Direct to customers

Bland or a brand

All D2C brands have a similar playbook, and they are challenging existing brands

Blands are threats for the brands. They are cutting out middlemen, and offering more value to the customers. Most blands have the similar playbook from the business model to marketing promotions.

As per Bloomberg: All startups seek to disrupt and disintermediate a smug status quo, or originate and dominate an entirely new niche. But what makes a brand a bland is duality: claiming simultaneously to be unique in product, groundbreaking in purpose, and singular in delivery, while slavishly obeying an identikit formula of business model, look and feel, and tone of voice.

Blands have the following key characteristics.

• Blands are D2C (Curefit).
• They need a narrative (Allbirds).
• Blands are underdog (Harry’s).
• They are humble (Rumple).
• Blands have values (Buzzfeed).
• They are aspirational (Away).
• Blands are bland (Warby Parker).
• They do not offer many choices (Sleepy Owl).
• Blands love Apple. It was the original bland (Public Goods).
• They are in it for exit (Beardo).