Client Case | Undiemeister - English version

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Underwear is serious business

A talk with Jeroen Adriaans, managing director of Undiemeister Textile brand Undiemeister is blowing out 2.5 candles this year, but is already known to more than half of the Dutch population.

Founders Rik Vegter and Jeroen Adriaans, together with their team, designed the unique Mellowood® fabric, which they claim is “maximally sustainable”. This formula turns out to be worth its weight in gold, because the range of premium boxer shorts has now expanded to T-shirts, socks and soon also swimming trunks. The website says ‘The next step in gentlemen’s underwear’. And that is no understatement.

With his entrepreneurial mentality and unfailing feeling for the use of media, Jeroen has an empire on his hands. In this article you can read how he adds promotional items to his ultimate mix.

In November 2019, Undiemeister was born.

Only six months later, the commercials were showing on television and radio and the newspaper-reading Netherlands was also getting to know the high-end underwear. “From my experience, I knew the media world by now,” Jeroen explains.

“Within a short time, we generated enormous brand awareness.” That is no scattergun approach. “Certain channels such as television do cost a lot of money.

But if you have analysed your case properly, you know what a customer can cost. Then you can take concrete steps”, Jeroen explains. “We are a bunch of datadriven men who are just busy analysing.

Only when we see that something works to our satisfaction, we take the next step.”

Despite the fact that Undiemeister is a commercial company, its distinguishing factors are clearly born from the environmentally friendly vision.

“Undiemeister is a premium brand.

We therefore ask a little more, so that the higher costs can also be covered.

Our purchasing is higher than that of other fabrics because of the superior product properties and the maximally sustainable production, explained Jeroen.

The development of the company is also under constant review. “We offered subscriptions for a while, but quickly

wow!

About Undiemeister Sustainable entrepreneurship runs through the Undiemeister team’s veins. As an organisation, focusing on a sustainable policy is now the rule rather than the exception. Nevertheless, greenwashing is unfortunately still a common phenomenon.

“The thing that irritates me sometimes is that everyone shouts ‘we are sustainable’.

The only thing is that 90% of them don’t understand how that business works at all”, says Jeroen. Meanwhile, sustainability is playing an increasingly decisive role. People are also more ready for it. More and more consumers are prepared to pay a little more for a genuinely sustainable product. Does this mean that Undiemeister and its products are 100% sustainable?

“We never say that,” says Jeroen.

“We always say that we are maximally environmentally friendly and maximally CO2neutral. Why? That’s quite simple. My fabrics are produced sustainably, but there are still cars driving around that have to take them from A to B. These are not always electric. So it is never 100%, but we do everything we can to ensure it is as sustainable as possible. We want to be the ‘meister’ in our sector: the great example for the rest.

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stopped. Not because it didn’t work out. On the contrary”, Jeroen explains.

“I thought about it more carefully and realised that this was diametrically opposed to my sustainability mission. In fact, I encourage customers to send me one small box every month. We had to get rid of that! Instead, we introduced the ‘Meisterstaffel’ (translated: master stagger). I started calculating the cost of each order, from packaging to shipping.

Then I calculated the impact of putting 3, 6, 9 or even 12 boxes in one order. I might lose some margin, but on the other hand I save a lot of costs. We give most of that back to the customer, who also saves a lot. If you order a lot, your discount goes up to 40%. What makes it even more interesting is that you can combine products. It doesn’t have to be just black boxer shorts, but also a boxer, a T-shirt, two pairs of socks, you name it. It’s only about the number of items in your shopping cart. If you then calculate the price, we are even cheaper than the competition!”

In other words, spreading your mission.

The use of promotional products is also subject to this at Undiemeister. “We came into contact with Compacon for a promotional product in which we could make those ‘Meisterstaffel’ orders even more interesting,” explains Jeroen. “The aim was to simply reduce the number of small orders.” It became a chic pen and water bottle. High-end to fit in with the premium character Undiemeister.

Sustainable to match the vision. “I noticed that many pens I liked weren’t sustainable,” Jeroen says. “In the end, we did come up with it. However, some customers returned the pen because they were not interested in a ‘plastic’ pen. When we explained that the pen was made of biodegradable material, their opinion changed immediately.” This is just one example of consumers becoming more conscious of the products they use. Undiemeister understands this like no other.

“In the end, people were happy to hear that we had indeed thought about a sustainable promotional product. The fact remains: we do not use products that do not fit in with our vision.” Undiemeister not only has an eye for the environment, but certainly also for the customer. “As a company, we were naturally curious as to whether adding a promotional product to the marketing mix would really trigger it.

But in the end, it was really an addition for the customer”, Jeroen explains. Consumers who order for a minimum of €200 will receive a luxury thermos flask worth €29.99 as a gift with their order.” The added value of a promotional product like Compacons is very noticeable. “The campaign went well, so we ran out of stock in no time,” says Jeroen. “Then we called Monique from Compacon. She made sure that a small quantity was sent to us in advance. That flexibility was very nice!”

As ‘data men’, Jeroen and his team naturally look critically at this project. “We immediately start analysing. Every day we look at the number of orders above a certain value and compare this with the average number. By calculating everything, we know whether the promotion is successful or not.” Jeroen understands very well that this promotional action has more advantages than stimulating larger orders.

“In addition to being an added value for the customer, I also see it as a good marketing tool. The more people who walk around with the bottle, the greater our brand awareness.” Jeroen’s opinion on discounts also definitely plays a big role. “I always say ‘discount is the inability to demonstrate that your product is worth its money’. If I buy a jumper tomorrow for €100 and the next day it’s €70, I feel cheated. In fact, I believe you are attracting consumers who only buy from you once a year: when there is an offer. You are cannibalising your own market”, Jeroen says. “Besides, you forget about a discount as soon as the product is paid for. But if I give away a gift with a purchase, after a year you still remember that you got it from me. That works much better in the long run.”

All in all, the men at Undiemeister know what is important. Not only for their brand, but also for the environment and the customer. Promotional products also fit well within a strategy with such a clear vision and mission. Wondering what role we can play for your brand? We are happy to think along with you! Contact us at www. compacon.com.