Thursday, November 2

🚨 In today’s newsletter 🚨

• Walmart’s buzzy Black Friday ad

• How to appeal to those who want to shop small

• Lessons from a DTC founder who didn’t make it work

Let’s get into it👇

#1 - 💋 Walmart reunites Mean Girls for Black Friday

📰 TL;DR - The hottest piece of e-commerce marketing of the moment is undoubtedly Walmart’s newly released Black Friday ad. It features much of the original cast of the Mean Girls movie, except the stars are now moms and school employees. The whole ad is a very well-done homage to the original, with plenty of products sprinkled throughout. The reaction I’ve seen online has been overwhelmingly positive, both for the production quality and the nostalgia factor.

💡 Insight - Oh, wouldn’t it be nice if we all had Walmart’s marketing budget? They clearly spent a pretty penny on this, but it seems like it was worth it. What I want to talk about is how Walmart tapped into a pretty powerful marketing trend: millennial nostalgia. Mean Girls was released in 2004 and was beloved by millennials, who were teens at the time. Now, millennials have grown up and have a ton of buying power as established adults with big kid jobs and families. Millennials are also a huge cohort, bigger than even Baby Boomers. Getting their attention was a smart move. It even captures Gen Z, who are currently going through an early 2000s throwback era. Consider 2000s nostalgia yourself if you’re looking for some marketing inspiration.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#2 - 🛍️ Consumers want to shop small for the holidays

📰 TL;DR - According to this survey, nearly half of consumers plan to do 50% or more of their shopping at small businesses. They plan to spend roughly $485 at small businesses this season compared to $342 last year. That’s a jump of 42%. This piece also has some tips for small businesses for how to stay competitive (though you probably already know most of them).

💡 Insight - What this means to me is people are looking to support the little guys instead of Amazon, Target, etc. You may or may not technically be a small business, but you can definitely appeal to this sensibility. It’s a smart idea to have a section on your site about your brand’s story — how it began, some details about the founder, your mission, and your values. That’s good advice for any time of the year, but one of the things people like about small businesses is that they’re supporting an entrepreneur with a face and name — so show them it!

➡️ You can read the article here...

📣 If you want to reach our audience of 10,000+ DTC store owners, email [email protected] or set up call here 

#3 - 🙈 “Woke-free” marketplace launched

📰 TL;DR - PublicSquare has released an e-commerce marketplace for brands that are so-called anti-woke. They say they have “70,000 values-aligned businesses” that presumably have no interest in “the progressive agenda of equity, inclusivity, climate activism, and more.” It also has a blog encouraging people to shop their brands instead of brands such as Kellogg, Tampax, and Starbucks that have shown support for progressive causes.

💡 Insight - Look — I’ll leave you to form your own opinion on the whole “anti-woke” movement, but there are some things to discuss here. First, it’s very true that people do like to shop with their values in mind, especially Gen Z (although they also happen to skew more liberal). This also follows a trend of more niche e-commerce marketplaces popping up. As to whether or not this will be successful, it’s hard to say. PublicSquare itself has yet to turn a profit and other “anti-woke” ventures have not succeeded.

➡️ You can read the article here...

#4 - 🛠️ Things worth checking out

📣 MARKETING - Read one expert’s take on the top consumer trends for marketers this holiday season.

💃🏽 TIKTOK - TikTok Shop is driving sales for resellers, but fakes are also flooding the platform.

👀 ACCESSIBILITY - Accessibility isn’t just a nice thing to have, it can expand your customer reach. Read more here.

🥊 BATTLE - Shein and Temu have shelved their US court case.

🤖 AI - In a survey, consumers said they’d be open to getting some help from generative AI to write product reviews.

#5 - 💄 Why this DTC beauty brand went down

📰 TL;DR - Glossy has an insightful interview with the founder of an unnamed DTC beauty brand who ended up having to close the business. There was a confluence of issues that led to the shuttering, such as the more recent difficulties for everyone in getting funding. She said they also had many ups and downs with customer acquisition costs. Initially, they were able to lower this cost, but then coming out of covid that got more difficult. Then it got more difficult again with the Apple iOS14 update that prevented tracking across apps. By the time they shut down, their customer acquisition cost was $80. She also talks about the emotional toll and how they knew it was time to throw in the towel.

💡 Insight - Everyone loves a good DTC success story, but I think it’s important to hear about the ones that didn’t make it, too. Not only is it more common than we probably hear about, but it’s crucial to know that if your business fails, you’re far from alone. The fact is that 2023 has in many ways been a very tough year for any DTC brands that aren’t on an immediate path to profitability. And many brands are trying hard to hold on after the e-commerce hype over the pandemic dwindled down. Read this, let it sink in, and think about what you would do in the same position.

➡️ You can read the article here...