Posted September 12, 2017

 

By Devin Steele (DSteele@eTextileCommunications.com)

 

BELMONT, N.C. – Distinct speakers. Inspiring presentations. Invaluable information. Networking galore. More than 100 attendees.

The Southern Textile Association’s (STA’s) 13th annual Summer Marketing Forum had this and more last month at Gaston College’s Textile Technology Center on the Kimbrell Campus. Under the theme, “PULLING TOGETHER: Uniting a Diverse Value Chain for Success,” the half-day conference and reception the night before indeed attracted a wide-ranging audience who came to connect and comprehend current trends as the industry continues its collaborative climb.

 

Jim Booterbaugh, who has emceed the forum since its inception, again was at the mike to introduce speakers and regale guests with tales, bon mots and his annual list of “alternative uses for [insert household item here].” (It was Listerine this year.)

 

In introducing the program and in a moment of seriousness, Booterbaugh, president of National Spinning Co. and head “yarn spinner” of this event, said, “This is the 13th year of the Summer Marketing Forum, and every year we are enlightened with timely topics about success stories on branding or reinventing companies or using technology to our advantage. Each year the reviews of this meeting tend to be exceptional, so there’s always pressure on the planning committee to raise the bar.”

 

And it perhaps was raised, with speakers that included representatives of a sock manufacturer, a 3D body scanning technology provider, a business and marketing consultancy, the government relations arm of a yarn provider, a financial services firm and a U.S. auto giant.

 

Sock it to ’em

 

Shane Cooper, founder, president and “chief sockologist” of DeFeet International, Hildebrand, N.C., kicked off the program with an instructive presentation on creating desire for brands. He first explained how he and his wife came to found the company in 1992. A member of a rock band and a bike-racing enthusiast in the 1980s, Cooper knew a thing or two about knitting from his father, a knitting machine distributor – and he recognized the socks bicycles wore could be improved.

 

So the company was started to develop a superior sock. After selling socks from the trunk of his Ford Taurus, Cooper and his wife grew the company and enjoyed much success for nine years – until a devastating fire “humbled him.”

 

“I realized then that it was time to go to work,” he said. “So I went on the road around the country and, really, the world. I talked to bike shops and let them know we were going to come back. It took us nine months to do so.”

 

Today, DeFeet is a “micro-sockery” with 50 employees and a company that exports to more than 40 countries.

 

In creating desire for your brand, Cooper asked attendees to ask three questions: 1) Who is your customer?; 2) What is your message?; and 3) Why is your product needed? He cited a number of brands – Chick-Fil-A, Tesla and Apple, for instance – that have definitive answers to each of those questions and, as a result, have thrived.

 

After deep diving into those points, Cooper explained how companies, including his, make their brands work on social media. He called Unifi, Inc.’s REPREVE® marketing message of sustainability and made in America, particularly on social media channels, “fantastic.”

 

He also explained how Defeet, perhaps the top-selling cycling socks in the world, created an ambassador program called “Barnstormers” where it asked users to take pictures of barns and post them on social media. “This was a big success, and it’s all free marketing,” he said.

 

For brand building and creating desire, Cooper urged attendees to know their customer, know what they need and want and to “stay relevant.”

 

“At Defeet, we know our customer because we are our customer,” he said. “I go on bike rides every day.”

 

He ended his segment with a clever marketing video called “Bootleggers” (get it?) that was created around a contest to give away a bike.

 

“We ended up with 2,500 email addresses that we can communicate to for those who signed up,” he said.

 

Size matters

 

In his presentation, “How 3D Body Scanning is Changing the Retail Environment," Dr. David Bruner, chief technology officer, Size Stream, LLC, Cary, N.C., noted that the company was founded in 2012 and has been the 3D booth scanner global market leader the last three years.

 

Body measurement is applicable to apparel, fitness, medical, 3D printing and R&D, he pointed out. With traditional retail in rapid decline, he posited, “the time has come for a sweeping, much-needed reset in U.S. apparel retail,” citing The Business of Fashion. And Amazon is expediting the need for change, noting that the online giant is expected to triple the share of the U.S. apparel market over the next five years, he said.

 

But even online retailers have their pain points, too, Bruner said: Apparel returns in 2015 amounted to $60 billion USD, with the reason for returns mainly being “fit” or size related, he said. And of those returns, only 48 percent can be resold at full price, he added.

 

So where does digitization and body scanning fit in? he asked. In the B2C landscape, the opportunities for mass personalization are rampant, he said. He called 3D body scanning the “Starbucks of Apparel,” noting that the coffee retailer offers 87,000 different drink combinations, and in-store body scanning can offer an equally impressive number of possibilities.

 

Retail in the future, he said, could be more of a small footprint, where stores act as showrooms. In such a scenario, scanners may be prominently positioned in the store, with high-res, high-tech touchscreen displays and “magic mirrors” providing the user with compelling product knowledge and aspirational marketing.

 

With Size Stream and similar 3D body scanning technologies, customers can browse and choose the styles they want and they can be matched with the best-fitting size, Bruner said.

 

Focus on the changing face of retail

 

Elaine Harris, president and co-founder of Breakthrough Marketing Technology, Jersey City, N.J., gave a thought-provoking presentation on the changing consumer and market dynamics, asking if that is a threat or opportunity.

 

With retail going through unprecedented change, she asked what motivates consumers today? Not apparel, she said. Consumers are still shopping, but apparel buying has been on the decline since May 2015, she said. The apparel markets in the U.S. and Europe collectively total more than $500 billion, but growth is very slow (1 percent to 2 percent), she said.

 

As megabrands mature and losing brand equity, they are forfeiting share to rapidly growing next-generation digitally native vertical brands (DNVBs), Harris said. Additionally, the supply chain is being streamlined through consolidation, technology-enabled productivity gains, improved speed to market and reduced costs, she added.

 

Harris went on to talk about the influence of Millennials (born 1981-1997) on the apparel retail landscape. With 83.1 million Millennials, it is the largest generation, with Gen Z (born after 1998) the second largest at 73.6 million.

 

Millennials, she said, are coming into their prime on their earning/spending years, they grew up in the Digital Age and they believe the ownership of things is less important than their predecessors did. As for apparel shopping, more than any other segment, they seek the opinion of others online before making purchases, she said.

 

Amazon (16.6 percent), followed by Nordstrom (8.1 percent) and Old Navy (5.1 percent) are the top online apparel choices for Millennials, she said.

 

Going forward, hundreds of small, new brands that emphasize such things as sustainability, customization and personalization and are technology driven will take the lead and gain share from big brands, Harris said.

 

She went on to explain techniques to marketing to Millennials and planning for Gen Z. Building consumer relationships with Millennials and Gen Z is critical, and a seamless, multi-channel strategy is a must, she concluded. Additionally, companies need to seize opportunities by building a compelling brand story, being nimble and focused, creating experiences and using data to drive customization, she added.

 

Traditional recycling ‘not good enough’

 

John Bradburn, global waste reduction manager at General Motors, presented a compelling story on how the auto manufacturer has “reimagined waste” to strengthen communities and the environment. He discussed GM’s sustainability goals, noting that in 2015 the company diverted 2.5 million tons of waste from landfills, or 38 million trash bags. But though zero waste is good, it’s not great, he said.

 

“There are aspects associated with it where you can do better,” he said. “Let me put it this way: Traditional recycling is not good enough, because what happens to it? Who receives it? Can you create good for your community? Are you meeting your corporate goals?”

 

As such, GM has developed Sustainable Materials Management (SSM), an umbrella program for various sustainability activities, including design for the environment (DfE), global by-product management, beneficial use process, the circular economy and being landfill free (zero waste), he said.

 

“Doing something like this, I like to say it takes the imagination of a child with the experience of an adult to come up with,” Bradburn said. “When you combine those two things, you can think up some pretty cool things.”

 

He went on to provide numerous examples of how GM is repurposing for the good. For instance, oil absorbent booms that were used to clean up the massive Gulf Coast oil spill were recycled parts of the Chevy Volt, he said. He noted that 227 miles of booms were incorporated into air deflectors, which prevented 212,500 pounds of waste from entering landfills and eliminating the equivalent of 149 tons of C02, he said.

 

He went on to show examples of the circular initiative from automotive byproducts. In particular, he cited an instance of 2,000 shipping crates from Orion Assembly being repurposed as raised garden beds in Detroit, providing nearby residents and soup kitchens with nutritious, locally grown food.
 

“Don’t view things as they are, but what they can become,” Bradburn said.

 

Tweaking a tweet

 

Also presenting was Jane Johnson, manager of Government Relations at Unifi, Inc., who discussed trade policy under the Trump Administration. She provided the latest information and her take on NAFTA renegotiations, the Miscellaneous Trade Bill (MTB), Foreign Trade Zones (FTZs), the Berry Amendment, anti-dumping petitions and buy American programs.

 

On a side note, she ventured to guess the meaning of a tweet by President Trump, who used the word “covfefe” in a late-night Twitter post a few months ago. “I think he meant ‘converting fiber efficiently to filament every day,’ ” she deadpanned.

 

Rounding out the forum was a presentation by Matthew Tingler, director at Robert W. Baird & Company, who provided a detailed report on merger and acquisition trends in the apparel industry.

STA’s Summer Marketing Forum: From current trends to ‘covfefe’