The Moms Co’s Malika Sadani On How D2C Brands Should Choose Between Sampling & Advertisements

There is a big difference in the marketing strategies for online and offline retail, Malika Datt Sadani, founder & CEO of The Moms Co., said at Inc42’s ‘The D2C Summit 3.0’. Besides, the return on sampling is very different from the return on advertisements, she added.

Answering an audience question about sampling, Sadani said that at the beginning of its D2C journey, The Moms Co. spent most of its marketing spend on sampling, being available wherever it could find customers and leveraging low-cost sampling.

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“Now you have much larger channels which are offering samples quite easily. We are at a stage where even marketplaces allow you to do sampling. But how much you want to do it (sampling) is a part of it because the return on sampling that you expect over a return that you would expect on an ad is very very different,” said Malika Sadani.

She also added that a D2C founder needs to figure out the right mix for sampling and advertising at each stage of their business. Explaining her rationale, Sadani noted, “The purpose of both is very different. Sampling helps you build a lot of consideration while advertising helps you to do a lot of brand awareness.” 

The Moms Co. founder also mentioned two different situations where brands could alter between sampling and advertising. “When you’re trying to reach a lot of people, try to do it through advertising, it will turn out to be slightly cheaper. When you’re trying to build trust in the brand and the product, just go ahead and sample products,” Sadani said.

Adding to it, Veeba’s founder Viraj Bahl said that D2C founders should assign a percentage of their total revenue to sampling. He added that founders should be strict about spending the said percentage as well as not exceeding it.

According to Inc42 data, Indian D2C brands spent $157 Mn on advertising in FY21. Further, it was observed that the median advertising budget for top-funded D2C brands in India was $2.6 Mn in FY21.

As per an Inc42 survey of 50 D2C founders, 50% of all D2C startups have an omnichannel presence, with 87% of Indian D2C brands giving high importance to having such a presence.

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