How to Get Your D2C Brand Seen Everywhere.
Sureshrajan Palaniappan
Not just topline revenue, Helping to build Profitable D2C Brands.
Nowadays, getting people's attention is the most difficult one.
What if I tell you all the successful brands are built with the target audience's attention naturally, not by pushing them with ads?
We all assume that big brands have money to invest in celebrities & ads to get people's attention.
This is not always true because customers are always looking for shortcuts that naturally gain social approval from others.
We don't like to get into uncertainties when finding the best product for our needs. Even if you have a great product, people will not find you. You need to make them see your brand & products wherever they are.
It is hard to sell your product if prospects can't see & observe your products.
When you try to push them to buy it, the perceived value will be less, and your brand will become a commodity and cheap when people try to bargain.
Now, the question is, how do you make people see your product without making them feel forced to buy it?
Most early-stage D2C stores run ads and force people to buy by showing Offers, Urgency, and scarcity.
Beyond the Noise – How Brands Stand Out and Stay Seen:
You may have a great product, but how many people have seen your product & brand multiple times?
Can you imagine? How many brands have you encountered recently and know about but have not purchased?
I hope that not all brands force you to buy their products. But you just be aware by seeing the products in a few places.
You may notice this Whoop fitness tracker that top athletes are wearing, like Virat Kholi.
Millions of people have seen the strap and are curious to know more about it. Below, you can see how brand searches have evolved in the last 12 months.
This is how you can make people search for your products & brand without investing lots of money into advertising.
The reason for the rising trend is that people search for those who really want to be like Virat in health & fitness.
Even their positioning is for high performance & not to track just steps, calories, etc.
Product Innovation (technology) + Segmented audience (high-performance athletes) + Positioning (WHOOP empowers users to optimise their training and recovery routines for maximum performance).
We don't really get attention to some brands until we see them in multiple places.
When you make people see your products multiple times without the intention of selling, your brand will be perceived as authentic.
But in this era, we urge people to buy now by showing ads aggressively.
Have you seen a brand? who has grown by spending lots of money on ads?
I hope not.
Even if some brands are doing it, it is just hype. It will not sustain in long-term games. Just getting people to see as many places as possible is the key to scaling the D2C brand sustainably.
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I am not saying you should show the products with a promotion. It is all about seeing what they desire because?humans naturally programmed "what we see, what we do".
Monkey See, Monkey Does;
We are like monkeys; we do things based on what we see others are doing.
That is why most parent aims to study their kids in good schools and colleges.
Children are naturally placed in the location for 6-8 hours & see other students, parents, and how and what others are doing.
In the same way, we will only buy things if we observe how others are doing it.
The way we make buying decisions for cars is a great example. When we see that our neighbour has bought a car, we are more likely to buy it, but people feel they have made their own decision.
Not just that. Social Validation plays a bigger role in this.
When you see the product for the first time online, How do you validate whether it is good or bad?
Most people make the decision based on the impression of the product:
GOOD PRODUCT = good reviews, real people photos, customers sharing the product images at home, people talking about the product on social media, etc
BAD PRODUCT = No reviews, no real people photos, 50% OFF, limited stock left.
This is how people validate the product. In other words, how many people are using it or sharing thoughts about it?
This is why people trust the brand when a friend refers to you.
I just created a visual representation of how to spread brand words so that people perceive them naturally without using sales ads.
Conclusion:
Making people see your brand is the way to make people want your brand rather than forcing people to buy the product for just short-term revenue. You can't scale your brand if you just focus on short-term revenue. This strategy works best to build & grow your brand with profitability.
Great insight indeed! ??