Alessandra Salimbene
A view of the business built inside the optical sector.
Alessandra Salimbene is a consultant, trainer and author for optical retail. She helps independent optical practices, groups and companies in the sector with strategy, marketing, branding, digital marketing and training, using the Charismatic Method and the Optical Retail Marketing Wheel. She founded Optics & Love and wrote Il Centro Ottico Carismatico, L’Optometrista Carismatico and Eyemage.
An entrepreneur since 1998, with optical retail at the centre
I have been an entrepreneur since 1998. I started with a web agency, when websites and e-commerce were still new, and moved on to retail marketing, CRM and digital marketing. Since 2016 I have shifted the centre of my work towards consultancy, strategy and training, with the optical practice as the main ground. Since 2024 the business operates under the Optics & Love brand, within UnPlanned Srls.
Over these years I have worked with more than a thousand companies and organisations of every size, in optics, publishing and consultancy, in Italy and in six other countries. This experience has led me to see the optical practice as a set of connected decisions: price also depends on how the proposition is built, communication has to be matched by the experience in the practice, digital tools are useful when people know how to integrate them into their work.
Today this point of view also includes artificial intelligence applied to the selling, management and training processes of the optical practice. I bring it into consultancy and training starting from the context of each business: in Italy with optical practices and companies, in English-speaking markets with The Charismatic Practice and with the European Mastermind.
In brief
- More than 1,000 companies and organisations supported since 1998, in Italy, France, Switzerland, Germany, Russia, Ukraine and Tunisia.
- Master’s degree in Marketing from the University of Turin (2023, 110 cum laude) with a thesis on optical retail in Italy and the Optical Retail Marketing Wheel; Master in Project Management at LUISS Business School (2007).
- Speaker at the SMAU workshops from 2012 to 2023 and at MIDO from 2014 to 2022; co-host of Optomarketing 2021, the digital event of Federottica and Ottica Italiana.
- Three books published: Il Centro Ottico Carismatico (2023), L’Optometrista Carismatico (2024), Eyemage (2025). The fourth, on contact lenses, is out at MIDO 2027. Earlier, three company-history volumes for optical practices and technical manuals on the web for Hoepli and Apogeo.
Charismatic Method, Optical Retail Marketing Wheel, Eyemage
The Charismatic Method connects professional identity, strategy and action in the optical practice. The Optical Retail Marketing Wheel is the map for reading the areas of marketing and management in optical retail in a coordinated way. Eyemage is the consultative selling protocol that works on listening, understanding the person and proposing vision solutions.
A humanistic and technical path
- Five-year master’s degree in Marketing, University of Turin, 2023, 110 cum laude. Thesis: “Optical retail in Italy and the Optical Retail Marketing Wheel, towards a sustainable development model”.
- Master in Project Management, LUISS Business School, 2007.
- Strategic Coaching with Giorgio Nardone (2023); Master in diction and voice acting, Accademia Nazionale della Voce (2020); Marketing Hyper Experience, Performance Strategies (2020); Professional Image Consultant, The Learning Institute, United Kingdom (2012).
- Music studies at the conservatory alongside scientific high school, with the intermediate piano diploma. Every year I dedicate twelve to fifteen days to refresher courses.
Optical retail in Italy and the Optical Retail Marketing Wheel
In 2023 I completed my master’s degree at the University of Turin, with 110 cum laude, with a thesis entitled “Optical retail in Italy and the Optical Retail Marketing Wheel, towards a sustainable development model for the independent optician” (supervisor Prof. Norberto Didier, co-supervisor Prof. Salvo Dell’Arte).
The thesis starts from the history of spectacles and the birth of the Belluno eyewear district, reaches a profile of today’s independent optical practice, with its types and strengths, and describes the Charismatic Method in its three phases of thinking, strategy and action, up to the Optical Retail Marketing Wheel: the marketing model designed for those who run an optical practice without specific training in marketing.
It was a promise kept: a course of study begun in the 1990s, interrupted for business and completed as an adult. The contents of the thesis underpin the books and part of the magazine articles.
The books
Where to find me
Who I have worked with as a trainer and speaker
- Sector associations and institutions: Anfao, Federottica, Certottica, Commissione Difesa Vista, AIO, ALoEO.
- Optical companies and groups: Transitions Italia, Hoya Italia, CooperVision Italia, Bludata Informatica, Look Occhiali, OXO Italia, Free Optik Group, Optotrades, Netcity Italia, Fabiano Group.
- Institutions and training: the Chambers of Commerce of Treviso, Oristano and Cagliari, Fondimpresa, Finindustria and Unionfidi Torino, FIOF – Fondo Internazionale per la Fotografia, China Photographer Association.
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Whether you are running an optical practice or developing a company project, the first step is to understand what you want to change and what conditions are needed to do it.