Past, Present and Future Ghosts of Direct-to-Consumer Brands

Direct-to-consumer marketing (D2C) is a strategy to promote and sell a product or service directly to consumers, cutting out the need for intermediaries.

- Gitta Amelia

Through the acceleration of consumer technology, brands can leverage social media platforms, integrated payment systems, democratic ecommerce platforms, and third-party logistics to acquire, serve, and communicate with their customers. The growing popularity of this strategy is rapidly changing the face of retail.

D2C marketing isn’t a brand new concept. Mail-order catalogs, which were first published in 15th century Venice, gave customers a book of products they could purchase directly from a particular merchant for mail delivery. D2C is the new and improved mail-order catalog.

D2C has yielded success through the use of targeted advertisements made possible by digital media. Through paid advertisements on social media platforms or KOL endorsements, brands can reach a particular market. By generating referral links and enabling cookies, a digitally-savvy brand can track conversion and optimize customer acquisition.