Most of the hot direct-to-consumer (D2C) brands of the last five years built their brands around a clever or creative take on familiar necessities, be it eyeglasses, toothbrushes or mattresses. But as we have explored extensively in our own D2C Brand Insider events, a sustainable model requires new product development and brand extension beyond that first sexy release. Of all the many D2Cs I have covered, Nectar Mattress parent company Resident Home may have expanded its portfolio quickest and most aggressively. Since 2017, it not only has created multiple mattress brands and bedding products, but its Cloverlane home store has …

Like many D2C brands, health products maker hims & hers knows the math of performance branding. But as its use of paid social and search are familiar pages in the DwC playbook, the company has also been known to advertise above urinals, partner with the well-tressed JLo on Minoxidil, and speak to wives about ED. It is a cluttered world of online prescription and health solutions. Alex Chahin, Senior Director of Product Marketing, tells Brand Insider this week that building both brand and trust while also educating consumers requires a multi-channel engine. The fuel is not only by raw data …

The pandemic has transformed and accelerated secular shifts in just about every business segment, of course. And we know that the workplace has been impacted, but so have all of the product lines that service the work economy. Canon USA, which has products across the business and consumer tech productivity chain, is experiencing this effect, and it requires a rethinking of their approach to home and work technology marketing. Jerry Hsiao, Director of Business Planning at Canon USA, discusses this reorganization and digs into implications across the marketing chain. Home, office and home-office aren't what they used to be.

Does "the suit maketh the man" or "the man maketh the suit?" Coldwell Banker's answer to this perennial fashion question is - both. The century-old real estate brand has been rolling out new logos and attendant campaigns for its various consumer and commercial facing divisions over the last two years. CMO David Marine, who likens the refresh to a new suit of clothes, says the look helps modernize and more clearly express the corporate image and values that have been there all along. Or, to answer that classic question another way. It is what the man makes of the suit.

Seventy-one years after Charlie Brown and his neighborhood of friends, pets, unintelligible adults and kite-eating trees launched, the Peanuts' brand remains among the most recognizable around the world. Peanuts Worldwide, works with over 1000 partners across all borders on a range of properties and merchandise. This brand continues because of the strip's simple, resonant humanity, says Charlie Brown's CMO, Melissa Menta, SVP, Marketing and Communications Worldwide. As consumer brands trendily scramble to find their "meaning" and "align with values," this seems like a good time of year for them to ask a version of Charlie Brown's famous cry - Isn't …