How small brands can hit the big time

Some benefits also favor larger companies with multiple brands and businesses, such as the ability to steer customers between like-minded brands, introduce them to newer and more niche brands, lower their all-in customer acquisition costs, and eventually, build some leverage over large retailers. This is part of why you see many single-brand direct... See more

Big brands are losing share of America’s GDP pie. Small brands are like the phoenix, rising out of their ashes. Birthed by the seeds of low startup costs, infinite digital shelf space, and hyper-targeted advertising, direct-to-consumer companies with strong brand identities and hyper-efficient ad targeting are unbundling big retail brands. Options ... See more

The psychology of the internet looks nothing like the Super Bowl. The internet is hyper-fragmented. It’s an isolated, personalized, asynchronous, choose-your-own-adventure experience. Brands, which used to be mass-produced, are now micro-targeted. The internet has unlimited shelf space, so monopolizing brick and mortar shelves is no longer a defens... See more

Our tastes are ever more niche. We gravitate towards communities and brands, or both, that cater to our niche tastes. Tracksmith, Telfar, Crown Affair or FatherFoods are some of the examples. In this micro-taste communities’ landscape, mass fashion brands come across as too generic and superficial. The winning growth strategy instead is to go deep ... See more

Eventually, they may even gain leverage in this value chain and squeeze universities and other organizations out of it. Let’s remember these brands can go global to an extent no educational institution can.

Brands have incredible influence and can guide loyal customers to try new things. Consumer loyalty is not always about wanting the same thing but exploring new things with trusted brands.

An invigorating mass of small and independent brands, which aren’t constrained by public ownership, are rejecting corporate operations in favour of slower, localised, and intentional fashion production. They’re reconfiguring what is meant by the word “success” as they go. There’s so much creative potential when the pressure to exponentially expand ... See more