Zappos Family of Companies’ Post

When marketers understand their job is not to create ads, but rather to create advocates, they unlock whole new levels of creativity and awesomeness. For example, any brand can sponsor an event or festival, and they'll usually provide some money in exchange for their logo getting posted all over the place in hopes of increasing brand awareness. But, when a cult brand like Zappos decides to sponsor an event or festival, they bring their brand purpose of "delivering WOW experiences" to life and increase brand preference. Check this out: https://lnkd.in/d5p2f65u

It's been a while since we gave an update. This time Lisa Kjerulf, our Head of Brand, drops a note to re-clarify our purpose and give a snapshot of where the business is heading, recent success and how brands can now partner with us. Swipe to read ➡ #recommerce #startupjourney #brandstrategy

My postmortem on the Foxtrot sudden closure. As a fan of the brand, this one hurt… My primary thought is that the leadership team was disconnected from what their consumers wanted from the brand. A lesson learned: stay close to your customers and stay connected to how they view your brand / what they want from your company. As a long time patron, I had to ask myself, how did Foxtrot fail? Always full of people, $7 coffees flowing, highly curated and expensive goods being sold, and a wildly strong cult fan base. Then I read their Series C PR - here’s the disconnect I see, and a possible cause of death. As a consumer of the brand, I viewed them as the modern bodega. A place to meet with friends, work from home, study for exams, and grab curated goods for dinners, parties, and events with friends. The leadership team, as mentioned in their Series C raise, viewed their company instead as a “digital first, omni-channel technology company focused on 30 minute delivery and 5 minute pickup - thinking of their stores as distribution hubs.” 🚨 Not every company needs to be a tech company! There was solid product market fit, yet they burned through $160mil in funding in 2 years, focusing on tripling their development team, investing in technology, and improving distribution. I get it, scaled retail requires technology to be efficient and profitable. However, a bodega can also just be a great bodega, and funding could have been invested in community events, brand activations, and other physical (non tech company) strategies. RIP to a great concept/brand. If you’re wanting to build a great company and not focused on PE/VC backed accelerated growth / thinking you’re a tech company - there is still a cult following and product market fit for the concept. This is just my $0.02, and we’ll learn more with time - what are your thoughts?

More and more, it has become common for #DTC brand founders to step down as the company’s CEO. In the past couple of years, a number of brands brought on seasoned retail executives to usher in their next phase. In this piece by Gabriela Barkho, we speak to Taryn Jones Laeben of IRL Ventures.

How can you scale your brand working with #influencers as your main growth channel? Flagship 😊 So cool seeing the crazy lift in sales BoomBoom Naturals saw via one of our creator's shops. #influencermarketing #creatorcommerce

LiftLab partnered up with L Catterton! Here’s the backstory of it: We’ve been working with some of their portfolio companies for a while. It started with Hannah Anderson, an apparel brand in which L Catterton has a large stake in. After a while, we’ve also started working with another one of their portfolio companies, called SuperBeets (parent company “Human”). This caught the attention of the operating team and Matt Skai at L Catterton. So, the next logical step was to get to know the team and discuss how we can broaden our impact. At first, they had a lot of questions. They wanted to know how the algorithm works, how the fusion of mixed models and experiments works, and how our approach was different to theirs. After they conducted their (fairly extensive) review, they came to the conclusion that working with LiftLab would become the new best practice for their portfolio companies. 🥳 (By the way, the “L” in L Catterton stands for LVMH. Sephora, one of their biggest brands, was an early adopter of LiftLab. This definitely improved our credibility.) It’s an honor for me to not just get a “yes”, but to get this “yes” from such sophisticated investors. They’ve been known as “smart money” for their strategic investments and efficient approach to optimizing marketing expenses. We’re thankful for the partnership and excited for what’s yet to come! #marketingeffectiveness #partnership #marketing

Bridging the Gap

LiftLab partnered up with L Catterton! Here’s the backstory of it: We’ve been working with some of their portfolio companies for a while. It started with Hanna Andersson, an apparel brand in which L Catterton has a large stake in. After a while, we’ve also started working with another one of their portfolio companies, called SuperBeets (parent company “Human”). This caught the attention of the operating team and Matthew Skai at L Catterton. So, the next logical step was to get to know the team and discuss how we can broaden our impact. At first, they had a lot of questions. They wanted to know how the algorithm works, how the fusion of mixed models and experiments works, and how our approach was different to theirs. After they conducted their (fairly extensive) review, they came to the conclusion that working with LiftLab would become the new best practice for their portfolio companies. 🥳 (By the way, the “L” in L Catterton stands for LVMH. Sephora, one of their biggest brands, was an early adopter of LiftLab. This definitely improved our credibility.) It’s an honor for me to not just get a “yes”, but to get this “yes” from such sophisticated investors. They’ve been known as “smart money” for their strategic investments and efficient approach to optimizing marketing expenses. We’re thankful for the partnership and excited for what’s yet to come! #marketingeffectiveness #partnership #marketing

Ready, set, launch! 🚀✨ Don't wait another moment to unveil your brand to the world. With our expertise at your side, we'll guide you through every step of the launch process, ensuring your brand enters the market with impact and style. Let's make your launch an unforgettable success! 💼💥 #LaunchWithPurpose #ElevateYourBrand #StartStrong #BrandLaunch #ElevateYourBrand #unforgettablesuccess

The real marketing advantage of creator-founded brands is that they have a face of the brand: 1. Emma Chamberlain is the face of Chamberlain Coffee 2. Mr. Beast is the face of Feastables 3. KSI and Logan Paul are the faces of PRIME So on, so forth. How are CPG startups not founded by creators adapting? By deepening their partnership model with mission aligned athletes from brand partner → face of the brand. As Barcode shows, this works especially well with once-in-a-generation level talent. Learn more in this week's report ➡️: https://lnkd.in/eFUiuFwS #LinkedInSports #ConsumerVC #CreatorEconomy