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Melitta: Case Studies - Pivoting from Retail to Online

Delivered April 11th, 2019. Contributors: Cristina G. and

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Case Studies - From Retail to Online

Moon Juice is a CPG brand that started with a brick and mortar store in 2011 and eventually launched an e-commerce store in 2014. The company became successful as the launch of an e-commerce store enabled them to cater to customers worldwide. Their success is also because of the advertising campaign launched on their various social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

MOON JUICE

  • Moon Juice is a CPG brand founded in 2011 as a physical location in Venice, California.
  • They were successful in their brick and mortar stores where they offered a variety of cold beverages.
  • In 2014, Moon Juice launched its e-commerce store that also includes beverages that targeted beauty and wellness-conscious consumers. With the shift to online, the company could market its products worldwide as they ship products internationally.
  • Moon Juice’s success is partly because of their strong social media presence, where they have cultivated a strong following. They have leveraged paid advertising to build their brands and drive website traffic.
  • Launching paid campaign advertisements on Facebook and Instagram helped create awareness around the brand. Also, most of their customers go to these platforms to look for the latest product updates and information. These channels show strong growth in metrics across platforms.
  • Another pivotal moment to success was when the company launched the e-commerce store. They also shifted their product from juice to powder-based. The company became the source of plant-based beauty and well-being products for health-conscious consumers.
  • According to Moon Juice’s Director of e-commerce, Mila Aldrin, the company is using “Google PPC ads, re-targeting ads and prospecting ads running on Facebook” and they have optimized email marketing strategy.
  • Marketing Manager Ashley Murphy stated that they use different social media platforms such as Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, and Instagram to engage customers. They also strategically create campaigns aiming to create a buzz or impact through teaser posts and Instagram stories. They also use influencers in their marketing efforts.
  • Because of its success, Moon Juice won the hearts of A-list Hollywood celebrities such as Gwyneth Paltrow and Zoe Kravitz who had already established their brand and reputation in the health and wellness community.
  • They have also established major retail partnerships with Nordstrom, Sephora, and Barneys NY.
  • In the first quarter of 2018, Moon Juice realized a 27% increase in its revenue.

ADDITIONAL FINDINGS:

WINE LIBRARY

  •  Gary Vaynerchuk, a Russian born who grew up in the US, owns a wine library. Upon immigrating to New Jersey, Vaynerchuk’s father started a small wine store called Shoppers Discount Liquors where Vaynerchuk works in the store that taught him a lesson on building up relationships with customers.
  • When he graduated from college, Vaynerchuk got access to computers and the Internet and was thinking of using these powerful resources for his father’s wine store.
  • He initially emailed customers of weekly discounts and special offers, including his own wine recommendations. Email marketing hadn’t become popular yet.
  •  Vaynerchuk’s goal was to expand the store by establishing more brick and mortar locations within the US. But then, he instead launched a website called Wine Library, which displays the wine store inventories.
  • He gained popularity because of his YouTube channel, Wine Library TV. He started this show in 2006, where he shared wine reviews. This platform became a critical part of promoting the Wine Library website. From this, the store’s revenue dramatically increased from $3 million to $60 million since the launch of the website.
  • Over time, YouTube followers of Vaynerchuk grew with almost 1.9 million subscribers that eventually landed him a TV appearance on The Conan Show in 2008. This proved to be a hit as subsequent TV shows and publications featuring Vaynerchuk became frequent and the number of followers on his social media accounts grew. When he became active on Twitter, he established over 1.3 million followers.
  • He now hires social media specialists, graphic designers and videographers to help boost Vaynerchuk’s brand across social media platforms. Because of his success on online platforms, Vaynerchuk established a digital marketing agency.

Research Strategy:

We started our search by reviewing industry reports and publications from industry associations in Canada to find small to medium CPG brands that started with a brick and mortar store and thereafter transitioned to an online platform. We searched through sources such as the Canadian Marketing Association, Food & Consumer Products of Canada, and CPG Connect-Canada. However, we only came across CPG industry news updates, but nothing that could assist us in addressing the question at hand.

Our next strategy was to adjust our geographic scope as allowed in the question. As we expanded our scope, we identified Moon Juice, a brand that exactly fits the criteria. Unfortunately, we could not find any other two companies to complete the required numbers of case studies. There is information available for companies that have moved from bricks to clicks, but the majority are not for CPG brands nor are they in the broad category of CPG. Other information found pertains to “clicks to bricks” where an e-commerce CPG brand that started as online is now building physical stores.

Our final search strategy was to identify any CPG brand that started as a brick-and-mortar store and eventually launched an e-commerce site and currently uses both. While this did not exactly match the request criteria, it is similar. We have therefore presented this information under additional information. This criterion got the Wine Library. Most CPG brands and companies only manufacture the goods and then sell them to retailers and distributors such as supermarkets and department stores.
Sources
Sources

4 Incredibly Successful Direct to Consumer CPG Brands

cpcstrategy.com
Publication Year: 2018
Quotes
  • "The first Moon Juice shop opened on Rose Avenue in Venice, California in 2011."
  • "It all began with Moon Juice’s first brick and mortar “juice bar” that sold a variety of cold press juices, cosmic snacks and modern pantry items like chaga, pearl, bee pollen, and reishi."
  • "By 2014, Moon Juice was ready to launch their ecommerce store including a line of adaptogenic herb blends (aka the Moon Dusts) all engineered to deliver targeted benefits to beauty, brain, sex, power, spirit, and dream."
  • "Not only could Moon Juice now store and ship their products, but they could market to new audiences all over the world — not just shoppers in walking distance to their juice shop. Having all of that in one place is what sets us apart and how Moon Juice naturally became a mecca for plant-sourced beauty and well-being."
  • "Today, Moon Juice is well on their way to establishing deep roots in the health and wellness community and their reputation for quality products and new age branding is flourishing among health-focused millennials."
  • "Moon Juice has cultivated a strong social media presence and has leveraged that presence with paid advertising to build its branding and drive traffic to its website."

Gary Vaynerchuk Net Worth and How He Built His Fortune - Capitalism

capitalism.com
Publication Year: 2019
Quotes
  • "When Vaynerchuk turned 14, his father had him working in the family business on the weekends and on every school holiday. He has said that his experience in the wine store helped him to learn many valuable business lessons like the importance of nurturing long-term relationships with customers."
  • "Following his graduation in 1998, Vaynerchuk returned to his hometown of New Jersey to continue working in the family wine business. While at college, Vaynerchuk was exposed to computers and the Internet, and he quickly realized that they could be powerful resources for growing his father’s business."
  • "Long before email marketing was a thing, he found creative ways to market his father’s wine business, often emailing weekly discounts and specials and sharing his favorite wine recommendations through his point of view."
  • "Before learning about e-commerce, Vaynerchuk’s expansion goal for the liquor store was to slowly open up several brick and mortar locations across his state and then eventually across the country."
  • "However, he instead started a website called WineLibrary.com with the hope that he could dramatically increase the rate at which inventory from the wine store was sold. Within five years of launching the website, sales from the store increased from $3 million to $60 million a year."

Building an eCommerce Brand of Cosmic Proportions

yotpo.com
Publication Year: 2018
Quotes
  • "We’re using Google PPC ads, retargeting ads and prospecting ads running on Facebook. We also work with a lot of different vendors."
  • "I really encourage you to optimize your email marketing strategy, including your regular marketing emails. Optimize your cadence, test what works — subject lines, content, etc. Create automated flows that are constantly hitting customers at the point in their cycle when you really need to be in front of them."
  • "We post everything on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook and Instagram, but really our core audience is on Instagram, and that’s the more engaged community."
  • "we strategized how we could leverage teaser posts, our loyalty segment — offering early access via email, Instagram stories, and trackable links. In addition, we also aligned our influencer marketing efforts. "