Knix founder Joanna Griffiths discusses her brand's journey from wholesale to DTC, highlighting how traditional retail often fails to serve customers by limiting inclusive sizing and brand vision. This episode offers valuable lessons on how embracing a DTC model empowers brands to control product development, marketing, and the overall customer experience, especially in the context of physical retail integration.
Key takeaways
Traditional retail can compromise brand vision and inclusivity; Knix's experience losing extended sizing in wholesale illustrates this, prompting their DTC shift.
Adopting a DTC model enables brands to create products on their own terms, directly catering to customer needs and maintaining brand integrity.
DTC brands considering physical retail should integrate it in a way that aligns with their customer-centric values, rather than conforming to traditional retail limitations.
The episode highlights the importance of customer feedback in product innovation and development within a DTC framework.
Transitioning to DTC significantly impacts marketing strategies, shifting focus to direct engagement and brand storytelling rather than wholesale promotion.
When Joanna Griffiths launched her brand in 2013, she wanted to reinvent intimates. Knix, Griffiths’ brand of functional intimates, was built on the premise that women of all shapes and sizes deserve to be catered to. But while selling the brand through wholesale retailers, Griffiths found the industry didn’t quite share her vision. Stores refused to carry the brand’s extended size range, and Griffiths felt that buyers were more interested in filling a hole on their floor than representing the brand. On this week’s episode of The Glossy Podcast, Hilary Milnes sits down with Knix founder and CEO Joanna Griffiths, live at NRF 2019, to talk about how making the switch to direct-to-consumer empowered Knix to create more products on its own terms, how the change affected the brand’s marketing strategy and how the company is approaching physical retail.
Traditional retail can compromise brand vision and inclusivity; Knix's experience losing extended sizing in wholesale illustrates this, prompting their DTC shift.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Adopting a DTC model enables brands to create products on their own terms, directly catering to customer needs and maintaining brand integrity.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
DTC brands considering physical retail should integrate it in a way that aligns with their customer-centric values, rather than conforming to traditional retail limitations.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
The episode highlights the importance of customer feedback in product innovation and development within a DTC framework.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
Transitioning to DTC significantly impacts marketing strategies, shifting focus to direct engagement and brand storytelling rather than wholesale promotion.
