Build An Audience Before You Build A Brand
Why content-to-product brands will dominate the next decade.
Regardless of mass or niche, the consumer startups that will flourish in the next decade, in my opinion, will be content-to-product brands.
Two prime examples in both mass and niche addressable markets:
Glossier: Glossier was born out of a beauty and makeup blog ‘Into the Gloss’ started by stylist Emily Weiss. She saw a gap in the market for a millennial-focused beauty brand, and after taking years of data from ITG’s own product reviews, feedback from its readers, and expertise from cosmetic chemists, she launched a line of cosmetics under the name Glossier in 2014. The company is now a unicorn, valued at $1.2B+, having raised a total of ~$190M over the last 6 years. Weiss says that she sees Glossier as a content company: she thinks of her products as content.
Hodinkee: Hodinkee was founded as a niche watch blog by ex-banker and watch aficionado Ben Clymer. Seeing the engagement and connection they had with the community they built, Hodinkee moved on to launch their own e-store, 'Hodinkee Shop' as an authorized retailer for certain brands and has even entered into partnerships with watch brands to create collaborative limited edition watches. The store also sells vintage timepieces, its own line of watch accessories and straps, and recently launched Hodinkee Insurance for watches. The company is now valued at $100M+ after raising a $40M Series B round in the first week of December.
The long-term success of a product depends solely on its quality. However, the biggest initial advantages of building a brand on top of a community are:
Quick & engaging feedback, making it easier to develop and test products
Higher brand recall
Higher brand loyalty
Higher probability of word-of-mouth publicity
In the words of Glossier's President Henry Davis -
“The best thing we can do is give people content. That is our main driver of growth. Before we even make anything, we make it because we learned from our customers what they are missing, both from a brand and a product perspective, that will make their lives better.”