Slinkies:
Brand Positioning from Brief to Brand
How brand positioning built a premium category from a single product truth.
Challenge
How do you build a cult following for a product without paid media?
Insight
Cult followings are built on feelings, not features. The shapewear market was full of products that worked but nobody loved: functional, frumpy, designed to disappear. We knew women wanted something worth wearing.
Niki and Scott wrote the brand positioning first as a clear brand promise: ‘grippy on the inside, slippy on the outside.’ That brief drove the fabric specification, the pricing architecture, the retail sell-in and the consumer story. It described the full promise: all-over comfort, smooth, stay-put and seam-free. By the time the product existed, the campaign already had roots, and an audience ready to receive it.
Brand
Slinkies / Made by Niki
Persona
Affluent Women
Industry
Ready-to-wear
Shapewear
Premium
Skills
PR
Visual Identity
Creative System
Marketing Strategy
Trade Marketing
Led by
Niki McMorrough
Scott Parker
We took a clean-lit, functional approach to photography that mirrored the product promise: no fuss, all body. The lookbook doubled as a line sheet, keeping mailing costs low and trade show logistics simple. Eighteen months ahead of consumer launch, that compact creative system opened retail doors at Figleaves, ASOS and De Bijenkorf.
Press loans followed, placing Slinkies on Lana Del Rey, Rihanna and Naomi Campbell. At consumer launch, owned channels, email and social converted that editorial momentum into direct revenue. Across the launch seasons, direct-to-consumer revenue matched wholesale almost pound for pound — without a paid placement. Roughly half of all revenue came through direct channels from a standing start.
Wholesale reorders continued for five years after that. The consumer channel scaled alongside them. The result was a category won before the incumbents knew there was a fight. See how we extended the same playbook across Made by Niki’s wider retail distribution.
How did brand positioning put an unknown shapewear label into Figleaves, ASOS and De Bijenkorf?
Editorial
Strategic costume loans placed Slinkies in cover stories across NME (Lana Del Rey), Vogue Russia (Naomi Campbell) and FHM (Joanna Page and Ashley Roberts) — earned coverage, not paid placement.
“Made by Niki has changed the concept of body shaping underwear.”
“Slinkies are genius!”
“Made by Niki is the hottest new label around”
Retail Media
Retail presence alone doesn’t create retail advocacy. We provided stockists with training materials, point of sale and merchandising assets — and they repaid that investment with editorial. Slinkies featured across ASOS Magazine, Lane Crawford’s ‘In’ magazine and regional titles. Retail relationships became a media channel.
On screen
Product placement and press loan relationships put Slinkies on screen without a placement fee. Rihanna wore the pieces for a Canal+ appearance. Australian actress Katie Ball endorsed them in editorial. Eliza Doolittle and Daisy Lowe were spotted street styling the range.
Digital
Rather than relying on paid media to build a consumer audience, we activated the relationships, press coverage and retail credibility through owned channels, email and community.
Consumer direct revenue matched wholesale – and that ratio held because the brand promise answered latent desire. Every direct sale came at full margin, with no acquisition cost.
The brand positioning swept the board: lingerie, shapewear and export industry awards
Results from brand positioning written before the product existed
~100
Regular stockists including Figleaves | ASOS “ Shopbop via retail-ready creative system.
5+ titles
Vogue | FHM | NME | Look | Marie Claire via strategic press relationships (not paid advertorial).
51%
D2C sales matched wholesale with organic growth from a standing start.
Questions we get asked
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Three phases, each building on the last. Trade and retail first to win credibility. PR, earned media and digital authority second to build search presence. Consumer activation third to convert the momentum upstream. Lead times vary by sector. The sequence rarely does. If you’re planning a launch, let’s talk.
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Either works. Before is ideal: when audience intelligence informs the product brief, the marketing claim is true before the product exists. After is just as common: most brands come to us with a product and need the positioning to catch up. Either way, let’s have a conversation.
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Trade first, consumer second. The trade launch builds the credibility that lets the consumer launch land with minimal paid support. If you’re planning a launch, let’s see how this could work for you.