1/ Interesting quote today that didn’t want attribution: “the latest wave of vc backed d2c brands are 1 product companies where the product is just good enough but they lean heavily into marketing”.
2/ Pointed to luggage, apparel, meal replacement, juicers, mattresses. Time after time the products were on par with private label quality, but spent big on branding/marketing.
3/ This resonates with me. And saddens me as I think that pattern misses the point of d2c. Pt of d2c is to iterate on products; test more easily. Scale almost always comes from multiple channels. (think of 5 exits that are just d2c brands but not marketplaces....dont name DSC)
4/ News alert for the VCs dumping money into marketing for the 1 product companies – the channel (d2c is a channel -just like club, grocery etc) is very expensive. That’s why these d2c brands are raising $X0m and $X00m.
5/ d2c is really good at helping to iterate on product development and a/b test products more effectively than you could ever offline where slotting fees, replacing physical product on shelf, etc
6/ btw if author on #1 changes mind and wants attribution just let me know. It is all you :)
7/ UPDATE: Quote in #1 is from @rsiegel - really interesting insight
