Direct-to-Consumer (D2C)

Creator marketing has officially moved down funnel and become a true performance marketing channel. Whether they’re paid affiliate commissions, flat fees per post/video, consulting fees, or a combination of the three, today’s creators are motivated to increase their marketing partners’ sales.

How has the subscription economy evolved, both from a consumer and a brand perspective? This issue of ASK Answers can help guide your team's subscription strategy.

How are DTC brands successfully connecting with consumers?

The 2023 Future Shopper Report by Wunderman Thompson highlights trends and data that businesses need to strategically act upon fast, such as recognizing that although experience is key, the number one driving force for online decision making is price, and that sustainability and ethics are key factors in purchase decisions.

John Puterbaugh, Ph.D., executive director of advanced media and innovation at Quad, outlined technologies that are enhancing the direct mail and catalog experience and provided some tips for how marketers can best leverage them to drive consideration and sales.

Customer reviews and referrals are one of the most effective elements driving customer acquisition today. In fact, product reviews rank even higher than a good price among modern consumers as a reason to buy your product or service. The three things a consumer typically looks for when checking customer reviews are recency, quantity, and a mix of good and bad reviews.

As D2C brands enjoy hyper-growth mode thanks to consumers’ increasingly digital habits, savvy marketers are looking to influencers and affiliate marketers to expand their reach. The key to running a successful campaign, regardless of which method you choose, is simple: design it around your goals and customers, and the results you desire will follow.

As the D2C space rapidly expands, heating up the competition, many brands are leaning on the power of customer referrals to generate awareness and drive sales. Learn how your business can leverage the enthusiasm of your customers to grow a community of ambassadors who promote your growth by sharing about your D2C brand with their friends, family, colleagues, and social media networks.

As technology makes it easier for today’s consumers to discover new products, the prospects you’re seeking to attract are more distracted than ever before. The key to capturing their attention? Meet them where they are with enticing offers that compel them to engage with your D2C brand.

As the endemic consumer is rapidly changing, modern brands seek to leverage all of the tactics at their disposal to engage customers. One of the trends we’ve seen over the past two years is a drastic rise in e-commerce and social commerce utilization across retail and direct to consumer brands. As e-commerce continues to take over the marketplace, brand marketing teams will need to better understand the buyer journey in the modern consumer experience-centric era.

Hello Bello shared how it partnered with shopping app Shopkick to help the typically direct-to-consumer brand address the rise of in-store shopping, drive product education and in-store engagement, and influence purchase behavior at Walmart, the brand’s primary retail partner.

To recapture consumer attention and reestablish the uniqueness of the brand, Cheez-It developed a collaboration with House Wine to offer a boxed pairing of wine and Cheez-Its, the “ultimate snack pack for grown-ups.”

B2B brands can learn a lot from the D2C category, which creates cohesive branded customer experiences that drive affinity and loyalty.

With consumer shopping habits rapidly changing, marketers must capitalize by building numerous shoppable moments into the buyer journey, ensuring that consumers can purchase with limited friction the moment they feel inspired to do so. In this session, the team at Blue Chip shared some tips.

ANA’s Ask the Expert research service answers the question, “How has the subscription economy evolved, both from a consumer and a brand perspective?"

Vivian Chang with Clorox DTC explored how the interplay of national ad spend, shopper marketing, and DTC advertising can both build the brand and drive measurable performance by leveraging tests that spans product merchandising, channels, and site experience.

The rumors of TV's death have been greatly exaggerated. If anyone or anything had a good 2020, it was the TV in the middle of your living room. Jo Kinsella and Bob Ivins from TV Squared join the (virtual) podcast studio to talk about TV's rebirth, and why direct-to-consumer brands in particular are finding a windfall in TV advertising.

The 2020 edition of the ANA Marketing Futures Report on the direct-to-consumer model provides a rich picture of the trend’s costs and benefits, as well as perspectives from industry leaders and a case study from a popular travel brand.

To compete with startup DTCs, brands must look beyond the idea that DTC is a new channel to focus on the broader restructuring of consumer relationships that Forrester calls direct-to-value (DTV).

With direct-to-consumer (DTC) brands nipping at their heels, traditional CPG companies are scrambling to implement marketing initiatives so they can be more like challenger brands.