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Get the feedback you need before you launch.If you’re a startup with a big idea, but lean budget, how do you do the market research you need to guarantee a successful launch? How can you make sure you’re reaching your target audience before you invest dollars and time developing your product or service?

Try SurveyMonkey Audience. See how a cool new startup, Vintage Futbol, used SurveyMonkey Audience to make sure they had the right product, right brand, and right pricing for their customers. All on a startup budget.

Vintage FutbolKhoi Phan, Founder and Creative Director

Startup Case Study

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About Vintage Futbol Washington D.C.-based Vintage Futbol

is an up-and-coming, soccer-inspired

clothing and lifestyle brand. When

company founder and creative director

Khoi Phan first moved to New York City to

pursue a career in design, he spent his free

time playing for a soccer league in Chinatown. Motivated by

the passion his teammates felt for the game, Phan envisioned

a clothing line that embodied the spirit of the game and the

people who love it. In a matter of months, he created the

brand, found a business partner, and acquired startup capital.

Fueled by great design ideas and a staff of eight devoted

soccer fans, Vintage Futbol was officially launched in April 2010.

The question every new startup has —how do we get started?

Before the company could

begin production, some

important questions needed

to be answered. The Vintage

Futbol team knew their ideal

customers were people like

themselves—adults between

the ages of 18-30 who’d grown

up playing soccer. But they needed to find out more specific

information about the purchasing habits and clothing

preferences of this particular market.

Vintage Futbol had a short amount of time to get answers and

a limited budget to conduct their initial research. The team

was already familiar with SurveyMonkey, an inexpensive,

flexible tool and had set up

a survey that asked specific

questions about the design

of their product. After a few

rounds of edits, they were

ready to start distributing

the survey: first, amongst

themselves, then to friends

and family, and finally to old

schoolmates, on facebook,

Twitter and other sources.

Market research on a shoestring budget—is it really possible? Recognizing they needed more extensive feedback than just

their families and friends could provide, the Vintage Futbol

team acknowledged that conducting market research had

become critical to the launch of their business.

“Getting feedback from our facebook friends wasn’t going to

give us the confidence we needed to commit all of our time,

and to convince funders to support our efforts,” said Phan.

Selecting a target Audience— just how specific can we get?Working with their SurveyMonkey Audience account manager,

the Vintage Futbol team selected a targeted Audience with

these specific traits:

Americans geographically dispersed across the country

Aged 18-30

A mix of males and females

Since SurveyMonkey Audience knew the basic demographic

information of each Audience member who answered the

Vintage Futbol survey, the collected data was supplemented

with a variety of information about the respondents’ location,

income levels, technology usage, and exact ages, among many

other key details—allowing for more sophisticated analysis of

their purchasing decisions.

Confident with SurveyMonkey Audience’s pre-established

demographic information, the Vintage Futbol team was able

to focus on specific questions about potential design ideas

to figure out which logos, colors, and styles their target

audience preferred. Additionally, they were able to get

answers to the following market research questions about

this particular consumer group:

What makes a brand special enough to pay a premium

for branded clothing?

Which of Vintage Futbol’s design concepts resonated

with teenagers, young adults, males, females?

Which “premium lifestyle brands” are most identifiable

and how can Vintage Futbol learn from them?

Where should Vintage Futbol price its products—does

too low a price undermine the goal of being a “premium

brand”? Does too high a price give a false impression

of pretension?

to purchase or learn more, please contact: audience@surveymonkey.com | Online Form | www.surveymonkey.com Copyright© 2011 SurveyMonkey

STArTup CASe STudy: VinTAGe FuTbol

“Basically, we had a lot of questions we needed answered before we tried to enter an incredibly competitive market.”

“We couldn’t afford to pay thousands of dollars to an agency for research, so when we discovered Survey-Monkey Audience, we knew it was exactly what we needed.”

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in a matter of hours, the Vintage Futbol survey was sent out

to respondents whose characteristics matched the company’s

target market. Rather than just sending the survey to their

personal contacts, SurveyMonkey Audience allowed the team

to poll a much larger group—all of whom provided honest

feedback and critical insights about the product.

Survey Results—what will the data tell us? Within seven days, Vintage Futbol’s survey had over

300 responses. In addition to getting demographic details

about their audience, the team also learned some important

information about their market’s purchasing habits. For

instance, the majority answered the most they had ever paid

for a t-shirt was between $25-$29—a factor Vintage Futbol

took into account when establishing pricing for

their collection.

Additionally, most respondents ranked material and price

as “very important” factors while design was labeled

“extremely important”.

Given the importance of design for the respondents, the most

valuable data came in the form of direct feedback on their

potential product line. The overwhelming favorite was the

grey “City of God” t-shirt which the Vintage Futbol team has

reported to be their best selling product.

The SurveyMonkey Audience AdvantageAfter analyzing the data collected through SurveyMonkey

Audience, Vintage Futbol was able to make strategic

conclusions across various areas of its business—

how to merchandise and offer its products, where to price

its offerings, which designs to go to market with first and

which demographics may represent their most successful

early adopters. With original research to back up their

business decisions, the team launched their first line with

confidence and, of course, style.

to purchase or learn more, please contact: audience@surveymonkey.com | Online Form | www.surveymonkey.com Copyright© 2011 SurveyMonkey

STArTup CASe STudy: VinTAGe FuTbol

Survey results can be easily exported into an excel file.

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Quick Facts: Vintage Futbol The startup: “Vintage Futbol (VF) is an up and coming

lifestyle brand inspired by the game of Futbol (soccer) and

its classic and timeless nature.”

The problem: “We had mocked up a number of different

shirt designs and we really needed to get some feedback from

people who didn’t know us or our product. We wanted to get

a general idea of how much people were spending on t-shirts,

where they’re shopping, and get their thoughts on our designs.

Sometimes it’s tough to know if your friends will give you an

honest answer regarding design work because they don’t

want to criticize the products. Getting hundreds of unbiased

responses was critical to determining designs and pricing.”

The solution: “We got in touch with SurveyMonkey

Audience and with the survey tool’s easy interface we had set

up our survey in a few hours. We loved seeing responses flow

in from hundreds anonymous respondents. The survey results

seemed to be almost instant. We started getting feedback the

night after it was launched and had the majority of responses

within 2 to 3 days.”

The results: It was very important for us to see which

shirts people liked the best and which ones weren’t viewed as

favorably. This helped us decide how many of each shirt design

to order, saving us money on unnecessary inventory. Also,

we weren’t sure how many people have spent at least $25 or

more on a shirt (our price range), so it was encouraging to see

that 58% of the responders had spent over $25 on a shirt

they liked.

To get Vintage Futbol gear today, visit vintage-futbol.com

to purchase or learn more, please contact: audience@surveymonkey.com | Online Form | www.surveymonkey.com Copyright© 2011 SurveyMonkey

STArTup CASe STudy: VinTAGe FuTbol

Starting a new business is hard work. Let SurveyMonkey Audience help. We’re here to make sure you gather the data and insights you need to make important decisions—quickly and affordably.

Contact your SurveyMonkey Audience

account manager to get started today at

audience@surveymonkey.com

Tell us a little bit about yourself by filling out

our online form:

Get Started now

VINTAGE FUTBOLSUMMER 2011 LOOKBOOK VINTAGE-FUTBOL.COM

“We will definitely use SurveyMonkey Audience in the future, especially to market-test new designs.”