Tech Deciphered

Tech Deciphered


#2 – The future of direct-to-consumer, the vital importance of … chicken, and the future of food delivery

March 14, 2020

We discuss the future of direct to consumer brands and the long awaited reclaiming of end-consumer relationships by the L’Oreals and Philips of the world, and why Nuno won’t do “automatic toothbrush head re-ordering” any time soon. We talk about the importance of chicken (yes, CHICKEN!), why CostCo is locking in its production and the future of food delivery, including dark and cloud kitchens. In gadgets, we talk about the Apple Watch and Amazon Alexa.
Navigation:

Digitally Native Brands - from Direct to Consumer 1.0 to DTC 2.0 (01:51)
The case for product differentiation in DTC (04:11)
Innovations in packaging (10:13)
Gaining direct relationships with consumers (13:22)
Theses in food delivery (16:38)
Emergence of dark and cloud kitchens (17:45)
Take-out still key in the US (21:52)
The importance of the Costco $4.99 Chicken (24:46)
Apple leader in smart watch (31:02)
After 5 years, why is Alexa barely better? (37:47)

Resources: 

Frederic Fernandez, FMCG CEOs: 10 Thoughts About The Future Of DTC - http://bit.ly/3cWe88a  
Times of India, Cooking food to become as rare as making own clothes - http://bit.ly/2WdndU9,
CNN Business, It's only $4.99. But Costco's rotisserie chicken comes at a huge price - https://cnn.it/3aXuls4
9to5Mac, Strategy Analytics: Apple Watch sales grew 51% in Q3, still the ‘clear industry leader’ - http://bit.ly/2QiAmr8 
The Verge, After 5 years of Alexa, why isn’it it better - http://bit.ly/2WacdqJ

Our co-hosts:

Bertrand Schmitt, Tech Entrepreneur, co-founder and Chairman at App Annie, @bschmitt
Nuno Goncalves Pedro, Investor, co-Founder and Managing Partner of Strive Capital, @ngpedro 

Our show:
 
Tech DECIPHERED brings you the Entrepreneur and Investor views on Big Tech, VC and Start-up news, opinion pieces and research. We decipher their meaning, and add inside knowledge and context. Being nerds, we also discuss the latest gadgets and pop culture news.
 FMCG CEOs: 10 Thoughts About The Future Of DTC
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Full transcription: may contain unintentionally confusing, inaccurate and/or amusing transcription errors
Bertrand: Hi Nuno, how are you today? 
Nuno: I am well, and how are you Bertrand ? 
Bertrand: I'm doing pretty good, so today we are going to talk about consumer, consumer goods, consumer tech and we have a few topics from consumer goods to food tech.
Nuno: Yes, and that will make us hungry. So this is going to be an interesting show at the end of the day. 

Digitally native brands - from DTC 1.0 to DTC 2.0 (01:51)
Shall we go in? And to the direct to consumer analysis on digitally native brands. This really interesting article, by Frederick Fernandez, which really puts together a lot of research from ABI and a few other sources on the future of DTC, and he has 10 specific thoughts around it. And , to start with a non-controversial part, I think we will find it difficult to disagree tremendously with any of the 10 points. But maybe let's start at the beginning, right? So , let's start with definitions and what it is and what it's not.
We're talking about, effectively the direct to consumer or, what we call digitally native brands. So brands that are F in the FMCG space, that are reaching out to consumers in their first instance, through mostly a digitally enabled value chain and also digitally enabled front office in front of the house.
So, a lot of interesting analysis around it. I think let's start with sort of the obvious ones, and maybe go to the less obvious ones. 
The point that he makes pretty early on is that, what got some of these digitally native brands to be so unique and so advanced, and really to take significant market shares is probably not goin...