Case Study
Driving Smarter US Expansion for a Performance Apparel Brand
Pattern partnered with Google to develop a hyper-targeted, state-level expansion strategy for a leading Performance Apparel brand, leveraging granular insights into local demand and brand strength to unlock maximum growth opportunity in the highly complex US market.
Region
Australia
Category
Performance Apparel
Key Challenges
The US market represents a significant growth opportunity, being approximately 6 times larger for running apparel compared to Australia and Canada combined. However, the brand faced a complex landscape where traditional national strategies would lead to inefficient media spend. The core challenge was to understand the varied levels of category demand (how much people are searching for “running apparel”) and brand strength (how much people are searching for the brand itself) across individual US states to inform a localised investment strategy.
The brand needed a clear, data-driven framework to:
- Identify high-potential US states for immediate investment and high lifetime value (LTV) customer acquisition.
- Develop tailored media and creative strategies for each geographical segment.
- Align Google Ads investment with the true category and brand potential in each location
PATTERN
Our Approach
Location Demand Segmentation
Pattern and Google deployed a solution centred on measuring category demand (Category Development Index or CDI) and brand strength (Brand Development Index or BDI), adapted for online search data, to measure relative interest at the state level
This segmentation created a four-quadrant playbook for all US geographies, providing clear actions based on local market conditions:
| Demand Quadrant | Local Market Condition | Strategic Mandate | Key Tactics |
| High Demand, High Brand Strength | Strong Brand in a Strong Category (Matching high demand) | Capture Brand Demand | Maintain and enhance click and market share; focus branding on high-value customers using audience signals |
| High Demand, Low Brand Strength | Weak Brand in a Strong Category (Missed opportunity) | Create Brand Demand | Capitalise on growth opportunities by aggressively increasing brand exposure, prioritising creatives that link the brand to the category via upper funnel media (YouTube/Display/upper funnel search) |
| Low Demand, High Brand Strength | Strong Brand in a Weak Category (Generate category demand) | Create Category Demand | Develop the brand’s association with the category; grow category via a combo of category search and video to maximise ROI |
| Low Demand, Low Brand Strength | Weak Brand in a Weak Category (Grow category & brand) | Monitor for Growth | Increase brand ROI by restricting investment to only profitable segments/categories |
Results
The location analysis provided precise, actionable intelligence, resulting in a clear roadmap for investment alignment.
- High Opportunity Geographies Identified for Immediate Focus:
- Capture Brand Demand (High Category Demand & High Brand Strength): These states were ready for efficient conversion and share maintenance. Key locations included Hawaii, Alaska, California, and District of Columbia. For these areas, the focus was on maintaining strong positioning and focusing on high-value customers. By focusing conversion-based activity to these states, we grew their revenue by 88% YoY.
- Create Brand Demand (High Category Demand & Low Brand Strength): These states showed high category demand but low brand awareness, representing a large opportunity for new customer acquisition. Key states for aggressive brand-building media included Colorado, Montana, Illinois, Arkansas, and Wisconsin. The strategy here was to create potential high value from branding efforts.
- Optimised Investment Alignment: Pattern developed a new TOF and MOF investment strategy to prioritise areas that showed future potential. This allowed the brand to shift historical spending, which was sometimes concentrated in lower-potential areas (e.g., Florida was a top spend geo but fell into the ‘Monitor for Growth’ quadrant), toward the high-category-demand states to Create brand demand. Through targeted consideration-based advertising, we saw +58% brand search volume in priority states like Colorado,, successfully moving them into the Capture brand demand quadrant.
- Future-Proofing for Mobile-First Growth: The strategy also incorporated device-level insights, targeting mobile-specific strategies in the best mobile markets. The analysis revealed a significant positive skew toward mobile brand interest in states like Alaska and Hawaii. Through mobile-focused assets and bid strategies, ad engagement increased 147% YoY in both states. This data-driven approach allowed the Performance Apparel brand to move away from a one-size-fits-all national approach, enabling a targeted, localised strategy for predictable and profitable US market expansion.
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