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Case Studies
How Social Proof Contributes to Pura Cashmere's DTC Growth Strategy
May 16, 2022
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4 min read
Nudea launched in 2019 with a very clear direction in mind. Its founder, Priya Downes, wanted to create a product line of underwear that was comfortable, stylish and functional, as well as accounting for the diversity in sizing that exists across the target market. The team approached REVIEWS.io six months ago, and product reviews now form an integral part of the brand’s growth strategy.
Some women can be quite sceptical especially when it comes to buying a bra, therefore it’s important for them to have all the information out there, especially if it’s direct feedback from a reviewer of a similar size
We recently caught up with the Head of Growth, Christiana Kyriakides, to find out how they’ve been getting on.
One of the things we love about these case studies is that they give us a chance to see how different brands make different use of our solution - what features work for them, and how we can help them move forward. For Nudea, it’s all about collecting attributes that give the customer deeper insight into how well a product suits their individual needs.
When it comes to bras, there’s definitely no such thing as one size fits all. Not only is every bra wearer unique, sizing also varies from brand to brand and style to style. That poses quite a dilemma for the customer when they can’t physically try a product on prior to purchase. It also makes old school reviews - that lack any kind of context - of little use to brand or consumer.
What Nudea’s customers need - and what the brand now gives them - is relevancy in review content. The reader needs to be able to relate to the reviewer to understand how the product experience might compare. That’s achieved with attributes. For each review, the customer is asked their size and how the product fits, so the shoppers that come after can make better informed decisions.
For us, the review could say this is a really nice product, it fits really nicely, the material’s good, good support etc. But it doesn’t mean much unless it’s the size of the person reading it. Adding those attributes makes it a much more helpful, insightful review.
To add further complexity, around 80% of women actually wear the wrong bra size. Some may have not been measured recently, some may have had an inaccurate measurement given, and some may never have been measured at all. But rather than see it as an obstacle, what Nudea takes from that statistic is an opportunity - again with the use of our Review Attributes feature.
With the 80% statistic in mind, there’s another question that Nudea includes in its review invites. And whilst it might be a simple one, it’s a powerful addition. It asks the customer how they were fitted.
There’s a couple of key benefits for the brand here. The first is that it helps to combat the negative reviews, which are more likely to occur when you consider how many women are in fact buying the wrong size bra. In these cases, a customer’s poor opinion of a product isn’t a true reflection of its quality - it just simply wasn’t designed for them.
In assigning a fitting method to a negative review, it’s easier to see where the issue lies, which makes it easier to solve. Nudea can then use those reviews as a platform to show the level of customer service needed for such a personal shopping experience. At the same time, they can encourage more customers to make use of their own online fitting service.
The second benefit is in product development. Fitting method, combined with customer size and fit attributes, give the team key data on how their products are meeting expectation, and where they can improve.
As our brand grows, and as our product set grows, it’s really important to have those reviews in there. As we read across all our reviews, it helps us with understanding how the product works for people and if there’s anything that we need to change.
It’d be wrong to talk about Nudea without giving kudos for their genuinely authentic approach to diversity and inclusion. This is evident in its product imagery, which is truly representative of its audience. As Christiana explains, the brand caters for something in the range of 45 sizes, so it would be illogical to showcase anything less.
That approach extends to its marketing efforts. Its recent social campaign for International Women’s Day brought a diverse range of influencers on board to discuss what this years’ theme of ‘Break the Bias’ meant to them - all while proudly sporting Nudea underwear.
It might pose a bit of a challenge, but there’s a couple of REVIEWS.io features we think Nudea could leverage to really drive that image of an inclusive brand. First, using our Social Proof tool to turn photo reviews into branded, shareable graphics. Second, using our latest release - Video First - to collect UGC that makes its diverse customer base clearly visible.
These photos and videos don’t necessarily have to show the full experience (i.e. people in their underwear) - they can be far more subtle. It all comes down to how the content is requested, and that’s something we’re excited to explore with Nudea. Combined with their brilliant use of review attributes, we think it makes for a winning strategy to take the brand to the next level.
With the role out of our new loyalty platform, Nudea were keen to get on board as a beta tester in order to strengthen their community even more. The brand put a particular emphasis on rewarding review content due to the rich content it can provide their future customers:
Word of mouth is so important, a thumbs up from a friend could really instil trust in us as a brand, therefore we wanted to reward this behaviour and further encourage it with a loyalty solution
Despite bringing out Influence.io recently, we've already had a large amount of brands excited to give it a trial and we will be reporting on their experience with the platform very soon.
