2PM - Snoop Dogg and $DTC

INTRO (🔐): Leave Snoop alone! The man who single-handedly owned the 2024 Paris Olympics could have tipped Solo Brands beyond its typical outdoorsy customer. Instead, Solo Brands executives initially intimated that the rapper-cum-cultural icon was not the best fit for the retail group’s financial goals. Seven months later and $DTC is still facing significant challenges, not due to ineffective marketing but because of a flawed funnel strategy and overall lack of brand cohesiveness. Meanwhile, Snoop has become one of the most marketable salespeople in America. A later reflection of the marketing disconnect told a more accurate story: Solo Brands failed to fully embrace the Dogg Father or the merchandising strategies to capitalize on its top-of-funnel visibility. 

Continue Reading: Snoop Dogg and $DTC

Solo Brands puts Snoop behind it

May 2024: It's all change at Solo Brands - the outdoors company has brought in new leadership, a new marketing agency and shifted the balance of its marketing activity as it looks to move on from an outwardly less-than-successful partnership with rapper Snoop Dogg.

Snoop Dogg and American attitude at the Paris Olympics

August 2024: If you happened to be watching highlights of the doubles badminton match between the Chinese and American teams, you might have heard Snoop’s kinetic, super-quick commentary on a particularly energetic series of volleys. 

Supported Poll: The following data represents a survey conducted among 10,085 respondents between 18-64 years participants. This dataset provides valuable insights into the consumer attitudes that may impact your marketing, merchandising, or advertising decisions.

Olipop Breaks Into the Exclusive World of Stadium Soda

Fascinating: The deal represents a breakthrough in the world of soda distribution, as Olipop is among the few carbonated drinks to get around the hold PepsiCo and Coca-Cola have on the arena space through watertight supplier exclusivity deals.

DTC brands are learning the hard way

Fascinating: Digital-native brands need to figure out how to win in retail shelves. They're finding it difficult, to say the least.

Here's what 2PM had to say: "The mission for those retailers, whether they are hawking beef, vegetables, or anything else with an expiration date is to land on the shelves of stores like Whole Foods, Kroger, CostCo, and Aldi. For DTC brands, this is not just about expanding distribution; it’s about integrating into the daily lives of consumers. It requires building an internal strategy that aligns with the values and operations of these retail giants." (Subscription Box Fatigue)

Revolve makes a case for free returns

Forecasted: The e-commerce retailer recorded the first drop in its return rate in more than three years, and unlike many of its peers, has held fast to its policy of free shipping for online returns.

Memo: Size Charts, Returns, and EBITDA (January 2023)

One of the value propositions for Bold Metrics is that it will help a retailer reduce returns and improve conversion rates – both directly and indirectly improving profit margins for retailers. Sizing technologies like True Fit and Bold have a role in the three-fold approach to profitability for DTC fashion retailers. While it’s not one-size fits all for brands, virtual try-on technology will become a requirement for any brand still relying on sizing charts to communicate fit to an interested customer.

More startups are offering garment take-back services for brands

Properly Forecasted: Recycling of old textiles into new clothing doesn’t yet exist at scale. And the reality of what happens to old garments after they’re collected is often far messier than advertised. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that 84% of clothes end up in landfills or incinerators.

Forecast 4 of 5: The End of Synthetic Fabrics (September 2022)

Despite the urgency of climate reform, more than one-fifth of these leading companies are intensifying their reliance on fossil-fuel-derived fabrics. Their strategy? Masking this addiction with misleading promises of using ‘sustainable’ materials, like recycled synthetics. But as regulators and consumers dig deeper, these green claims about recycled materials, such as polyester from PET bottles, are facing increasing skepticism.

Network of supercomputers to build AGI coming online by 2025

Forecasted: Users will purchase tokens, as they would in an old-school arcade, and then spend those tokens to get a certain number of opportunities to play with the system. The data generated by those interactions is then fed back into the system for further AGI experimentation and development.

Years ago, one could have contended that Zuckerberg is the Robert Moses of the internet, given how Facebook reshaped our digital social landscape. Similarly, Elon Musk, with his ventures spanning electric cars, space exploration, neural interfaces, and paving over Twitter might be hailed as another Moses of the internet. Yet, neither Zuckerberg nor Musk could hold a candle to the transformative power AI promises

US credit card balances climb to $1.14 trillion

Forecasted: Consumer credit card debt delinquencies are also on the rise, particularly among younger consumers, according to a New York Federal Reserve report.

Malls tinker with tenant mixes as anchor retailers close stores

Forecasted: As traditional department store and big box retailers shift to smaller footprints, the malls they formerly anchored are using the empty spaces to diversify their tenants, adding car showrooms, apartments, amusement parks, and even hockey rinks.

While department stores may linger on, reactive to the many changes occurring in the industry it once dominated, the era of the anchor store is over. In its place is a cohort of growing brands who, collectively, could exert as much power over malls as their predecessors once had

Latest Update (8/2), presented by Bold Metrics. All brands are updated with the secondary interest poll. The ninth update of 2024 sees some major movers:

800+ Brands Measured

Amazon didn't pay tax then, Temu doesn't now

Finance: Amazon took advantage of tax laws that allowed online retailers to avoid collecting sales tax to create a pricing advantage. Now, Temu has a pricing advantage created by not paying customs duties and/or taxes.

How private equity's obsession with this one marketing metric stunts brand growth

Data: Private equity boards and portfolio companies are leaving billions of dollars in lost opportunity on the table, this marketing agency founder says.

DTC Feature: Branded Credit

Think symbiosis.

Lending and brand equity go hand in hand. Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) providers and the retailers that they serve are key to each other’s operations; they are mutually beneficial, they work in tandem. Affirm, Klarna, and countless others are key products for many retailers. Without these services, gross merchandising volume (GMV) would have been considerably lower for many, over recent years. Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) lenders like Ampla served brands by lending to them; this allowed them to acquire inventory or pay for marketing services that helped them grow top-line revenues. As their portfolio of lending customers grew, so did their valuation – at least for a time.

And then, there are companies like Tandym, a financial services company that works with merchants to create their own private-label digital credit cards and rewards programs. Tandym charges a processing fee of just 0.5%, a substantial savings compared to the typical 1.5% to 3% fees imposed by major credit card providers. Tandym provides the capital necessary to extend credit directly to a retailer’s customers, offering businesses a seamless and cost-effective way to grow and engage their customer bases. A retailer doesn’t need to be worth trillions or even billions to access such technologies. At almost any level, credit lending and retail brands can achieve symbiosis.

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Are consumers still buying what celebrities, influencers are selling?

DTC in Focus: As social media continues to shape shopping habits, the influence of celebrities and online personalities is being met with growing skepticism.

How the streetwear customer is evolving

DTC in Focus: Streetwear is by no means dead, but its customers are changing. Today they're embracing a diverse wardrobe that mixes logo T-shirts with heritage brands and traditional menswear or luxury.

What Daily Harvest has learned after one year in physical retail

DTC in Focus: Daily Harvest's Chief Commercial Officer shares what's next in the brand's expansion plan one year after it entered physical retail stores.