Founder Stories: How AVEC has built brand equity through storytelling (with Dee Charlemagne)

10/23/20 • 26 min

DTC POD: How The Best Brands Are Built

“Even though there was a lot to learn as first-time founders but I think our lack of experience has led to innovation and belief we can do it.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD
“Storytelling is really powerful especially in a world where most brands are focused on performance marketing.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD
“One of our first meetings was writing down the values of our company as much as it was writing down the recipes for our product.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD
“We traveled around in an AVEC-branded 1995 Chevy van and that content outperformed our fancy photo shoots.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD
“For gaining press, research your targets and share why the product is relevant to them and why it’s relevant to their audience.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

[01:05] About AVEC
[03:50] How Dee and her co-founder, Alex, got into CPG
[06:30] Where AVEC’s name comes from and the brand story
[10:40] The elements of a great brand story
[13:35] How to create sustainable growth and brand equity
[14:50] Dee’s strategy for generating press for your brand
[18:00] Culture and brands that have inspired AVEC
[22:00] Dee on overcoming challenges AVEC has faced
[24:25] What’s next for AVEC

Building brand equity starts with a great brand story

Dee Charlemagne, Co-Founder of AVEC, joins the DTC POD to talk about brand storytelling.

A little about AVEC - it’s a premium mixer that’s all-natural, made with real juice, botanicals and spices, and low in sugar and calories.

Before AVEC, Dee worked at agencies and publishing companies. Her experience there allowed her to understand how brand communities are built.

AVEC leans heavily into storytelling in its own brand, even with its name. AVEC means “with” in French. An aspirational goal for AVEC is to have people order drinks with liquors and its flavors (i.e. Tequila AVEC Yuzu & Lime).

Many eCommerce businesses today are focused on performance marketing. While this is important, AVEC likes to lean more into storytelling.

One of the first meetings Dee and her co-founder, Alex, had revolved around brand values. These are incredibly important to build brand equity.

It’s important to give your brand personality (and be personal)

In addition to writing down brand values, Dee thinks brand personality is important. Dee suggests writing down three words that describe your brand.

The best brands are part of culture. Think about how your brand can take things from culture and include it in your story.

Pick cultures that share the same values as your brand and draw from those. For example, Supreme draws heavily from the skateboard and hip-hop culture.

As you add personality to your brand, it’s also important to be personal yourself. Dee and Alex put time every day into crafting media relationships. They even hand-deliver items themselves.

Relationships should also not be transactional. Having a very honest approach can go a long way to building brand trust and brand equity.

By continuously putting time towards building relationships, AVEC has been able to gain a lot of press.

Stay tuned as Dee also talks about how AVEC has tapped into their local community to grow, what challenges they have faced and overcome, and what’s next for the brand.

If you’d like to learn more about Trend and our influencer marketing platform for influencers and brands visit trend.io. You can also follow us for tips on growing your following and running successful campaigns on Instagram and LinkedIn.

Mentioned Links:

AVEC’s website: https://avecdrinks.com/

AVEC’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avecdrinks/

“Even though there was a lot to learn as first-time founders but I think our lack of experience has led to innovation and belief we can do it.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD
“Storytelling is really powerful especially in a world where most brands are focused on performance marketing.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD
“One of our first meetings was writing down the values of our company as much as it was writing down the recipes for our product.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD
“We traveled around in an AVEC-branded 1995 Chevy van and that content outperformed our fancy photo shoots.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD
“For gaining press, research your targets and share why the product is relevant to them and why it’s relevant to their audience.” @DeeCharlemagne #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

[01:05] About AVEC
[03:50] How Dee and her co-founder, Alex, got into CPG
[06:30] Where AVEC’s name comes from and the brand story
[10:40] The elements of a great brand story
[13:35] How to create sustainable growth and brand equity
[14:50] Dee’s strategy for generating press for your brand
[18:00] Culture and brands that have inspired AVEC
[22:00] Dee on overcoming challenges AVEC has faced
[24:25] What’s next for AVEC

Building brand equity starts with a great brand story

Dee Charlemagne, Co-Founder of AVEC, joins the DTC POD to talk about brand storytelling.

A little about AVEC - it’s a premium mixer that’s all-natural, made with real juice, botanicals and spices, and low in sugar and calories.

Before AVEC, Dee worked at agencies and publishing companies. Her experience there allowed her to understand how brand communities are built.

Many eCommerce businesses today are focused on performance marketing. While this is important, AVEC likes to lean more into storytelling.

One of the first meetings Dee and her co-founder, Alex, had revolved around brand values. These are incredibly important to build brand equity.

It’s important to give your brand personality (and be personal)

In addition to writing down brand values, Dee thinks brand personality is important. Dee suggests writing down three words that describe your brand.

The best brands are part of culture. Think about how your brand can take things from culture and include it in your story.

Pick cultures that share the same values as your brand and draw from those. For example, Supreme draws heavily from the skateboard and hip-hop culture.

As you add personality to your brand, it’s also important to be personal yourself. Dee and Alex put time every day into crafting media relationships. They even hand-deliver items themselves.

Relationships should also not be transactional. Having a very honest approach can go a long way to building brand trust and brand equity.

By continuously putting time towards building relationships, AVEC has been able to gain a lot of press.

Stay tuned as Dee also talks about how AVEC has tapped into their local community to grow, what challenges they have faced and overcome, and what’s next for the brand.

Mentioned Links:

AVEC’s website: https://avecdrinks.com/

AVEC’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avecdrinks/

Previous Episode

How to build a strong creator and influencer flow to drive campaign and marketing success

“A repeatable, standardized process can go a long way to making sure you have an effective and efficient campaign.” @jhcjr_ #DTCPOD
“Finding creators for your campaign is one of the most crucial steps to campaign success.” @jhcjr_ #DTCPOD
“It’s not enough to just include a checkmark that a creator is willing to join your campaign. Don’t forget things like shipping info, content rights, whitelisting, etc.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
“You should ship your product immediately once you agree to terms with a creator.” @jadesai94 #DTCPOD
“Don’t make your relationships with creators transactional. Focus on making long-term relationships that will benefit your brand.” @jhcjr_ #DTCOD

We Speak About:

[01:20] What a standardized process can do for influencer campaigns
[02:10] How you can find creators and influencers
[03:30] Treating your creator flow like a sales funnel
[04:15] How to track and manage creators
[07:00] The steps you need in your creator flow
[09:30] How to negotiate the right way with creators
[11:05] The importance of deadlines for creators
[12:30] When you should pay creators

Today, Jamie Catanach, head of customer success for Trend, joins the show. Trend is the leading destination for brands looking to work with creators and produce high-quality content.

Have a strong plan in place with influencers and creators

A great process is key in any business activity. This is especially true for working with influencers and creators.

Executing a strong plan for creators starts with finding the right creators. You should have both inbound and outbound strategies to source creators and influencers.

Think of your creator flow as a sales funnel. You need to have different sources to your sales funnel and have your steps mapped out.

Once you decide to start working with creators, make sure you are tracking your partnerships. Use either Google Sheets or an AirTable. If you want a better way to track and manage creators, use Trend.

It’s important to stay organized in this process. Organization is more important the more creators you work with.

You need more steps than just a checkmark if a creator agrees to work with you

Just like a sales or marketing funnel, your creator flow should have steps too.

It isn’t enough to just mark that a creator or influencer has agreed to work with you.

You should also have space for shipping information, content rights, and deadlines for creators on your tracking document.

If you don’t want to track all of this on your own, Trend can help keep these steps organized for you.

If you are interested in whitelisting content (running ads through a creator’s account), make sure you ask for this upfront.

Whenever you are negotiating with creators and influencers, make sure your conversation is not just transactional. You want to build real relationships.

By building real relationships, you are building brand equity with creators. Brand equity with creators can lead to creators talking about your product without you paying later down the line.

Stay tuned as Jamie also covers how you should pay creators, and offers some tips to make relationships less transactional.

Next Episode

Founder Stories: Ugly Drinks co-founder Hugh Thomas shares how to build a strong brand identity

“You shouldn’t look at the competition you should create a brand that stands for what you stand for and what you want to disrupt.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD
“I always recommend taking a night to sleep on ideas that can have a big impact on your business. Your thinking might be different the next morning.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD
“If you put a product into a store you probably won’t hear back until 12 months whereas with DTC you can get feedback within 2 weeks.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD
“Every time we make another run of limited-edition cans we test something new in the process - content, email, new way of launching it.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD
“The beauty of being a first-time founder is you get to be scrappy, make things happen, and learn from your mistakes.” @uglyhugh #DTCPOD

We Speak About:

[01:10] About Ugly Drinks
[02:50] How Hugh came up with the idea for Ugly Drinks
[05:20] The story behind Ugly Drinks’ branding
[07:15] How Ugly Drinks’ brand identity has evolved
[09:45] About Ugly Drinks’ big investment into community marketing
[12:35] How Ugly Drinks gathers community feedback
[15:50] What Hugh had to change to expand into the US market
[18:30] The scrappy things Hugh and his team did to be successful
[21:30] Hugh’s mentors and influences
[24:20] Hugh’s advice for other founders

A great brand isn’t built overnight

Hugh Thomas, CEO and Co-Founder of Ugly Drinks, joins the podcast to talk about his founder story.

A little about Ugly Drinks - it’s a beverage brand that sells flavored sparkling water.

Even though Ugly Drinks has only been around 2015, Hugh and his team have built an incredibly strong brand.

Every detail from what the company stands for, the imagery, and even the community has been carefully crafted.

The Ugly Drinks brand looks like a finished product but the “ugly” truth is, the brand is continuing to evolve.

Ugly Drinks has already had three iterations of the brand already. The first was to raise capital, the second version was the refinement, and the third version was done as the product expanded.

As the brand grows, Hugh and his team keep testing out new ideas and new flavors to continue refining and growing the brand.

Even the strongest brands need a strong community

Ugly Drinks has built a strong brand internally and externally.

For Ugly Drinks, even product users have branded themselves. The most loyal fans describe themselves as part of the Ugly Mob or Ugly Squad.

The Ugly Mob has been a key part of Ugly Drinks’ growth. By having a strong community, the beverage brand has been able to accelerate word of mouth.

The Ugly Mob isn’t just great for word of mouth though. Hugh and his team have helped foster a sense of community from the internal team as well.

They have a private Facebook group that is used to collect product feedback. They also often ask buyers to give their feedback.

Loyal fans are even asked to share ideas for new flavors. The ideas end up driving the product roadmap for Ugly Drinks.

Stay tuned as Hugh also discusses how long it took to develop the brand, what they learned from entering a new market, and some of the scrappy things they have done to be successful.

Mentioned Links:

The Ugly Drinks website: https://uglydrinks.com/

The Ugly Drinks Twitter account: https://twitter.com/uglydrinks

The Ugly Drinks Tik Tok account: https://www.tiktok.com/@uglydrinks

Hugh’s Twitter:

https://twitter.com/uglyhugh