Find the Balance! Work with Amazon, Not Against Amazon - Episode 110

INTERVIEW WITH ALEX SONG FROM INNOVATION DEPARTMENT

 

DESCRIPTION

Our guest for today is Alex Song, the CEO, and co-founder of Innovation Department, a Manhattan-based tech-powered start-up studio that builds consumer brands. At Innovation Department, they understand that Amazon is an incredible platform, and they enjoy using it to launch their brands, in parallel with their direct-to-consumer websites. Alex believes that working with Amazon, rather than against it, is the best way to help start-up brands reach audiences and build brand visibility.

When Alex first started building his business, he set it up as a traditional incubator where he would invest passively in different direct-to-consumer businesses, while trying to create other businesses from scratch. The result of this was that Alex ended up learning from the passive investments how to do a much better job of building his other businesses. 

Then, in early 2018, he decided to focus only on the 100% wholly-owned brands that his company was building in-house. Since 2018, Amazon has taken more than half of all US e-commerce traffic and volume. So, to be successful in direct-to-consumer, Alex realized that he had to figure out how to best take advantage of the world’s largest distribution channel.

“We believe that Amazon is this incredible platform that we like to launch our brands on, in parallel with our direct-to-consumer websites.”
— Alex Song

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • Alex has a very specific strategy of attacking the direct-to-consumer and Amazon channels at the same time.

  • Alex explains why the Amazon-only model is very risky.

  • Alex explains why he believes that it’s important to launch a direct-to-consumer business in parallel with Amazon.

  • The benefits of Your Review Count, one of Amazon’s amazing features.

  • Amazon is going to take on even more of the US traffic in the coming years.

  • Alex talks about some of the very useful tools and strategies that he uses.

  • Alex shares some background on his career path and he explains how he got into e-commerce.

  • The tools that Innovation Department has developed have helped them accelerate their success.

  • Alex explains why he decided to invest in creating his own brands.

  • A very good formula for launching is the ideal scenario. 

  • Innovation Department is doing certain things that other brands aren’t.

  • How DojoMojo started.

  • Since it was launched in December of 2016, DojoMojo has delivered over 200 000 000 leads and email subscribers.

  • Maintaining balance is critical in today’s world.

  • Matching their subscriber data with actual sales data from Amazon.

  • What the Emerging Brands Group at Amazon saw in Innovation Department.

  • The way that partnering with Amazon has benefited Innovation Department.


MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

  • Win a copy of Kiri's book, Amazon for CMOs! All you need to do is write a review of this podcast in iTunes, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to this podcast, take a screenshot of the review that you wrote, and email it to Kiri at kiri@bobsledmarketing.com or send it to her on LinkedIn.

Season 2Kiri MastersComment