The Secret Sauce of Successful Consumer Brands

Good consumer brands are not rare but going from good to great is tremendously challenging. What sets apart the good D2C brands from the truly great ones? Well, buckle up, because we’ve got the scoop on the key differentiators that can catapult a D2C brand from ordinary to extraordinary!

Consumer Brand Illustration

Success Drivers

• Customer Delight: Customers are the lifeblood of their business. Great brands focus on building genuine relationships with their customers, providing exceptional customer service, and creating personalized experiences. By truly understanding and catering to customers’ needs, these brands foster loyalty and turn customers into advocates.

Factors that matter (Source: PwC)

• Unique Value Proposition: Great brands have a clear and compelling unique value proposition (UVP) that differentiates them from the competition. They offer something distinct and valuable to their customers, whether it’s an innovative product, a superior customer experience, or a unique brand story. A strong UVP helps them stand out in a crowded market and creates a loyal customer base.
• Seamless Experience: In today’s digital age, a seamless online experience is crucial for D2C success. They invest in user-friendly websites, mobile apps, and e-commerce platforms that are visually appealing, easy to navigate, and optimized for a smooth experience. Brands leverage digital and physical channels to reach and engage their customers, creating a frictionless journey from discovery to purchase and beyond.

Consumers use a combination of digital, physical, and hybrid channels (Source: IBM)

• Innovation and Agility: Great brands never rest on their laurels. They embrace innovation and stay agile to adapt to changing customer needs, market trends, and technological advancements. They take calculated risks and constantly evolve their products, services, and processes to stay ahead of the competition. By being innovative and agile, these brands remain relevant and stay resilient in turbulent times.

Brands embrace changing landscape (Source: Deloitte)

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Data is the currency of modern business, and brands must know how to harness its power. They collect and analyze data from various sources to gain insights into customer behavior, preferences, and market trends. They use this data to make informed decisions about product development, marketing strategies, and customer engagement, unlocking the secrets to success.

By excelling in these areas, D2C brands can create a buzz, win the hearts of customers, and achieve extraordinary success in the competitive world of consumer products.

Challenges for Brand Measurement

D2C brands face unique challenges when it comes to measuring success compared to traditional tech companies. While metrics like revenue and user base are important, there are two critical factors that make performance assessment a daunting task.

• Limited Access to Quality Data: Unlike tech companies that operate in the digital space, D2C brands often face challenges in collecting and accessing comprehensive data across multiple platforms, from both online and offline sources. The lack of data integration and standardization makes gaining a holistic view of the business’s performance difficult.

The gap between value derived and potential value to be achieved from data (Source: Accenture)

• Complex Customer Journey: Brands typically have multiple touchpoints, from initial brand discovery to purchasing and post-purchase engagement. Alongside the journey, there are attributes to brand awareness, customer sentiment, and loyalty metrics. These intangible factors are harder to measure accurately and may require additional qualitative and quantitative research. Understanding the nuances of the customer journey and attributing success to specific touchpoints can easily be incomplete or inaccurate.

Shopify E-commerce Example

The Secret Sauce

Post-purchase data at the item level is a game-changer for D2C brands when it comes to measuring success because it will unlock a whole new level of valuable insights into customer behaviour, preferences, and product performance.

• Enhanced Customer Understanding: Post-purchase data at the item-level provides in-depth insights into how customers interact with specific products including purchase and usage patterns, product preferences, and customer feedback. This level of individual data helps brands identify which products are resonating with what type of customers. Brands can then use this data to refine their product offerings, optimize their marketing strategies, and tailor their customer experience, ultimately leading to improved customer satisfaction and loyalty.
• Precise Product Performance Evaluation: Aside from traditional metrics like sales volume, return rates, and customer reviews, brands now have access to information like product usability, utilization, and durability at a granular level. This allows brands to identify which products are driving stickiness and loyalty and which ones may be underperforming. Brands can use this data to optimize their product development.

The missing piece in customer journey (Source: Cuemill)

Entering the Phygital Era

Aside from unlocking post-purchase insights from current customers, Loop for Business enables brands to have true omnichannel at item-level by providing unprecedented point-of-contact marketing and conversion for prospects, mutable technology across its value chain, and brand-powered community at users’ fingertips.

Loop for Business Visualization

• Product that Sells Itself: Instead of expensive advertising, some great products can organically and naturally attract new customers thanks to their effectiveness, visually appealing design, or word of mouth. To utilize the advantages of sought-after products, brands can convert them into a selling point itself by integrating Loop technology into the product. Now, customers can simply scan the item to directly purchase from the brand or learn more about it.
• Improved Supply Chain Management: Equipped with mutable technology, Loop offers benefits for supply chain management including production, warehousing, and fulfillment. When the products reach the retail or customer stage, the functions can be enabled and converted according to the change in the usage context. This helps brands streamline their operations, minimize costs, and improve customer experience with added value.
• Brand-powered Community: Loop for Business helps brands to establish a virtual community with real-life impacts where users can engage with the brand and other like-minded people in its customer base. This community-driven approach fosters a deeper connection between the brand and its customers, leading to increased brand loyalty and advocacy.

Consumers want brands to use social to help them connect with others (Source: Sprout Social)