Without a safe brand you can’t D2C

n D2C the first thing that establishes trust between a buyer and the seller is the brand. In our daily lives, if we see a product getting listed on any eCommerce site or for that matter any e-store, the first and foremost thing that we consider is the brand name.

If we are familiar with the brand and have some experience of the past, it becomes easy for us to take a call to go for its products or services, including the new ones. However, the brands where we have no record or experience, get a different treatment from us.

The whole idea behind D2C is to reach out to the unknown directly breaking the channel restrictions and barriers. It is not just about letting already aware people buy the products. That would restrict the potential of D2C buying.

The audience who is already introduced to the brand and its products in some way will find it easy to connect and have a certain degree of trust to buy-in. The challenge will be with those who would have never heard of the brand and through its D2C interventions, it would like to increase the awareness leading to conversions.

This user cohort in most of the cases will be the largest pie as there are very few monopolized brands. So, for any brand, it is important to get introduced to new audiences in a trustworthy environment. There is no history of engagement between the audience and the brand!

For marketers, the only way to achieve this is through enabling interactions in a brand-safe environment. Since a potential buyer would have very little clue about the brand and its quality of product or service, what would have the first impression is the ambience in which the brand is presented to them.

Brand safety interventions will help any brand to take complete charge if its presence, hence controlling the reputation and the equity. Some of the common issues that get tackled through a robust brand safety intervention include: –

• Campaigns not getting attached to obscene content.
• Brands staying completely quarantined from any hate and terrorism promoting content.
• The campaigns are cognizant of the social and ethical value systems of the market they are visible.

A campaign alone will not fetch the desired results for any D2C brand. The message about promotion must go in the right ambience which stokes the mood of the audience to consider a purchase. Just imagine a situation where there is some news about a terrorist attack in a particular city or country and there is an advertisement for a university or college inviting students to study in that city. This incident might not change the decision, but the sentiment would leave the campaign unnoticed even from someone seriously considering an admission.

For D2C brands, to open their account with new customer acquisition, the communication must be wrapped in a brand-safe environment. This will not only increase the key metrics of a campaign but also improve the relevancy of ads as well as help build its reputation in the manner that creates a trust ‘setu’ or bridge over which a consumer and the brand could establish a brand of persistent engagement and interaction.