Eastman Naia

Developing a sustainability-centered brand positioning for fiber brand Naia™

Eastman partnered with Quantis to create a credible sustainability focused brand positioning and narrative for its cellulosic fiber brand Naia™.

Challenge

After a pre-launch of its cellulosic fiber brand Naia™, Eastman realized there was a more interesting story to tell about Naia™ beyond its core attributes around Luxury, Comfort and Ease of Care.

Naia™ is made from wood pulp sourced from sustainably managed forests. It is bio-based and made in a closed-loop production process. Compared to many fibers on the market today, Naia™ has a very low environmental footprint. These facts solidly position the brand as a sustainable fiber.

The Eastman team decided to reposition the brand with environmental sustainability as its core. They needed a unique angle with solid proof-points to back up the story and asked Quantis to help them build this credible brand positioning and narrative.

Insights

To gather the insights needed to build a unique, memorable and credible brand narrative, Quantis conducted a complete market, customer and sustainability analysis. This included:

  • speaking with 15 different fashion brands and mills to understand what drives them to select a sustainable fiber
  •  Conducting a study of emerging global sustainability trends in the fashion sector
  • Analyzing alternative fibers and market players to find the sweet spot for Naia™
  • Reviewing the Naia™ LCA and environmental certifications to recommend those needed to back-up the brand’s sustainability story

The analysis revealed the unique position of Naia™ in step one of the fashion value chain, as well as its deep understanding of sustainability and fully transparent story. This led Quantis to develop a positioning for Naia™ as a brand that collaborates to empower and catalyze our partners to understand, communicate and collectively build a sustainable fashion industry.

Actions

To bring this new brand positioning to life, Quantis developed a master creative vision and storyline to guide all future actions and brand communications. Quantis wrote, designed and produced a brand kit with materials for customers, including: messaging, two sales presentations, three leaflets, a brand brochure, infographics and content for its website and tradeshow booth and ads, as well as a contribution to a video.

Quantis also trained teams at Eastman to prepare them to talk about its sustainability story and answer any questions from customers and stakeholders

The Naia™ brand team took this learning to heart and is continuing efforts to improve the brand’s sustainability credentials and obtain more certifications, including biodegradability and industrial composting.

Impact

The launch of the new brand positioning at the 2018 PremiereVision trade show in Paris was a huge success, gaining a lot of attention and new clients.

A year later, the sustainability-oriented positioning continues to work well for Naia™, helping the brand access top fashion brands and mills with increased sales.

As of the end of 2019, there are more than 100 mills working with Naia™ worldwide and more than 200 fashion brands selling garments with Naia™.

Contact us to learn more about the project
Visit Eastman Naia website

Areas of expertise

Sector

“Quantis was instrumental in helping us develop a credible, fact-based sustainability brand positioning for Naia™ that speaks to fashion brands and fabric mills alike. A year after the launch, we continue to strengthen our sustainability positioning with new certifications and improved processes with a clear direction and brand mission. Inspired designers are now transforming our natural, sustainable yarn into luxurious, soft, and easy-to-care-for fabrics and fashion. It’s an exciting time to be fully delivering on the promise of sustainable textiles.”

Ruth Farrell, Global Marketing Director of Textiles
Eastman 

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