Sour Patch Kids

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Alex, here. Yesterday was a day. We spent ~ 6 hours filming our first YouTube series. Because we’re pushing towards expanding past newsletters and into other mediums. And video is the main one. We recently soft-launched the podcast. And now putting in that work to build Marketing Examined’s video side.

Btw - if you haven’t checked out our pod then you can give it a listen here. Would love your feedback.

There’s a tug-of-war between DTC and retail. DTC brands aspire to expand across multiple channels, while traditional brands aspire to expand into DTC.

Case in point, Nike stated plans to be 70% direct by 2027.

Another brand following the same approach?

First - you’ll get the takeaways then we’ll break it down piece by piece.

So, Here’s What You Can Learn From Sour Patch’s Expansion From Traditional Retail Into An Omni Channel Strategy:

• Minimize duplicated shopping experiences that exist on other platforms or shopping destinations

• Use your DTC arm to create a tailored experience for fans who want other experiences from your brand

• Develop a distinctive value proposition that drives shoppers to your e-comm site

• Then leverage your e-commerce value prop to curate tailored shopping experiences for specific niche markets.

• Use customer feedback, focus groups, and research to define which niches/segments have the highest demand/potential

So, here’s how Sour Patch executes on the above:

Don’t Duplicate an Existing Experience

Different shopping destinations need different shopping experiences.

This is why Sour Patch treats its DTC site differently than the shopping experience at Walmart or Amazon.

For classic products that are already sold on Amazon, their DTC site uses an “add to cart” button that redirects you to Amazon.

The remainder of the site…

…Creates A Differentiated Value Proposition to Give Fans A Reason To Shop

Director of Global eCommerce Abhishek Ahluwalia emphasized the importance of a distinct value proposition, as he stated to FoodNavigator, "We want to make sure that our value proposition needs to be highly differentiated than what we said in other channels, otherwise consumers won’t come right to the online store."

For Sour Patch Kids, this differentiation comes in the form of their exclusive feature, "make my mix."

It allows customers to:

• Create customized mixes of Sour Patch Kids

• Choose flavors & packaging

• And even personalize a name

You can’t do this in a retail setting. But is easy to complement an e-comm store.

Which now gives fans a unique experience tailored to their preferences.

Which is why Sour Patch…

…Uses Niche Targeting To Curate The Experience

Retail is more of a “spray and pray” approach.

With digital, you can specifically target particular niches and demographics.

Sour Patch Kids, for example, leverages their DTC site to "make that gifting moment special."

The site curates the experience around gifting and celebrations, including occasions like birthdays and game days, offering products and merch curated for each specific event.

Users can easily select what they need for each occasion.

Which is a unique feature that is only available on their website.

Want To Learn The Skill Of Short-form Video?

So, one of our Cut30 members, Spencer Wise, is crushing short-form. He took our playbooks and executed them to perfection.

The result wasn’t just views…

And yes, it drove over 500k+ views.

But it also drove $20k in sales for his company Tales and then got featured in GQ’s gift guide.

And this happened in less than 15 days.

Before that, he had never made a video, had no following, and was a complete short-form rookie.

And we’ll give you the exact playbook in November’s cohort.

You can join the waitlist here.