Lively's Michelle Cordeiro Grant: Women deserve more lingerie options
The Glossy Podcast · with Michelle Cordeiro Grant · March 20, 2019 · 34 min
Summary
Lively founder and CEO Michelle Cordeiro Grant shares her journey of building a disruptive lingerie brand by creating the "leisurée" category, blending athleisure, swimwear, and traditional lingerie. The episode delves into how Lively leveraged social media and an ambassador program for community building, evolving its content strategy with its own podcast, and its experimental approach to physical retail. This is a must-listen for DTC founders looking to break into crowded markets through product innovation and a customer-centric approach.
Key takeaways
Identify unmet customer needs to create new product categories, as Lively did with 'leisurée' by blending athleisure, swimwear, and lingerie for the modern woman.
Develop a robust community-building strategy through social media and ambassador programs to drive brand engagement and content creation.
Embrace an iterative and experimental approach to new channels like physical retail, treating initial ventures as "beta phases" for continuous learning.
Leverage owned media, such as a brand podcast, to deepen content strategy and connect with your audience on a more profound level.
Analyze traditional competitors' weaknesses to carve out a unique market position and avoid their pitfalls.
When Michelle Cordeiro Grant founded Lively in 2015, she wanted to create a lingerie brand that fit into the lifestyle of the modern woman. In combining design aspects of traditional lingerie, swimwear and athleisure, Cordeiro Grant said Lively has created a new category altogether, which her team refers to as 'leisurée'. Since the company's launch, it has built a massive ambassador program, launched a podcast and started experimenting with physical retail. Cordeiro Grant said the company's move into retail is still in its beta phase, and her team is constantly learning and evolving its retail strategy. On this week's episode of The Glossy Podcast, Hilary Milnes sits down with Michelle Cordeiro Grant, the founder and CEO of Lively, at Shoptalk 2019. They discuss how to break into a crowded market, how Lively's social media channels have become a major part of its content strategy and where traditional retailers have gone wrong.
Identify unmet customer needs to create new product categories, as Lively did with 'leisurée' by blending athleisure, swimwear, and lingerie for the modern woman.
What does this episode say about brand & content?
Develop a robust community-building strategy through social media and ambassador programs to drive brand engagement and content creation.
What does this episode say about retail & omnichannel?
Embrace an iterative and experimental approach to new channels like physical retail, treating initial ventures as "beta phases" for continuous learning.
What does this episode say about founder & leadership?
Leverage owned media, such as a brand podcast, to deepen content strategy and connect with your audience on a more profound level.
What does this episode say about dtc strategy?
Analyze traditional competitors' weaknesses to carve out a unique market position and avoid their pitfalls.
