Why Persol Found Its Perfect Match in Riccardo Pozzoli
MILAN — Any Italian Millennial with any sort of entrepreneurial drive has probably looked to and named Riccardo Pozzoli among their business role models at least once.
With his mix of vision, competence and gentle manners, Pozzoli has made a name for himself over the last decade for the number of start-ups he has launched, supported or invested in, spanning from fashion to food.
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In addition to his key role in the creation and development of one of the most followed fashion bloggers to date — Chiara Ferragni’s The Blonde Salad, as well as parent company The TBS Crew — his résumé includes collaborations with Condé Nast and involvement in ventures such as food delivery start-up Foorban; Italian beauty box company Abiby; fashion brand La Semaine Paris; Treedom, a web platform that promotes the planting of trees and forests worldwide and allows users to follow their growth remotely, and Wami, which is best known for offering water in a can and implementing social projects aimed at granting access to water to different communities, among others.
A podcast named “WalkTheTalk,” which invites entrepreneurs and executives to share their business philosophies, and four books further sealed Pozzoli’s image as a specific type of entrepreneur of his generation: dynamic, committed and with multiple interests.
These are all features that convinced EssilorLuxottica to hand him the brand direction of its proprietary label Persol at the end of last year, after Pozzoli joined the group in 2019 as an adviser to the social media and PR team.
“The first time we worked together was probably for the launch of the Persol boutique in Fiori Chiari [street in central Milan],” recalled the eyewear giant’s group marketing director Francesco Liut. “We really believe he embodies the aesthetic and the essence of the brand….So the reason why we’ve asked Riccardo to take this challenge is indeed this close match with Persol,” continued Liut, highlighting the understated luxury appeal of the label.
Courtesy of Persol
Persol boasts a rich heritage dating back to 1917, when Giuseppe Ratti — a photographer and the owner of Berry Opticians — designed the Protector sunglasses to meet the comfort, safety and perfect vision requirements of aviators and sports pilots. The frames were soon adopted by the Italian Air Force, followed by other air forces worldwide, obtaining the first of its 14 international patents in 1924. The evolution of the style led in 1938 to the official creation of the Persol brand, whose name is a combination of two Italian words meaning “for the sun.”
Luxottica acquired Persol in 1995, adding it to its large portfolio that includes other proprietary brands, such as Ray-Ban, Oakley and Oliver Peoples, as well as licensed labels of the likes of Giorgio Armani, Chanel, Prada, Ralph Lauren, Tiffany & Co. and Versace, among others.
In addition to enhancing its history, Liut said he wanted to spin “more personality” into the Persol brand and identified Pozzoli as “the perfect leader to take Persol to the next level.”
“It’s an experiment for us….We’d like Riccardo to drive and influence not just the marketing decisions but also product development, distribution and work closely with the sales people….So really be in touch with all the different verticals,” said the executive, explaining that the appointment marks an evolution of the role, since previously it was strictly focused on marketing.
Courtesy of EssilorLuxottica
While in the beginning the new role slightly intimidated Pizzoli, being a long-time Persol customer came in handy in those early stages.
“Somehow I have the same [background]. I love wheels, I love cinema, the brand is very close to great idols like Steve McQueen and so on, so I really thought I could understand the brand and be relevant in bringing value because I was a real client,” Pozzoli said. “Obviously I had some fears, as you do when you go to work for a brand that has more than 100 years of history…but in this company, you can count on so many professionals that can help you both define and apply all kind of strategies and ideas that you have.”
Pozzoli deep dived into Persol’s business outlook to “learn as much as possible” and “try to understand better how to serve our customers and discover new opportunities in the market.”
In analyzing Persol’s target markets, he identified the need to raise the brand’s awareness in different regions and among different demographics.
While in Italy and France the label is well known, with a core clientele of mainly men aged 40 to 50 — which leaves room to engage a younger audience — in other markets, the company still needs to strengthen its distribution or work on the communication front. That includes the U.S., which “is one of our key target markets even if it’s not as big as we would like to,” Liut said.
Persol’s e-commerce is providing evidence on the U.S.’ potential, too, as American customers account for a big portion of sales generated online. In addition to Milan, two of Persol’s three flagship stores worldwide are in America, in New York and Los Angeles, which further signals the brand’s commitment to the market.
Joe Schildhorn/BFA.com
While acknowledging that Persol has been Europe-focused in the past, Pozzoli believes it has still big margins of growth in Germany, the U.K. and in the Scandinavian countries, where “handcrafted Made in Italy products like ours are already very well appreciated.”
“But again, we’ve realized that there are niche brands that are trying to communicate what we’ve been doing for a century and maybe they are taking slices of the market that naturally could be ours,” Pozzoli said. “The idea is to communicate to the customers all the stories that we already have and that sometimes we’re taking for granted.”
As Persol works to implement different communication strategies in each local market, Pizzoli is also eyeing targeted distribution approaches, such as a more direct-to-consumer model in Europe and a wholesale boost elsewhere, including in Brazil, which he forecast to become significant for Persol in the future.
“We have a huge opportunity, which is obviously to enlarge the business, but we can [do that] really without changing anything of the brand because it has such a strong DNA. It’s not a product for everybody but it can be a product for a lot of people,” Pozzoli said. “So we can reach quite an important improvement in business….Instead of the ‘what,’ it’s really just about improving the ‘how.’”
This approach includes working closely with opticians — which the brand director described as “our most important allies” — to better understand the perception of the label as well as retailers’ needs and tools needed to better sell the product. A quest for new designs is part of the feedback Pozzoli has received so far.
“That’s important: We need to leverage our icons, but we need to look at the future, always. So we need to build new icons,” Liut said. Pozzoli confirmed the importance of creating pieces that will be relevant also for the next generations, with the goal of having an appealing offering when these customers will be 30 to 40 years old.
“At the moment, we’re not aiming to sell to Gen Z, because we don’t think that today an 18-year-old kid can be our target client,” Pozzoli said. “I was not when I was 18, I wore only Oakley — it’s in the family so I can say that,” he added with a laugh.
Meanwhile, the brand has revamped its core Protector style. Earlier this year, the silver metal sunglass with removable leather sweatband and blinders was relaunched in a limited edition via marketing activations, including the sponsorship of two automotive events — the Dakar Classic in January and The ICE event in St. Moritz the following month.
Courtesy of Persol
Looking ahead, product-wise Persol will focus on different axes: pushing optical frames, building the women’s offering and boosting collaborations.
In sync with the Essilor and Luxottica merge and the overall group’s direction, the focus on optical frames will be heightened both for the technical advantage the company can leverage versus competitors and the market’s increased demand for this category, which was propelled by the pandemic that further glued people to computer screens.
At the moment, optical frames are also the segment that has the more balanced split between male and female customers for Persol. To better balance the breakdown in sunglass arena, too, the brand is working on tweaking the caliber of its frames, “which sometimes don’t necessarily fit female visages,” Pozzoli noted.
“But this will never be the brand making the most fashionable pieces….It’s more for a kind of woman that is elegant and pragmatic. A bit more functional than trendy,” he added.
On the collaboration front, Persol recently tied up with the likes of Stone Island, A.P.C. and JW Anderson on special collections, which have the twofold goal of enhancing brand awareness and attracting a younger audience. “Take the one with Jonathan Anderson: We took two of our icons, including the 649 style. [Anderson] said he wanted to do a 649 that his sister, who’s younger than him, would have,” recalled Liut, explaining how fresher colors and combining acetates helped to reach the goal.
Courtesy of JW Anderson
Created in 1957, the 649 style was initially designed for the drivers of Turin’s old open trams, who needed a wide frame to protect their eyes from the air and dust. The model became iconic in 1961 when actor Marcello Mastroianni sported it in the film “Divorce, Italian Style.”
Other Hollywood stars who have worn Persol frames include Steve McQueen in “The Thomas Crown Affair” and Stephen Dorff in “Somewhere,” in addition to many more choosing the brand for red carpets or their daily life, making the ties with cinema central for the label.
“I don’t think that there’s another brand that has this organic number of testimonials,” said Pozzoli, revealing plans to tap an ambassador but finding the process challenging given that many movie stars already wear Persol by their own choice.
“But like for the product, we want to be sure that we will be recognized as iconic [in cinema] also by the next generation….The big question is not how Persol can be in cinema but: What is cinema today?” he said, hinting that the perfect ambassador could hail from the world of television instead.
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