Think Tank: Secrets of the Other Half

In an Amazon-dominated world, e-commerce competition is stiff. Brands have to quickly determine strategies that uniquely position them to win consumer mindshare. A group of companies has found the secret to capturing customers’ hearts and minds — these are called enthusiast brands. An enthusiast brand’s strategy is not to go after the masses, but instead cater toward a smaller, more targeted audience that aligns with the company’s values, mission and product emotionally. Whether it’s technical apparel for your sport or a platform that allows for your artistic outlet, brands that understand you and build a connection — not merely process a transaction — always have been the winning brands. For example, hair color company Madison Reed upended old school “box” hair color by leveraging augmented reality in its direct-to-consumer model. With an easy-to-use application to virtually sample hair colors, it’s bringing the hair salon to you. It has built a community of users that value top-of-the-line hair, but don’t always have the time, energy and money to spend hours in a hair salon. Through understanding a customer’s priorities and needs, it is taking on big brand in-home hair, and  meeting the customer wherever the customer is — be it online, at Ulta

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