Allbirds fuels explosive brand growth

For Allbirds, carving out a place in the $79 billion (approx. £64 billion) trainer industry is all about brand – and brand insights from Momentive. When the D2C company launched in 2016, consumers quickly connected with Allbirds’ eco-conscious, casual-chic brand and bought more than a million pairs of its unique wool trainers within the first two years. Allbirds has since increased distribution across 35 countries and views brand health as a critical part of its growth.

“Our short-term and long-term financial performance is dependent on how strong our brand is,” said Dinesh Gaur, director of analytics at Allbirds. “We see there’s a clear correlation between brand awareness and hard financial metrics like sales and conversions.”

Making the switch from a slow market research agency to agile market research from Momentive has made a huge impact for Allbirds when it comes to keeping a pulse on its brand and consumer behaviour. With Momentive, Gaur can keep a close eye on brand performance and use those metrics to drive business decisions, including expansion into new markets.

Associate Director of Global Brand Marketing
Allbirds

When Allbirds first stepped up in the footwear market, it used a third-party research agency to track its brand health. But the back-and-forth process of working with an agency was expensive, slow and labour-intensive. Plus, the agency’s quarterly brand tracking reports didn’t give Allbirds enough time to react to findings or evaluate survey parameters.

“If we wanted to make small changes to a questionnaire or do additional analysis, we were dependent on the agency to do it for us,” Gaur said. “Also, they just lacked the context behind why the data was moving a certain way in a report.”

Gaur began using Momentive to run his own brand tracking programme for a fraction of the cost – on his own timeline and his own terms. This agile market research framework gives him full control over Allbirds’ survey design and data, making it easy to save time, understand trends and pursue opportunities.

Head of Analytics
Allbirds

With Momentive, Gaur set up a brand tracker that continuously monitors Allbirds’ brand health in key markets, collecting more than 14,000 responses over the course of a year. Instead of combing through dozens of PowerPoint decks from an agency or waiting for quarterly reports, he can consistently stay up to date and guide Allbirds to act quickly and decisively.

Not only does Brand Tracking by Momentive help Allbirds stay nimble in the hyper-competitive trainer industry, but it also allows the company to optimise its growth strategies. Months before Allbirds enters a new market, Gaur runs benchmarking studies to get a baseline of its brand awareness in that space. He explores how different consumer segments perceive Allbirds’ brand and what they would expect to pay for products like Allbirds.

This data draws a line between Allbirds’ brand awareness and sales, clarifying the appropriate next steps for the business. For Gaur, having unlimited access to insights and the freedom to quickly run his own market research studies is game-changing. “We always have new hypotheses or ideas to test, and the speed with which we can do that becomes very important,” he said. “It’s crucial to developing a strong brand that helps us acquire and develop a loyal and profitable customer base.”

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