Rumpl has been making waves in the outdoor community since they produced the first “Outdoor blanket” for adventure-seekers everywhere. Most recently, they partnered with MakerSights to optimize their pricing strategy by measuring exactly what about their Original Puffy Blankets consumers value the most. Building a data-driven pricing strategy allowed them to improve margins and plan future investments for innovation.
Rumpl discovered that the perceived value of the OG Puffy was not aligned with current pricing
Margin lift opportunity by aligning pricing with consumers' perceived value
Simple process with fast, easy-to-understand, and immediately actionable insights
Like many brands today, Rumpl considers price optimization to be a top priority amid uncertain market conditions. While their entire collection has experienced rapid growth over the past two years, their team set out to explore how they might improve margins for their top-selling line.
Curious about how pricing may impact consumer demand for their Original Puffy blanket, Rumpl VP of Product & Marketing, David Visnack, initially tried to test price sensitivity through the brand’s own e-commerce website, but unfortunately the results were inconclusive.
Rumpl had recently begun testing product concepts and designs with target consumers via MakerSights to ensure resonance before bringing them to market. This prompted Visnack to think of MakerSights as a partner with a potential solution. Through MakerSights' Price Optimization capabilities, Visnack aimed to identify the right price for the Original Puffy line that would welcome both new and repeat customers without sacrificing demand or profitability.
Rumpl collaborated with MakerSights to build a quick and engaging survey that mimicked their real-world e-commerce experience. The survey leveraged a choice-based research methodology called Conjoint Analysis, which isolates and measures the impact of price on consumers' intent to purchase. Participants were presented with a random selection of three OG Puffy blankets, each with a unique design at a different price point, and asked to select which blanket they preferred. This allowed MakerSights to indirectly measure the impact of price on consumers' preferences, driving more actionable pricing recommendations and delivering unexpected insights about the consumers themselves.
The results of the test were available within two weeks. “Even though MakerSights leveraged sophisticated data science and statistical methodology to determine the optimal price for our Original Puffy blankets, the report was easy to understand and the insights were immediately actionable,” said Rumpl Senior Director of Product, Joe Smith. “The project confirmed our hunches about what the market was able to support and provided objective consumer data that helped persuade some reluctant team members to embrace the new pricing structure, giving them the confidence to communicate the changes to our
retail partners.”
Rumpl’s strong brand position and high perceived value among target consumers indicated an opportunity to increase the Original Puffy price by $15-25. Rather than simply increasing prices to the maximum amount the market could handle, the team decided to take a more nuanced strategy and priced each of the Original Puffy’s styles distinctly. This thoughtful approach enabled Rumpl to elevate its profit margin by approximately 10%, addressing business needs while taking into account consumers' preferences in the face of economic uncertainty.
“We were pleasantly surprised to discover that the Original Puffy’s perceived value among consumers is notably higher than we had originally thought, particularly among Gen Z, and that they are willing to pay more for a quality product in the design they love. This not only confirmed that there was room for price adjustments on our various Original Puffy design types. We were also happy to learn that Gen Z prioritizes durability and design over price, indicating that there is more potential for Rumpl with that generation of consumers than we had assumed, which will be helpful when exploring messaging and targeted marketing campaigns in the future,” added Smith.
The insights provided by MakerSights gave us the confirmation we needed to ensure that we can continue to serve our customers with the high-quality products they love, at margins that will help our team continue to grow and innovate.
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