiple pairs of glasses to be reframed.
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Sneaking Duck was acquired in mid 2018 (unfortunately the purchaser decided to discontinue Clens)
Check it out
While the Clens website is no longer live, you can read about the launch coverage here