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Customer segmentation study provides powerful branding and product insights

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The challenge

Worldly is on a mission—equipping brands and manufacturers with tools and intelligence to help shift how products are responsibly made, marketed, bought, used, and recycled.

One such tool is the Higg Index, the most widely used measure of environmental and social impact across apparel, footwear, and textiles. Worldly is the exclusive licensee of the Higg Index, serving brands, retailers, and manufacturers who strive to improve their processes and supply chains.

Illustration with a white icon of a person against a circular backdrop with black, blue, red, and yellow stripes. To the left are various gray rectangular bubbles with various yellow, blue, and red circles and squares representing different types of data about the person.

Given the rising focus on sustainability from businesses and consumers, Worldly saw the potential to increase value for their customers. To begin, they needed clarity and a deep understanding of their users’ preferences, motivators, needs, and expectations.

Our approach

Worldly identified the need for a customer segmentation study. The project would be complex, with users in two distinct global audiences. So, they reached out to Ntara’s experienced team of researchers to guide the process.

First, we led interviews with Worldly’s stakeholders, including members of leadership, sales, branding, technology, and product marketing. These discussions provided a cross-functional understanding of the company’s objectives and goals—as well as potential gaps.

Building on initial analysis, we designed a survey tailored for the two users of the tool: brands and manufacturers. We wanted to investigate their assumptions and test hypotheses regarding usage patterns, loyalty factors, motivators, and preferences.

And because a significant portion of Worldly’s user base resides in the Asian market, we facilitated survey translation for simplified Chinese. This step ensured a higher quality response rate and improved inclusivity in capturing insights.

Pie chart that is mostly blue and partly yellow. It is filled with small white person icons. The majority section is blue, with blue abstract illustrations to the left representing statistics about that segment. The minority section is yellow, with yellow abstract illustrations to the left representing statistics about that segment.

Building a foundation of user insights

As the responses rolled in, we collected data, analyzed, and aggregated the findings. Drawing from the results, we recommended strategies to cultivate loyalty, even beyond Worldly’s core base of users, members of the Sustainable Apparel Coalition (SAC).

Another crucial part of the project was equipping Worldly with customized deliverables to support their outreach and product development. These included:

P ersonas and customer journey maps to define where and how each segment engages with the Worldly brand and the Higg Index

Illustration with different size circles in various colors. The outside circle is blue, labeled "your industry." The circle inside that is red, labeled "competitors." The circle inside that is yellow, labeled "your customers." And the inside circle is lighter yellow, labeled "your business."

Ind ustry landscape analysis to explore trends, opportunities, and threats to today’s brands and manufacturers

These assets provide Worldly with the foundation to rise above the noise and deliver the value that their customers desire and need.

Results

Through a successful customer segmentation study, Worldly gained a stronger understanding of what motivates each user.

The study also yielded valuable surprises, challenging some of Worldly’s initial hypotheses.

For instance, stakeholders believed brands would benefit most from the Worldly product, relying on the data for decision-making. And while that may be true, manufacturers also stood out for their high satisfaction scores. They saw the tool as an opportunity to drive meaningful change rather than simply fulfilling data entry requirements.

These insights present Worldly with exciting possibilities to target untapped potential, enhance product development, and adopt fresh marketing approaches to engage both existing and new customers.