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Cultivating a loyal fan base is every brand’s dream. So why not take a page out of the book of companies that have made fandom the foundation of their business? Earlier this month at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW, executives from Weverse, Crunchyroll, and Wattpad/Webtoon spoke about how their companies cultivate and serve their diehard fandomsand how you can apply that approach to your customers. For Joon Choi, president of Weverse, a platform bridging fans to artists, fandom always starts with authenticity, particularly with the artists on the platform. He recognized that “special” and “happy” experience of being in a fandom. So if an artist isn’t authentically connected to their fanbase, then a platform like Weverse just isn’t for them. And that idea, he said, goes for companies trying to connect with their consumers. Aron Levitz, president of Wattpad Webtoon Studios and co-president of Wattpad, noted that part of defining yourself as a brand is figuring out who you are in different channels.“Have you ever looked at Build-a-Bear’s Instagram? It is not what you think it is. Go read it. It is unhinged,” he said. “But they decided that in that channel they can talk about themselves in a different way than they ever would in a store.”The key is to be true to a persona and be ready to experiment to get to that persona, especially on social media where there’s a constant churn of content. “You can think like a tech company and do some A/B testing to really understand what could your brand be,” Levitz said. For Gita Rebbapragada, chief operating officer of anime streaming service Crunchyroll, it’s about identifying the nuances within your fanbase. “When [you] think about a specific fandom as a monolith, you will fail,” she said. “The beauty of being focused around one specific fandom is the diversity in it.”She also mentioned that fans are highly adept at sniffing out inauthentic ploys for monetization from a company. But that there are indeed opportunities to engage with fans in a financial way if it’s “well-aligned” with the community. “A lot of times we think of monetizing a fan base as kind of an uncomfortable thing to talk about,” Rebbapragada said. “[But] if you love a story or a game, you want to engage with it in so many different ways. And a company or a brand that gives you a cool product that you want to have in your home or put on your shelf or wear, that is creating value for the person that loves that particular thing. It’s really about understanding what the motivations are.” Watch the full panel below:
Category:
E-Commerce
As the Trump administration continues to wage war against diversity, equity and inclusion programs, many business leaders have had to grapple with either standing firm in their previously stated DEI goals or abandon them and face consumer backlash. However, for some executives who have built their businesses around specific cultures, the ethos of DEI is inextricable from their missions. The founders of Mab Artisanal Tea and Issei Mochi Gummies, and the president of Minnetonka Moccasin Company, took to the stage at the Fast Company Grill at SXSW earlier this month to share how this approach to business shapes, rather than detracts from, their success. Education over exploitation For Jori Miller Sherer, president of the shoe company Minnetonka, reconciliation and community work are top of mind. Founded in 1946, the Minneapolis-based business has sold Indigenous-inspired moccasins since its inception, though it was not founded by nor did it employ people from those communities. The company first addressed and apologized for its history of cultural appropriation in 2021, hired a reconciliation advisor, and began working with Indigenous artists to design their products, which included a partnership with Red Lake Nation member Lucie Skjefte on a rebrand of the companys signature Thunderbird, or Animikii shoes. One of the first things that we did was get to know people in our local community and just listen and learn from them, Miller Sherer said, noting that a number of Indigenous people reside in the Twin Cities. Over 40% of Minnesota residents who identify as American Indian live in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, according to a 2021 report from the Minnesota Department of Health. For the Indigenous designers Minnetonka works with, “it isnt just about sending a check or having a royalty payment, which of course we do, Miller Sherer said. It is about really giving them the microphone and giving them the spotlight. Jerry Grammont, the founder and CEO of Mab Artisanal Tea, echoed this sentiment. Grammont, who is from Haiti, was inspired to start his iced tea company in 2020 to blend wellness and taste. His teas contain mauby bark, an ingredient used in traditional Caribbean beverages that is believed to offer a variety of health benefits. Grammont is mindful of how he can use his product to educate consumers who may be unfamiliar with the drink and the region it originates from. I find that when we’re educating our customers around our culture and what we’re doing, we’re also selling the product itself because it’s directly tied to it, he said. Its not about the financial gains. Its about how we bring this wellness ingredient to the States. Getting creative with limitations Mika Shino, the founder and CEO of Issei Mochi Gummies, discovered quickly after launching her mochi snack business that most American manufacturing equipment isnt designed to handle gummies made from traditional Japanese ingredients. The mochi, which is made from rice flour rather than wheat and gelatin, created gummies of a much thicker consistency than factory machinery is built to handle. We called over a hundred manufacturing facilities. We worked with over 11 food scientists, all PhDs in starchI didnt know you could get a PhD in starch, right? she told attendees. We hand baked, hand slabbed, and hand cut 3,000 pounds of mochi. It was really difficult, but it taught me the difficult path of innovation when youre really trying to do something new. Jumping into her business sans blueprint paid off. Issei, which means first generation in Japanese, now has two patents that are pending. We could never have done that if we were just another gummy bear with less sugar or just another peanut butter cup, Shino said. Staying the course and building long-term success For Minnetonka, success means continuing to directly confront the companys past. The business reckoned with its history of cultural appropriation and went public with its reconciliation efforts after the murder of George Floyd at a time when many corporations made similar commitments that they have since reneged on. For Miller Sherer, the pledge that Minnetonka made to elevate the voices of Indigenous people is more than a fad or empty words. We first went public with this back in 2020, and we didn’t do it because of external pressures or because of trends at the time. We knew it was the right thing to do, and it was the right thing for the business too, she said. Were going to keep talking about this story because it’s now become a part of who we are and it always will be. At Mab, diversity is essential to the companys functionality. Were a Black-owned company. We have probably 75% females in our company,” said Grammont. “Theres no way that I can say, Im not going to employ diversity [as] part of my strategy. It literally is my company.” Shino, who worked at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization for 17 years, said culture was essential to facilitating diplomacy and connection. I think when you make things that are authentic to you, its a stealth way to communicate a message,” Shino said. “I worked at [UNESCO], where we used cultural goods like philosophy, art, literature, poetry, music as a way to bridge cultures. I really hope that our product can be a part of that, so youre not forcing [that message]. At the same time, Shino doesn’t plan to shy away from what makes Issei unique. We’re not going to waver from who we are,” she said. “We’re going to lean into [the fact that] we’re Asian owned, we’re women owned, we’re heritage proud. That’s not going to change, she said. And thats how you resist.
Category:
E-Commerce
DoorDash just penned a deal with Klarna that will let you pay for your take-out burrito in installments. This week, DoorDash announced it would be teaming with Klarna to offer a range of payment options to customers, including a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) plan that allows users to defer payments to a more convenient time, as well as another plan that lets meal payments be divided into four interest-free installments. Klarna, a fast-credit fintech company, uses BNPL loans as a kind of consumer credit, similar to a standard credit card. When users are late on their payments, they’re typically charged a feethough Klarna’s main profits come from charging other merchants to offer their payment options, which attract consumers who, for a number of reasons, would rather pay in chunks than all at once. The DoorDash deal comes a week after Klarna filed paperwork signaling its intention to debut an initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange. As the company gears up to go public, it appears to be highlighting its dealmaking abilities; it also announced that it would become Walmarts exclusive provider of BNPL loans. But while the Walmart deal, announced earlier this week, was largely heralded as a positive sign for Klarna, the DoorDash agreement is garnering some strong pushback on the internet. In an era when groceries are increasingly expensive, the prospect of paying off a McDonalds hamburger in four installments is dystopian to say the least. Why does buying a burrito feel like an investment? The rising cost of living is a serious problem in the U.S., one that more and more people are citing as the top reason for wanting to leave the country. According to a report last month from the Labor Department, the consumer price index (which accounts for rises in key purchases like gas, cars, and groceries) increased 3% year over year. And new data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that food prices have gone up 23% since February 2021. Rising prices for groceries, especially fresh produce, were enough for Fast Company to predict that vegetables could become celebrities hot new status symbol. Its no surprise, then, that the internet has been quick to point out the near-ghoulish tone-deafness of Klarnas new partnership, which positions take-out as a kind of investment. Excited to announce that I closed on a $31.38 transaction to secure a burrito and side of chips, reads one tweet with 87,000 likes. 20-year senior fixed rate financing was provided by Klarna. DoorDash provided delivery of the asset. Congratulations to all involved. just doordashed a burrito lunch special that only cost me $1.04/monthly for 2 years, another X user wrote. thank you klarna! the future is here! Other responses have run the gamut, from parodying a celebratory LinkedIn post to comparing Klarna to the hitmen in Pulp Fiction and Jordan Belfort in The Wolf of Wall Street. While Klarnas IPO is still highly anticipated in the fintech space, it seems like the company might benefit from focusing on partnerships its customers actually asked for, rather than deals that make the experience of ordering some chicken tenders to go feel one step closer to paying off a mortgage.
Category:
E-Commerce
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