The Challenge: Fact vs. Feeling
NRS has long been a leader in social responsibility, from converting to 100% employee ownership to rigorously improving supply chains. However, they had always kept these values relatively quiet, focusing instead on product performance.
The staff—and owners—began to wonder: Could making their deep commitment to sustainability public actually increase revenues? They needed to move beyond the emotional belief that “customers care” to a hard financial fact: how much value does the market place on sustainability versus other product attributes?
The Solution: Customer Science™
Valutus, in partnership with Triple Gap, deployed its proprietary Customer Science™ approach. Unlike traditional surveys that ask hypothetical questions (“Would you buy this?”), this method measured real behavioral choices.
Photo courtesy NRS
NRS products vs. Competitors
Testing environmental and social attributes
Increased price by 10%+
The Results: Measurable Lift
Product-Level Impact
Adding sustainable attributes generated immediate lift, even when prices rose significantly.
Increase
Impact of Attributes
Brand Halo Effect
The Brand “Halo Effect”
When the manufacturer was identified as a social and environmental leader, preference surged.
linked to brand leadership.
Quantifying the Revenue
Using the InVEST™ Model, Valutus translated these preference shifts into revenue effects. The analysis showed that the preference gains significantly exceeded the general apparel market growth rate.
Photo courtesy NRS
The Bottom Line: For NRS, leaning into sustainability is not just ethical—it is a direct path to revenue growth that would otherwise require significant marketing spend to achieve.
“We’re using the results to shape marketing, product development, and strategic decisions in order to build on our existing environmental and social commitments and get even more value from them.”
— Mark Deming
