Understanding Festive Marketing for D2C brands ft. The Man Company & The Souled Store

How is marketing D2C brands different from marketing conentional brands? Rumi Ambastha and Sujoy Dutta, help us find out.

Rumi Ambastha, Director Brand Marketing at The Man Company, and Sujoy Dutta, Sr Vice President, Marketing at The Souled Store in conversation with Social Samosa discuss at length the festive marketing blueprint for D2C brands and the avenues to reach out to the consumers.

Traditional Marketing V/s D2C Marketing

“Along with real-time updates and engaging with consumers while something’s happening, with D2C brands you can do segmentation very well,” points out Ambastha when asked about the difference between marketing a conventional brand and a D2C brand.

According to her the additional advantage that direct to consumer marketing gives you is that your message is out there at the right time. “Today you are living and breathing digital given D2C brands are consumer-focused,” she adds.  

On the other hand, The Souled Store is all about fans making products for other fans and brands.  “You don’t necessarily need crazy marketing budgets as long as you are able to serve the real important core of your existence,” says Dutta. 

Performance Marketing forms the base for all activities at The Souled Store. The company claims to create things that get it talked about and build a cult fan following. Dutta adds, “The topic of conversation and of course your products needs to be valid. We did not approach with the lens of what can we do that makes us viral.”

The Balancing Act - Brand & Performance

Ambastha and Dutta both believe that it's very important to build a brand first and the rest will follow.

“Let people fall in love with your brand,” states Ambastha. “Then you don’t have to try harder to get bucks in your pocket. What is the difference that you are trying to make? What are the values that your customers will resonate with?“

According to her, one can’t rely only on performance marketing. Content plays a bigger role and that content and community are very significant. “We are trying to build a community for gentlemen and there is a constant endeavor to build good content. Video content on YouTube is focused heavily to make it relatable and it works."

The Man Company follows a platform-specific content guide across Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.

Dutta is of the opinion that you need to build a memory structure for your brand in the consumer’s mind. “Performance is very impulse-driven. Performance marketing is spending today and output tomorrow, while brand marketing is a vicious cycle. It’s all about the ability to stomach 7 days lead time to a 6 months lead time.”  

Also Read: Influencer marketing has become top-of-the-funnel game for many brands: Megha Tata

Celebrity Endorsements For D2C Brands

The Man Company is 6 years old and they onboarded Ayushmann Khurrana as the brand ambassador 2 years back. In the initial 4 years, it claims to have never thought about roping in a celebrity endorser. The question is why do you need a brand ambassador?

Ambastha says, "For us, we didn’t even think of sales. We looked for a celebrity who is the human personification of the man we had in our head. Ayushamaan Khurrana fit the bill - real, self–aware, he embodied all our brand values. The brand story that I am trying to build here, AK is the best to voice it. Hence it is important to build a brand first. Let not a celebrity do that. Let the celebrity be the speaker of the brand and build it louder."

Dutta echoed similar thoughts and shares that it is significant to amplify your brand personality. Then the celebrity comes in and makes it easy to digest for the broader audience.

Secondly, the celebrity should fit your personality and not just a generic famous face. "It's not like your sales are going up. People just start trusting you a little more but that tends to be short-lived."

The speakers shared their views at the Social Samosa Presents Festive Marketing Week 2021.

Watch the full session here.

Stay tuned for an exciting line up of sessions on Day 2 & Day 3. You can view the agenda here