DTC Fractional CMO and Growth Consultant, Mehul Garg, revealed some of the biggest challenges facing the direct-to-consumer industry. This inte...
DTC Fractional CMO and Growth Consultant, Mehul Garg, revealed some of the biggest challenges facing the direct-to-consumer industry. This interview took place on 13th November 2024, at our event entitled 'Unlocking marketing success in DTC brands'.
Mehul Garg is a leader in digital marketing and ecommerce. With over 15 years in the industry, he works closely with scaling direct-to-consumer brands as a Fractional Chief Marketing Officer and Growth Advisor. In his career, he has supported brands such as Sneak Energy, Photobox and CleanCo to help them unlock growth and scale globally.
I think the main challenge is strategic prioritisation. When you're scaling a D2C brand, there are many decisions to make, such as performance marketing versus brand marketing, short-term versus medium-term or long-term goals, acquisition or retention, internationalisation or new product development, how much to invest in paid, how much to invest in organic. There are a lot of things, these are just a few examples that I'm talking about - you know, extending into Amazon. Should we go into retail? Should we go into TikTok Shop?
There's lots of strategic decisions, but still the main challenge that they face is strategic prioritisation—or the lack of it. Brands generally are not able to prioritise because they're coming from a world where they’re just used to doing so many things. Here, they need to learn what two or three bets to go for.
So, prioritisation, prioritisation, prioritisation. Then prioritise. And it is definitely worth repeating: then prioritise. Because when you prioritise, when you have a clarity of, okay, what are the two or three levers, strategic levers, we will want to double down on, that's when they can use to then make the decisions between all the other challenges that they are going through.
