Malaysian food startup MATES. introducing the concept of Complete Food – OATLER

Ever heard of brands like Dollar Shave Club, Glossier & Gymshark? These are all Direct-To-Consumer (DTC) brands from the West that have achieved the unicorn status (valued at >US$ 1 billion) by selling everyday products directly to consumers, some are even listed in the US stock exchange such as Warby Parker & FIGS.

Taking a closer look at the SEA scene, you may have come across brands that are mainly digitally native and have minimal offline presence. To name a few, these folks are Oxwhite, Secretlab, Zenyum, Love Bonito, Thousand Miles etc., who have employed various e-commerce strategies to reach the digital-first consumers in SEA.

What is DTC model? Comparison between Traditional vs DTC

Here comes the billion dollar question: Why does DTC matter?

Well, the DTC model is gaining traction as brands are moving towards embracing cost-effective business strategies and safer modes of distribution to the consumers.

DTC retail is essentially a fast-track method of reaching consumers, allowing them to make purchase through exclusive channels (i.e. official website), by way of eliminating middlemen involved in the distribution process. This helps the retailers reduce hefty markups from wholesalers and save logistical costs in the secondary mile delivery.

These DTC brands often focus on niche audience via heavy investing in online marketing, thus enabling them to provide them a better quality and greater end-to-end customer buying experience, with very competitive pricing.

Here is a recent example of a Malaysia-based e-commerce brand, MATES. that is adopting the DTC model.

Who is MATES.?

MATES. is a DTC lifestyle brand offering and specialising in convenient and new health products. They aim to provide the urban community with convenient food alternatives without compromising on nutrition and taste.

As seen on their official website, their flagship product is Oatler, a.k.a. 5-Sec Breakfast, an oat-based food that is complete with an adult’s daily nutrition needs packed in a highly portable pouch. Learn more about their product here (2-min read).

MATES. Business Strategies (from Marketing > Community Building > Operating Model)

Social Media Marketing

As discussed above, DTC brands invest massive effort in online marketing. This Malaysia-based brand focuses on social media marketing through creative ways of getting its first batch of users to try out their debut product.

Weeks prior to their official product launch, they did seeding in micro-influencers and key opinion leaders (“KOL”) marketing to get them to share their testimonials and reviews over their social media. This is an effective word-ofmouth marketing as seen in many other micro DTC brands too.

Community Building

Another strategy adopted by this brand is targeted community building. With the proliferation of micro e-commerce brands, today’s consumers have less brand loyalty than ever before. It takes more than just a great product to build a loyal following of customers. MATES. first started out with a 2-pronged approach: (1) social media content creation and (2) creating a club-based community, where they managed to bring a feel-good exclusivity to their social media followers. The followers who resonate with the pain points and overall brand philosophy are likely to be more engaged, thereby convert into a customer and drive word-of-mouth traffic.

Business Operating Model & Product Launch

According to the founding team of MATES., they are currently operating on a 100% e-commerce, pre-order only model, without any offline presence. This allows them to remove the middlemen and minimise working capital.

Customers can place an order upon their official launch on 24 October 2021 and will have their product delivered in early January 2022, i.e. approximately 2.5 months of lead time.

Prior to their product launch on 24th Oct 2021, there is no doubt that enormous amount of marketing work needs to be put in place. They rolled out a referral campaign where everyone can refer their friends mainly through social media channels and, in return, receive rewards upon achieving certain amount of referrals.

For this campaign, they have incorporated a “milestone” concept, where a referrer is entitled to purchase a certain number of MATES. products at RM1 depending on the referral “milestone” achieved.

There are 3 milestones in total:

1. Referred 8 friends = 2-week supply of breakfast @ RM1

2. Referred 25 friends = 6-week supply of breakfast @ RM1

3. Referred 100 friends = 1-year supply of breakfast @ RM1

While this seems creative and does create a fun game-like experience to the participants, it still boils down to how successful this DTC brand is in capturing these leads and converting them into massive sales volumes.

Vicole Lim and Yeann Tan are co-founders of Mates Food Store (widely known as MATES). Vicole oversees MATES’ marketing, spearheading the overall marketing direction, business strategy, and supply chain operations. Yeann, on the other hand, oversees business strategy too, finance, public relations (PR) and partnerships.

Facebook: @heymates.official
Instagram: @heymates.official
Twitter: @TweetyMates