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Martha's poncho:
An amazing yarn
When Stewart's crocheted coming-home garb set off a flurry of interest, Lion Brand Yarn quickly spun off its own version
 Stephen Chernin / Getty Images file Martha Stewart smiles as she holds up the much publicized poncho she wore when she left prison during a speech to her employees, March 7. |
You might call it the Martha Effect. In the 127 years since Ruben Blumenthal founded Lion Brand Yarn, the New York-based company has never quite experienced a frenzy like the one set off by Martha Stewart's post-prison wardrobe selection. On March 3, the night the domestic diva was released, TV networks around the world broadcast images of her -- over and over again -- walking to a private jet in a hand-crocheted poncho. The garment set off an enormous wave of interest among knitting fans, says Ilana Rabinowitz, Lion Brand's director of consumer marketing.
Smart Answers columnist Karen E. Klein recently spoke with Rabinowitz about how the family-owned company is capitalizing on the unlikeliest of trends. Edited excerpts of their conversation follow:
Q: When did you realize that Martha Stewart's poncho was going to affect Lion Brand in a big way?
A: It was a Thursday night around midnight when she came out of jail. There was something very striking about the poncho she was wearing. The following Monday, we had a company meeting, and our Webmaster mentioned that she was getting e-mails from people wondering if the poncho was our pattern. It wasn't -- apparently another inmate at the prison made it for Martha.
The next day, I could see that it was still getting a lot of attention. For instance, I noticed that "Martha Stewart" was the No. 2 most-searched-for term listed on my search engine. I called our design department and suggested that we should create a pattern, but they were very busy preparing for a major customer who was coming in with an entourage for a meeting the next day.
Q: So you knew something major was happening, but it was tough to persuade your colleagues to jump on it?
A: Well, they were preoccupied. Knitting and crocheting have had a big resurgence over the past couple of decades, and in the last few years we've seen a tipping point in sales. There were 15 employees when I started here 10 years ago. We have close to 90 now. So they have a lot on their minds. I let the poncho thing go another day, but by the next morning I realized it was huge, and we had to jump on it.
Q: How did you know it was so important to act immediately?
A: By that time, the e-mails were really building up. Overall, we got several hundred requests for the pattern. I was so excited and determined not to ignore this that I went to our director of marketing and said, "Frank, I have two words for you: Martha's poncho!" I told him there was no way we could let this go. We got the one designer who was not involved in the big client meeting and hooked her up with an outside designer, who I hoped could work on this right away.
Q: It sounds like you take customer e-mail requests very seriously.
A: We absolutely do. We'll act on a new pattern based on a dozen e-mails because we know those dozen represent interest from many, many more people. Likewise, if we got five negative e-mails, we'd stop doing something. So getting hundreds of e-mails was very significant.
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