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The Birth of a Brand

The story behind Caron's new NaturallyCaron.com yarn.

By Lynn Carlisle, Carlisle Communications, Inc. (March 17, 2008)

The Challenge: Buyers are asking for innovative, well-researched, on-trend, differentiated new products that will excite and inspire consumers. They want products with staying power that are quick-to-market, provide mandated margins, and can be sold at prices that are not out of line with the rest of the product mix on their store shelves. They want top-quality project support, signage, point-of-sale support, and a steady flow of projects and content for their websites.

Some companies may look at the challenge as Mission Impossible. Others may see it as basic Marketing 101. At Caron International, "we saw the challenge as an opportunity," states Jan Kahn, VP of Sales and Marketing.

It's a signature statement for Kahn, but in this case, the stakes were high. The yarn business had just experienced a tidal wave of enthusiasm and exposure that brought with it legions of new and returning knitters and crocheters. Novelty yarns had come and gone, and yarn companies and retailers were searching for new ways to inspire and retain these enthusiastic consumers before they turned their attention and creative spending to another craft or leisure time activity.

In October 2007, the Caron marketing team switched into high gear. "We started with a detailed analysis of what was available in a market that we specifically defined and targeted for this product launch," recalls Kahn. "We looked at everything � color range, fiber, yarn construction, labeling, price, marketing support-everything." The goal was to go beyond just finding a gap in the marketplace and filling it, but to anticipate consumers' desire, to anticipate what a successful yarn department might look like in five years.

"The questions were these: What has been important to the yarn consumer? What is important to her now? What will be important to her in the future?" notes Kahn. For yarn, some of the answers to those questions have remained constant: color is important, performance, quality, price. But what the Caron marketing team members found as they dug deeper into these typical assumptions, is that several important changes in technology, the marketplace, and trends have shifted the landscape and provided an opening for innovation.

The result was NaturallyCaron.com, a new brand of yarns and a unique new web site (www.naturallycaron.com) to support it, launched at the winter CHA 2008 show, just 14 weeks after the first round of marketing meetings.

"'Why NaturallyCaron.com as a brand name?' is the first question people ask me about this launch," laughs Kahn. "We were either going to be thought of as crazy or incredibly brilliant. We were hoping for brilliant."

Kahn explains, "We want the consumer to make an immediate connection with the NaturallyCaron.com web site the moment she picks up a ball of yarn in a yarn department. Not to buy yarn online, but to be inspired." This emphasis on driving consumers to a content-rich, ever-changing website reflects just one example of how technology has changed the landscape for the creative industry.

Creative consumers today expect a full interactive online experience with videos, galleries, blogs, podcasts, and fresh content. A full 90% of creative consumers have Internet access. More than 50% have broadband connections and more than 80% of web surfers use the web to search for information about their hobbies.

"The NaturallyCaron.com web experience will deliver inspiration, excitement, and community to our customers, excitement that will drive sales through the cash register," asserts Kahn. Technology created both a new demand for information and a new channel through which to deliver it. "The challenge became an opportunity for a brand like NaturallyCaron.com," Kahn added.

The color palette.

The impact of the web isn't the only thing that has shifted in yarn. In the area of color, for example, the team looked not only at what was on trend in fashion and home d�cor, but also examined how yarn consumers choose colors and color combinations for their projects.

"We found two things," notes Cari Clement, Director of Fashion and Design for Caron. "One, the yarn boom exposed more consumers to what I'd call the yarn boutique palette of colors, which is more sophisticated and subtle. Second, our consumers are looking for help to be successful in combining colors as they attempt the next step beyond the scarf and work with classic, not novelty, yarns."

So Clement developed an innovative palette of colors for the two initial yarns in the NaturallyCaron.com line � "Country" and "Spa" � that are based on extensive research in documented color trends and an innovative graduated color palette. "The palettes are designed so that consumers can choose any combination of colors across harmonizing values," explains Clement. "When consumers see the palette, they immediately understand how the colors can complement one another. Each color in the line is a color blend � a combination of two adjacent colors. This automatically makes each color work with its neighbor, making the palette synchronize perfectly. Finally, the NaturallyCaron.com colors were designed to be ideal for use for multiple types of projects, from fashion to baby to home d�cor."

Fiber and construction.

Fiber is the third area where technology and consumer demand has shifted, and will continue to shift, the yarn landscape. Again, the yarn boom gave the mass-market, acrylic-fed yarn consumer a taste of the natural and eco-friendly fiber feast that the local yarn shop provides: merinos, bamboo, soy, just to name a few. But those natural fibers come at a hefty price. The challenge for the Caron team was to develop yarns serving up fibers that would satisfy the consumers' new-found tastes, but at prices that would make everyone happy. The solutions came in innovative blends of microdenier (ultra fine) acrylic and merino wool in "Country", and microdenier acrylic and sustainable bamboo in "Spa." "These creative fiber blends give the consumer incredible softness, drape, and sheen in their finished projects," notes Kahn, "without sacrificing the convenience of machine washability."

Yarn construction is another area of innovation in NaturallyCaron.com yarns that was driven by both technology and consumer desire. "Texture is one of the hottest trends in knit and crochet today," notes Clement. "To achieve texture that makes stitches really pop, you need a multi-ply yarn that has lots of bounce while still retaining its soft hand. Our top designers were very interested in seeing such a yarn and they are thrilled with the results." Both 'Spa' and 'Country' are cabled, multi-ply yarns that were developed overseas with direct hands-on input from Caron's Product Manager, Frank Jankowski. "Getting the fiber and yarn construction right was imperative," notes Kahn, "so Frank was involved at the mill-level right from the beginning."

Kahn and the marketing team at Caron are well aware that developing a brand with great products is just the beginning. For a product to be successful it takes the entire package to make not just the first sale but repeat sales year after year: great yarns, on-target colors, reasonable pricing, and innovative marketing.

"We are very confident in our ability to drive initial trial and repeat sales for the NaturallyCaron.com brand," notes Kahn, via advertising, editorial exposure, and the web. Indeed, at the NaturallyCaron.com website, a visitor will find narrated fashion shows, receive color advice to build her confidence in her color selections, obtain fashion tips to assure that her projects will be right for her or the recipient, experience the pride of posting her completed projects, and be able to access a compilation of projects with photographic close-ups and detailed instructions which allow her to confidently make the project of her choice.

So is the NaturallyCaron.com concept crazy or incredibly brilliant? "Actually, one of our buyers said it best," recalls Kahn, "It's a look into the future of marketing for the yarn business."

(Note: Although the yarn won�t be available at retail until May 1, the web site was launched at CHA to show retail buyers what the site is all about. Jan Kahn can be reached at jankahn@caron.com or 815-768-7716.)

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