Ithaca Sheepskin

Ithaca Sheepskin does not have solidified data trends to analyze before the year of 2022 due to COVID and other family matters. Without this data, they are unable to identify their target audience. Due to this, Mark and Jessica have decided to shift their focus from selling retail to wholesale. They hope to utilize their niche expertise in sheepskin to cater to groups looking to create with their multipurpose fleeces. This is in order to provide much-needed security to their livelihood, by wholesaling a product that they do not need to manufacture. To do so, they must expand their list of suppliers and target unique audiences looking for large sums of fleece.

Many people in Ithaca are not aware of the store in The Commons. The small storefront makes it very easy for people to walk past the area without glancing into the workshop. Mark iterates that simply hanging sheepskin from the tree directly across from the storefront doubles foot traffic. Cornell students also are not aware of the business in the commons despite it being owned by two Cornell Alums. Mark and Jessica want the next steps they take in growing their business to make their name known within the Ithaca community to encourage more shop visitors. With more visitors, Mark and Jessica want to make sure all feel comforted in the shop. Currently, the pair has a couch in the storefront where customers often stay and chat with them. They idealize creating this space to be more welcoming with the implementation of furniture and teas. They want every purchase to be an experience that the customer would want to replicate for future visits. Jessica’s aesthetic for this storefront is “Cosmopolitan Rustic”.

The pair is also contemplating increasing their participation in social media to help engagement. The business has only two services of online interaction: their website and their Instagram. Mark and Jessica want to explore other social media platforms that could prospectively bring new audiences to the store.

Mark and Jessica are very family-centric. They have two young boys and are focused on being there for them as they develop. Therefore, they are aiming for their business to have a greater online presence. This means revamping the website to make it more accessible, engaging, and relevant. They have the desire to reorient the texts and images on the site to reflect the true story of Mark and Jessica’s journey with Ithaca Sheepskin. The pair also hope the new website will reflect trends in purchasing.

Key Stakeholders

• Manhattan statistical area (initial) 
• Ithaca residents
• Online customers
• Suppliers & employees
• Pay artists to create products
• Apprentices
• Cornell and other design teams

Innovation

Culturally, we aim to innovate by narrating the history of sheepskin production and the story behind this family business. Technically, we can enhance the usability and organization of their existing website and design newsletters for their mailing list. Organizationally, we will innovate by redesigning their social media platforms and helping them discover potential buyers.

Opportunities & Challenges

In the short term, our challenges include a lot of designing and critiquing, such as the website review, social media, mailing list, etc. Ithaca Sheepskin has a huge mailing list and several social media accounts, so there exists an opportunity to enhance their social media presence and advertise through newsletters. Also, since Ithaca is currently in winter, it’s a great opportunity for us to advertise sheepskin products and attract new local customers. In the long term, we have more time and opportunities to extend their customer base to places outside Ithaca and help them shift their business online.

CREATE

Prototypes

As a part of our CREATE stage, we were prompted to produce visuals to help us conceptualize the space Ithaca Sheepskin occupies in association with the community the business interacts with.

Sheepskin’s interaction with popular culture tells of their mission to propagate slow fashion in opposition to the recent craze of fast fashion. They strive to draw focus on sustainable and environmentally conscious brands.

Sheepskin’s community is interesting considering their past presence at craft fairs across the east coast to their storefront in Ithaca. A lot of their business values are in line with those of the Ithaca community as they are environmentally conscious, liberal, and keen on self-expression.

Sheepskin is a family-owned business. Therefore, exploring the familial aspect of their brand is quite easy to digest. The Sheepskin business revolves around Mark and Jessica’s children. Their schedules are impacted by the school calendar and with only two employees, the business is vulnerable.

Sheepskin’s history is also an indication of the company’s vulnerability as they transitioned from an art show business model to a storefront/online business model. Through COVID and health scares, the company has had to overcome a lot to be in operation today.

User Scenarios

The One Time Visitor

Mrs. Anderson is a 50-year old parent visiting her son at Cornell University for parent’s weekend. This is her first time in Ithaca and her son decides to show her around the local community. They decide to head to the Commons to enjoy lunch. Afterwards, they stroll through the Commons and notice Ithaca Sheepskin’s chalkboard outside the store. She and her son decide to enter where they meet Mark and Jessica, the owners. The initial space is warm and inviting and after introducing themselves, the four enjoy a cup of tea. Mark and Jessica give Mrs. Anderson and her son a tour of the sheep shop, showing them the antique equipment they use to hand craft their products. In the back room, Mrs. Anderson sees hundreds of slippers and knows she has to buy one to remember her time not only visiting the sheep shop, but also seeing her son at Cornell. She purchases a pair and the two continue on with their day exploring Ithaca.

The Returning Customer

Tom is a local Ithaca resident who makes it a ritual to walk through the Commons every Saturday morning. As a writer, he spends most of his week brainstorming new ideas for his novel. He can often be seen taking long walks through town and interacting with the local community to gain inspiration for his work. After a long week of writing Tom likes to enjoy a nice, hot cup of coffee in Ithaca Commons as he makes his stroll. It’s a crisp December morning and Tom is wearing a hat handcrafted by Ithaca Sheepskin. While walking, he always stops by Ithaca Sheepskin to strike up a conversation with Mark and Jessica, the owners. They spend 15 minutes talking about what they were up to for that week, spending hours hand-crafting hats, slippers, and mittens, and Tom tells them about the progress he is making on his book. He mentions how much he is loving his hat, and Mark and Jessica show him a new product they have in stock – sachets made of sheepskin. Tom knows these would be perfect for holding any pens and pencils he uses to write and buys two. He exits the shop happy and continues on his stroll.

The Online Customer

Kimberly is a Florida native who just moved to New York City. It only takes her a few days in the Big Apple to realize how chilly it gets! Having just moved, she does not have a lot of winter attire. One day, while scrolling through Instagram, she sees an advertisement for a local sheepskin shop based out of upstate New York. The advertisement features Mark and Jessica, the owners of Ithaca Sheepskin, wearing a vest made of sheepskin. This is exactly what Kimberly needs! She explores their Instagram page and sees all the different products they have. She notices the fleeces they have as well and knows they would make the perfect rug for her new apartment. This captivates her to go onto their website and purchase a vest to keep warm as well as a fleece to decorate her new home. She is happy with the purchase and happy to support a small business in New York.

Journey Maps

We created two styles of journey maps to conceptualize the customer experience when interacting with Ithaca Sheepskin’s storefront and online presence. We documented how customers become aware of the business, consideration of purchase, purchase, loyalty to the company, and advocacy in support of the business. Thus far, the model is not perfect. The map outlines what can be improved. 

The second journey map is a user scenario journey map. This is a formatted replication of the user scenarios we had idealized prior. This map iterates the stages of interaction the customer participates in when making a purchase with Ithaca Sheepskin. Here we look at the online customer, the out-of-town customer, and the regular customer.

DELIVER

30-Day Media Posting

A goal of Mark and Jessica’s was to improve their social media presence as advertisement is best performed online through Instagram, TikTok, and pinterest. The couple made it known that they “didn’t know where to start” when it came to posting aesthetics and content material. To counteract this, we created a document for Mark and Jessica to utilize for consistent and creative Instagram content. The document contains content ideas for 30 days. Each day is distinguished by theme, content type, and a content prompt with a detailed description of the culmination of the three elements. We hope this will improve the business’s Instagram engagement levels.

Instagram Conceptualization & Technical

A lot goes into the creation of a great business Instagram. To center the importance of a thematically sound social media presence, we created a concept and technical board for Mark and Jessica to draw inspiration from. The pair want to create an instagram that is uniquely them. They want to incorporate elements of minimalism with earthy tones as they share media that shares their voice and personality. The concept board should provide inspiration for posting material in accordance with the 30-Day Media Posting. The technical board should allow Mark and Jessica to become more familiar with the elements to utilize to create an impactful Instagram.

Mailing List

Ithaca Sheepskin is a very small business. Therefore, it becomes extremely important that the customers that support the business are valued and kept up to date when Sheepskin evolves. Mark and Jessica collect emails of past customers and Sheepskin visitors yet, they do not use them. Sheepskin uses Shopify to complete online purchases; this is where most customer data is stored. We utilized the Shopify services to create a mailing list template for Ithaca Sheepskin that highlighted popular and seasonal items with short blurbs of Sheepskin history. This mailing list is only a template, however, as Mark and Jessica look to create mailing lists that are heavily conversational to represent their communal brand.