Campaign Crash Course: How to build a DTC brand

Welcome back to Campaign Asia-Pacific's Crash Course learning series, in which you will learn valuable lessons and practical business tips on trending and essential topics from industry experts in just five minutes. Think of it as a mini mini MBA, if you will.

Lessons will cover the breadth of the marcomms industry, including technology, creative, media, strategy, leadership, diversity and inclusion and more. We'll start off by introducing you to larger topics and delve deeper into specific elements in the future. This series is designed to be useful to C-suite executives as well as those just starting out in their careers.

The 35th lesson in the Crash Course series will cover how to take a brand direct-to-consumer (DTC). A DTC proposition brings several benefits to brands, including the ability to reach consumers at home—especially relevant during the Covid pandemic—and access to first party customer data.

In this lesson, you will learn if and why going DTC works for your brand. While it may be a tempting route to take to keep your brand afloat in these challenging times, there are several factors brands and agencies need to consider before taking this route.  

In this lesson you will learn:

• The definition of DTC. 
• Anatomy of a DTC set up.
• To be or not to be a DTC brand. 
• Some challenges and benefits of being a DTC brand.

Your teacher

Ritika Gupta is regional ecommerce director of Reprise APAC. With 12-plus years’ experience in the digital and ecommerce industry, Gupta is the founding member of the Reprise ecommerce vertical working with clients across the APAC region to strategise their ecommerce roadmap.

Prior to joining the Mediabrands network Ritika spent four years leading the marketing solutions and business operations team for Lazada SG, equipping her with hands-on experience of the ecommerce landscape in Southeast Asia as well as APAC. Having worked across multiple categories including beauty, healthcare and consumer electronics, she has been actively involved in developing the ecommerce strategy for a variety of brands, from product launches on marketplaces, through to the setting up of D2C websites.

The quiz

After you watch the above video, test your knowledge of DTC with this quiz: