Building A Thriving D2C Millennial Brand

Tarun Sharma Mar 31, 2022

Over the last years, several homegrown brands have begun to sprout amongst a plethora of international brands that have been traditionally dominating the space. One of the factors for the growth of these local brands is the rise of D2C space in the country. Addressing the gaps in consumer experience left behind by traditional retailers, the newer brands have proved to be more agile in snapping up the digital market space. However, the question arises—can a local brand scale up and build itself into an iconic Indian brand for the globe?

If the brand takes customer-centricity at the core of everything it does, there exists a prospect to level the playing field with existing international brands. But more than that, what is absolutely vital for a brand is having a robust foundation built with new-age building blocks of the four E’s—Efficacy, Ethos, Experience and Emotions—to support it as it steps up to scale new heights. Building a brand around the cornerstones of the four essential E’s, which are interlinked, helps brands witness sturdy and steady growth. Not only that, but with Efficacy, Ethos, Experience and Emotions becoming the pillars for a brand, the brand can stand the test of time by constantly evolving relevantly and flourishing to become disruptors the world over.

Efficacy

Product efficacy, and in turn, brand efficacy is a function of three vital aspects—strong consumer understanding, contextualisation and research & development (R&D).

A deep consumer understanding comes from interacting with customers directly and regularly. In order to gain in-depth consumer insight, detailed interaction and feedback serve to be crucial places to start, which is why building a robust feedback system is absolutely paramount. However, simply understanding the consumer is not sufficient in today’s day and age, where brands are striving to be a problem-solver for their consumers’ individual needs and wants. Alongside understanding their customers, brands need to anticipate each customers’ behaviour based on their situation to deliver their products effectively—also called contextualising their products. This involves gauging a customer’s individual circumstances, like whether they are vacationing or starting a family, amongst other situations. Contextualising product experiences helps brands offer more relevant products and services—which is beneficial for both—the brand as well as its customers.

Meanwhile, continuous R&D is a cornerstone for an efficacious product or service. Crafting an efficacious product or service requires sampling, rejecting and consistently working on plenty of ideas and concepts. Like great brands and their remarkable narratives, a product that is efficacious at its core tends to stand the test of time. In recent times—with consumers becoming more aware and conscious about the planet—it is essential for brands to buildPETA-certified, vegan and cruelty-free products without using plastic. At the same time, it is also necessary to follow the made-safe manufacturing standards.

Ethos

Over the last few years, brands have transcended the traditional means of connecting with their consumers by donning a more human avatar complete with a well-rounded personality to bond emotionally with their consumer base. Building a brand around a specific layer of ethos expresses its responsibility and fosters a deep connection amongst its users—it lays down the foundation for the future functions of your brand.

Serving at the backbone of the brand’s identity, a brand ethos consists of traits, culture, goals, mission, vision, as well as the current and future community it embodies. Having a well-built and relevant ethos makes the brand credible and authentic. For instance, if a brand is catering to the millennial audience, its ethos should revolve around conversations that matter to millennials most—such as colour, gender, planet care, safeguarding nature, amongst other things. It is no secret that the millennial generation prefers brands that show more responsibility towards the planet at large.

Moreover, a brand’s ethos can split into distinct avenues—in the efficacious products they build alongside the principles they stand for, which, in turn, is reflected in its communication. The brand’s product team must ensure that they uphold their ethos while crafting products that meet audience expectations while also not compromising on its principles. Following such stringent parameters may be challenging in the short run but proves to be rewarding in the long run. Additionally, the brand must also embody its ethos effectively in the emotional zone by being consumer-centric. False promises while marketing a product may damage the brand’s ethos and perception amongst the consumers. Lastly, a brand ethos must be dynamic, mirroring the human personality of its evolving audience.

We can see brands making efforts to have a zero plastic footprint by ensuring that the quality and the quantity of plastic used in packaging is recycled, an endeavour towards reducing plastic pollution in the country. Personal care brands are taking the route of gender-neutrality—that skincare, haircare and, most importantly, self-care has no colour or gender and should be for everyone. We as a brand embody the millennial ethos with key principles of clean label (natural as a choice), why hurt (no animal testing), confidence over color (don’t sell insecurities or fairness products) and are 100% vegan and cruelty-free.

Experience

Experience is a vital tenet for brands seeking to spearhead society’s aspirations. Brands are no more limited to the commodities they offer and their features. The new-age consumer demands an immersive, even aspirational experience which the brand must serve through its products and add-on services.

A few characteristics defining this new-age consumer base are a no-saving attitude and valuing the experience derived from the product consumed over commoditisation. While this experience tends to be subjective from brand to brand, innovation and inventiveness play a critical part in building an extraordinary experience—which can be offered through accessories, packaging, fragrance, texture and even form factor. For instance, reforming generic rectangular soap bars into coffee-bean shaped bathing bars to bring a new experience for the customers is a recent innovation in the bathing bar segment.

Since experience building begins right from the moment the potential customer holds the product, it is essential to design creative packaging. In addition to this visual activation, offering a sensory experience is equally necessary. Apart from packaging, a product must be avant-garde and crafted innovatively to provide a unique experience to the consumers at every level—thereby differentiating your brand in a competitive landscape. Not only that but including complimentary accessories in the product box ensures that the brand ranks high in the experience quotient. Another strategic way of crafting experience is designing limited-edition gift boxes, collections or kits for important occasions to make your brand an intrinsic part of special occasions and celebrations in the consumer’s life.

Emotions

The last E, for Emotions, is a defining E for your brand. Apart from conceptualising an efficacious product, embodying an ethos of the highest order and building a great experience for consumers, generating an emotional connection with consumers is of utmost importance.

Not only does this emotional bond support maintaining the goodwill of your brand, but it also helps the brand become a talking point in the conversations the consumers are having. An emotional currency of sorts, this connection also helps carve a permanent space for your brand in the consumers’ heads. This emotional “appeal” for the brand can range from self-pampering to making the audience feel good about themselves. While building such a deep connection may require brand years of consistent effort, doing so has the potential to elevate them to iconic brands most people swear by, such as Nike or Apple.

Mapping the market, very few brands have laid their foundation based on all the four E’s—most have incorporated only one or two of these E’s. However, integrating these four E’s simultaneously together gives rise to the possibility of constructing an effective, well-built mechanism that will further bolster your brand in the market.

The author is Tarun Sharma, Co-Founder and CEO, mCaffeine