Yak Yak Part 2: The Marketplace

In part 1 you were introduced to Operation Mercy’s efforts to develop an export of  yarn and clothing from Tajikistan to the rest of the world. Read on for the continued adventures of Yak Yak.

Yak Yak has the potential to have numerous lines of products in the future but at this point we only know of two broad categories; yarn and garments. The challenge is to create a brand that works well for both of these categories and translates into lines that will fall under these categories in the future.

We know that the yarn will be sold through traditional brick and mortar yarn stores. We know that the yarn and the garments will both be sold through online channels. Some of the online channels for the garments also have flagship stores, so there may be a physical retail element to the garments as well.

What do these environments look like? What brands currently live in those spaces? What kinds of customers shop there?

A field trip was in order.

Woolen Treasures Yarn Shop / www.WoolenTreasures.com

Our first stop happens to be right down the street from Tenfold’s office. It is a quaint little  house filled to the brim with yarn… A lot of yarn.

When we walked in the door, Monika Vargas, owner of Woolen Treasures Yarn Shop, was sitting on the couch helping a customer work through the difficulties of a knitting project. Monika carries a wide range of yarns with buffalo being the most comparable to yak. Woolen Treasures does not currently carry 100% yak yarns, however they do have a number of blends. Monika mentioned that a 100% yak yarn would be a premium yarn that would be at a high price point. However, she also said that customers working on special projects are willing to pay a premium for the materials to do those projects.

Most of Woolen Treasures’ customers fit the average profile mentioned in Part 1 of the Yak Yak adventure, which is expected in Loveland. However, that’s a profile into which many customers don’t fit. Monika mentioned that most of her customers are women, but the age varies greatly. She said that the novelty yarns tend to sell better with the younger crowd, and the luxury yarns (like Yak Yak) tend to sell better with the affluent older crowd. This would go against our “hipster gut feeling” mentioned in Part 1.

Monika also caught my attention when she said that new mothers typically don’t want to hand-wash their baby garments. This could present a challenge to the children’s garment line of Yak Yak, as yak must be hand-washed.

What surprised us most was the variety of packaging of the skeins. Some yarns were wrapped into tight little balls with a band that wrapped through the middle. Some looked like long braids. Some looked like what you would expect from yarn and used traditional belly bands. Some used hang tags. It seems like there is no uniform way to display the yarn. Monika confirmed this and said that yarn companies can coil their skeins however they would like.

My preference for Yak Yak is leaning toward a folding hang tag allowing for space to tell the Yak Yak story on the inside. Could this same tag, or at least the same construction of the tag, be leveraged into the garment line?

Lambspun / www.Lambspun.com

Our next stop landed us 15 miles north of Loveland to a store in Fort Collins called Lambspun. Circled around a large table were 5 women of varying ages working on their knitting projects. Who are these people and how is it that they can work on their knitting projects at 2:00 on a Tuesday afternoon? The fanatical dedication of knitters is amazing to me.

We met Melina at the front counter who was very kind and showed us around the store. Yarn prices seemed comparable to the yarns we saw in Loveland ranging from $18 to $46. Some of the premium yarns that they offer are Qivuit, Camel, and….Possum.

Yes, possum. Melina told us that possum is incredibly warm and soft and we were amazed at what she showed us.

Lambspun also offers yak blends, but nothing that is 100% yak. Melina echoed what Monika said – that a 100% Yak wool would have a high price point. Many of the high-end exotic yarns are often bought as an embellishment to a larger project or purchased for small projects, but rarely are large projects done exclusively with high end yarns.

She also said some people would want it simply because it is yak.

Fancy Tiger / http://www.fancytiger.com/craftindex.html

Fancy Tiger appeals to the aforementioned hipster crowd, which is a slightly different demographic from their counterparts up north. Operated by two of the nicest people you will ever meet, Jaime and Amber, I promise you will be into hand-made everything by the time you leave. This is a truly inspiring store!

Jaime and Amber sat down with me to share their thoughts on where we should take the branding and labels for the yarn:

Label

1. It’s important to know the animal that produced the yarn. Play up the yak.

2. Include the story of the people behind the yarn.

3. Include washing instructions on the tag.

4. Leave space for the store to add a barcode (about the size of an avery label).

5. If the hang tag opens, use a tab to keep it closed while it is hanging.

Packaging

1. Can the yarn be balled in an interesting way? Look at Zauderball

2. If it is a traditional skein, use a belly band that wraps all the way around to neatly hold it together.

Marketing to yarn stores

1. Send actual samples. The yarn stores want to be able to see and feel it (as opposed to looking at it in a catalog)

2. Give stores ideas for displays. Glass jars, interesting boxes, antiques, etc.

3. If you do use a catalog to sell to stores, make sure you can see the texture of the yarn in the photo.

4. Knitters are passionate about their craft. Check out ravelry.com – you can start a discussion about anything yarn and people will be excited about joining in.

They also had thoughts on the product itself and how it should be produced. Thank you Jaime and Amber, Your insight is much appreciated!

Online

Both Yak Yak garments and yarn will be sold online through retail partners. In that context the communication of the their brand will be limited to photos of Yak Yak products lined up directly against competing products. The photography has to be immaculate.

Words words words…

Here’s what I am taking away from this little exercise:

1. I feel pretty good about saying that this product is for women. However, I am increasingly feeling like we are going to have a hard time narrowing the demographic down much more than that. It seems like knitters of all ages may be attracted to it.

2. Yak Yak is going to be an expensive product and we were not able to find any other yarns that are 100% yak, which is a luxury fiber. The branding needs to reflect this.

3. The packaging options are wide open. Belly bands, hang tags, whatever; it’s all an option. We noticed that the higher end yarns typically use the hang tag approach.

4. Some people would want Yak Yak simply because it is yak. The yarn will have a novelty factor.

Out of this, we are exploring three design narratives. More on that in the next adventure.