#legacybrands

Have you ever heard of a brand linking up with its customers to build a legacy? Rest assure that they exist and are becoming well-known among brands. These brands specialize in what is known as Direct-to-Consumer (DTC) and are redefining the nature of branding by doing something that legacy brands such as Coke, Nike or Google aren’t actively doing.

These DTC brands are listening to their consumers and letting them decide the direction of their brand. Crazy right? But, before we get into the nitty gritty, let’s first define what a brand is. For a brand it is an identifying symbol, mark, logo, name, word and/or sentence that companies use to distinguish their product from others. For a customer, it is the overall experience that they get when they use a product or service which in turn distinguishes an organization or product from its rivals in the eyes of the customer. By giving consumers the power to dictate what kind of products should be sold or what services are needed, brands can tailor their products to what customers really want instead of what the company thinks the customer wants. Who knows the consumer better tahn the consumer? Some companies believe that in actuality, customers don’t know what they want or need so why give them the power to decide. DTC brands realize this and have an answer.

Image courtesy of mybillie.com

Billie is an example of a direct-to-consumer brand. Like it is mentioned in their website, Billie specializes in the shaving category and caters to women who are looking for razors that do what is promised and provide a lot more than a clean shave. Billie empathizes with its customers because they know what its like to look at advertisements and see an already clean shaved woman shaving her legs. Billie instead embraces females with a natural look, with legs and underarms that are bushy as can be. They showcase the power of their unique shaving products and center themselves around their customers beliefs in how the product or service connects them to their individual lives and communities.

On the other hand, legacy brands build their products around a brand. Brand management then kicks into drive awareness, trial and loyalty. These brands are driven by what they want their customers to buy and not so much what the customer decides. ‘You want a coke, here is coke and what it can do for you’. Coke has done brand engagement with its customers by providing them products that allow them the choice to choose, such as their “Share a coke with...” but in essence, customers didn’t ask for this.

Lays also did a similar venture with its customers but took it a step further and allowed their customers to create their own version of chip flavor and in return, they could win $1 Million.

Source image from lays.com

As we can see, legacy brands want to involve their customers in decided what products they’d want but it’s limited as to whenever the company decides to promote something like this.

Dipanjan Chatterjee published an article in adage.com titled, “The New Soul of Branding”. Chatterjee and his team did a study on how to better understand how the soul of branding is changing and dive deeper into consumer behavior. Through their research, they were able to better understand how the soul of branding is changing and provide us with six ways that DTC brands are different from legacy brands: 

The empowered self: Consumers take over and demand a voice and want access to simple and affordable products.

The communal other: There are meaningful bonds between consumers and brands. Consumers have faith in the brands core values and mission and want it to succeed.

The ally brand: The brand is inviting and it exists to enable and serve its customers and communities.

Uniquely intelligent: Data and analytics play a big part in figuring out what their customers are doing or are interested in. So, using specific targeting to then create offerings for its customers.

Brutally honest: Communication between brands and customers is direct, sincere and stripped of euphemisms. Customers want brands to be transparent and socially conscious.

Fanatically fair: Brands should welcome everyone and anyone including attitudinal shifts. They should embody their customers and their employees should live the companies values as well.

A great example of another DTC brand that is doing the above is Volition Beauty. Volition Beauty is a beauty product industry that sells its products directly to consumers by shipping the products to your door. Volition Beauty “believe that new beauty products should be created by real people with real beauty problems (aka people like you).”

Source image from volitionbeauty.com