Direct to consumer, propelled by DIY ecommerce tools and a supportive ecosystem driven by logistics and other partners is now making several brand owners to turn to this model. However, building a D2C brand also means focusing on marketing, storytelling and customer education. Here's how learning design as a discipline can support the growth of D2C brands.

1. How Learning
Design can
support D2C
Businesses
Bizcominx by tony

2. The concept of D2C gained
prominence as ecommerce
accelerated during the Covid crisis.
Retailers, even physical ones, that
were better prepared grew business
even though stores closed due to
lockdowns.

3. But the
transition
has not been
equally
smooth for
everyone.
Going D2C
may not
always be as
easy as it is
to say it.

4. WHAT IS INVOLVED IN
D2C
In D2C the
brand
directly
reaches out
to the
consumer -
cutting all
the middle
layers out.
Digital helps
to achieve
this at
scale

5. How does it
work?

6. TOP OF THE FUNNEL
BOTTOM OF THE FUNNEL
Awareness Generation (Website/ecommerce store, Blogs,
Videos, Social Commerce sites
Retargeting, Influencer Campaigns, Ratings, Reviews leading
to purchase decision
Landing page - leading to buying decision, Robust tech stack
for seamless buying experience, seamless UX
CRM and Marketing Automation for customer engagement
leading to long term value
Ensuring Customer Lifetime Value (CLTV) through
community, regular engagement, personalisation

7. D2C presents both an art and
science. It plays on the need for
deep consumer insights to
understand consumer preferences
and tailor your offerings accordingly.
D2C brands need to be super-agile.

8. D2C is both a challenge as well as
an opportunity. If any of the chains
in the D2C ecosystem breaks it puts
your brand at risk. It is also an
opportunity because you can now
reach out to the consumer with
reltaive ease.

9. While ecommerce makes it easy for
a D2C brand to reach out directly,
it also opens up the consumer to a
range of choices. Unless, the D2C
brand has something very unique or
a hook that attracts the consumer
it might make it difficult to increase
stickiness.
I agree to
that. Unless,
there are
some
interesting
hooks (be it
design, price,
or even a
great story
behind a
product) it
might make
survival
difficult for
D2C brands

10. That's why as a D2C brand you cannot
undermine any of the influencing factors -
such as social media, the right influencers,
transforming your customers into brand
champions, Moreover, D2C brands need
community power. A strong community can
take the brand anywhere.

11. Are you suggesting D2C brands
need to behave like APPLE? Build a
brand based on the power of its
community?.

12. Absolutely... but for that you
need to build the community first
Building loyalists is hard work -
they need a reason to stick to
you.

13. SEEMS
LIKE IT'S
TIME FOR
THE
MARKETI
NG GEEK
TO TAKE
OVER!

14. YES, but not just the marketing geek... you
may need a learning geek as well. A
community is built based on the power of
content, education and insights. So, as a D2C
brand you need to be social, great at
understanding people, sensitive and most
importantly knowledgable.

15. Sounds a
bit like me...
in college,
people used
to come to
me for
homework,
assignments,
relationship
goals,
fashion
goals, and
also
planning of
fests.

16. So, how does
learning
design fit
into it all?

17. Remember the coolest prof in College? A tad
younger than the rest of the staff room, typically
someone with great accolades behind him but
understated. The one who would walk around in a
freindly manner but would have all the answers to
your questions?

18. Now combine the coolest prof with your classmate
- the enterprising one. The one who can get you
the right books, notes, and necessary info at a
moment's notice. If you needed fashion support- she
can get them to you at an affordable price too.
Your brand needs to behave like that.

19. But, isn't
learning
design like...
serious
stuff?

20. It is. And so is
marketing. A good
D2C brand needs to
educate its customers
about everything -
about their purpose,
philosophy, way of
doing business.. And it
needs to have great
listening skills. Put
them together - and
you have a winning
combination to build
customer loyalty that
can help you stand out
even in the most
crowded ecommerce
stores.

21. Give me an
example of
how I, as a
learning
designer, can
help?

22. Suppose the D2C brand you are working for deals
with apparels for new mothers - you need to
understand what do new mothers care for. Use
micromodules on pregnancy, childcare, stress
management, keeping in shape as topics to build a
relationship with your customers. While you as a
learning designer build it, marketing helps you reach
out to one-to-many so that your message is
disseminated.. In turn you get insights that you can
use to build the next set of topics.

23. Yes, and I use the
same micromodules for
community building,
and engaging the
customers. I use
listening tools (such as
mentions, discussions,
ratings, reviews) to
understand how are
the topics resonating
with the mothers to
again give you
feedback to build on
the next line of
enagement.

24. I get it - so
marketing
and I work
together on
this.

25. Yes, and in D2C - all spokes are important.
See in most D2C brands - there are several
partners for logistics as well. You might use
a 3rd party warehouse, a delivery partner
and all. It's important to educate them as
well. So, unlike the trade in case of B2C, you
ensure your delivery partners are in line too
with your value propositions.

26. Your job in D2C is to
make them fall in love
with you! Do what you
need to do.

27. Bizcomix is my way of building simplicity in business
concepts and I would love to get some feedback. Please do
share your views with me at
tannistho@gmail.com