Domestic Manufacturing

Many of our clients are US-based manufacturers. We value these businesses for the high-quality goods they create and for their massive contribution to society as a whole. It’s not hyperbole. They also often have some of the best people to work with. But we’re seeing the trend first hand. That these companies are going to have to navigate the DTC (direct to consumer) landscape or they are 100% going to go out of business. Also, not hyperbole.

It can be scary but the reality is that potential buyers ARE going to the internet to determine what products to buy from whom. Sales are increasingly moving online and traditional retail is providing less and less value to suppliers while asking for more and more support.

The brands that are focusing on building their DTC channels are winning the war. We’ve helped dozens of brands successfully navigate or optimize the digital transformation leading to topline growth in all channels (including traditional wholesale), increased customer confidence, better product development, and increased margins and control of the brand message.

Steamist & EliteSteam
Case Study

Steamist was already one of the country’s leading manufacturers of high-end steam shower generators. But they recognized a few troubling emerging trends.

The hefty sales incentives paid to retailers were not generating the kind of sales lifts they used to. We also noticed that traffic to their informational website was growing by leaps and bounds – clearly an indication that end consumers were increasingly doing their own research online.

Together with Steamist, we created a new direct-to-consumer brand that provided basic, but high-quality and reliable, steam shower generators. We designed a website that focused on educating potential end users. Our focus was to make the whole process as simple as possible. We optimized Amazon listings and market presence across multiple third-party marketplaces.

The results were extraordinary and within a very short period, the EliteSteam brand was consistently the number one brand on Amazon and the industry leader on the web. The channel became a major percentage of topline sales and the fastest growing segment of the company by far.

Primary Services Employed:

Steam-Shower-Kits-On-Sale-Everything-You-Need-for-Quality-Steam

But even more exciting was that the direct sales advertising supported in-store sales efforts and that channel grew as well. These positive results attracted the attention of one of the premier brands of plumbing parts in the world and Steamist was snatched up by their publicly-traded parent company.

"Working with the Matson Group is easy and a pleasure. They take the time to understand our products, DTC potential and our brick and mortar customers. Matson’s understanding was vital to quickly introducing a vibrant DTC brand without disrupting our traditional sales."

David Wostbrok

Vice President Operations, Steamist

The Secret Sauce
Explained

The key to successfully navigating entry into DTC ecommerce sales is really just to be fearless. There is a lot of expertise required and most manufacturers are nowhere near equipped to handle digital on their own – but success isn’t as challenging as many might think.

However, no one can tell your brand’s story better than you and you want potential customers not just getting the correct information about your brand, but becoming vervent brand advocates. This will never happen when the conversation is dominated by third party resellers, particularly those that sell multiple brands or many product lines.