Catherine Veltman – The Woolmark Company

The Woolmark Company is the global authority on wool, a non-profit organisation that connects 60,000 woolgrowers to promote, develop and research Australian wool. Catherine joined the business five years ago as a marketing co-ordinator, working as part of a team that created communications and advertising campaigns to build awareness and consideration for wool, as a lever for fashion choice.

Fast forward to today, and Catherine is now the Global Marketing Projects Manager, managing consumer campaigns across the globe as well as the International Woolmark Prize, a talent programme that celebrates outstanding fashion talents from around the globe, to showcase the designer’s versatility of wool usage as well as their business structure and product evolution. 

RESEARCH AND A STRONG EDUCATIONAL MESSAGE CREATED OUR MOMENTS OF TRUTH

Catherine worked across the rollout of the campaign “Wear Wool, not Fossil Fuel”; a campaign that aimed to grab the consumers’ attention through education and arresting images.

“The Wear Wool, Not Fossil Fuel” campaign brought us a real Moment of Truth. Before the launch, we conducted a lot of consumer research alongside pre-tests with DVJ to determine what our messaging should be and to ensure strong resonance with our consumers, and the results helped us to uncover two facts, that were shocking to consumers:

1) Consumers were shocked that wool biodegrades.

2) Consumers could not wrap their heads around the fact that synthetics are made from fossil fuels.

This was the moment when we realized that we need to educate our consumers about natural fibres, and the fact that wool is better for them, as well as for the environment. For us, our Moment of Truth was the realisation that to make a difference, this insight needed to underpin the whole campaign.” explains Catherine.

“Our Moment of Truth was when we realized that we need to educate our consumers about natural fibres, and the fact that wool is better for them, as well as for the environment.”

“We have never delivered such a strong and direct message, so we naturally had our doubts, and plenty of “should we/shouldn’t we” moments! But at the heart of the campaign was the insight – it was all backed by science. Knowing we have science to fall back on, was a big moment as well.” And the campaign worked brilliantly – so much so, that the campaign has now been rolled out in several markets, from the US, UK and France to Italy, Germany and Australia followed by Asian markets, and all with equal success.

All you need is wool

“The Woolmark Company aims to grow the value and demand for Australian wool. We are focused on educating consumers on the benefits of wool and why they should consider fibre in the decision process.

To understand the whole consumer journey, The Woolmark Company regularly conducts research. An annual Consumer survey measures the awareness, sentiment and understanding of merino wool, wool more broadly, and The Woolmark Company. Research is the underlying source of our Moments of Truth, of all campaigns that we run. We never air a campaign that is not backed by research and science.

We also define our areas of focus by working across three-year strategic periods. At the beginning of each strategic period, we identify key focus areas and key pillars.

For example, during this current strategic period, we are focused on sustainability, as well as casualisation and the possibilities for wool in the performance space. Wool has natural performance benefits – thermoregulation, moisture wicking and odour resistance. So, it is the perfect industry for wool to be considered. Another pillar is our audience. We now must be very aware of Gen Z – they will have huge spending power in the future, so we are shifting some of our focus from Millennials to the Gen Z audience. Identifying pillars at the beginning of each strategic period helps us to create a targeted marketing strategy for the following three years.”

“Research is the underlying source of our Moments of Truth, of each campaign. We never air a campaign that is not backed by research and science.”

Americans associate wool with grandma´s chunky sweater

“What we typically do is look at consumer research per market and then identify key barriers before we start our marketing campaign. For example, in the US, we know that one of our biggest barriers is that wool is still assumed to be itchy and scratchy and associated with grandma´s chunky sweater. We need to overcome these barriers. Firstly, we need to increase awareness and education around wool as a modern, innovative fibre and secondly, we need to provide an easy path to purchase. We had a two-year campaign in the US that was very much focused on hitting all those levels from awareness to purchase intention and sales.” says, Catherine.

“That is our process of discovering insights: identifying key barriers and evaluating how to hit all the touchpoints. In some cases, we can do all of that in one campaign but in others, we have a large barrier to tackle (for example, educating consumers on the eco-benefits of wool and impacting the purchase journey), that there is no way we could educate consumers and impact buying behaviour in one year. Changing consumer behaviours takes time. So, in those instances, we approach our campaigns from a multi-year perspective.”

MOTIVATION to make an impact

“With the Wear Wool, Not Fossil Fuel campaign, we knew we were not going to change all consumers’ purchase preferences to natural fibres over synthetics – but that’s the dream! We also know no one can purchase 100% natural fibres, that is just not possible, but it´s all about the opportunity to choose a natural fibre when you can. Choosing a blend of natural and synthetic fibres, for example, is a step in the right direction. At the moment, The Woolmark Company is very much focused on awareness and education. It is about consumers considering fibre during their purchase decision journey before they get to the check-out stage – that is our end goal.”

“The key message of the campaign is to choose natural fibres and reduce synthetic fibres. We aim to help consumers take steps to reduce their impact and choose natural fibre over synthetics.”

“From a broader perspective, The Woolmark Company is doing so much in this environmental space. Of course, this one campaign is amazing, but it is only one element of the broader company activities. Our on-farm team is in touch with woolgrowers every day, the trade marketing team educates supply chains about wool and our marketing team approaches brands and customers. It is great when all our projects come together to focus on such an important message.”