CASE STUDY
Men & Boys Footwear Client
Turning tariff turbulence into opportunity with AI personas and rapid creative testing
Challenge
A heritage men’s and boys’ footwear brand in the sub-$100 comfort segment was shifting to a product- and brand-led model anchored by a reengineered line built on proprietary technology.
Tariffs and global price volatility were squeezing margins and pushing retail prices up, so Prophet was tasked with turning turbulence into a growth opportunity. AI-driven research and cited industry studies indicated that tariff-linked price increases make consumers more likely to switch shoe brands, elevating price as a deciding factor.
In response, we focused on new-to-brand acquisition by (1) identifying and bringing to life high-potential segments and (2) aligning creative and messaging to what those switchers value most.
Solution
To rapidly brainstorm and test in an ever-evolving, uncertain environment, we paired Prophet craft with consumr.ai’s digital-twin platform. Together with the client team, we defined and prioritized acquisition personas, then brought them to life as digital twins using consumr.ai. We ran simulated focus groups with the twins to map needs, pain points, and triggers across the purchase journey. We used these signals to translate insights into decision drivers while flagging friction to reduce.
We then benchmarked some of the client’s existing creative assets against persona preferences and iterated quickly. Using agentic image-generation, we built refined creative mockups (headline/visual/offer combinations tailored to each persona) and re-tested to converge on winners. Working in tight loops with the client leadership team, we cross-checked AI-derived findings against retail realities to de-risk decisions and codified the learnings into a persona-driven creative framework that scales across paid and onsite.
Results
Our footwear client now has a persona-driven acquisition playbook and an end-to-end creative system that extends from paid media to onsite experiences. Refined ads consistently outperformed legacy creative on engagement testing, and clearer messaging around the benefit of their proprietary technology, as well as the refined promise, improved relevance scores. A repeatable test-and-iterate model now enables the client team to quickly identify and scale what works.
After creating the digital twins, we launched a one-day rapid email test to identify the top-performing creative. This proof point demonstrates that our client is now equipped with a strategy that turns past constraints to continue to deliver tangible growth.