How Web 2.0 technology can benefit your UK Business

A company based in Cornwall provides cloth nappies "organic baby clothes". The couple that started the business did market research and found a market niche. Without a website they would not have a business. Customers can interact with them via chat and customers can offer feedback. This makes customers feel part of the brand and they are able to respond by improving their products.

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Case study video transcript

"Here's how Web 2.0 technology benefited my business"

(Opening animation and title accompanied by jingle. Background music begins with footage of Frugi catalogue and clothing, cut to Kurt Jewson)

Kurt Jewson: "My name is Kurt Jewson. I work for Frugi with my wife Lucy Jewson."

(Cut to Lucy Jewson in her office)

Lucy Jewson: "We started the company when I was on maternity leave and I wanted to use cloth nappies for environmental reasons. I was struggling to find clothing that would go over these cloth nappies, so I thought; 'Well, this could be my reason for not going back to work.'"

(Cornish countryside; Kurt and Lucy walking up to Frugi office)

Kurt Jewson: "It's really important for us to be based in Cornwall because this is where we come from. This is a lovely location to live in. It's great to be able to run a business like us from Cornwall obviously with the internet and telecommunications as they are, it makes it feasible."

(Cut to Lucy working on the computer, showing Frugi marketing images, web pages and catalogue)

Lucy Jewson: "We wouldn't have a company if it wasn't for the internet. I managed through the internet to do loads of market research. I probably contacted every organic manufacturer in the world, but I quickly discovered that there was no one place that was, you know servicing this need. I found it really difficult to understand that because cloth nappies are massively on the increase. They're really sort of high-tech now and easy to use. So putting all those questions out and getting all the feedback made me very sure that there was actually nobody in the world doing it at the moment. But there was a need."

(Cut to Kurt and various pages from the Frugi website)

Kurt Jewson: "With our website, it's great to be able to express 'who we are' and 'what we're doing' as a company and get that message across really quickly. People can visit the site, click around to various pages. As well as just clicking to pages, and actually buying products, they can find out what we are as a company, what we're doing, and where we're hoping to go and what our ethics actually are. So a complete snapshot of who we are very, very quickly."

(Cut to Lucy and various pages from the Frugi website)

Lucy Jewson: "Web 2.0 technology has massively helped improve our business in many ways. It's allowed us to have a direct conversation with our customers. They feel part of the brand, they feel as though they're helping to steer the brand, which they actually are."

(Cut to Kurt and Frugi blog on computer screen)

Kurt Jewson: "Two-way communication on our website and with our customers is fantastic on many levels. With our design process, it means that when we have a new product, we put it out to our Frugi Crusaders for example. They get back to us with what they like and what they don't like and that helps us implement design changes."

(Cut to Lucy and Frugi blog, 'Explorer Pants' design and photographs, and Frugi blog response)

Lucy Jewson: "The Frugi blog really helped actually when I was in India, a couple of months ago. We had one of our first more negative responses about a particular item of clothing - our 'Explorer Pants'. We had one of our Crusaders sort of blogging that she was gonna test to see how honest we were as to whether or not we would put up negative responses, as well as the positive ones, which of course, we did. Just saying that she had a problem with the nut buttons and that the roll-ups didn't stay rolled up very well and she wasn't that keen. So I responded to her straight away from India, saying well actually, we were doing a similar pair for our next season and we were going to change those buttons to plastic in light of her responses. And anybody that looks at that particular sort of conversation on the blog will see that we are responsive."

(Shots of social networking site and RSS feed pages)

"Being a small company, finances are fairly limited in terms of marketing, so we found that social networking sites like Facebook, that allow this sort of viral marketing to go ahead, really, really affective. They review all of our clothes and then they put up what they think about our clothes and that's really important. And with all these sort of RSS feeds that come into those sites, it's growing outwards all the time because people think, 'Oh, they've just joined the Frugi Facebook page. What's that?'"

(Google homepage, close up of hands typing on computer keyboard, Google search results)

"Search engine optimisation is really important for us because it allows us to get the first page, if you like, in the natural listings. We rebranded 12 months ago from Cut4Cloth and we had our Cut4Cloth site, which had a fantastic ranking. It was number one for organic baby clothes so we transferred the Cut4Cloth site into a blog, which has held the interest on that site. So we've kept that and yet, it's got lots and lots of connections to the Frugi site, so it's pulling that up as well. So from a straight business point of view, the search engine optimisation of having it has been really beneficial, too."

(Lucy interacting with Frugi staff at computer, looking at Frugi web pages, clothing and branding)

"Web 2.0 technology is a really important part of our future really. We're going to expand the social networking side and look at moving that forward onto different social networks."

"We'll still increase our Google AdWords campaign. We'll keep going with the blog, as well."

"But one of the other things which we've got on the 'to do' list is having direct consumer-generated content. So live reviews on our websites with real people, just putting real comments in on those products. Technology is certainly allowing us to really transparently show all the workings of our company and what's important to us. And at the end of the day, that has a big effect on the bottom line."

(End animation and jingle)

Useful Links

Making Web 2.0 work for your business

Youtube - Using web 2.0

Video transcript source