Lee Jeans - The New Lee.

com
Effie Worldwide
Bronze, North America Effies 2010

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Lee Jeans - The New Lee.com

Effie Worldwide
Bronze, North America Effies 2010

Lee Jeans The New Lee.com

Category: Fashion/Style
Brand/Client: Lee Jeans
Primary Agency: OLSON

STRATEGIC CHALLENGE
You're a 120-year-old denim brand with a dusty image and declining awareness.
You've been de-positioned for decades by countless other, far more hip and fashionable up-and-coming denim brands.
You are perceived to be authenticat a time and place when that is no longer relevant.
And though you have in all reality taken enormous, innovative strides to stay on trend while creating the best-fitting jean
collection available, nobody knows it. And you're dependent on a retail channel that's folding like a pair of cheap slacks.
You're Lee Jeans. In 2009, Lee Jeans turned to the one channel of distribution where it could control its image and show just
how on-trend it wasits own website. But how do you sell jeans online when shopping for jeans is already one of the real
world's most frustrating experiences?
I only buy jeans when I have to. I would THROW money at them if they worked for me.
Dafina, age 38
I hate shopping for jeans , I feel bad about myself for four days afterwards.
Theresa, age 37
I took a long time one day and I tried on all sorts of styles of jeans . I hated it. My wife was throwing more and
more over the door and I was like, I DON'T WANT ANY MORE.
Mark, age 42
My son hates to shop. I have to drag him with me. And then he doesn't want to try anything on and I tell him, 'I'm
not bringing it back if it doesn't fit' and then he tries them on.
Alice, age 39
Our challenge was to create the ultimate online retail experience where both men and women would feel welcomed, where
they could let go of their insecurities, be inspired by real stories of people just like them and ultimately slip into a pair of jeans

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that fits them and their distinctive lifestyles perfectly. And where Lee could shed its dusty, old image for good.

OBJECTIVES
Quantifiable:
Objective #1: Increase site conversion to a rate of 3%.
Objective #2: Increase gross revenue on Lee.com by 25%, YOY.
Objective #3: Increase average shopping cart value by .75%.
Objective #4: Increase orders by 10%, YOY.
Objective #5: Increase Search, Affiliate marketing, and Comparison Shopping programs by 25%, YOY.
Perceptual:
Objective #1: Change consumer perception of the brand through the product experience itself by invoking consumer
feedback via product ratings. Our goal was to generate comments from 10% of purchasers.

THE BIG IDEA

Create an online retail experience that reflected people, and Lee Jeans, better than any fitting-room mirror ever could.
We began with a deep anthropological dive into the lives, homes and closets of everyday men and women. Our goal was to
understand them inside and out and ultimately build a retail experience based on what we found. Makes sense for Lee
Jeansthough authenticmay not have been relevant from a fashion sense, we saw a huge opportunity to leverage
authenticity and be realwith people.
But being realmeant different things to men and women.
Jeans buying for her: It's a time-suck, an image-suck and an esteem-suck. It just sucks.
Women will often try on upwards of 30 pairs at a time. That number is multiplied given that the search for the perfect pairis
an ongoing processsometimes their size fluctuates by the month so they need 8 or 10 pairs of jeans in the closet at any
given time. And for them, the perfect jeansare all about fit and flattery: I like the way they look on my body type,and they
make my butt look smaller.
Once we understood women's physical attraction to jeans, we dug deeper into their psyche about the emotional triggers
related to their purchasing decisions. Go to just about any online denim retail site and you'll see flawless, size four,
unrealistically styled models. But while these sites may have perceived these pictures as aspirational, what we discovered is
that they were, in fact, offensive.
Jeans buying for him: Can't they just have a drive-through mall?
Conversely, men pretty much all buy jeans in the same waythey walk into the store and pick up the same brand, style and
size they have always worn. They don't experiment, they don't browse, and they don't pay attention to new styles or brands
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mostly because they hate the hassle of trying them on. They value function and durability, and, honestly, most of them don't
even buy their jeanstheir mothers or wives do.
Based on this learning we knew we needed to hold hands in different ways. Women would require more inspiration,
experimentation and affirmation. Guys would require the fastest route to check-out.
Meet the new Lee.com. A completely fresh and authentic way for people to shop for jeans online. And a site that answered all
of the real world challenges of finding the perfect fit.

BRINGING THE IDEA TO LIFE

Given that fit is the main criterion for both men and women when it comes to defining the perfectjeans, the new Lee.com
would be built around the Fit Finder.This feature was a direct reflection of what we learned in research: It was designed to
be a celebration of real people and real body types, as demonstrated through regular and plus-size models; it was headacheand hassle-free, with easy navigation and all of Lee's style and color options always on display and in stock; and it was
remarkably intuitive, informed by the different things men and women seek when shopping for jeans.
Since women told us they were highly aware of four specific areas of their bodies when jeans shoppingtheir waist, thigh,
stomach and seatthe Fit Finder guided them to multiple styles customized specifically for them and their individual shapes.
For an even more personalized experience, women could further narrow their options based on rise, length, leg style and picks
that were most popular with site visitors. Men, however, told us that a successful fit was defined through waist, thigh and leg
openingso the Fit Finder guided them through their filtering process accordingly.
To humanize the process and provide additional information to help site visitors find the right jeans for them, the Fit Finder also
included a series of videos of the Lee design team talking about specific styles and the inspiration behind them. For example,
the Comfort Waist jeans that were designed for women with a more generous waista hidden, no gap waistband allows them
to have the perfect fit and be fashionable at the same time.
Once we had people at the site, we wanted to keep them there. To make the new Lee.com experience more distinctive and
sticky, we celebrated the lives of real Lee customers who embodied the brand and what it stood for in a series of short
documentaries called, My Life in Lee. In one episode, we follow Jodi, a young entrepreneur who founded Play It Forward,a
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hybrid adventure/humanitarian travel company that gives customers the best of extreme sports and missionary work in the
same trip. Bottom line, we wanted to make an aspirational point that beyond merely fitting your body, Lee Jeans can fit your
life.
Finally, as a laser-focused means of driving traffic to purchase at the site, we used Search Marketing, Comparison Shopping
Engines, Affiliate partnerships and a comprehensive Email program.

COMMUNICATIONS TOUCH POINTS

Additional Marketing Components:

None
Reach:
National
Total Media Expenditure:
Less than 500 thousand

RESULTS
Quantifiable:
Objective #1: Increase site conversion to a rate of 3%.
Results:
l

Site conversion increased an average of 4.5%.

The Fit Finder has quickly become one of the most popular and trafficked features of the new Lee.com and boasts an
unbelievable 15% conversion rate, which in comparison to the site's already high 4.5% conversion rate is a remarkable
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accomplishment.
Objective #2: Increase gross revenue on Lee.com by 25%, YOY.
Result: Gross revenue increased by 25% (right on goal).
Objective #3: Increase average shopping cart value by .75%.
Result: Average shopping cart value increased by 1% (above goal).
Objective #4: Increase orders by 10%, YOY.
Result: Orders increased by 18% (nearly double our goal).
Objective #5: Increase Search, Affiliate marketing, and Comparison Shopping programs by 25%, YOY.
Results:
l

Search revenue increased by 36% (above goal).

Affiliate marketing revenue increased by 59% (more than double our goal).

Comparison shopping revenue increased by 61% (more than double our goal).

Source: All metrics as reported by Coremetrics, web analytics for Lee.com '09, last year reported through Google Analytics.
Timeframe: TY: 05/01/0909/01/09, compared to LY: 05/01/0809/01/08.
Perceptual:
Objective #1: Change consumer perception of the brand through the product experience itself by invoking consumer
feedback via product ratings. Our goal was to generate comments from 10% of purchasers.
Result: Within the first month of the new site launch, and the ability for consumers to rate and write reviews:
l

More than 20% of purchasers returned to share their opinions (double our goal).

The average star rating was 4.7 out of 5.

Source: Bazaarvoice
Anything else going on that might have helped drive results?
Lee experienced two major mid-tier department store closers in 2009, Mervyn's and Goody's. Core consumers who shopped at
these primary Lee brand retailers may have visited Lee.com to meet their replenishment needs.
Lee also had a national TV and Print campaign; buy was small and drivers were to retailers such as sears.com; not Lee.com.

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Copyright Effie Worldwide, Inc. 2010

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