Brand Flagship Platform, a key differentiator for the brand vs brands

Digital platforms today are disrupting how brands sell and how customers buy products. For example, if you search for Fossil Watches or Adidas shoes on Google Shopping or Google Search bar, it would show up results from multiple online retailers like Amazon, Croma, Ajio, Myntra, and Reliance Digital, etc. as well as Fossil India’s or Reebok India’s website. While Google earns ad revenue when buyers click on these links, the threat for product brands appears to be high here.

The e-commerce platforms, such as Amazon with its wide range of products, by default, allow buyers to search by product class rather than brands, allowing platforms to place their brands in the spotlight. Even though there are filters (for brand names), traditional or popular brands struggle to distinguish themselves from smaller brands since these brand aggregator platforms standardize the product displays. The standardization of product display as per the platform’s pre-defined template limits the ability of popular and established brands to showcase their distinctive features or USPs vis-à-vis smaller and lesser-known brands.

On the other hand, a brand like Nike is turning this threat into an opportunity by creating its brand flagship platform. Nike has developed its brand flagship platform featuring Nike Run Club and Nike Training Club apps through which it can increase its offering for consumers by integrating third-party sellers as well as other consumers into the platform. This value creation could be in the form of showing updates from other members of the Nike community/forums, personal and professional training assistance, music playlists, sports content, and some exclusive branded merchandise. Since platforms like Google Shopping and Amazon fail to personalize the customer experiences in a single category like, say Sports, this kind of digital brand flagship platform allows the brands to differentiate themselves from others.

Leverage platform for driving engagement and standing out in the crowd

We can say that brand flagship platforms don’t just work as a sales channel, but they create an ecosystem around the brand, providing a variety of niche products, services, and relevant content to customers by crowdsourcing and sometimes by crowdsending as well. The users gain value from another user on the platform through crowdsourcing. This could involve the user making a purchase from a third-party seller on the platform or asking the forum or another user on the platform about what items to buy and how to maintain them, etc. Similarly, crowdsending is when participants add value to the platform and other participants by contributing products, services, and content. The 'Adidas Runtastic' is one such platform that allows users to share training programs they have designed for themselves or themselves followed, their preferred running routes, images and tutorial videos on how to use certain products, etc. These interactions spiral and increase customer engagement on the platform, and yield a deeper lasting relationship between the brand and its consumers. To make this brand-customers relationship even stronger, Adidas rewards its consumers not only for their purchases but also for their participation and engagement on the platform by sharing workout regimes and images, participating in events, and writing reviews.

Go beyond Amazon & Google Shopping

Brands can go well beyond the e-commerce website’s formula by creating and leveraging their brand flagship platforms. They can differentiate themselves based on strong brand positioning, a unique value proposition, and deeper consumer relationships. Where the goal is to write value-creating experiences and not just promote individual products, I think brand flagship platforms can be quite effective as it offers product brands a way to capitalize on the weaknesses of e-commerce platforms in terms of personalizing customer experience for a specific range of products and establish a direct and profound connection with consumers.