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60,000 Customers Define the Latest Fashion

Rather than relying on the intuition of a charismatic designer or a savvy executive, Coach Inc. rewrote the rules of anticipating the latest in fashion. The company, a successful New York maker of women's handbags, consulted more than 60,000 customers to predict what will be hot on the market. And it worked.

Coach Inc. saw sales increase by 29% by spotting trends through their customer feedback. It also gained them the recognition of being named number two in BusinessWeek's top 50 "best in class", the best-performing companies in the Standard & Poor's 500-stock index.Every year, they interview more than 60,000 customers through Internet questionnaires, phone surveys, and face-to-face meetings. This thorough market research told executives what was missing from their product line. Customers expressed the desire for decent carry-on luggage for weekend getaways, so Coach introduced its "Signature Stripe" travel bags. Within the first month the new bag made up for a significant 15% of its full-priced merchandise sales. The market research has also helped Coach extend beyond its trademark bags into watches, accessories and clothing.

"This research gives us a real competitive advantage," acknowledges Coach Chief Executive consumers evolved." Trend spotting has huge pay offs. Sales grew an average of 29% over each of the past three years and resulted in 63% return on financial investments within the same time period.

To conduct this type of thorough and fast research with customers, many organizations are using customer advisory panels. Organizations can create an advisory panel to engage with and learn from on an ongoing basis through surveys, forums and interactive environments to learn more about customers. Vision Critical is considered the world leader in customer over 1 million panelists.

Posted on April 15, 2007
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