Oh I Wanna Take You to Bermuda, Tommy Bahama

🎵It’s summertime and the living is… hot, hot, hot!🎵 As Americans gird themselves for (possibly) another “hottest summer on record,” they can take (small) comfort in the fact that fashion has adapted from three piece suits and petticoats to board shorts and tank tops. Perhaps clothing trends would have evolved more quickly if Queen Victoria had encountered climate change. 

With warmer weather in mind we applied Gradient’s bespoke brand equity analysis tool to summer apparel brands—the clothes you’d wear to a beach, on a kayaking trip, or in high school if you were a teenager in the mid-aughts. Our brand equity analysis goes beyond a standard funnel and pinpoints a brand’s key attributes that drive consumer purchase preferences.

So what drives consumer preference for summer apparel brands? This might come as a shock, but for most Americans, summer swag that is affordable is what gets customers in the (changing room) door and to say yes to the (tennis) dress. What might be a little more surprising is the import consumers place on brands sharing their own values. Consumers are more than 60% more likely to both consider and purchase from summer apparel brands they believe share their values. 

Gradient’s brand equity analysis is useful for looking at the differential effect that certain brand attributes or characteristics have at different stages of the customer journey. For example, the comfort of and sustainable materials used in their clothing drive purchase, but those factors aren’t as important (might even be detrimental) when consumers consider where to shop for their island getaway.

If a consumer’s values include not seeing Earth become one giant landfill, they may want a clothing brand that shares that value and uses sustainable materials. Let’s look at how the specific brands perform on these attributes.

Patagonia both embodies American consumers’ values and is most associated with sustainable materials—and it blows its competitor brands off the . It’s only logical that Americans rank Patagonia first for both attributes considering all their talk of environmental activism. It’s even more believable considering their founder donated the $3 billion company to a charitable trust. On the other hand, consumers aren’t fooled by brands associated more with fashion than sustainability. Pour one out for the (much-loved) 20-year-old Roxy t-shirts that are weeping in a landfill. 

What can these summer apparel brands—or any brand—do with these insights? If alignment of values matters so much, understanding your customers’ values might be a good start. Fortunately, consumer research helps brands understand their audience, like leveraging mindset-based customer segmentation to uncover the values and mindsets that motivate and guide their customers. Brands should know they have a critical opportunity to get consumers to consider and purchase their products if they speak to their customers' values.

Want to see more data about how specific apparel brands performed in our analysis? Curious about the methodology? Just reply to this email.

When Gradient Met Reforge

Earlier this week Gradient’s Head of Research, Kyle Block, had the privilege of co-presenting a product roadmap-focused webinar with the cool folks at digital education experts Reforge. Thanks to those of you who attended! 

If you didn’t attend, are you curious about how to identify in-demand features of your product or understand the trade-offs your consumers make? Have you always wondered what Kyle’s voice sounds like? Either way, you can watch the webinar below or read through his presentation here.

That’s a wrap, folks

We'd love to hear from you. Do you have a burning strategic question on which your organization needs objective clarity? Get in touch and we can see how we can help.

About Gradient

In a continuously changing world, intuition isn't enough. We are decision science partners who equip our clients with evidence-based clarity to answer their most challenging strategy questions and achieve their growth goals. We uncover critical objective realities for our partners with bespoke, consultative research programs that push the boundaries of custom statistical methodologies. We’ve partnered with Fortune 100 brands like Nike, Bacardi, and Brooks, startups, consulting firms, and political campaigns. Want to learn more? Visit our website!