REPREVE

Brand Strategy

Challenges

• Start-ups. A lot of new players with strong funding, marketing, and PR strategies.
• REPREVE brand clutter. A complex system of logos for processes, certifications, products, and features was difficult to understand and expensive to maintain.
• Audience disengagement. Textiles from bottles was no longer new and exciting for brands or consumers.
• Audience assumptions. Average consumer assumes textile-to-textile recycling is easy compared with bottles-to-textiles. However, blended fabrics and material recovery make it harder.
• Sustainability doesn't sell. Observed behaviors reveal that you can't sell on good will alone; you have to sell self-interest.
  
• Shifting views of textiles-from-bottles. Governments and environmentalists are advocating for circularity: bottles-to-bottles and textiles-to-textiles.
• Ingredient in an ingredient. REPREVE yarn and resin is sold to mills. The mills sell fabric/material to brands, who sell clothing and products to consumers. ‍
• Brands softening language. Brands are moving away from specificity (made from recycled bottles) to generic (made from recycled materials.) Many REPREVE branded products are built around specificity of waste source material. (i.e. REPREVE Our Ocean®, made of ocean-bound plastic).

Key Differentiators

• Market leader position. REPREVE is the leading brand of polyester made from recycled plastic bottles, with a industry-respected reputation, strong global supply chains, mill connections, and working relationships with major brands.
• First to scale. The start-ups are still years away from established manufacturing and distribution. REPREVE products are designed to work as drop-in replacements for existing materials in products and supply chains.
• Consumer-recognized brand. While consumer-marketing efforts have waned in the last five years, the REPREVE name and bottle tag is still used by brands and recognized by consumers.
• LCA data. REPREVE has invested in third-party reviewed Life Cycle Analysis data, currently the gold-standard in reporting capabilities.

Insights

• Brand/Product Architecture: A brand/product system will being internal and external clarity, while future-proofing for upcoming product releases.
• The REPREVE Universe: Many products had a shared process, messaging, and sales pitch. There is an opportunity to use the REPREVE brand to improve sales across the board, while reducing the need for independent assets.‍
• The REPREVE Platform (aka Burrito Bowls): There was a "Chipotle-style menu" underpinning REPREVE's products. A "material platform" would be a breakthrough approach to sustainable material production.‍
• We compare brands; not products: When consumers see a brand/store selling a sustainable product, they are more likely to make any purchase from the brand, even if it's not the sustainable product. ‍
• Bug, not a feature: Sustainability is no longer impacting sales as a "positive feature." The industry has shifted and we need unsustainable brands to worry about having a "risky bug" that could limit their audience.‍
• Education: Brands, mills, and departments want tools to internally educate and make the business-case for sustainability. ‍
• Types of brands: We outlined three tiers of brands when it comes to how they define sustainability.‍
  
  • Conviction Brands (ex. Patagonia): Sustainable means measurable impact. They want as much data as possible and will make decisions based on overall impact.‍
  • Reputation Brands (ex. Nike): Sustainable means consumers feel good about purchasing. They want to avoid greenwashing at all costs. They want to demonstrate positive movement towards ESG goals (and will act conservatively to protect a year over year trend). They care about the ROI of selling sustainability.‍
  • Consumption Brands (ex. Walmart): Sustainable means consumers don’t feel discouraged from purchasing other things. They want to make to maximize the visibility of product claims and sustainable messaging.

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Copywriting

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With a better understanding of audience and strategy, the current REPREVE website was simply not working hard enough. Content needed to be rewritten for tone and developed from scratch.

Tone of Voice

The tone of the site needed to shift away from consumer-first language, and speak more as a thought leader and partner in the industry.
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Explaining the Platform

As a brand new concept, the REPREVE platform needed a clear structure and sales pitch to explain it internally and externally. For the website, we introduced small moments of interactivity furthering the audience's feeling of control and customizability.
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