During a Brands United webinar in September 2021, Brent Niemuth, President & Partner of direct marketing agency J. SCHMID, said that direct-to-consumer brands are outsmarting established market leaders with data-driven marketing and compelling and memorable creativity designed to delight consumers and disrupt markets.
Niemuth explained how direct-to-consumer brands like Warby Parker, Casper, and Hello Fresh are shaking established marketing paradigms and being successful while doing it. Niemuth said.
“When you look at direct-to-consumer brands now, they’re the cool kids, everyone wants to sit at the table with them because they’re the ones leading the way, they’re the ones who have figured out how to connect with consumers in a more impactful, more powerful, and more memorable way.”
Niemuth broke it down into three categories: Disrupt, Delight, and Drive action.
Being Disruptive with Direct Mail
Niemuth said it’s getting harder to stand out in this “jam-packed marketing world.” So, how do you cut through the clutter and shake things up to the point where your brand gets noticed? It’s simple — you’ve got to be different.
Niemuth said.
“When people hear this idea of having to disrupt to stand out, they assume they must yell louder and be crazier than the other guy, but no. You’ve got to be different from the other guy; if they’re comparing you to other brands they’re familiar with, being louder doesn’t matter, being different does.”
Niemuth explained that direct mail is disruptive by nature and used two digitally native brands as examples of brands that have learned to embrace both marketing mediums.
Casper
Niemuth joked and said, if you said 10 years ago, we’d be buying mattresses through the mail, he would’ve looked at you sideways, but now thanks to Casper, that’s all changed. He utilized Casper to ask viewers: What is your unboxing experience like for your brand, and have you missed an opportunity for marketing? He pointed out that Casper’s signature blue striped packaging is like a mobile billboard for the brand, and now when people see that packaging, they’ll associate it with a great product. He also touched on the interactive “sleep kit” it sends to its customers and how the company has built a brand not just based on mattresses but on sleep.
Warby Parker
Niemuth said.
“This is one of the first brands that started out digital and realized that if they open up retail stores, they might grow a little bit faster, but if we also reach out to our customers through direct mail and digital, we can make the experience better.”
He also touched on Warby Parker’s packaging and how it’s a critical part of their consumer experience. He touched on how their packaging has a simple and clean design with instructions that allow customers to interact with the brand.
Elevating to the Emotional through Delight
Niemuth said that 95% of buying decisions are based on emotion, not logic, so brands need to consider how they make people feel. In addition, Niemuth said that brands should make it simple and easy for their customers so that they feel at ease.
He used another two brands as examples of companies that ensure their customers will remember how their buying experience made them feel.
Allbirds
Niemuth admitted that he was even wearing a pair of Allbirds as he talked about them and how he has four pairs of the company’s sneakers. Keeping along with the theme, Niemuth touched on the brand’s simple yet elegant design for their packaging and labels that are effective and serve a purpose. He also pointed out the illustrative designs that they incorporate into their direct marketing campaigns that keep everything light and fresh— bringing joy and delight to their consumers.
Hello Fresh
Niemuth said.
“This brand doesn’t just slap a logo on the side of their box; they utilize their logo to communicate in a delightful and joyful way.”
Niemuth emphasized that Hello Fresh uses their packaging to communicate in a way that’s fun and playful for their customers by using phrases like “can I get a kale, yeah?”
Drive with a Call to Action
Niemuth said this might be the most critical component for direct marketers. “Research shows that if people take some sort of action, even if they go online and watch a 30-second video, chances increase that they’ll make a purchase,” Niemuth said.
He used two more brands to showcase calls to action.
Allen Edmonds
As a client of J. SCHMID, Allen Edmonds got their catalog redesigned from just showing off shoes to instead telling a story with real people. Niemuth said they featured five people throughout the catalog, told their stories, and then pushed people online to go find out more.
Relax the Back
Because this is a retail-driven brand where the product can be upwards of $9,000, Niemuth pointed out that it’s critical to get people into the store and not just buy online. So, just like Allen Edmonds, they pushed a narrative throughout their catalog about “living wellness” and urged people to come into the store. Then to top it all off, the spread at the end of the catalog gives not just one but six different calls to action.
To wrap up his talk, Niemuth Emphasized the three Ds.
- Disrupt: Do something different to get noticed.
- Delight: Once you have their attention, make it worth their time.
- Drive: Give the consumer a reason to act.
COMMENTARY The direct-to-consumer (D2C) business model — allows data-driven brands to provide consumers with exactly what they want, when they want it, in an extremely personalized way. It allows consumers to access products directly from a brand, rather than a third party such as a retail store.
Knowing about the D2C business model, you might be wondering what is direct to consumer advertising exactly?
What is D2C advertising and why are brands using it?
Just as the term and business model suggest, D2C advertising cuts out any middlemen and lets brands to manage the end-to-end process themselves. So rather than pushing products to larger retailers and wholesalers, sellers choose to focus their marketing strategies on consumers to build a closer relationship with them.
D2C marketing is quickly growing in popularity, brought on largely by other current advertising trends, like influencer marketing and social media ecommerce capabilities like various shopping ads.
What sets direct to consumer advertising apart?
While there are some similarities, there are some major differences between D2C marketing and other marketing strategies including B2B.
The main distinction is that D2C marketing requires an unrelenting focus on data, technology, and a personalized ecommerce experience — more so than any other type of marketing.
Other qualities that set D2C marketing apart include:
- A seamless buying experience with speedy delivery
- Heavy reliance on engagement and sharing (social conversations turn into user-generated content, which can then be leveraged to spread positive publicity)
- One-to-one interaction with users based on customer feedback and reviews
- The quantity and quality of first-party customer data created that the brand can use to make important decisions, such as tweaking product design
- A deep and invaluable understanding of the purchase path, which can inform subsequent communication and advertising choices
- An intrinsic modernness, providing millennials with the sense that these products were developed specifically for and by their generation
How can brands implement a D2C advertising strategy?
There are countless ways to begin DTC advertising, but here are a few of the most basic to get you started.
Paid search
This is the best place to start as a D2C brand because when someone searches for your main keywords, you want to make sure they know that your business can help them. This allows you to start building that strong one-on-one connection with them immediately as they’re searching for a solution, and then convince them to take action.
For example, when someone searches “where to buy razors,” Harry’s ensures their website is at the top of the results page:
When users click the D2C ad, they’re directed to this pre-cart landing page to learn more about the razor subscription:
After learning about the offer, prospects can click the “Redeem Trial” CTA button to easily checkout on the next page:
The order of this process is critical because although nearly 1 in 4 online shoppers begin their customer journey on a product page, about 96% of visitors aren’t yet ready to buy when arriving there. Sending them to an actual pre-cart landing page instead makes them less likely to bounce right away.
Social media
Paying for social media ads where your consumers spend most of their time is another great D2C marketing tactic. Social media advertising provides brands with a way to amplify their voice, increase shares and engagement, and leverage personalized, one-to-one messaging.
This DailyLook Facebook D2C ad is highly personalized to the user. The ad copy and video captions even make it clear that DailyLook is a D2C brand:
Visual platforms like Instagram and Pinterest have been rolling out in-feed shopping tools, enabling customers to move more quickly from product discovery to purchase. Users can click ads like this Nike Pinterest ad and be directed to a brand’s ecommerce site to complete transactions:
Or they can complete an in-app purchase in some cases, such as this Instagram Checkout for UNIQLO:
With this new feature, consumers don’t even have to leave Instagram to complete their transaction.
With your existing list of contacts, you can start by setting up one-to-one transactional emails — welcome, thank you, order confirmation, shipping notification, customer support, etc. like this one from Fabletics:
You can also create promotional D2C campaigns like Nectar does with their direct-shipping mattress service:
Display ads
Display and retargeting ads tend to have two different goals: not only click-throughs, but also impressions and reach. So this particular D2C marketing tactic is more like brand advertising — to make a favorable impression, build strong connections, and increase long term demand.
Consider this Johnson & Johnson ad for instance:
It’s not intended to sell a specific product; just to raise brand awareness, build connections, and create long term demand.
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