Live From Orlando: Fair Indigo is Agnostic About Channels

Fair trade clothing marketer Fair Indigo is taking an agnostic approach to multichannel marketing.

In a keynote address at ACCM on Tuesday, Bill Bass, CEO, noted that when the company launched in fall 2006 he considered it crucial to debut the catalog, Web site and a retail store at the same time, to avoid one channel becoming the ignored "orphan" branch of the company.

Fair Indigo, which launched on about a $15 million initial investment, targets socially conscious men and women ages 35-55. About 80% of the products are for women, taking into account that women typically by more clothing than men. Competitors in the fair trade clothing space include American Apparel, which goes after a younger demographic.

About 70% of sales are generated by the Web site, 25% by catalog and 5% in the retail store. The three channels are heavily integrated – in the retail store, consumers can scan an item's barcode and see online user views, and learn about where the garment was made.

Initially, Bass said he saw Fair Indigo's catalog as a way to drive people online. The first version of the catalog was filled with large photos, and not a lot of product. Bass said he showed the book to a friend at Victoria's Secret and the reaction was "not enough product density."

Bass said he laughed and told his friend he was wrong, because this was the wave of the future. The result? "Not enough product density," he said, noting that while in time catalogs will change in how they speak to the consumer, the traditional rules still apply.

He also at first didn't think PDF versions of catalogs made sense, but came around when he realized it was a great way to get the catalog into the hands of customers before they get their physical copy in the mail, meaning you get to hit them twice. Catalogs are also inherently easier to browse than Web sites if a shopper doesn’t know exactly what they want, and a PDF gives that experience, he added.

The industry has to change its perspective on fair trade and environmental issues, said Bass, the former senior vice president of Lands' End and vice president/general manager of Sears Direct. Companies shouldn't be doing things such as using recycled paper and paying a fair wage because they'll ultimately lead to cost savings, but because it’s the right thing to do.

For its part, Fair Indigo prints on 30% post consumer waste. This fact is communicated to consumers on the back of the catalog with a table showing that by doing this it saved 980 trees and 337,184 gallons of water. The company generally pays workers about twice the minimum wage of their country.

The company uses photos and video to help convey the stories of the people who make the clothing to consumers. How much more will consumers pay for fair trade goods, particularly in challenging economic times? Bass noted that the company has kept its prices in line with other marketers who make similar styles of clothing such as Garnet Hill. But he says research shows that consumers often feel like they should be paying a little more – maybe 10% or so higher -- for fair trade items, since the workers are getting paid a better wage.