The Modern Retail Podcast

Vuori clothing, an athleisure brand launched in 2015, is a rarity: The company, which does do most of its business direct-to-consumer, has a healthy wholesale operation, a few physical stores of its own and has raised only a small angel funding round to date. The company's founder, Joe Kudla, joined Digiday on the Making Marketing podcast to talk about why it was important for his business to not go down the VC-funding route when it launched.

Burrow is a digital-born luxury furniture company, that, like most DTC brands, put most of its marketing eggs in the Facebook basket. But it soon realized that it can't simply rely on social media to drive sales. Burrow's head of intelligence, Alex Kubo joins us on this episode.

As the traditional lines of luxury blur, luxury marketers are competing for attention and consumer spend across categories. Lee Applbaum, CMO of the high-end spirits brands Patron Tequila and Grey Goose Vodka, part of Bacardi Global Brands Limited, is making a play for more of the luxury customer’s wallet. Applbaum discussed how platform partnerships can help the brand reach customers differently, how he thinks of marketing channels and more.

In the past year, the agency world has been rife with news of consolidation. Most executives have explained this as part of a longer-term plan to create less siloed organizational structures and pitching more efficient, integrated solutions to clients. Peter Sherman, executive vice president of Omnicom Group, doesn’t buy it. Sherman discusses the best path to consolidation, how consumer centricity has changed over the years and more.

Brand purpose has become the go-to phrase for chief marketing officers. Stephanie Buscemi, CMO at Salesforce, claims brand purpose is imperative for every brand and it’s even expected by the employees.

Shopify has emerged anew in the direct-to-consumer era. The 15-year-old e-commerce platform that powered the small business segment is worth $25 billion. Now, it's setting its sights on the larger brands. Hana Abaza, director of marketing at Shopify Plus, the division in Shopify that works with larger merchants, says the pitch is about distinguishing between control and ownership. Abaza discusses evolving as a platform to retain bigger brands as they grow, why the DTC companies are here to stay and more.

The direct-to-consumer era is changing consumer behavior and expectations across categories, be it retail or insurance. Liberty Mutual has felt this shift, and in its new products as well as marketing is attempting to change in line with those expectations. Emily Fink, CMO at Liberty Mutual, joins us on this episode.

The direct-to-consumer playbook at this point is well known: Launch online with one product, expand to physical stores, and stretch into new products and even categories. For Brooklinen, the online-born bedding brand, it's no different. The company, which made about $48 million in revenue last year and says it's on track to be a $100 million company, just experimented with a pop-up store in SoHo last year. It has also expanded to bath wear, with more to come soon. Founder and CEO Rich Fulop said it comes with taking a broader view of the category. He talks about the best marketing channels, building a creative team in-house and more.

In the last year, Athleta, the women's workout wear brand owned by Gap Inc., has taken its creative in-house for its content creation efforts. Athleta CMO Sheila Shekar Pollak discusses the marketing mix for the brand that is on its way to becoming a $1 billion business, the importance of in-store events, omnichannel marketing and more.

There is no lack of success stories in the direct-to-consumer markets. But there are also questions being asked of how long the industry can sustain itself. With a plethora of new brands launched every day, built on VC money with tall growth targets, it's fair to ask if a shakeout is coming. Kevin Lavelle, founder and CEO of Mizzen and Main, a brand that sells men’s performance wear dress shirts, thinks a carnage is it's on the cards. Lavelle talks about building a brand, advertising on platforms versus TV and what’s in the future of the DTC space.