fossil incubator - building new ventures from the ground up

design STRATEGY | BUSINESS DESIGN | branding | creative direction

Team

Manali Mohanty, TJ McKnight, Marty Christiansen, Junior Garza, Joshua Snodgrass

Client

Fossil Group’s portfolio of brands

The Brief

Build an internal incubator that will be a disruptive force in the watch world and a testing ground for innovation in product and marketing.

Goals

  • Recoup sales and market share from competitor Direct to Consumer (D2C) brands

  • Create a business model for speed to market by cutting Go-to-market (GTM) time by 50%

  • Test, iterate, and launch new brands from concept to consumer

  • Turn learnings into business drivers to existing brands with Fossil portfolio

Problem

  • Critical changes and disruptions in retail industry with shifts to E-commerce

  • 24% decline in market share in <$500 price point analog watches in 2 years

Opportunity

How might we reduce speed to market and validate new ideas quickly to support the largest brands of Fossil group from losing market share to more nimble and smaller competitors?

Process

Creating a new business entity that involved a small core team of intrapreneurs and a large support team of internal and external cross-functional partners across 3 global offices was an exercise in diplomacy, negotiation and flexibility.

We were learning to drive the car as we were building it.

Being nimble, resourceful, and timely clear communication were important to our success.

We reported Profit & Loss (P&L), Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and learnings quarterly to an Executive Sponsor team.

We started by determining key decision makers, mapping the organization structure and milestones to outline our strategy.

Research & Insights

Through a series of fact-finding meetings, and interviews of leaders of existing businesses, consumer insights teams and the product innovation team we solidified our goals and priorities.

Primary Research Sources

  • Market intelligence from agencies in targeted niche segments

  • Surveying target audiences at lifestyle events and shows

  • Social listening

  • ‘Fashion Influencer’s Lab’ Fossil’s award winning customer intelligence platform. (Powered by AI and Machine Learning, it mines customer data to analyze thousands of product images to make predictions on attributes. And pinpoint consumer trends based on price point, demographic and consumer sentiment

  • Euromonitor reports

Secondary Research Sources

  • Historical sales data

  • Qualitative assessments of competitors

  • Trend reports provided by third-party vendors

  • Shopping trends to guide new styles

Validation & Testing

  • Internal focus groups

  • A/B testing on existing social media channels

  • Beta testing mock micro-sites and landing pages

  • Using crowd-funding platforms like Indigogo to test and fund concepts

Impact

  1. Metrics

  • Launched 4 brands in 12 months with an average of 9 months Go-to-market (GTM) time per brand. (vs. average 18 -24 months for legacy brands)

  • Achieved goal of 100% self-sustenance for first brand launched, by delivering 1.75M in revenue within 3 years of the venture being green-lit.

  • Fossil brand replicated our tested speed to market model to achieve a reduction of 2-3 months in its Go-to-market time for new product.

  • Our first Indigogo campaign funded at 265% as a successful proof of concept for using crowdfunding to test standalone concepts.

2. Process

  • Pathfinders from our successes surfaced innovation to the top.

  • Drafted from innovation to influence product and tactics across Fossil’s portfolio of owned and licensed brands.

  • The incubator brands were influencers as well as standalone entities.

  • Helped build a strategy around how to create quicker, more efficient, and direct product delivery.

  • The product design process was transformed into a design sprint, bringing ideas to life instantly.

3. Culture

  • Created a mindset shift and culture change around how to bring new ideas into life with least friction.

  • Inspired and taught business leaders about a new go-to-market process in a world where digital channels are increasingly the primary source of purpose and connection with consumers.