Ch. 16 - Advertising, Public Relations and Sales Promotion

Luxottica is no newbie to understanding how important advertising is to its company (or companies rather), thats why they spend a lot to advertise their brands. In 2008 they had spent $75 million in advertisements in the United States alone. The following year? They increased that figure to $85 million. In 2011 the company had spent a staggering $122 million in advertisements solely for the U.S. Around $400 million was spent on advertising worldwide. Luxottica devoted most of the $122 million advertising share to LensCrafters for a mere total of $48.5 million. Its sister company Pearle Vision only received $14 million. Having two companies in virtually the same market and one having significantly greater results than the other didn't sit well with Luxottica. They figured Pearle Vision needed a new approach to the market and a fresh reboot, so in 2012 they prepped a new logo and used TV commercials as a medium to get their message out. Sunglass Hut saw $6 million of the $122 million for advertising.

Earlier this year Luxottica caught praise over their new ad campaign for company Ray Ban. Their new campaign titled 'NEVER HIDE' featured a form of advocacy advertisement in their support of the gay community. The campaign features many photos one of which is a photo of two gay men strolling through the city. This move caught praise from the LGBT community. The other photos used are pictures of people who are in the act of doing there favorite hobbies, job, or regular day to day activities. The hidden message behind the photos is that they offer products to everyone who does different things. For example, the picture with a bull rider wearing their Ray Ban shades or the cyclists, the rock band, and your occasional mom walking with her children. Press release for the NEVER HIDE campaign states: "In its every form, the Ray-Ban campaign portrays regular guys and girls living their day to day lives with authenticity, with the courage to express themselves and their unique individuality, which is the most precious thing we have, because the most fashionable thing to be is yourself,"