"Do not enter a battle you are not positioned to win."
"Choose the ground, the timing, and the engagement only when the advantage is already yours. If you must fight, you have already won — the battle is merely formality."
I've spent 30+ years figuring out that ground and competitive advantage.
I'm looking for brands with a "Challenger's" heart and vision.
In the Walmart and Amazon vendor world, there's lots of data, rules, regulations, definitions, and news. But not much big-picture help for founders to be able to make decisions and build the case for those decisions.
Moreover, there's no one to connect the levers:
- Brokers run the account.
- Software recovers deductions.
- Agencies run ads and product pages...
...But nobody ties the content, availability, price, and media information into a plan that the buyer, investor, or board can see.
I tie it together into a clear, actionable plan with a strong case for why, and briefs to direct your team and agencies.
Dale Treece, 30+ years in retail marketing and ecommerce.
My approach: Coordinate and orchestrate your assets -- item roles, PDPs, DTC brand site, earned media, and fanatics.
If you're a challenger brand, or a DTC with a vision to become "shelf ready", you are operating (likely) debt-free with limited funds, limited team-members, and limited media options. This is not a problem, and better yet, lights up a clear path.
First order of business is to survive, then grow from the ground you gain. Be smart, be disciplined, be frugal.
Your strength is nimbleness and speed to market. Be fast about testing and refining to find the opening. When you've found the opening, go get the ground.
Orchestrate your brand and your assets as a team. They should never work independently of each other. Figure out each item's role and coordinate to bring the whole brand forward.
Researcher, thinking partner, and synthesizer. Structured and methodical with the tools I wish I'd had when I was a Director.
The Map
Where you stand.
Your brand lives in a competitive environment. Shoppers are making choices between you and the item next to you. I methodically evaluate your ecommerce assets. I identify your competitors -- known and unknown -- and their assets.
The Moves
What to do.
This is where you can identify winnable positions, and the tactics to win with. Options ranked by impact and effort, with the tradeoffs, with clear target metrics and "stop thresholds". Simplicity and clarity drives your team and agency action.
The Case
Why it will work.
The story, the strategy, the plan and the numbers behind each move. Ready for a buyer, an investor, your board or your own team.
Clear briefs for team and agencies, with clear direction and metrics of success.
My first meeting with you won't be empty handed!
Set a meeting with me below and I will show up with two useful evaluations to talk about...
A simple PDP analysis
- Are the basics in place?
- Is there SEO?
- Can your item be found by AI?
A competitive analysis
- Who really are your competitors?
- What is your SWOT?
No obligation. Your details are used only to reply, as described in the privacy page.