THE COMMON THREADS OF SUCCESS

What success means to dog&boy – and why we’re always chasing more

Since launching in 2016, dog&boy has achieved great success. We’ve built a beautiful community of loyal scarf lovers, secured brilliant stockists around the world, expanded into new markets, refined our design process, and improved our digital presence. When I look back on how far we’ve come, I’m so proud of our journey. So, you can imagine my surprise when our Creative Manager (my wing woman and all-round awesome human), Beth, asked me recently why I’m never satisfied.

Whenever Beth mentions something wonderful dog&boy has achieved, my response always starts with “Yes, but….”. I wouldn’t have noticed until she brought it up, but Beth’s comment really got me thinking. Here’s what I came up with.

Always happy, but never satisfied

Hi, my name is Sonya and I’m a continuous improvement addict. Before launching dog&boy, I worked in operational risk for an international bank. I’ve written before about how surprisingly creative this role was. It was all about finding improvement opportunities and ways to innovate and evolve. I’ve always been passionate about continuous improvement – and this passion carries through to everything we do at dog&boy.

When we reach a new milestone, my “Yes, but…” attitude doesn’t mean I’m unhappy. Quite the opposite, actually. I’m thrilled with how dog&boy is traveling, but I’m always thinking, “OK, we've done that. What’s next?”

There are millions of mediocre brands who manage to achieve success – but I don’t want dog&boy to be one of them. Success to me means more than sales or social media likes. It’s about creating a brand that’s memorable and unique. A brand that continuously gets better and delivers the best possible customer experience. That’s a constant work in progress.

Success is the start of the journey

Some people see success as the end of the journey, but I see it as the beginning. Perhaps I could stop and smell the roses for longer (Beth, you have a point!) – but I’m more interested in learning from our wins. Which stories resonate most with our customers? What makes one scarf more popular than another? What factors contribute to our success? And how can we keep the momentum going?

At the risk of sounding a little strange, I love thinking about this stuff. So much so, that I designed a scarf – Motion – for our new collection around this idea of constant progression.

Moving forward and making things better is what drives us at dog&boy. Whether it’s tweaking our fabrication, like we recently did with our merino wool fabric, improving our website imagery, or upping our social media game, we are never done.

Imagine if Apple had stopped evolving after launching the iPhone in 2007. The first iPhone was unbelievable – but look far it has advanced today. The most successful brands in the world are always thinking “What’s next?”, and I take inspiration from them. You’d be amazed at how many times we tweak each design before we unveil them to you! 

Reflect, look and listen

I don’t pretend to be an expert on success. I’m a scarf designer, not a business coach! But, over the years, I’ve noticed a few common threads that contribute to dog&boy’s success.

The first is that we take time to analyse our wins. Success doesn’t happen by accident in business, so we sit down regularly to look at what works – and what doesn’t, too. Then we try to replicate the good stuff and make it even better.

We also look at the world’s leading brands and what makes them so successful. Even though we’re designing scarves and Apple are creating the latest technology, there’s a lot we can learn from big businesses when it comes to customer experience and innovation.

Finally, and most importantly I think, is that we’re obsessed with feedback. Rather than sitting around waiting for feedback, we proactively seek it from customers and stockists. We love hearing your thoughts on our scarf designs and what you’d love to see from dog&boy. Everything we do is for you, and we’re only happy if you are!

Tell us everything – we’re listening!

If you have any ideas on how we can improve the dog&boy experience, please get in touch. Whether it’s feedback on our website or shopping cart process, or simply to tell us how much you love our scarves (we LOVE hearing this!), we want to hear from you. We personally reply to every email, so rest assured you’ll receive a response.

Sonya xx

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