Brands going Retail (2017)

Consumer brands continuously drive to achieve profitable growth via improved market share.

Historically, brands have used two key strategies in this effort:

Marketing to build brand awareness expanding distribution through channels that provide direct consumer access to the product or brand, generally through wholesale or licensed relationships.

Recently, we have witnessed an acceleration of a different model: brands operating owned direct-to- consumer retail, either brickand- mortar or e-commerce, or both.

This direct-to-consumer model is successfully improving brand awareness, reinforcing brands’ direct engagement with the omni-channel consumer, while fueling growth in sales and profits.

Ebeltoft Group completed a global study of both leaders and laggards in “Brands Going Retail”, which considers the following key questions:

• What is the right path to success for brands considering retail?
• Which brands are more likely to be successful at direct-to-consumer retailing than others?
• How do brands manage channel conflicts?
• What infrastructure is needed to be successful?
• What are the “watch-outs” that every brand should be considering?