1. Do you have any experience with Warby Parker (either through the free try-at-home program or visiting a store)? Why or why not? If you have used Warby Parker, describe your experience. 

2. The four co-founders launched Warby Parker using a blue ocean strategy. Apply the eliminate-reduce-raise-create framework to identify and explain how Warby Parker is using value innovation to lower costs while increasing perceived consumer benefits. Which of these factors do you consider most important, and why? Is it the individual success factors that matter, or is it their combination? Explain. 

3. Warby Parker generated a lot of customer excitement based on its pursuit of a blue ocean strategy. Focusing on value innovation, its plan was to drive up perceived customer value while reducing costs. Yet Warby Parker struggles to gain a competitive advantage. Indeed, the company is losing money, and its losses are increasing over time. Are these losses just part of the start-up phase, and will the company become profitable once it can lock in more customers? Or is it the difficulty of reconciling the trade-offs in a blue ocean strategy that has caused the company’s inferior financial performance (to date)? 

4. If Warby Parker can gain a competitive advantage, do you think the company can sustain it? Given the resources of giant conglomerates such as Essilor Luxottica, what prevents them from studying and copying some of Warby Parker’s key success factors?