• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, June 8, 2015

Based on the comments of a panel by that name at the Email Marketing Insider Summit this morning, they’re sort of like old practices in other forms of marketing. You know, creating relevance, engagement, interest and desire by doing something creative that breaks through to the consumers you want to reach.

That’s more or less the example that Warby Parker Retention Marketing Manager Kellen Malstrom said the prescription eyeglass marketer utilizes with great success.

“We have a product that people buy every 2.3 years, on average,” he said, adding that, “It’s timing, since we have such long times between purchases.”

Among other things, he recommended “not getting too focused on the data,” but stepping back and thinking about, “what would somebody looking for a new pair of glasses really want.”

For Warby Parker’s brand, that often means being a little “quirky or different,” he said.

One way Warby Parker differentiates, he said, is that it doesn’t utilize automated “IVR” (interactive voice response) systems to handle in-bound consumer phone calls.

“Somebody picks up the phone,” he emphasized.

Another way it differentiates -- and even leverages the relatively long lead times of its retention marketing -- is to utilize an old device, birthdays and anniversary messages, in a slightly different way.

“We have [an eyeglass] frame birthday email,” he quoting, “‘Hey, you’re glasses turned one-year-old,’ instead of saying you’re probably looking for glasses.”