Ahead of a packed panel session at SubscriptionX II on 09 October, Orla Weir, head of ecommerce at healthy dog treat brand Denzel’s, discusses seasonal drops, content and “serving happiness”.
Q: What are Denzel’s doing to build a sense of community amongst subscribers?
Sometimes I think it’s easy to lose sight of why community is important or what it actually means. What we’re really trying to do is make our brand fans feel part of something – and ensure that purchasing Denzel’s is more than just a transaction.
The first piece of this is truly understanding who your community is and what’s important to them. Denzel’s is uniquely a treat only brand – and the #1 reason people give their dogs treats is to make their dog and themselves happy. We started to scale during the COVID dog boom, with changes to working styles leading to more than a third of 24-35 year olds owning a pet. At the same time, this gen-zennial cohort has been facing a huge mental health crisis. The value we add to our community is serving happiness – not treats.
So when we think about how we build community, we think about how we can serve happiness to each and every member of the Denzel’s family. We try to thread this through everything we do, but some of my personal favourites include:
- Content as Entertainment: This year we created a mockumentary about pet parents who think their dog is the best – something our audience can all relate to and something to make them smile!
- Limited Edition Drops: We go crazy for seasonal and cultural moments with Valentine’s, Halloween and Christmas treats for dogs. We want to create space for more bonding moments between pet parents and their doggos, bringing their dog into the moment.
- Subscription Perks: Our subscribers get special rewards for the extra love they show us – whether that’s special pricing, early access to new drops or merch: we try to make them feel extra special for the loyalty and support they show Denzel’s.
- Our Friends of Denz: We have a small tight knit community of creators called our Friends of Denz. This wonderful group of dogs and pet parents are in a whatsapp group together. We invite them to dine with our restaurant partners, or to key events and staycations. We aim to add real value to our Friends of Denz to thank them for their commitment to spreading the word about Denzel’s!
- Community Photoshoots: Some of the best content we’ve made has come from asking our community to join us on a shoot. We took applications for our upcoming Christmas campaign and they joined us on a Denzel’s shoot with their adorable pups.
And finally, genuinely listening to what your community say – the comments, the emails, the survey feedback – goes under the radar but is probably the most important thing we do! We have a great team who truly value the importance of customer care and engaging on every platform we show up on.
Q: Sticking with that community, how do you surprise and delight your subscribers? What strategies do you have in place for keeping things fresh?
The dog treat market is notoriously disloyal. Like with human treats – you’ll likely consume a variety of brands. But even more so within pet, the purchaser is not the end consumer and it leads to a LOT of brand switching and deal shopping. Although we don’t underestimate the value of promotions, it also means we need to double down on strategies to increase brand loyalty – and our subscribers are at the heart of this.
We have a whole range of incentives in place – from special pricing, to dedicated subscriber giveaways along with ensuring the UX of our subscription experience is flawless. But the #1 bonus our subscribers cite is the early access and special pricing they get on our special edition product drops. We go wild for seasonal moments – with dog dates for our Valentine’s photoshoots, or Denzel sporting his Vampire outfit at Halloween, to making sure that the extra details go into special edition product drops like our 24-door ski rack advent calendar for Christmas 2024! These launches are about giving people more opportunities to bond with their dog, and therefore they require some extra love and attention to make them really magical.
In a world with so much competition and noise, it’s easy for people to become distracted and a big part of increasing retention is keeping things fresh. We have an amazingly quick supply chain that allows us to launch new product drops for every occasion – but it doesn’t need to be EPD or NPD – it could be a new online experience, or merchandise or access to new content each month: it’s simply about creating reasons for people to come back.
Q: How do you balance a subscription offering, with D2C operations and bricks-and-mortar presence?
It’s tricky…There is enormous value in an omnichannel business (the pandemic taught everyone that) but it doesn’t mean it’s easy. We are constantly balancing how to take a truly tailored approach by channel vs. also ensuring we can scale and we’re not spreading ourselves too thin.
We have a wide variety of treats available across the portfolio and we have to make sure each channel has the right product strategy. DTC is our brand hub and the core purpose is to provide a great experience for our community. With that in mind, we make sure all our products are available here but we focus on bundling and curating the perfect unboxing experience.
Whereas, Amazon is a discovery platform for us and so we ensure you can find our hero products in variety formats as a trial offering. When it comes to brick and mortar: it depends on the channel, we have different offerings for grocery vs convenience vs hospitality (pubs, cafes, hotels). This type of tailored approach means that customers can find the right product in the right place – and these channels compete with each other less.
On top of that, we work together! We’re a team of 10 – the ecommerce team is just me. It’s not hard to ensure we’re all working as one unit! We’ll use our ecommerce capabilities to drive the wider business – whether it’s through mass sample acquisition or geo-targeted advertising or surveying. And on the flip side, we run IRL events with our retail and hospitality partners and direct these users to our mailing lists and encourage them to join the online community. We have a very special offline + online loyalty scheme in the works but that’s one for 2025… Watch this space!
Weir joins the Delivering Enhanced Customer Experience to Optimise Lifetime Value panel at this October’s SubscriptionX II.
Following the second edition of the groundbreaking SubscriptionX conference in May, this exclusive think-tank which will explore how leading subscription businesses and challenger brands are focussing on retention as a key driver of growth, using a data-driven approach to define and refine their strategy, and creating exceptional subscriber experiences to increase customer lifetime value.
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