Slow fashion brand goes imageless

I LOVE this shopper failure! "What a f**king stupid marketing strategy" "Saw on your Oxford shirt post yesterday -> Went to your website -> Couldn’t see the product -> Was a little annoyed -> Didn’t purchase." "Put back those damn images. Website is almost useless this way." You might not know of Asket. They are a clothing brand based in Sweden, and do great stuff. With a deep focus on the "pursuit of less"; reducing the impact of fast fashion through sustainable, well made, wardrobe essentials - like indigo jeans, button down shirts, and the like. They have built up a great reputation around product transparency, and minimising environmental impact too This week, they launched a new campaign asking shoppers to visualise these timeless clothing items in their head; an easy thing to do, right? To help, they deliberately decided to remove all their product images from the website and marketing You can see some of the response above And this was the tame stuff - loyal customers saying they'll not come back, new customers not trying a new item they saw, commentators sharing the failure far and wide (yep, including me!) However, I love it. Seeing a business testing the boundaries, understanding the limits of shopper behaviour and garnering direct feedback is great. ASKET should be applauded for it Thankfully it was a short term experiment, the images are back I might have approached it slightly differently, such as driving shoppers to a micro site, or using the first image in a product carousel as the blank message - with supplementary images highlighting the details that make Asket products better than the rest, stitching, fabric details and so on There are some bigger observations for us in the digital space Firstly We do this to shoppers every single day Brands deliver product content and images that are as good as white page blanks. They cover them with unnecessary banners and callouts, they ensure brand, variant, pack size are obscured. They don't offer accessible images Be sure to see the work of my colleague Oliver Bradley, GS1 and the University of Cambridge for what good looks like in the mobile ready, inclusive design, space Secondly Don't underestimate the power of the seamless and integrated shopper experience The quote above, and others, called out seeing particular items in a store window, with the intent of buying online later. Ensuring that shoppers can complete their mission irrespective of the channel they choose is essential (see my recent Walmart article on being an 'adaptive retailer') Finally Don't p**s off your shopper lightly Test and learn is vital to push the boundaries of innovation, but this will likely need a step up in shopper experience, and sustained investment in their needs over time, to recover trust for future purchases Tell me what you think below. What could Asket have done differently? #MobileReadyHeroImages #UX #ecommerce #shopper https://lnkd.in/egSdpc_Z

Customers need to see, feel, and even try a product before making a purchase decision. Or do they? Swedish clothing brand ASKET conducted an experiment. They removed all product pictures from their website and even published a look book with just text and no images. What happened? In three days, the brand sold over a thousand garments to 410 customers, of which 44% were new customers. Would you dare to try this? Asket sells timeless, classic casual wear for a capsule wardrobe. They have a fully transparent production chain and a stable collection. I’m Leila from Finland and I love Nordic brands ????

I can’t wait to order one and then send it back when it doesn’t look how I imagined it too! That was my first thoughts when I saw this campaign, however… …In a bold, but slightly nerving move from Swedish brand ASKET, who pride themselves on pieces that will stand the test of time as their strap line suggests “In the pursuit of less”. And that is exactly what they have done in this recent campaign, by removing every product image across their site and advertising, and replacing with a simple description “so uncompromising timeless, you already know what it looks like.” ?? The campaign goes off the assumption that the consumer is already knowledgeable on how classic wardrobe staples should look, appealing to their core audience with a strong belief in their product and it’s end-use. ?? The creative is striking and aesthetically beautiful for something so simple, using straight talking copy to speak, and elevate brand confidence. Proving they are so sure of their product, quality and craftsmanship. ??But is it clever or are they missing the detail that consumers look for when purchasing? Leaving room for high returns and missing new customer opportunities. Either way, it’s a conversation starter! What are your thoughts? #FashionMarketing #BrandConfidence #ConsumerBehavior #MarketingCampaigns #Creative ??? ASKET

I LOVE this shopper failure! "What a f**king stupid marketing strategy" "Saw on your Oxford shirt post yesterday -> Went to your website -> Couldn’t see the product -> Was a little annoyed -> Didn’t purchase." "Put back those damn images. Website is almost useless this way." You might not know of Asket. They are a clothing brand based in Sweden, and do great stuff. With a deep focus on the "pursuit of less"; reducing the impact of fast fashion through sustainable, well made, wardrobe essentials - like indigo jeans, button down shirts, and the like. They have built up a great reputation around product transparency, and minimising environmental impact too This week, they launched a new campaign asking shoppers to visualise these timeless clothing items in their head; an easy thing to do, right? To help, they deliberately decided to remove all their product images from the website and marketing You can see some of the response above And this was the tame stuff - loyal customers saying they'll not come back, new customers not trying a new item they saw, commentators sharing the failure far and wide (yep, including me!) However, I love it. Seeing a business testing the boundaries, understanding the limits of shopper behaviour and garnering direct feedback is great. ASKET should be applauded for it Thankfully it was a short term experiment, the images are back I might have approached it slightly differently, such as driving shoppers to a micro site, or using the first image in a product carousel as the blank message - with supplementary images highlighting the details that make Asket products better than the rest, stitching, fabric details and so on There are some bigger observations for us in the digital space Firstly We do this to shoppers every single day Brands deliver product content and images that are as good as white page blanks. They cover them with unnecessary banners and callouts, they ensure brand, variant, pack size are obscured. They don't offer accessible images Be sure to see the work of my colleague Oliver Bradley, GS1 and the University of Cambridge for what good looks like in the mobile ready, inclusive design, space Secondly Don't underestimate the power of the seamless and integrated shopper experience The quote above, and others, called out seeing particular items in a store window, with the intent of buying online later. Ensuring that shoppers can complete their mission irrespective of the channel they choose is essential (see my recent Walmart article on being an 'adaptive retailer') Finally Don't p**s off your shopper lightly Test and learn is vital to push the boundaries of innovation, but this will likely need a step up in shopper experience, and sustained investment in their needs over time, to recover trust for future purchases Tell me what you think below. What could Asket have done differently? #MobileReadyHeroImages #UX #ecommerce #shopper https://lnkd.in/egSdpc_Z

I LOVE this shopper failure! "What a f**king stupid marketing strategy" "Saw on your Oxford shirt post yesterday -> Went to your website -> Couldn’t see the product -> Was a little annoyed -> Didn’t purchase." "Put back those damn images. Website is almost useless this way." You might not know of Asket. They are a clothing brand based in Sweden, and do great stuff. With a deep focus on the "pursuit of less"; reducing the impact of fast fashion through sustainable, well made, wardrobe essentials - like indigo jeans, button down shirts, and the like. They have built up a great reputation around product transparency, and minimising environmental impact too This week, they launched a new campaign asking shoppers to visualise these timeless clothing items in their head; an easy thing to do, right? To help, they deliberately decided to remove all their product images from the website and marketing You can see some of the response above And this was the tame stuff - loyal customers saying they'll not come back, new customers not trying a new item they saw, commentators sharing the failure far and wide (yep, including me!) However, I love it. Seeing a business testing the boundaries, understanding the limits of shopper behaviour and garnering direct feedback is great. ASKET should be applauded for it Thankfully it was a short term experiment, the images are back I might have approached it slightly differently, such as driving shoppers to a micro site, or using the first image in a product carousel as the blank message - with supplementary images highlighting the details that make Asket products better than the rest, stitching, fabric details and so on There are some bigger observations for us in the digital space Firstly We do this to shoppers every single day Brands deliver product content and images that are as good as white page blanks. They cover them with unnecessary banners and callouts, they ensure brand, variant, pack size are obscured. They don't offer accessible images Be sure to see the work of my colleague Oliver Bradley, GS1 and the University of Cambridge for what good looks like in the mobile ready, inclusive design, space Secondly Don't underestimate the power of the seamless and integrated shopper experience The quote above, and others, called out seeing particular items in a store window, with the intent of buying online later. Ensuring that shoppers can complete their mission irrespective of the channel they choose is essential (see my recent Walmart article on being an 'adaptive retailer') Finally Don't p**s off your shopper lightly Test and learn is vital to push the boundaries of innovation, but this will likely need a step up in shopper experience, and sustained investment in their needs over time, to recover trust for future purchases Tell me what you think below. What could Asket have done differently? #MobileReadyHeroImages #UX #ecommerce #shopper https://lnkd.in/egSdpc_Z