Lands' End Uses Marketing Research to Land Customers

CASE STUDY (with suggested solutions)

B362 MARKETING RESEARCH WORKSHOP

CASE: LANDS' END USES MARKETING RESEARCH TO LAND CUSTOMERS

Lands' End is a direct marker of traditionally styled, casual clothing for men, women, and children; accessories; domestics; shoes; and soft luggage. The company offers its products through multiple distribution channels consisting of regular mailings of its catalogs, prospecting catalogs, and specialty catalogs as well as through the Internet, its international business, and its retail stores. Land's End continually conducts marketing research to identify potential product improvements and ways to keep customers happy and satisfied.

Four ingredients make Lands' End a success in the business: people, products, services, and company policies.

* People: It's not just people that are important, but the type of people. Lands' End's 7,000 employees are chosen for their natural friendliness, good communication skill, willingness to work, and cooperativeness. From the telephone operators to management, everyone is motivated to do a good job, and employees are empowered to do what it takes to get the job done.

* Product: Quality products from the days of sailing gear through the introduction of clothing and luggage have dominated the offerings at Lands' End. Recently they have introduced three new catalogs: "Coming Home" with soft household goods, "Lands' End Kids," and "Beyond Buttondowns," featuring menswear. The introduction of "Coming Home" illustrates Lands' End's commitment to customer needs. Their catalog featured a bedsheet with a 12-inch pocket that was an instant success because mattress makers were making mattresses thicker, but most sheet makers were unaware of this and people couldn't get their sheets to stay on the bed.

* Services: Whether its hemming; monogramming; friendly, fast, reliable service; or fast shipment, consumers have come to expect wonderful service from Lands' End, made possible because of the high caliber of people employed there.

* Company policies: Published and posted everywhere are the eight principles of business:

1. Make quality products a priority.

2. Price products honestly.

3. Accept any return for any reason.

4. Ship product faster than anyone else.

5. What's best for the customer is best for the company.

6. Eliminate the middleman and markup.

7. Keep prices down by operating efficiently.

8. Don't operate fancy and expensive stores.

Excellence in the above categories was only possible due to Lands' End's superb marketing research team. Although keeping up with customer needs was a tough task, Lands' End used a secret weapon; it just asked the consumers what they wanted. Through surveys and personal contacts, Lands' End asked its customers how it can go about improving certain products. Lands' End employees used their excellent listening skills and their brilliant product development team to produce more pleasing products. Every year Lands' End conducts a market survey of its customers. The survey asks basic information, such as age and education level, and follows up with questions about the products offered, the customer service received, the amount of time spent reading the catalogs, and whether or not they read the articles and customer testimonials inside the catalog. All of this new information