Last week we launched our Bachelorette Lingerie Gifts! From coming up with the idea to baking butt cookies, here are the five steps we took to bring the concept to life… and to your doorsteps.

1. Check the box

First we validated that our customers cared about bridal.

The average age of our #underwomen puts her in the life stage where she and / or her friends are getting engaged and married, and our gifting of women to other women already makes up a meaningful portion of our Signature Gift Subscriptions (woohoo to thoughtful females!).

2. Think ass-tutely

Secondly, we brainstormed offerings that would set us apart.

Similar to our Signature Subscription service, we wanted to do something in line with our brand values: deliver an experience with luxurious products that is unique, practical, and a bit cheeky.

We were ultimately inspired by the idea of the bachelorette and bridal party “lingerie game,” and how we could make it a better experience for everyone. With this gift, guests won’t have to worry about overspending on last-minute edible underwear, and the bride-to-be gets gorgeous lingerie she’ll actually wear.

3. Put pen to panties

Next, we prototyped products and packaging.

We loved the idea of “something to have her back(side) for every occasion ahead” and we came up with an interactive gifting experience for the bride-to-be to open each gift when she needs:

To finalize the package, we ground the vision in reality with financial modeling and forecasting. We determine pricing that delivers the maximum value to customers that the business can support under various forecasts. For $179, you and your girl friends can save the trip to the stores and send over $200 of lingerie that’s already beautifully gift wrapped.

4. Shake it for a Polaroid picture

With a product in place, we developed the strategy to give life to an e-commerce product.

With an online-only presence, our imagery and web experience is incredibly important to convey the functional and the emotional attributes of the product experience.

We scouted a photographer, model, and versatile location for the shoot in San Francisco to capture the moments and product shots we need for web, email and social media assets. We used a lot of mood boards and Pinterest inspiration to stage poses so we could move quickly on the day of the shoot.

5. Flaunt your creative assets

Lastly, we cooked up creative ways to spread the word about the launch.

Before launching, we received an amazing opportunity to join Weddington Way and Style me Pretty’s launch event in San Francisco where brides and bridesmaids were invited for wedding inspiration.

From prior events, I knew our butt cookies were a fun and unique conversation starter to pique people’s interest, and then talk about actual underwear and lingerie. It was icing on the cake (or cookie, in this case) that our @UnderclubCo cookies were a social media success and featured by Style Me Pretty, Weddington Way, and many more throughout the night!

Now we’re live!

These five steps describe how we were able to turn a concept into a marketable product, with the 5th step being a topic I hope to share more learnings from as we grow. Figuring out the optimal ways to reach our target audience and convey the value of our product is pivotal, and very much an iterative learning process. One learning under the belt: people love butt cookies ;)

If you enjoyed reading this and want to help us flaunt our creative assets, here’s 3 ways you can help:

1. Share our bridal page / blog on Facebook
2. Email our Bachelorette Lingerie Gift page to your friends who are organizing or attending bachelorette and bridal parties!
3. GIFT IT!

I’ve been quiet the last several weeks because we had all hands on deck to launch our OFFICIAL UNDERCLUB BRANDING!

A few months ago I received an incredible opportunity to work with the President of Berlin Cameron and her creative team for a holistic development of our brand for the first. time. ever. For those of you who know me, my background better lends itself to tackling financial and operational challenges, and Underclub’s very first logo looked like this:

Working with Berlin Cameron throughout the full creative and branding journey was incredible. I got to flex new decision-making muscles that didn’t involve excel formulas and I learned to trust my gut more with big decisions.

Here are my 5 takeaways from the branding experience:

1. The creative process is surprisingly linear:

The first step was picking a logo, and then each design decision informed the next. I imagined we’d consider the logo and the font and the colors all at once as interchangeable pieces, but it was more like building a physical structure where you establish your foundation and build up from there.

2. Stories are powerful

The new branding helped me clarify our story of the Underwomen. I feel a new kind of confidence making business decisions that build upon what we stand for and our personality- not only with questions around design and marketing, but also how we structure partnerships and allocate our merchandising buys.

3. Trust your gut

I rely on math for 100% of my decisions and constantly feared that I would feel the wrong feelings when it came to making design decisions. At first I would wait a few hours after every meeting to give any indication of feedback, but eventually came around to trusting (and speaking) my gut reaction to colors I had an immediate connection with or images that didn’t do it for me.

4. Creative execution is calculated:

As we progressed with the design process, I delighted in seeing numerical guidelines to make our designs look good across every customer interaction with our brand (site, packaging, email and social media)- like our text tracking (how far the letters are spaced) and the exact hue of #UnderBlue.

5. It takes a village

To bring the brand work to life, we scouted a photographer and model, re-sourced packaging vendors, and implemented, tested and optimized the website. Pulling together these components moved at 100x the speed compared to when we didn’t have our branding under wraps.

I am beyond excited about sharing the Underclub brand with everyone after all this hard work. Want to watch our brand in action? Here’s how:

• Check out the NEW SITE…and join the club while you’re at it ;)
• Join our NEWSLETTER
• Follow us on INSTAGRAM

Thank you SO MUCH to the Berlin Cameron team and everyone who has helped get us to where we are today. If your startup or company is interested in working with badass creatives, please reach out and I can put you in touch with the phenomenal team at Berlin Cameron.

So many “but(t)s”

I absolutely love hearing from members about how our deliveries make them feel: “I know this sounds silly but getting the monthly surprise feels empowering” or “It feels kind of selfish but it just makes me feel so happy.” After pouring through feedback, I noticed something interesting: by ordering luxury underwear, women were doing something that made themselves happy but also feeling guilty about doing something kind and empowering for themselves. This left me feeling perplexed, frustrated and almost sad. It got me thinking about why is it that when we do something that’s supposed to make us feel good about ourselves, we end up feeling embarrassed or guilty instead. It’s because there’s some part of us that’s telling ourselves we don’t deserve it.

My wish is for every woman to know her self-worth, and to recognize when she isn’t giving herself the credit she deserves. By no means am I saying that if you don’t buy designer underwear, then you don’t love yourself. Our service is one way to show yourself self-love; one way to feel good about yourself. Investing in beautiful underwear can make you feel confident, and confidence is empowering. Just like prepping for a big meeting with a relaxing manicure, or sweating out a stressful day with a SoulCycle class. For me, getting dressed in the morning with intention is “what I do” for myself.

But(t) why Underclub?

The same sentiment in these members’ reviews, that sense of wanting but not deserving, was how I felt before starting Underclub. I’ve always had a passion for building and creating, and I felt painfully trapped in corporate jobs where creativity was not valued. So I broke free from the corporate world to go to business school and change careers… but after two years and $100K+ worth of schooling, networking and interning, I wasn’t sure I had “earned the right” to start a company yet. My inner critic was telling me that if I didn’t have a startup plan that was perfect, then people would judge my decision (and me) as silly or stupid.

I remember the exact moment when a family friend gave me the kick in the butt I needed to start Underclub. When I told him my goal was to start my own company but that first I needed to get more startup experience, he ignored all my requests for startup intros. Instead he advised me to go to the desert and do drugs until I came back with an idea to start a company, and that’s how Underclub began! Just kidding. After 30 minutes of me trying to get startup leads out of him and him suggesting ways to free my inner creative, I told him my idea to fix the terrible experience of buying new underwear, he said, “It’s not a stupid idea, you should do it.”

I knew my idea wasn’t stupid- that wasn’t the problem. The problem was that I thought my idea had to be 100% perfect for me to consider it worthy at all. Fun fact: Men apply to jobs if they think they meet 60% of the qualifications whereas women only apply to jobs if they know they meet 100% of the qualifications.

Most women (myself included) have passed up opportunities or haven’t taken risks because of that inner critic telling us that we don’t deserve something, that we aren’t ready, or that we aren’t good enough yet. For me, that critic feels like guilt, embarrassment or shame. But here’s the thing- whether it’s asking for the job promotion, telling an overbearing friend “no,” or buying yourself really nice underwear, if it’s coming from a good place on the inside, it’s worth doing. We need to make a more conscious choice to invest in ourselves and to quiet that critical voice.

Which brings me to my biggest mission: Underclub represents my desire to build a female-founded and female-focused community that empowers strong, confident women. We’re starting with delivering, joy, comfort and confidence in the form of luxury underwear, because starting your day out with great underwear feels phenomenal. We have literally got your back.