Spanx. Seriously Love Them. Thanks, Sara Blakely. Case Study of a Brand.
I avoid nylons/pantyhose because of the torturous device they are. I had a wedding to go to and went to all the trouble of buying a new dress for the occasion and of course there will be pictures, so wearing a girdle had crossed my mind. I had heard of Spanx and Tyra Banks talks about wearing all the time on her show. Sara Blakely was even on Oprah’s favorite things at some point among a bunch of others. Anyway, I have been looking for a reason to try them out and WOW! Best Pantyhose/bodyshaper thing ever!! Sara Blakely has done a great job on these babies! I got the All The Way Up! high-waisted pantyhose. They are sturdier that regular nylons that snag on everything. They’re more expensive, but I think worth the cost because they already look like they’ll last longer. Plus for a body shaper it would be completely reasonably priced. That one product is a perfect example of combining two products into one and improving whats currently on the market.
Sara is one smart cookie, let’s look at what we can learn from her company. She has called the brand Spanx by Sara Blakely. I once heard her say she knew from stand up that the ks sound is more memorable, so she really wanted that to be part of the name. She is building a dual brand, herself and Spanx. She is positioned so that she can use her own name later for other products if she choose to sell Spanx at some point. It really could work well, because Spanx is trusted now if Sara were to move on to something completely unrelated say, kitchen gear then it would automatically have some trust, because we already trust her. There is an about Sara tab and then an about us tab on the website. Under the About Sara is Sarah’s story how she came to invent Spanx and how it came to market. Under the about us tab, its a time-line of the history of the company with a shout out to the Sara Blakely Foundation. Her company didn’t really advertise, quite frankly its so good why would they need to? Their product is for women and women talk – bingo! word of mouth and media.
Spanx is engulfing the market they have a high end version with delicious lace Haute Contour by Spanx and a less expensive minimal version called Assests by Sara Blakely. Every price point is getting covered by its own twist on the brand. What improvements can you make to your company following Spanx and Sara Blakely?
© 2009 Lyndi Lytle
