The Spanx Story by Charlie Wetzel

Author:Charlie Wetzel
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harpercollins Leadership
Published: 2020-08-28T00:00:00+00:00

Capitalizing on Her Strengths

Sales of the single Spanx product, Footless Body-Shaping Pantyhose, continued to grow steadily after the beginning of the year. By hiring a tiny staff and using the fulfillment company, Sara had gained breathing room, enabling her to get more sleep and have more time to think. And with that new freedom, she gave attention to the two things that she was very good at: creating new solutions to problems, and selling more product.

Sara didn’t have to look far for product ideas. A self-described “recreational thinker,” she had been making observations and wondering about new ways to do things for years. “I pay attention to things that haven’t evolved and why,” she once said of her hobby. “I ask myself questions all day, every day. I could be looking at a table and be like, ‘Why is the table like that? When was the table first created? Is that the actual best design for a table? Or could there be something different?’”7

Because Sara carried a notebook everywhere, she always recorded her musings and big ideas. One of those ideas, a fairly simple variation on her original product, would become her second invention. The problem it would solve was in the design of fishnet pantyhose. A popular garment, often purchased by women who wanted to wear them with a little black dress for a nice evening out, fishnets looked very attractive on a woman’s legs. To make the familiar mesh fishnet pattern, traditional hosiery companies had constructed them entirely of thick, crisscrossing threads, from waist to toe. But they came with a side effect that appeared when the pattern was stretched across a woman’s upper thighs and bottom, especially under fitted or thin clothing: traditional fishnets tended to create a visible and unappealing latticework on the wearer’s rear end.

Sara’s solution to the problem was simple: attach the top portion of her Footless Body-Shaping Pantyhose (from waist to mid-thigh) to fishnet legs. (Unlike her original product, this one would also include feet.) In addition to eliminating the visible mesh and creating a clean look on the derriere, the resulting design introduced Spanx’s unique innovations to a new garment. These fishnets promised to inspire confidence in women through both attractive legs and a smooth, tight bottom.

Just like her first Spanx product, Sara’s second invention ended up with a simple and descriptive name: Control-Top Fishnets. And since these pantyhose had feet, which made them much more familiar to shoppers, they needed less explanation than the footless ones had. But they still needed a slogan. Spanx had become a viable brand in the marketplace, in spite of the mildly risqué name and “We’ve Got Your Butt Covered!” slogan. But it still danced on the line between appropriate and inappropriate in many minds. If Sara wanted to, she could choose a slogan that leaned more toward appropriate. “Classing things up” might widen the product’s audience a little. But Sara continued dancing on the line. The slogan for Product #2 was: “No More Grid Butt!”8

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