Tech Accessory Brands Banking On D2C Marketing To Win Over Customers
A recognised and beloved brand is one of a company's most important assets. Marketers are deploying innovative tactics and multiple approaches to catch the attention of potential users. Consumers, too, are interfacing with brands at various levels. They have a choice to interact with the brand physically or connect over ecommerce platforms. To develop an emotional connection with their customers, brands need to foster a sense of reciprocity. Even in the ecommerce space, there has been an increased emphasis on clicks, conversions, and acquisition costs. Brands are working on finding ways to add value to the customer experience and can increase the frequency with which organisations generate valuable engagements.
Mastering the nuances of customer engagement
Customer engagement is the measurement of the interaction between a brand and its customers. This interaction can occur offline (via physical contact between the business and client) or online (through emails and social media). The more interactions that a customer has with the brand, the better their experience will be and the greater their preference for that brand over the competition. The most effective customer engagement is a two-way exchange. Creating loyal customers is more important than acquiring new ones, given the abundance of options available to customers today. Loyal customers are consistent customers, but they are also brand ambassadors who can help brands reach and convert more effectively than any marketing campaign.
According to Constellation Research, customer engagement is so crucial that companies that prioritise it can increase their cross-sell and upsell revenue by up to 22 and 51 per cent, respectively.
The origins and growth of D2C
In recent years, the direct-to-consumer (D2C) business model appears to have stormed the Indian start-up and ecommerce ecosystem. Even though the D2C sector has received mixed reviews internationally, it is thriving in India, which is an interesting fact. According to estimates, over 800 direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands are operational in India, and the market was worth approximately $44.6 billion in 2021. It is anticipated to surpass $100 billion by 2025.
D2C has become an essential aspect of the marketing mix. It refers to a business model in which manufacturers ship their products directly to consumers without relying on middlemen or physical stores. If ecommerce penetration was the tipping point for direct-to-consumer brands, then the inflexion point has arrived during the pandemic. According to Google's Year in Search Report for 2021, interest in online-first shopping experiences and D2C brands has skyrocketed. In the past year,
searches for D2C brands increased by 533 per cent, searches for D2C brand comparisons increased by 41 per cent, and searches for native platforms increased by 80 per cent.
D2C brands do not need to rely on traditional retailers for exposure; they can test various distribution models, including direct shipping to consumers, pop-up shops, and partnerships with physical retailers. D2C start-ups have positioned themselves strategically to gain a competitive advantage by rethinking their retail models and products. This model is advantageous for both consumers and businesses; some principal benefits include comparison shopping. A consumer can now click from website to website to compare products, read reviews, compare prices, and make instantaneous intelligent purchasing decisions, which helps in saving time. Online shoppers frequently claim that saving time is more important than saving money.
Tech brands going the D2C way
The target demographic for most tech brands is the younger generation of digital natives. This audience demands a much more intimate experience, which these brands deliver with the help of personalised attention. The need of the hour for marketers is to personalise the customer experience at every touch point available. Crucially for Tech brands going D2C offers them the opportunity to control the brand's message and foster brand loyalty. Many consumers join a brand's community because the brand's values align with their own, a factor that is particularly important to younger consumers. In addition, once consumers begin purchasing from a company's website, this creates a tremendous demand. It gives companies a valuable asset: data. This information opens a door for customisation. A business can tailor its products, recommending or offering discounts to customers according to their purchase history, age, and location. Utilising a pre-existing audience, brands can target them for new designs or product categories.
D2C marketing offers insight into executing strategic digital assets, customer advocacy, product or service benefits, and hyper-personalisation within a scalable digital ecosystem that proves profitable over time. They have created the ideal combination of reliability and style. While D2C is gaining a lot of traction, it has its own set of challenges. It takes time to establish the D2C funnel, and customer acquisition costs can be higher.
Taking the Omni-channel route
Omni-channel is a conduit for online immersion and interactivity. Marketing is shifting as we spend more time on our mobiles, tablets, and laptops. The challenge for brands is to design campaigns that operate across social media, display advertising and ecommerce, and communicate with customers through all of these platforms in real-time. The real-time dialogues firms engage with individuals via websites, and mobile applications have altered the nature of marketing. The modern marketing department must mix the creative and technical aspects of the field, utilising persuasive narratives to tap into people's desires and goals with data, digital engineering, and analytics.
While being a D2C brand gives one more control but the other touchpoints cannot be completely ignored. All new-age online first brands are well aware of the importance of being Omni-channel retail. Through an integrated Omni-channel strategy, tech accessory brands can provide hyper-convenient, personalised shopping experiences at every point in the customer journey. Marketers need to create frictionless and personalised customer experiences as the space is competitive. Timeliness and relevance are two other aspects that need to be factored in for a seamless Omni-channel approach.
Managing a supply chain is one of the biggest challenges in adopting an Omni-channel retail strategy. Fragmented supply chains can result in unpredictable bidirectional flows. Addressing this can help in reducing bad inventory. Implementing warehouse management systems and supply chain automation tools with integrated analytics for fraud detection can help overcome these challenges and ensure proper supply across channels.
Marketing to the Millennial
Influencer marketing for tech accessory brands is all about selecting the appropriate influencers and finding the target audience. Using influencer marketing to promote business-to-consumer products gives access to a large pool of prospective customers that the company can leverage. Celebrities are often paid to advertise various products, whereas other influencers typically endorse or review a product only after using it themselves. Consumers place more faith in social and industry influencers than celebrities because their recommendations are viewed as more credible. Consumers' likelihood of making a purchase is boosted by hearing about an influencer's authentic user experience.
Perfecting a successful marketing strategy is an ongoing journey that needs to be regularly curated to maximise results.
