Experts on why investors must measure brand love, focus on customer retention & data

At the D2C Revolution Summit 2023, leaders across the industry deliberated on the issues concerning the marketing of D2C brands in furthering the entire D2C industry. Following the standalone sessions and panel discussions, the conference saw the investors sharing inputs on the aspects the investors look upon before investing in brands and the factors that invoke the investor’s decision in acquiring D2C brands. During the conversation, the investors also discussed how brands can build their customer database to retarget them in the future.

The panellists were: Anoop Menon, Principal-Investment Team & Leads, Chiratae Ventures; Amit Singal, Founder, Fluid Ventures; Sanil Sachar, Co-Founder & Partner, Huddle; Abhishekh Goenka, Managing Partner, RPSG Capital Ventures. The following session was chaired by Jinesh Shah, Co-Founder, Omnivore.

Kicking off the discussion, Shah elaborated on how significant it was for investors to scan the brands before committing to them.

Elaborating on how an investor can single out the right brand, Sachar said, “The investors must do the brainstorming in figuring out what they are expecting from brands before putting their money in brands. Moreover, based on the market research and global aspects, the investor can easily choose the right brand they deliberately want to collaborate with.”

Adding on, Singal said, “Besides sharing the market size and company’s overall performance, the D2C brands must mention the data credentials while making the proposal with investors which helps in strengthening the investor's trust in brands.”

Discussing other matrices an investor looks for, Goenka said, “Measuring the customer’s love for the brand rather than counting the brand’s numbers, can help investors in investing in the right brand.”

Sharing the experience of working with brands, Menon said, “We have been investing in brands over the years and what we have realised with time is that brands must know the reason why they exist in the market, and what they are catering to their customers. It helps the brand in standing out amongst the competitors in the market.”

Mentioning the challenges that investors and brands confront in choosing between the digital and offline mode of doing business, Sachar said, “Brands must stick to their core data gathered from digital and replicate that data while targeting customers in the market. It helps the brand in comprehending what the customer is looking for in the market.” Adding on, Goenka said, “Undoubtedly, online is the easiest way to gather customer insights in the digital-first era, but brands must also think about expanding markets offline.”

Mentioning some other challenges Singal said, “The startup brands must do experiments with the products until they get the most suitable marketing strategy in driving the engagement, traffic and conversion.”

Focusing on brand valuation, Menon said, “There is no single way to evaluate a brand value as there are multiple factors influencing a brand’s overall positioning in the market which keeps changing with the market demand and supply factors.”

Pointing to customer retention in the market, Sachar shared how prominent it is for the brands to maintain customer trust to target and retarget them in the future.

As for Menon, “As a venture fund if the investors are not willing to write off 20 to 25% investments corpus then they are not taking adequate risk. Investors should take calculated risks to come up with the best investments in D2C brands. Moreover, D2C brands can survive in the market for a longer longevity business by maintaining the valuable proposition and the core data of targeted customers.”

Adding on, Goenka mentioned how brands have to be very patient about their market presence as no brand can be built overnight and more significantly it takes years to build and retain customers in the ever-evolving market.

In the concluding remarks, investors shared how prudently a brand can communicate with the customers to understand their psychographics to drive maximum retention rates.