lanehalley

This Fast Company article about Pottery Barn brand marketing includes an interesting anecdote. They used photos of kid's rooms to identify product opportunities.

"A contest asking kids to mail in snapshots of their rooms generated photographs that gave PBteen staffers a view into the real-life spaces of teenagers. Staffers have been poring over them like CIA analysts. "The rooms are remarkably similar," Wynhoff says. "The kids are all little pack rats, with every stuffed animal they've gotten since they were born. That's a huge opportunity for us. We hope to get parents to buy stuff that will impose some order.""

Pottery Barn is a successful brand because they provide an excellent product, and they know how to communiate with their audience.

"The company's smart yet accessible product mix, seductive merchandising, and first-rate customer service have made it the front-runner in a fragmented industry -- not just because of the products that it sells, but also because of the connections that it makes with customers."

Tags: brand, potterybarn, research