Bringing highly nuanced consumer stories to life
A major apparel retailer approached us to remedy the growing distance between its executive leadership and the female customers they were struggling to serve. Ultimately, our multimedia deliverables harnessed the voice of these women, allowing the client's C-team to better internalize the nuanced needs of that underrepresented segment and pivot its apparel strategy accordingly.
Our research objective: to re-shape the organization's understanding of its female consumer, and to use that newfound perspective to breathe life into the company's segment-specific messaging, product offering, and merchandising.
To do so effectively, we targeted the woman who is highly engaged in her own wellness, who is committed to regular activity, and who demonstrates a keen awareness of the brands, apparel, footwear, gear, and accessories she relies on for her health maintenance.
To unearth the lifestyle motivations that fuel her purchase decisions, we dove beyond her superficial relationship with sporting goods/apparel and instead opted to explore all elements of her health and wellness philosophy.
This exploration carried us far beyond focus groups and cross tabs: we did not just observe her, we lived alongside her. We met her at the 5 AM SUP yoga class she hustles to before work. We hiked her family's favorite mountainside trail on a Sunday morning, kids in tow. We took note of the food she stocks in her pantry, of what she reads, of how she apprises herself of the latest health and fitness information. We asked about her aspirations and inspirations. We listened to her struggles and her accomplishments as a woman, a wife, a mother, a friend, who was trying to make space to keep her own health a priority.
At TideWatch, we believe this extra effort is more than worth the extra insight: only by deconstructing the holistic approach the female consumer takes to fitness and wellness could we build the desired depth of understanding of her as a retail shopper. With this deep-rooted contextual awareness of her wellness approach, we were better able to hypothesize how her personal fitness goals translate into what gear she uses, how she evaluates new products, where she shops, what brands compel her, and what "makes her tick" more broadly.
By sharing her life story and truly bringing her fitness commitment to life, we were able to help everyone from the CEO down to the sales associates to understand her and respect her in a new light.
All interactions were preserved through film and audio, so as to not misplace a single source of insight. To pay proper homage to the amount of information we had collected, we created an anthropological exhibit - a multimedia gallery - which continues to live in the lobby of our client's corporate headquarters. It includes high-end video, photographs, quotes, products, gear, brands, and style pieces that help define the amazing women that participated in this effort.