← BRAVE COMMERCE
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- [00:00]
Unknown Speaker 1
I'm no tech genius, but I knew if I wanted my business to crush it, I needed a website. Now thankfully, Bluehost made it easy. I customized, optimized and monetized everything exactly how I wanted with AI. In minutes my site was up. I couldn't believe it. The search engine tools even helped me get more site visitors. Whatever your passion project is, you can set it up with Bluehost with their 30 day money back guarantee. What have you got to lose? Head to bluehost.com to start now.
- [00:30]
Chitra Ebenezer
Epic views, waterfall, mists, summit, sunsets. It's all better outside and with alltrails.
- [00:36]
Rachel Tippograph
You can discover the best of nature.
- [00:37]
Sarah Hofstadter
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- [00:40]
Rachel Tippograph
Download the free app today and find your next adventure.
- [00:48]
Unknown Speaker 2
We know brand growth equals business growth, but do your stakeholders Tracksuit is an affordable, always on brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers and agencies prove the impact of their work on brand metrics over time. Benchmarked against competitors. Built from best in class methodology, the Tracksuit dashboard is accessible and easy to understand for everyone from CSOs and CMOs to CFOs and founders. Research shows that brand investment in good economic times and bad is essential to driving sustainable growth. The bottom line? Turning off the brand tap will cost you in the long run. Tracksuit gives marketers and agencies a common language to measure and communicate brands impact without the $100,000 price tag. Their in house research experts will have your survey live and your full marketing funnel and brand perceptions visible in just 30 days. Check tracksuit out@gotracksuit.com.
- [01:51]
Chitra Ebenezer
You know I often compare a do it yourself project to a recipe and I talk about do it yourself a lot because that's really the market that our products serve. Whether it be, you know, we think of do it yourself broadly. You know, it can be gardening, it can be crafting, it can also be a heavy home improvement project. It can be organization. So you know I often compare do it yourself project to a recipe. You know we are a key ingredient in many projects. Just like you have a key ingredient in a recipe. You know we have to inspire people by showing them the finished project and giving them the confidence that to create it on their own with the Velcro brand.
- [02:28]
Sarah Hofstadter
Welcome to today's episode of Creative Commerce.
- [02:30]
Rachel Tippograph
I'm Rachel Tippograph, the founder and CEO of Micmac.
- [02:34]
Sarah Hofstadter
And I'm Sarah Hofstadter, Chairwoman of Profitero plus.
- [02:37]
Rachel Tippograph
And this is a show that talks about what's relevant in commerce for the world's biggest brand Sarah, have you worked on a brand that has infinite use cases?
- [02:55]
Sarah Hofstadter
Well, I mean the first thing I always think about when somebody says, have you ever worked on a brand? I always go back to like my Oreo days just because the use cases, it's actually very funny. It's the reverse of that. The story of Oreo, it's like there's a ritual, it's called the twist lick dunk that has gone back a hundred years. And I remember there was a time as social media was taking off where we had to bring the news to the client that people are not twist licking and dunking anymore, they're doing other things with their Oreo. And originally it was met with heresy. Like this is a terrible idea. We have to get them back to the ritual. It's like, no, no, no, follow the consumer. And I remember like doing all of this work again back in the day. This was like on vine, remember Twitter? Vine, of course, yeah. So we were doing like Vines calling snack hacks, which is like what happens when you crush up your Oreos, put them in an ice cube, pour over a little bit of milk, stick them in the freezer and add them to your iced coffee. Oh my gosh, that's like crazy bananas. I don't think Oreo is as versatile as what we're talking about here, but you can make something a lot more versatile if you think big enough.
- [04:02]
Rachel Tippograph
Well, I think that's the beautiful thing about the Internet and the social web is that you end up discovering your tribe. Right. People congregate around shared interests or now in this TikTok world, it pushes you to the shared interests with other like minded people.
- [04:17]
Sarah Hofstadter
Well, I have a very close friend, Sarabi at church and Dwight, who makes one of the most ubiquitous products, which is baking soda Arm and hammer. And if you look at CleanTalk on TikTok and you think about all the different use cases for baking soda, I mean just at its simplest, you put it in your fridge for your deodorizer and you put it in your pantry for cooking. But the volume of other things that that thing does is just extraordinary. But you gotta just click a level deeper.
- [04:47]
Unknown Speaker 2
Yeah.
- [04:47]
Rachel Tippograph
I think that the friction for people who sit in these marketing operation roles is they probably are being go against how do I reach 300 million American households? And the consumer insight would be like go after these niche passions. But it's really hard to scale that approach from a creative media buying optimization. And so it's interesting when you get to pick the brains of marketing leaders like Tritra at Velcro companies, where you have a product of infinite use cases, not just within the consumer landscape, but also within the B2B, more industrial landscape as well.
- [05:27]
Sarah Hofstadter
Absolutely. And that's where the difference between demand generation versus just accepting the demand that is already coming your way. It's like, how do you make sure that you embrace the demand that's coming your way for use cases that you can then supply? And the balance between that, that I think Chitra has been doing exceptionally well has been nothing short of extraordinary. So it's interesting when you think about what does it mean to bring that brand to the forefront globally at such scale.
- [06:00]
Rachel Tippograph
Well, let's bring Velcro Companies onto the show today. We are very excited to have Chitra Ebenezer, the chief marketing officer at Velcro Companies, onto the show. And hello.
- [06:14]
Chitra Ebenezer
Hi, Rachel. Hi, Sarah. It's great to be with you here today. Thank you for inviting me.
- [06:18]
Rachel Tippograph
Oh, we're so excited. I was thinking, since we're all brand nerds on the show and also as listeners, before we get into everything with you, it would be helpful for you to share with all of us sort of the. The brand overview and architecture of Velcro companies. Velcro brand hook and loop, like walk us through through that. So we use the right nomenclature as we talk today.
- [06:43]
Chitra Ebenezer
Sure. You know, maybe the best way to talk about this is to start a little bit with our origin story, which I love to talk about. So George de mestral in the 40s, he's a Swiss engineer, he was taking a walk in the woods with his dog and he noticed that there were burdock burs stuck in the dog's fur. So that's sort of the inspiration that led to the Velcro brand hook and loop products. So he was really intrigued by the properties of the burs and how they stuck. And he said, you know what? I can take this. I can harness this type of attachment and make a commercially viable product here. So he spent decades really developing a process to transfer those attachment functionalities to a textile fastener with a hook side and a loop side, and those two sides connect. So Velcro companies was born out of that as the company that manufactured the product. Our brand is the Velcro brand, and the product is hook and loop. And there's two sides, the hook side and the loop side that connect. So hopefully that helps a little bit on the architecture.
- [07:45]
Rachel Tippograph
Velcro companies, Velcro brand, hook and loop. You got that, Sarah?
- [07:49]
Sarah Hofstadter
I got it. I guess within that, the Velcro brand name is just absolutely iconic. But let's talk about the versatility of the products themselves.
- [08:03]
Chitra Ebenezer
Your comment about the Velcro brand being iconic, you know, it is iconic. You know, the Velcro companies, with the invention of hook and loop created a whole new category of fasteners, right, that's used across a million different applications. You know, and actually Velcro brand hook and loop is considered one of the most innovative inventions of the 20th century. When our original patents expired, you know, we did see a lot of competition come into the market with hook and loop. But you know, we are the only ones that can use the Velcro brand name and we are the original hook and loop fastener and we work with companies, you know, around the world really to bring that, that invention to people, to consumers around the world. You know, it's a really simple and elegant solution that has changed the way we do so many everyday tasks like fastening a diaper, securing a medical brace, closing a jacket. You know, we have a large B2B business where we're used as a key component in millions of other products. We also have a growing line of consumer products which are used by do it yourselfers to bring their projects to life. Our products are used for home improvement, cord management, sewing and crafting, just to name a few. They're easy to use, strong and versatile. Given the versatility of our products, there's so many things about educating people on all the ways they can use them. You know, we'll never be able to explain the endless applications. It's really about inspiring people with relevant use cases and demonstrating the benefits of our products so they can see all the possibilities. One thing I like to talk about, for example, you know, one of our best sellers is a 15 foot roll of Velcro brand hook and loop tape. Consumers can cut it to whatever length they want. It's a blank canvas for them to use in a million different ways in their home. Once they've tried it, they know it's always going to work and they're always finding new ways to use it.
- [09:50]
Rachel Tippograph
I would love to see those projects.
- [09:52]
Chitra Ebenezer
Yeah.
- [09:53]
Unknown Speaker 2
Omnisend automates all the busy work for you. It can capture customers who abandon their shopping carts, recommend other products based on their purchases, wish them a happy birthday with a personalized offer or instantly notify them as soon as your best sellers are back in stock. Start free with Omnisend today and keep growing effortlessly sale after sale. We know brand growth equals business growth, but do your stakeholders. Tracksuit is an affordable, always on brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers and agencies prove the impact of their work on brand metrics over time. Benchmarked against competitors. Built from best in class methodology, the Tracksuit dashboard is accessible and easy to understand for everyone from CSOs and CMOs to CFOs and founders. Research shows that brand investment in good economic times and bad is essential to driving sustainable growth. The bottom line? Turning off the brand tap will cost you in the long run. Tracksuit gives marketers and agencies a common language to measure and communicate brands impact. Without the $100,000 price tag, their in house research experts will have your survey live and your full marketing funnel and brand perceptions visible in just 30 days. Check tracksuit out@gotracksuit.com.
- [11:22]
Rachel Tippograph
If you're listening to this, you're ready Ready to join the industrial intelligence generation. A generation defined not by age but.
- [11:31]
Sarah Hofstadter
By a shared mindset to connect teams.
- [11:35]
Rachel Tippograph
Accelerate efficiency and drive innovation. Using the power of Aviva software to reshape industries turning real time insights into real world growth. Discover our stories@industrialintelligence.com join Generation I I'm.
- [11:53]
Unknown Speaker 1
No tech genius, but I knew if I wanted my business to crush it, I needed a website. Now thankfully bluehost made it easy. I customized, optimized and monetized everything exactly how I wanted with AI. In minutes my site was up. I couldn't believe it. The sear search engine tools even helped me get more site visitors. Whatever your passion project is, you can set it up with Bluehost with their 30 day money back guarantee. What have you got to lose? Head to bluehost.com to start now.
- [12:23]
Rachel Tippograph
Now because there's such a wide array of use cases, there's also a ton of Personas to market to and so you have a B2C motion and then you have a B2B motion as a CMO. Like how do you split your time between marketing to end consumers versus industries?
- [12:41]
Chitra Ebenezer
Sure. So our Velcro company's B2B business is more mature. You know our B2B side has a strong foundation with long term customer relationships built over decades. You know we work with major players across our key business segments including personal care, medical, transportation, industrial and footwear and apparel. Additionally, as the only US manufacturer of hook and loop, we are the go to supplier for government and military customers. On the B2B side we really work hand in hand with our customers to develop customized solutions that deliver superior performance in their applications. For example, you know we work with diaper manufacturers to ensure our fastener works with their product and manufacturing processes to deliver on their promise to parents. Now, on the consumer side, you know, we entered the consumer market about 30 years ago. Really as we recognized how useful our products would be in everyday applications around the home, we see a large opportunity for meaningful growth in our consumer business. So I spend a significant amount of my time on the consumer side. While Velcro brand products can be found wherever people shop, we have an opportunity to grow our household penetration. We need to educate consumers on how our products can fit into their lives and be a better solution compared to other fasteners. For example, during COVID we saw a spike in demand as people were spending more time at home. They discovered the benefits of our products for home improvement organization and crafting projects around the house. You know, our products can be found in all the major US retailers, including Amazon, Walmart, the Home Depot and Lowe's, to name a few. We're focused on continuing to grow our distribution, developing new products. And of course, we're also investing in advertising to raise awareness of our products and their benefits. And most of our marketing investment is on the consumer side. But any investment we make in the consumer, of course, halos Back to the B2B side.
- [14:32]
Sarah Hofstadter
I gotta go more into this because it happens to be that last week, I mean, I know we've been trying to get you on the show for a long time, but last week I discovered a new Velcro brand product that like, it was such a smart use case and I discovered it on Amazon. So my kids were super awesome and they built me a garden bed for Mother's Day and I kind of, I could still listen to the podcast. I didn't think it was going to work. Kind of thought I had a bit of a, of a black thumb. Well, it turns out that my garden is growing quite well and I've been trying to figure out how to keep my stakes up. So I was using twist ties and you guys have this really great product, this green garden tape that you can use to secure. So if anybody here is planting, tis the season, not necessarily planting, but actually you're probably seeing your tomato plants grow and things like that. This secures it while still retaining the integrity and the quality of the plant's ability to grow. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's such a freaking no brainer use case. But I never even would have known it existed if not for looking on Amazon, for literally plant ties. Given the diverse that a long set of fur questions. Rachel's like, Sarah, Sarah's doing it again. But given the diversity of the use cases. How do you even think about things like keyword strategies when the use cases are so extraordinary?
- [15:55]
Chitra Ebenezer
You know, that's one of the challenges, right? Our products are so versatile. We have solutions for so many different activities and applications. You know, whether it's gardening, as you mentioned, we actually have a garden here at Velcro companies where we use our products to make sure we can train the plants and hold them in place as they grow, nurture the plants. We have products that work for sowing applications. We have products for home improvement organization, cord management. Everybody is overrun with cord clutter these days, so we have great solutions, solutions for that. One of the keywords that people search when they're looking for a solution like ours is they actually use Velcro brand in the search terms. Right? They would say Velcro brand adhesive strips, Velcro brand adhesive tape. That's obviously an important part. But we have to look at sort of all the different things that they're searching for and looking for solutions like ways to grow my plants, you know, ways to train my plant. How do I. What's a quick fastener for my costume, for my Halloween costume? So we have to think about all the ways that people are going to be looking for a solution. What are they going to be typing in if they're not typing in a specific fastener? Our core user knows what they're looking for, so the heavy user knows what to look for. But we have to sort of raise awareness of our solutions because as you didn't know about our gardening line, a lot of people don't know about all the solutions we have. And that's definitely one of the big challenges we have.
- [17:17]
Rachel Tippograph
It's only going to be exacerbated with, you know, environments like ChatGPT, all the ways that consumers start to discover you.
- [17:23]
Chitra Ebenezer
Yeah, it's really important that we're part of all the responses that come with ChatGPT as well.
- [17:28]
Rachel Tippograph
So in the spirit of, you know, how people discover you and original thinking, you know, that was, it seems like the anchor of one of your large brand campaigns. How do you go about measuring the impact of these major marketing investments, both short term and long term?
- [17:46]
Chitra Ebenezer
Great question. So just for a little bit of background, original thinking is our corporate promise. It really speaks to our heritage of innovation as the original hook and loop fastener, but it also speaks to the creativity of people who use our products. Right. In our continuous focus on innovation, we're currently running a digital ad campaign supporting our consumer business with the tagline Easy does it? You know, the word easy speaks to how easy our products are to use and does it speaks to the fact that our products get the job done. The beauty of digital media is that you can measure results in real time and optimize based on what's working well. Our media plan leverages a mix of upper, mid and lower funnel channels to drive awareness, consideration and purchase intent. Mic Mac has been a great partner. You know, we use the MIC Mac platform to provide a seamless consumer journey and path to purchase. You know, importantly, our brand building efforts around original thinking and Easy does it are having a positive impact. You know, we conduct a brand health survey twice a year with thousands of consumers. Our brand tracking consistently shows that consumers associate the Velcro brand with the attributes original and innovative. In fact, these two attributes are the ones most strongly associated with the Velcro brand. Our research also shows that Velcro brand is a top performer and key purchase drivers for the fastener category, including strong, versatile and easy to use. This tells us that our easy does it positioning is breaking through. Interestingly, one of our challenges is that we are already a household name. Sarah hit on this People use Velcro brand hook and loop every day as a component in products made by other companies. If you think about it, diapers, medical devices, footwear and apparel. However, we're not always top of mind as a standalone product that people can buy at a retail store to help with projects around the home. People always have tape, glue and nails in their homes. Our goal is to ensure they also have Velcro brand products on hand when they need them. I've learned while working at Velcro companies that our products can be a great replacement for just about any other fasting solution.
- [19:51]
Sarah Hofstadter
I would concur. I consider myself very much ahead of the curve then because in my junk drawer I've got that big role that you were talking about. So I didn't even realize how progressive I was. But I'm far from an influencer when it comes to these kinds of things. You guys have done some very interesting work in that area. Can you talk a little bit more about that and how you find those micro communities?
- [20:13]
Chitra Ebenezer
Sure, absolutely. You know, influencer content plays a key role in our marketing efforts as it helps us showcase the functionality and versatility of Velcro brand products in interesting real life use cases. Our influencers have loyal and highly engaged audiences who trust their recommendations, which helps expand our reach and build credibility for our brand. They extend our message and play a big role in educating people on the Countless ways to use our products. You know, overall we've seen great ideas from our influencers and strong consumer engagement with our influencer programs. When we select our influencers, we seek out creative do it yourselfers with an approachable style and who we feel can be great ambassadors for the Velcro brand. The reality is that applications for Velcro brand products are limitless and we sometimes get the best ideas from the community and and from do it yourselfers who recognize the inherent value of our products. You know, crafting is a great example. Our influencers come up with these amazing and really creative kids crafting and holiday decorating ideas that everyone wants to try. You know, I often compare a do it yourself project to a recipe and I talk about do it yourself a lot because that's really the market that our products serve. Whether it be, you know, we think of do it yourself broadly. You know, it can be gardening, it can be crafting, it can also be a heavy home improvement project, it can be organization. So, you know, I often compare do it yourself project to a recipe. You know, we are a key ingredient in many projects. Just like you have a key ingredient in a recipe. You know, we have to inspire people by showing them the finished project and giving them the confidence to create it on their own with the Velcro brand. For us, when it comes to influencers, it's really about finding do it yourselfers who share our passion and can bring original thinking to their projects. Our influencer programs have been successful in driving engagement in sales, especially when directly linked with retailer sites and storefronts. For example, the Back to school period is a strong sales window for us. In 2024, our back to school influencer campaign resulted in more than 7 million impressions and a strong organic engagement rate of 6%. More importantly, we also drove year over year sales growth. User generated content is also important. You know, we're always excited to see organic content and all the clever ways people are using our products. If we start to see trends and use cases or interesting hacks with Velcro brand products, they can inspire us to create new products based on that that can do the job even better.
- [22:45]
Rachel Tippograph
Velcro brand is in such an awesome position to take advantage of the creator community. Short form video.
- [22:52]
Chitra Ebenezer
Absolutely.
- [22:53]
Rachel Tippograph
Compared to some of our other guests where like the product really doesn't translate. So it's awesome. We have to ask you our famous last question which is what's the bravest thing you've ever done?
- [23:03]
Chitra Ebenezer
Thank you for the question. I thought about this long and hard. You know, and I have to say, you know, there's not one specific act of bravery that jumps out to me. You know, I've never climbed Mount Everest or jumped out of a plane. What I'd like to talk about is just more about a series of brave decisions I've made throughout my career. You know, I've uprooted and moved to a new city six times for a new career opportunity with no guarantee that it would work out. You know, along the way I've had great career experiences, worked with amazing people and made incredible new friends. You know, I think this is becoming rarer. People aren't relocating as much for jobs, but I've, I've moved all over. You know, I've worked in great places like dc, Boston, Chicago, even in Nenah, Wisconsin. And I even did an internship in Mumbai, India. So looking back, I wouldn't have done anything differently.
- [23:49]
Rachel Tippograph
What do you think that means for the future generation? The fact that they're staying put?
- [23:54]
Chitra Ebenezer
It's the beauty of technology, right, and advancement that people can live remotely and you know, stay where maybe their families are where, where they want to be. Long term, it's great. But you know, there's something I think that you just can't replace from being in person together, you know, so it's great that we can work remote and it's great that we can be more flexible and have a mix. You know, I think the best of, of both worlds, but I just think there's nothing that can replace that face to face interaction which is really important. So it's a balance. I think there's a balance there. I do think, you know, back in the day, you know, in order to explore and move further in your career, you had to be willing to relocate. I just think in the world we're in today, it's becoming. People want to put down roots and live in a certain place. So it's, it's definitely an interesting, you know, an interesting time.
- [24:42]
Rachel Tippograph
Well, we appreciate you sharing your story and Velcro company story. Thank you for your time.
- [24:47]
Chitra Ebenezer
Thank you so much. I appreciate it.
- [24:51]
Rachel Tippograph
If you like what you heard and you want to listen to other products that have ubiquity, go check out our friend Sarabi at church. And Dwight, don't forget to write a review. Thanks for listening.
- [25:23]
Unknown Speaker 2
We know brand growth equals business growth, but do your stakeholders. Tracksuit is an affordable always on brand tracking dashboard that helps marketers and agencies prove the impact of their work on brand metrics over time benchmarked against competitors, built from best in class methodology The Tracksuit dashboard is accessible and easy to understand for everyone from CSOs and CMOs to CFOs and founders. Research shows that brand investment in good economic times and bad is essential to driving sustainable growth. The bottom line? Turning off the brand tap will cost you in the long run. Tracksuit gives marketers and agencies a common language to measure and communicate brand's impact without the $100,000 price tag. Their in house research experts will have your survey live and your full marketing funnel and brand perceptions visible in just 30 days. Check tracksuit out@gotracksuit.com Running a business can be exhausting. Building your website shouldn't be. With wix, you can express your ideas, give direction, then leave the heavy lifting to AI. From site creation to branded content and images. Have fun with the details, customize what you want the way you want, and manage your whole business from a centralized dashboard with expert AI tools. Build, scale and enjoy the incredible results. You can do it all yourself on wix.
- [26:57]
Sarah Hofstadter
Hi, I'm Jackie Cooper, Global Chief Brand Officer at Edelman and the host of Touch of Truth, a new podcast launching on the Adweek Podcast Network. My dad gave me this incredibly smart piece of advice. Meet everyone once. As a result, I've met some of the most fascinating and inspiring people on the planet. Now on Touch of Truth, we're coming centre stage and sharing the mic to explain experience, stories of truth, insights and visions for the future that will challenge your way of thinking. Touch of Truth is available wherever you listen to podcasts. New episodes come out every Tuesday. I do hope to see you there.