Page 5 - CBC - A Marketing Opportunity Jan 2021

THE COMPANY
The Chelsea Boot Co Est. 1851 was founded in it’s current constellation back in 2011 and started shipping D2C in 2015.
Chelsea Boot Company’s CEO & Owner is Christopher Wicks of English Laundry fame, together with Creative Partner & Designer Lena Hermansson. The pair partnered up with Andrew Leigh who through his company Jerry Leigh of California, handles all the distribution of the Brand.
The company is headquartered at the Jerry Leigh offices in Van Nuys, CA with a Design Office in Malmö, Sweden.
Having been in the garment industry for the better part of 40+ years and with the experience of working with retailers in the past, it was decided that the Chelsea Boot Company would be sold exclusively online - Direct to Consumer (D2C) for several reasons:
• TO GAIN A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE CUSTOMER
Before the intervention of D2C, manufacturers rarely interacted with the people who purchased their product. Sure, brands may try to get a good understanding of their target market by doing market research and conducting focus groups. But trying to understand your customers through these methods isn’t necessarily the best way to get to know them. Ideally, you need to have direct contact with your customer through every stage of the sale process, this also includes the communication that you have with the customer after you sold the product. These types of interactions are very hard to replicate in a focus group.
• FASTER TO MARKET
On average, a new product launch takes between 18 to 36 months - that’s from the point of inception to the point when the product reaches the shop floor. That is a lot of time and effort and to a risk-averse retailer, the decision to stock a new innovative product without a sales history is most likely to be deemed risky. With D2C, CBC can mitigate these risks by allowing them to launch a new innovative product on a smaller scale. CBC can develop a specific product, test it within a very tight demographic, and then get their feedback. This enables the Company to understand what their customers love and hate about the product so they can make the required adjustments where appropriate.
• INCREASED CONTROL OVER BRAND, PRODUCT AND REPUTATION
In a traditional manufacturing-retailer relationship, manufacturers could only have full control over their packaging and their outbound marketing activities
like TV commercials and billboards. Once the product hits the shelves, brands no longer have control in trying to influence the sale. Even though brands try
to influence as much as they can through commercial advertisements, if retailers struggle to sell their product, then they’re at risk of incurring a loss. Having complete control of this from start to finish is much more appealing to the Chelsea Boot Company than trusting a number of distributors and retail partners to do it for them.
Direct-to-customer: More innovation, higher margins, and greater control