On today’s episode, Kunle interviews Sholom ‘Chaz’ Chazanow, Co-Founder and CEO of LIV Watches, a DTC swiss watch micro-brand based in Miami, Florida. He co-founded the company in 2012 with his wife, Esti Chazanow, and has over 20 years of experience in the swiss watch industry.

Chaz shares his story of how he built a career around his life-long love of swiss watches. You will also get to hear about how he funded and scaled his company through 4 highly successful (7-figure!) Kickstarter campaigns. He shares his company’s customer success philosophy which has helped him achieve a 40% repeat-customer rate.

The focus of the conversation was to understand some of the marketing & branding strategies and tools used to grow his DTC brand. For those of you who are doing or thinking of doing a crowdfunding campaign, you’ll definitely want to listen to this one! You’ll get to hear about what it takes to make a success of your first and subsequent campaigns.

Here is a summary of some of the most important points made,

• Investing a lot of passion and $10,000 on their 1st kickstarter campaign raising almost $200,000.
• They have raised more than $3 million over 4 kickstarter campaigns.
• They have built their customer base by focusing on building relationships and connections. This has helped them achieve a 40% repeat-customer rate.
• Chaz spends nearly 40% of his day personally responding to fans and customers.
• Email & SMS are their top 2 channels of communication.

Covered Topics:

On today’s interview Kunle and Chaz discuss,

• How to get your DTC brand off the ground
• Raising funds through kickstarter(s)
• Preparing for Repeat crowdfunding campaigns
• Creating customers who love to come back
• Managing Press & Launches
• Effective Marketing practices
• Tech Stack

Timestamp:

• 00:02 – What to Expect from this episode
• 07:38 – Meet Chaz Chazanow
  • Chaz quit school to pursue his passion of watches
  • He got in on the ground floor of the swiss watch industry and worked his way up
  • Frustrations of a decade-long ecommerce venture
  • Learnings from the growth of Amazon
• 13:50 – Building a company that totally breaks the norms
  • The best selling LIV watch was the outcome of a design competition
  • You don’t need agencies to run your campaigns
  • “Stores are dead” – how the online-only approach made them Covid-ready well before Covid.
  • Kickstarter was the launch party for LIV watches.
  • Cutting out the distributors and retailers let’s you provide high quality at affordable prices
• 21:40 – Why just selling on Amazon doesn’t grow your brand
• 23:40 – The Pros of launching your brand on kickstarter
  • It forces you to clearly define your business identity
  • The connect you have with the backers allows you to get the best feedback for FREE
• 28:21 – Strategies to get traction on your kickstarter campaign
  • It starts with your family and friends
  • Use rewards that will help you tap your network to the full
  • The press will only write about you once you’ve got the traction
• 43:48 – What you need to know before you back a campaign on kickstarter
• 46:45 – LIV Watches brand DNA – Build Connections!
  • Why their customers are 40% likely to come back and buy again
  • Personalised communication – we write our own emails
  • Connections gives you all the feedback you need
  • Aim to make the customer want to own all of your products!
• 49:40 – The evolution of using Kickstarter through all their campaigns
• 51:25 – Tips to launch successful kickstarter campaigns
  Create the “want”
  • Warm up the target audience and create buzz
  • Leverage landing pages to collect emails
  • Marketing should start at least 4 weeks before launch
  • Always aim to make a profit
• 58:00 – Creating strong “connections” with your fans
  • Use very personal language and messaging
  • “Customer is dirty word”
  • Focus on creating relationships, not customers
• 60:05 – Their top 2 most effective communication channels
• 64:50 – How to automate communication without losing the personal touch
  • Create multiple segments of your audience using data
  • Use customized email flows and messaging for each segment
• 68:15 – Tech stack:
  • Shopify (Website)
  • Klaviyo (Email marketing & automation)
  • Frontapp (communication hub)
  • Wicked Reports (reporting & tracking customer journey)
• 71:05 – Why they still call themselves a “microbrand”
• 78:10 – Lightning Round

Takeaways:

• Having worked in all parts of your product’s industry gives you the insights you need when you want to scale.
• You have to tap your personal and professional network to get your first crowdfunding campaign going.
• Don’t try to gain customers, instead focus on building relationships.
• Building a personal connection with your customers and followers helps you get accurate and actionable feedback.
• Email marketing is probably the most effective medium for DTC brands. The more accurately you segment your list, the more effective it gets.

Lightning Round:

• Advice to yourself 5 Years ago:
  • Don’t sweat the small stuff!
• Are you a morning person? I am (forced to be).
• Morning routine –
  • I go cycling
• Two things can’t live without –
  • Coffee and my family.
• Best mistake to date:
  • We’ve had many small setbacks. They’ve mainly taught us to focus on systems.
• Current book:
  • No books currently. But I listen to podcasts, my favorite one is Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman.

Tweetable Quotes:

“Customer is a dirty word”

Links & Resources

• Masters of Scale with Reid Hoffman
• Frontapp
• Wicked Reports
• Press coverage
• Adomas Baltagalvis – Facebook Ads Expert
• Klaviyo
• Shopify

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