Sweatshop free and sustainable

Do good

Fair Trade and Organic cotton

Look good

Designed to be flattering •  Sophisticated – not distressed •  Fit models size 8 •  Construction – wide waistbands •  Fabric - stretchy

Handmade details

Kismet Denim better-fitting jeans for sophisticated women

Julia Kastner 4.24.2012

Tested hypotheses to inform product design

Business goal: To serve affluent, sophisticated women 30+ and reduce production costs we can reduce denim washing and treatment processes:

Hypotheses:

•  Women 30+ prefer dark jeans

•  Women 30+ prefer fewer “whiskers” or artificial creases

•  Women 30+ prefer less bleach

•  Women 30+ prefer pencil legs or skinny jeans

•  Women 30+ prefer simple but branded pockets

•  Women 30+ prefer pockets without sparkles

•  Hypotheses hold true for both premium ($100+) and non-premium jeans

K

K

Chose test design – conjoint vs. survey  

Conjoint •  breaks a product concept

into relevant attributes

•  estimates the value potential customers attach to each attribute

• Powerful

• Analyze each attribute independently of others

• Expensive •  ($1,500 student tool)

• Recommended • sample size = 400 • (by Survey Analytics)*

Survey •  Show two pairs of jeans

• Ask survey taker to choose preferred picture

• Mix premium and non-premium

• Low cost

• Relatively easy to implement

• Learn basics about product features

• Difficult to write and ask non-biased, objective questions

• Hard to recruit representative respondents

Decided this was not feasible

Chose to conduct a survey

Advantages Disadvantages

*Conjoint  research  from  Jack  Geiger,  Survey  Analy<cs.  360.471.5514  

Made and conducted survey  

Filtered for age group: Asked participants to choose between pairs of jeans styles:

$89  un-­‐distressed  jeans    (Banana  Republic)  

$200  distressed  jeans    (Seven  for  All  Mankind)  

110 responses 35 age 21-29 75 age 30+

Sample questions: coating, color & legs  

Light vs. Dark

Coated vs. Clean

Skinny/Pencil vs. Boot/Flair

Sample questions: pocket brands & designs  

Levi’s vs. True Religion

Sparkle vs. No Sparkle

Survey results - styles  

Percent chose style: Total Age 21-29 Age 30+

Clean ($60) (vs. distressed with whiskers)

68% 80% 62%

Dark ($89) (vs. very light $200)

94% 97% 92%

Distressed, coated rear ($69) (vs. clean $179)

26% 17% 30%

Boot cut/flair ($179) (vs. skinny/pencil $179)

41% 31% 54%

No bleach ($179) (vs. bleached knees $179)

65% 74% 61%

•  Most  women  prefer  dark  jeans,  clean  styles  

•  Women  in  20’s  prefer  skinny;  women  30+  are  divided  between  skinny  &  boot  

Survey results: pocket branding & design  

Percent chose pocket: Total

(79 women) Age 21-29

(31 women) Age 30+

(48 women)

Seven for All Mankind ($200) (vs. no brand)

55% 51% 57%

Levi’s ($50) (vs. no brand)

63% 59% 65%

True Religion ($200) (vs. no brand)

16% 12% 18%

Sparkle ($179) (vs. design without sparkle $179)

18% 6% 24%

Bigger pocket ($50) (vs. no brand)

59% 44% 66%

• All  women  prefer  pockets  with  simple  designs  like  Levi’s  and  Seven’s  

• Women  preferred  Levi’s  pocket  slightly  more  than  a  clean  pocket  

• Most  women  surveyed  do  not  prefer  True  Religion  pockets  over  plain  pockets  

• When  shown  pockets  without  designs,  women  30+  preferred  bigger  pockets  

•  Used understanding of pocket preferences to inform ongoing graphic design of jeans pockets

•  Using preferences around colors to inform wash development process – darker colors

•  Using preferences around leg shape to inform sample development – will make both bell and pencil samples

Progress made against business objectives  

General lessons learned  

•  Conjoint is really expensive and difficult for an entrepreneur! But potentially solves survey problems.

•  Surveys can surface customer preferences – providing surprising results and confirm/disprove hypotheses

•  Hard to know if sample is representative, sufficient – especially when comparing 2 populations

•  Nuances of writing surveys – some questions were misleading – when more than one attribute was even a little bit different (e.g. one pair distressed AND darker) hard to disaggregate preferences