How Gentle Monster is Excelling with Its Use of Technology

Midterm Project
Student’s Name
University Affiliation
Professor’s Name
Course Title
Due Date
Gentle Monster
Gentle Monster is a South Korean brand that was established by Hankook Kim in 2011. The brand manufactures luxury eyewear by creating unique optical glasses and sunglasses through experimentation. Initially, Gentle Monster customized sunglasses for Asians who struggled to find sunglasses to match their facial features. The brand has since grown and expanded to other continents with 41 operational stores as of 2018.
The Gentle Monster frames come in a variety of sizes from small to big to fit different face shapes. Apart from producing the common steel and cellulose acetate frames, they also experiment with premium metals such as chrome and titanium. The high-end and unique eyewear offers them an advantage over their competitors (Hidayatullah et al., 2019). In addition, they offer free polishing and adjustment of eyewear for their clients.
To set themselves apart from competitors, the interior of the brand’s stores displays creative and mentally fascinating designs through the use of technology. The unique design of their stores differentiates them from other contemporary stores that display eyewear on racks surrounded by mirrors. Gentle Monster stores provide their customers with an immersive museum-like experience through their art installations. Each flagship has a different display unique to its location (Huggard, 2020). The displays change every three weeks giving customers a different experience for every visit. Combining art and commerce gives the retailer an upper hand in the market.
The Gentle Monster also create a unique online shopping experience where customers interact with robots as virtual avators in the photo scanned HAUS Dosan store. The project is named ‘Gentle Monster in Zepeto’ which allows users to explore the online store while engaging in activities such playing games, socializing at Nudake café, sunbathing on Tamburin’s terrace and virtually fitting the latest eyewear. The brand’s metaverse project is the first photo scanned store in the world that allows customers to virtually visit the HAUS Dosan store regardless of their location.
Santa Clara flagship, for instance, displays the theme of memory, making shoppers visualize life in the eyes of a robotic old woman. Childhood memories of the old woman include two life-sized mobile donkeys facing each other on a podium. The old woman depicts alternating opening and closing of the eyes, as if half asleep. In 2016, the New York flagship displayed an underwa...