Brand awareness: The challenge for DTC brands

Couple months back, I left my corporate job to join a brand that has less than five years in the business. The pivot opened up a whole new perspective in marketing and go-to-market strategies, with digital advertising emerging as the engine propelling the eCommerce growth. In this dynamic shift, my role evolved from crafting onboarding pages for potential customers to curating and defining our lifestyle photography across sales channels, stretching beyond the traditional merchandising on product landing pages.

Paid media has become a new landscape for me but also a good learning curve in digital marketing and as I wrap my head around it all, I can't help but wonder: What's the next move for a brand like ours that that successfully slashed digital advertising costs?

Olaplex, is the clear example of a clever paid advertising strategy online but after succeeding the paid ads costs, now the new challenge is how to find different ways to reach the target market. The brand went big on wholesale, dropping their products in Sephora and giving out samples to retailers. The goal? Get people interested, drive them to their online store, and keep the business rolling. The shift in strategy didn’t come easy and it was evident after seen the stocks of the brand dropped around 60% since the business was launched. This also translates in a wonky economy that sadly, not all these DTC brands will stay on business.

Now, with uncertainty in the air, the big question is: What's the smart move next? Everyone's talking about partnerships, but the real trick is finding partners who 1) share the core values of the brand and 2) know their merchandising game – showcasing the right products to the right customer at the right time.

Olaplex bet big on a samples strategy with Sephora, witnessing a surge in website traffic and a whopping 50% increase in sales. Yet, in the realm of business, success isn't merely about revenue; costs must be intricately correlated with the growth of the enterprise.