BRANDLESS: 4 Quick Lessons for Every Brand

 
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Just last week, another consumer brand announced that they would be closing their doors.

Brandless, the Softbank-backed DTC consumer goods business closed just 2 years after receiving a $240 million dollar investment.

For some, this was inevitable.

For some, shock.

Here are my quick takeaway in four points. 

UNDERVALUING BRAND

While the Brandless shunned the concept of “brand” with their name and positioning, they unfortunately did not understand the primary value of brand. The emotional connective tissue that a company has with its customers.

Ironically, a company that didn’t show appreciation for “brand” - invested a significant amount in protecting their IP, with 20+ trademarked filings in the US. Maybe they should’ve invested more in developing and protecting their…”brand”?

LACK OF PRESENCE, IRL (in real life)

Many DTC businesses struggle with product trial and getting their product in front of the customer. Multiple that by the number of categories Brandless offered, and you’ve created a huge obstacles to build trust with the customers, particularly when one of your primary selling points is quality.

Ironically, Brandless did launch a pop up shop in NYC - a great indication that they but their attempt to invest in retail presence came a in late 2019 - a tad too late.

PRICING STRATEGY VS MESSAGING

Until last summer, Brandless stuck to its $3 “across the board” pricing strategy. This didn’t make sense for multiple reasons.

  • Pricing and quality positioning didn’t align. The brand amplified “quality” (ingredients, product integrity) - yet a flat pricing strategy conflicts with concept of high quality.

  • Creating hierarchy within your assortment helps define and position your products so that customers can make better purchasing decisions.

  • Brandless decided to change their pricing strategy in 2019 - but making sudden pricing jumps is known to be problematic, for multiple reasons.

ILLUSIONS OF NEWNESS

Brandless attempted to bring a new concept to market. A category-creator, as some would describe it.

The idea of offering an assortment of no-frills everyday products was nothing new - private label brands have existed for over a century. Sure, no one had tested this as a DTC business model - but to be fair, DTC was not terribly revolutionary in 2018 either.

While Brandless stood for being “unbranded”, this also was nothing new. Just look at Muji, the Japanese retailer known for it’s “brandless” positioning. For those of you who don’t know, “Muji” (which is short for the full Japanese name Mujirushi) in fact, means just that - “brandless”.

 
c okubo