5 factors of direct to consumer brand success

If I had to summarize the direct brand experience in a single sentence, I’d have to borrow AYR’s tagline: “Simplify everything.” Gone are the days of scheduling time between drop-offs, pick-ups and work to stop by the mall. Need to try on a few styles? Don’t worry about it: Warby Parker will send you a few sets of glasses to try on at home. Top-notch customer service and breezy return policies make buyer’s remorse a thing of the past, while boxed sets eliminate the need to choose outright. Best of all, many direct brands take social responsibility seriously, offering ethically-sourced products to soothe even the guiltiest conscience; Bombas even donates returned socks to those in need (after they’ve been washed, of course).Personally, I ditched Dove deodorant for Native, my Nikes for Allbirds, my Brooks Brothers for Birddogs and signed up to Quip for all my toothbrushing needs. But I’m not the only one in love with direct brands. After Unilever’s $1 billion acquisition of Dollar Shave Club, a growing number of legacy brands is seeking to absorb these upstarts, and it isn’t obviously in defense of market share. In 2015, Dollar Shave Club controlled 1% of the market, a drop in the bucket compared with industry leader Gillette’s 64%. As their name suggests, direct brands have immediate access to consumers and their purchasing habits. Unlike legacy brands that rely on abstract sales figures and traditional market research, direct brands collect data on consumer preferences and behaviors at the source. Coupled with the added insight of customer accounts, individual purchase histories and consumer feedback, direct brands can build precise and dynamic pictures of consumer groups. Like Netflix, which leveraged users’ viewing habits to develop curated content categories, direct brands can learn and adapt their product lines to target niche consumer interests.