Findings from Survey Monkey on customer research to find common jeans shopping problems and examine differences by age group.

1. Kismet Denim
Julia Kastner
4.24.2012
better-fitting jeans for sophisticated women
Look good
Do good
Designed to be flattering
• Sophisticated – not distressed
• Fit models size 8
• Construction – wide waistbands
• Fabric - stretchy
Fair Trade and Organic cotton
Handmade details
Sweatshop free and sustainable

2. 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

3. Chose test design – conjoint vs. survey
Advantages
Conjoint
• breaks a product concept
into relevant attributes
• estimates the value
potential customers
attach to each attribute
Survey
• Show two pairs of jeans
Disadvantages
• Expensive
• ($1,500 student tool)
• Powerful
• Analyze each attribute
independently of others
• Low cost
• Ask survey taker to
choose preferred picture
• Relatively easy to
implement
• Mix premium and nonpremium
• Learn basics about
product features
• Recommended
• sample size = 400
• (by Survey Analytics)*
• Difficult to write and ask
non-biased, objective
questions
• Hard to recruit
representative
respondents
Decided this
was not
feasible
Chose to
conduct a
survey
*Conjoint
research
from
Jack
Geiger,
Survey
Analy<cs.
360.471.5514

4. Made and conducted survey
Filtered for age group:
Asked participants to choose
between pairs of jeans styles:
$89
un-­‐distressed
jeans
(Banana
Republic)
110 responses
35 age 21-29
75 age 30+
$200
distressed
jeans
(Seven
for
All
Mankind)

5. Sample questions: coating, color & legs
Light vs. Dark
Coated vs. Clean
Skinny/Pencil vs. Boot/Flair

6. Sample questions: pocket brands & designs
Sparkle vs. No Sparkle
Levi’s vs. True Religion

7. Survey results - styles
• Most
women
prefer
dark
jeans,
clean
styles
• Women
in
20’s
prefer
skinny;
women
30+
are
divided
between
skinny
&
boot
Percent chose style:
Clean ($60)
(vs. distressed with whiskers)
Dark ($89)
(vs. very light $200)
Distressed, coated rear ($69)
(vs. clean $179)
Boot cut/flair ($179)
(vs. skinny/pencil $179)
No bleach ($179)
(vs. bleached knees $179)
Total
Age 21-29
Age 30+
68%
80%
62%
94%
97%
92%
26%
17%
30%
41%
31%
54%
65%
74%
61%

8. Survey results: pocket branding & design
• 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
Percent chose pocket:
Seven for All Mankind ($200)
(vs. no brand)
Levi’s ($50)
(vs. no brand)
True Religion ($200)
(vs. no brand)
Sparkle ($179)
(vs. design without sparkle $179)
Bigger pocket ($50)
(vs. no brand)
Total
(79 women)
Age 21-29
(31 women)
Age 30+
(48 women)
55%
51%
57%
63%
59%
65%
16%
12%
18%
18%
6%
24%
59%
44%
66%

9. Progress made against business objectives
• 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

10. 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