Selling to consumer brands

Consumer brands buy services to grow without losing margin. Every engagement gets judged against that, whether it's a commerce platform, a data project or a supply chain fix.

Know which side of that equation your buyer sits on and you'll know what to write.

Who buys

Consumer brands are run by marketing and commercial leaders more than most companies are. The CMO and the chief commercial officer often hold more budget than the CIO.

The direct-to-consumer leader owns the website, the app and the customer data. The head of e-commerce owns sales through marketplaces and retail partners' sites. The COO or supply chain leader owns how product gets made and moved.

The CIO matters for anything touching ERP, data platforms or security, and in larger brands they're often the one who signs. In mid-size brands, technology may report to the CFO or COO.

What pressures them

Retail partners. Big-box retailers and grocers hold a lot of power over brands. They set terms, demand data and push compliance requirements that cost money to meet.

Direct-to-consumer economics. Selling direct promised margin and customer data. In practice it brought acquisition costs, fulfillment headaches and a website that has to compete with the best retailers.

Input costs. Ingredients, packaging, freight. When those rise, the brand either raises prices or finds savings, and savings usually means operations and technology.

And speed. Trends move fast. A brand that takes a year to launch a product line loses to one that takes a quarter.

Signals that matter most

New leaders lead here too. A new CMO, chief digital officer or head of DTC arrives with a mandate and a short window. Brands turn over marketing leaders often, so this signal fires a lot.

Business pressure is close behind. Public brands talk about margin, pricing and cost programs in earnings releases. A line about gross margin pressure or a new productivity program is a direct opening. For how that pressure turns into outside work, see why a cost program needs outside help.

Tech stack matters more than usual. Job posts at consumer brands often name the commerce platform, the CDP or the ERP outright. A cluster of posts for a new platform usually means a migration.

And topic. Consumer brand leaders post and speak in public more than leaders in other industries. A CMO writing about first-party data or retail media is telling you what's on their mind.

An opener for a brand buyer

Say a mid-size snack brand just hired a new head of DTC, and its job board shows posts for a commerce platform engineer and a CRM manager.

Saw you joined to run DTC, and that the team's hiring for both the commerce platform and CRM. That usually means the site works but nobody can use what it knows about customers. My guess is the real problem is that subscription and one-time buyers sit in separate systems, so retention offers go to the wrong people. Is that close, or is the gap somewhere else?

Grounded in what they posted, specific to their seat, and easy to correct. A DTC leader who says "no, it's the fulfillment cost" just told you where the money is.

What to avoid

Don't lead with brand strategy. Brands have agencies for that. A services firm that sounds like an agency gets sorted with the agencies.

Don't forget the retailer. A lot of brand problems trace back to what a retail partner demands. Showing you understand that relationship sets you apart from firms that only see the DTC side.

Don't write to one person. A brand deal often needs marketing, operations and finance. The CMO wants growth. The COO wants it to not break the supply chain. The CFO wants it to pay back. Each needs their own hypothesis.

Brands reward sellers who understand both the shelf and the screen. Show you see both.