How to balance performance marketing and brand marketing as you scale, with a specific emphasis on DTC / D2C strategies. Presented at FUTR Europe Summit 2021.

1. D2C MARKETING MASTERCLASS
Finding the balance between performance & brand marketing
Shira Feuer
Chief Marketing Officer
Trinny London
FUTR Europe Summit
May 2021

2. The unique story that people recall when they think of you
“BRAND”

3. What people say about you when you’re not in the room
“BRAND”

4. Great brands:
Consistent
Recognisable
Strong point of view

5. Not just marketing
“BRAND”

6. Brand:
Product
Marketing
Retail
Customer service
Partnerships
Internal culture
Recruitment
Any experience or touchpoint

7. Brand strategy includes:
Mission
Vision
Purpose
Brand promise
Unique value proposition
Brand values
Positioning
Core messaging
Tone of voice
Visual identity
…and so much more

8. (But this isn’t what we’re talking about today)

9. Today we’re talking about balancing
brand marketing with performance marketing

10. Marketing to drive a specific ROI-driven action
“PERFORMANCE MARKETING”

11. And because we’re talking about D2C,
we’re generally talking about generating a conversion

12. Brand marketing:
An objective?
A channel?
A measurement framework?

13. Brand marketing:
An objective

14. Marketing to create brand equity
“BRAND MARKETING”

15. Brand marketing:
Not just where you spend your money;
Where you spend your time, effort and resources*
*and you can dial these up or down depending on your objectives

16. The caveat:
This all depends on the industry, the business, the competitive space,
what you’re trying to do and how you sell

17. Today I’m focusing on the D2C space with a strong digital emphasis

18. Awareness
Consideration
Conversion
Loyalty
Advocacy

19. D2C GROWTH STAGES
1. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT
Do people want your
product?
3. HYPERGROWTH
Balance new
customer acquisition
and LTV growth
4. ESTABLISHED
Focus on loyalty
and advocacy
2. SCALING
New customer
acquisition

20. 1. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT

21. Do people actually want to use your product?

22. Find your early adopters and advocates

23. Get the product in people’s hands

24. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
PERFORMANCE
Performance marketing to drive conversion plays a large role because
you need to test and learn (and you don’t have big budgets)

25. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
PERFORMANCE

26. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
PERFORMANCE

27. Performance marketing examples:
SEO fundamentals
Data fundamentals
Paid search
Paid social
Effective site user journeys
PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
PERFORMANCE

28. Try to diversify channels as early as you can
so you don’t become dependent on one

29. Measurement:
Conversions
CAC
ROAS
AOV
PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
PERFORMANCE

30. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
BRAND
You should also start to build your
brand marketing in parallel from the beginning

31. Build a lasting emotional connection with consumers

32. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
BRAND

33. Remember why you’re doing things

34. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
BRAND

35. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
BRAND

36. Brand marketing examples:
Launch PR
Influencers
MVP content
Harnessing core advocacy
PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
BRAND

37. Measurement:
Coverage from key target titles and influencers
Direct Traffic
Brand searches
Site sessions via brand channels
“Engagement” metrics for content & community* *Make it count
PRODUCT-MARKET FIT:
BRAND

38. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT
Performance/Brand
Spend: 90/10
Time & effort: 70/30

39. 2. SCALING

40. You’ve figured out where you fit
It’s time to expand and find new customers

41. Performance should still take priority because
you want to be able to afford your growth
SCALING:
PERFORMANCE

42. SCALING:
PERFORMANCE

43. SCALING:
PERFORMANCE

44. Performance marketing examples:
Email (broadcast, abandonment, replenishment)
Expanding paid social
PR & influencers (DR)
Affiliates
CRO
Referral programs
SCALING:
PERFORMANCE

45. Measurement:
Conversions
Conversion rate
CAC
ROAS
AOV
New customers
Site activation metrics
SCALING:
PERFORMANCE

46. SCALING:
BRAND
This is when brand marketing begins to grow

47. You’ll have many learnings from the PMF stage that will give
you ideas of what your audience responds to
Testing and learning is key… But brand marketing is a lot
more expensive to test and requires more intuition
SCALING:
BRAND

48. Is it remarkable?
(Is it worth remarking on?)

49. Build a moat

50. SCALING:
BRAND

51. SCALING:
BRAND

52. SCALING:
BRAND

53. SCALING:
BRAND

54. Moments create experiences

55. Experiences create loyalty*
*While the priority in this stage is still new customer acquisition,
it’s important to build loyalty from those customers early on

56. SCALING:
BRAND

57. Brand marketing examples:
Impactful content
Events
Product placement with PR and influencers
UGC trends and amplification
Community management
Brand moments
SCALING:
BRAND

58. The success of brand marketing depends on the creative execution
If you’re going to spend money & time on this, don’t skimp on the creative
SCALING:
BRAND

59. Measurement:
Brand trackers / prompted awareness
Direct traffic
Brand searches
Video watch duration
Product coverage in key titles
UGC volume
Community response SLA
Advocate engagement
NPS
SCALING:
BRAND

60. Performance/Brand*
Spend: 75/25
Time & effort: 50/50 *Will likely vary by market as awareness will differ
SCALING:
BRAND

61. 3. HYPERGROWTH

62. You’re continuing to acquire customers at a breakneck pace, but
you’re now also balancing LTV growth from existing customers

63. Performance marketing still works but it may
begin to plateau in certain markets
HYPERGROWTH

64. It’s critical that you have invested the time to start
building a brand people care about in the first
two stages, otherwise you might get stuck here
HYPERGROWTH

65. Don’t retrofit brand later on

66. Performance is still very important , and you can
test and expand new channels
HYPERGROWTH:
PERFORMANCE

67. HYPERGROWTH:
PERFORMANCE

68. HYPERGROWTH:
PERFORMANCE

69. HYPERGROWTH:
PERFORMANCE

70. HYPERGROWTH:
PERFORMANCE

71. Performance marketing examples:
DR TV
OOH
Building generic paid search
Optimising reviews
Sampling / offers
Loyalty programs
Owned retail / pop-ups
HYPERGROWTH:
PERFORMANCE

72. Measurement:
Conversions
Revenue growth by product category
ROAS
AOV
New customers
Retained customers
LTV
Review ratings
Referral
HYPERGROWTH:
PERFORMANCE

73. Going heavier on brand marketing makes sense because you
can leverage the awareness and advocacy you have built

74. Brand is a growth lever

75. HYPERGROWTH:
BRAND

76. HYPERGROWTH:
BRAND

77. HYPERGROWTH:
BRAND

78. HYPERGROWTH:
BRAND

79. Emotion makes brands memorable

80. HYPERGROWTH:
BRAND

81. Brand marketing examples:
Influencer & celebrity collaborations
PR activations
Brand partnerships
YouTube advertising
Corporate comms
Grow content production & internationalisation
Social proof
Further develop visual identity
HYPERGROWTH:
BRAND

82. Measurement:
“Where did you hear about us” surveys
Direct traffic
Brand searches
Key target collaborations
Brand trackers / unprompted awareness
NPS
HYPERGROWTH:
BRAND

83. Performance/Brand
Spend: 60/40
Time & effort: 30/70
HYPERGROWTH

84. 4. ESTABLISHED

85. You’ve built a global brand and a household name
ESTABLISHED

86. We haven’t yet reached this stage

87. (But we will!)

88. Target retention and advocacy for future growth

89. There is less of a reliance on performance marketing
because you are now ubiquitous

90. Focus on differentiation and creating brand preference

91. Brands are harder to copy than products

92. ESTABLISHED:
PERFORMANCE
Google
SERPs here
are imagined!

93. Performance marketing examples:
Best-in-class SEO
Sophisticated personalisation
Loyalty programs
Referral programs
ESTABLISHED:
PERFORMANCE

94. Measurement:
Retained customers
LTV
AOV
Customer churn rate
Referral
ESTABLISHED:
PERFORMANCE

95. Great brands:
Consistent
Recognisable
Strong point of view

96. Go all in on what you stand for

97. ESTABLISHED:
BRAND
Not pure D2C

98. Standing for something doesn’t need to be
political or cause-driven

99. The best brand marketing focuses on identity

100. ESTABLISHED:
BRAND

101. ESTABLISHED:
BRAND
Not pure D2C

102. ESTABLISHED:
BRAND
Not pure D2C

103. ESTABLISHED:
BRAND
Not pure D2C

104. ESTABLISHED:
BRAND
Not at all D2C!

105. Loyalty is created when brands create an emotional connection
(and it becomes part of the customer’s identity)

106. Brand marketing examples:
Emotive activity to differentiate and generate brand preference
(on any platform)
ESTABLISHED:
BRAND

107. Measurement:
LTV
Retained customers
Referral
NPS
Brand affinity and salience trackers
ESTABLISHED:
BRAND

108. Performance/Brand
Spend: 10/90
Time & effort: 10/90
ESTABLISHED

109. ESTABLISHED
Not pure D2C

110. Create a brand ecosystem to cross-promote
(and think about this from the beginning)

111. Your marketing content is not just about the products you sell

112. Build a 360° brand

113. Where do you start?

114. 1. Figure out what your brand is about
Who is your audience?
What are you really selling?
What do you stand for?
What makes sense to be coming from you?
What are your key consumer touchpoints?

115. 1. PRODUCT-MARKET FIT 3. HYPERGROWTH 4. ESTABLISHED
2. SCALING
2. Determine which D2C growth stage you’re in

116. 3. Be really clear with your marketing objectives
What exactly do you want to achieve with performance and
brand marketing, based on the growth stage you’re in?

117. 4. Determine the channels that make the most sense to meet these objectives
Which channels will meet your performance and brand marketing needs?
What paid, owned and earned channels should be considered?
What hypotheses can you create to run effective tests?

118. 5. Carefully consider your team structure
Brand marketing may require more people, less spend
In-house vs agencies

119. 6. Evolve as you grow
Optimise performance while scaling brand
Consider the full customer journey and what information
is needed at every stage of the decision-making process
Differentiate to create brand preference
Build a brand ecosystem

120. 1. Figure out what your brand is about
2. Determine which D2C growth stage you’re in
3. Be really clear with your marketing objectives
4. Determine the channels that make the most sense to meet these objectives
5. Carefully consider your team structure
6. Evolve as you grow

121. WHICH WOULD YOU CHOOSE?
OR BEAUTY COMPANY
GIFT CARD
TRINNY LONDON
GIFT CARD

122. Shira Feuer
linkedin.com/in/shirafeuer
THANK YOU