Skullcandy Is Building Black Friday Demand With TikTok Shop

[00:00:00] Taylor 2: Welcome back to another episode of the Ecommerce Playbook podcast. It's the morning. We just woke up. I was out late last night, Evan. I'm too old for this.

[00:00:06] Evin: It's, you-

[00:00:07] Taylor: I'm not fulfilled for this life. You were responsible and went home early.

[00:00:11] Evin: I was. I was very responsible last night.

[00:00:12] Taylor: So we're gonna give it our best anyways, but we're excited.

[00:00:15] Taylor: This is real. This is not AI. This is the San Diego skyline here, and we are at Commerce Roundtable day two. Uh, and yesterday you took the stage.

[00:00:23] Evin: Yeah. I did.

[00:00:24] Taylor: So for those of you who don't know, this is Evan Catlett, and she is the... Let me see if I can get all these words, VP of Global- marketing, e commerce, domination-

[00:00:34] Taylor: total intergalactic for Skullcandy. Is that- For Skullcandy ... is that all of them? You,

[00:00:38] Taylor 2: you got it.

[00:00:39] Taylor: She has, uh, a lot of- ... awesome, well-earned, uh, adjectives in her title, but is one of the best marketing leaders that we get the chance to work with every day, um, and took the stage here yesterday at Commerce Roundtable to share what I think, um, Skullcandy has really written a playbook and have it at the center of around managing multiple sales channels, multiple media channels into one sort of cohesive ecosystem for growing a brand.

[00:01:03] Taylor: So tell us a- what did, what, what was your talk about?

[00:01:05] Taylor 2: It was, it was a great, great topic, I think, for particularly the audience we had here. Um, a lot of what I shared was really around how Skullcandy as a 23-year-old brand that has omni-channel distribution really had to rethink over the last few years how we operate and how we reach consumers, because that has just started changing so drastically, and, you know, we had a lot of assumptions about what that meant, what marketing meant, what, um, distribution meant, and really had to unlearn quite a bit- '

[00:01:40] Taylor: Cause you guys were

[00:01:40] Taylor 2: like-

[00:01:40] Taylor 2: in order to

[00:01:41] Taylor: set ourselves up ... so you go-- you've been there since 2021? 2023. 2023, okay. Mm-hmm. And prior to that, it's fair to say that Skullcandy was primarily retail first.

[00:01:50] Taylor 2: Yes.

[00:01:51] Taylor: So- Yes ... a business that was built not digitally first. Uh, so coming in in 2023 in an era where most brands are going the other direction, you had to come into a business that had existed, but the digital footprint was just, like, underdeveloped.

[00:02:04] Taylor 2: Completely. Is

[00:02:04] Taylor: that fair?

[00:02:05] Taylor 2: Yeah. I mean, it was interesting and a really fun challenge because we had a ton of cultural relevance. Yeah. We had a lot of brand awareness. We had, like you said, massive retail distribution, everything from airports to Walmart, to, you know, your local, like, surf shop.

[00:02:20] Speaker 4: Yep.

[00:02:20] Taylor 2: Um, but we were not really sophisticated in the way that we were engaging our consumers digitally, not really thinking of it as a growth strategy.

[00:02:30] Taylor 2: It was just sort of something that had to be there. Um, and so that's really the, the big transformation we did over the last three years.

[00:02:37] Taylor: And why-- w- is that just 'cause the culture previously was just so retail focused? Like, why... Did they not see digital as important? Or, like, what was the-- how did it get to that point?

[00:02:46] Taylor: Yeah. 'Cause it-- to get as big as they were, like, is without any real investment there is abnormal. It's crazy. Yeah.

[00:02:53] Taylor 2: It's, it's a great question. Yeah. I, it honestly just was not a strategic initiative for the brand- Yeah ... and that's something that when BG, who's the CEO of Skullcandy, came in in 2023, that he changed immediately- Yeah

[00:03:04] Taylor 2: and said, "Hey, we have a couple of core initiatives that are gonna be responsible for driving-" The turnaround and the growth of the brand, and growing D2C is one of them.

[00:03:12] Taylor: Yeah.

[00:03:12] Taylor 2: Um, but also, you know, you can't be ruthlessly D2C when you are- Right ... an omni-channel brand.

[00:03:18] Taylor: And so I think that's important context as a setup for people, 'cause I think Skullcandy people can assert a lot of things about whatever it is.

[00:03:24] Taylor: But to the transformation then from a culture that was so staunchly retail first to now I think being one of the most sophisticated, like, the phrase omni-channel I think is overused in a way that people think of it as, "Oh, we're just everywhere." Yeah. But really what you guys have built, I think, is a incredible relationship between understanding the role of every channel from TikTok Shop to Amazon to retail, how the media plays into one sort of ecosystem.

[00:03:50] Taylor: That's a big transition, so I think that's important context is, like- Yeah ... this is not a business that was like, "Oh, they've been digitally native forever, and they're just good at being digitally native." No, they had to really transform that. So how has that been as a leader dealing with the relationships between retailers sometimes have a lot of issues with pricing- Mm-hmm

[00:04:06] Taylor: and Amazon wants this product, and TikTok needs these things? Like, how do you manage and work across the organization to ensure that all of that moves cohesively and together? Yeah. 'Cause that's a big challenge.

[00:04:16] Taylor 2: At the end of the day, I think it was the mindset shift from thinking channel to thinking consumer.

[00:04:22] Taylor: Mm.

[00:04:22] Taylor 2: Yeah. And just really thinking, "Where is our consumer discovering brands? Where are they wanting to engage with brands?" And then at the end of the day, all of us, whether you're over a wholesale channel, whether you're over direct-to-consumer, whether you're a brand marketer or a growth marketer, really you're thinking consumer and how do we meet them where they are-

[00:04:41] Taylor: Yeah

[00:04:41] Taylor 2: and not channel.

[00:04:42] Taylor: Yeah, and I think that's right. And so that led you guys to a place where I think a lot of big brands probably have been hesitant 'cause it felt like, oh, this is a place for maybe widgets or consumables or whatever it might be, and that's TikTok Shops. Yeah. Which is a place that you guys have had some remarkable success, and I know a lot of your talk was about.

[00:04:58] Taylor: So take us through a little bit of your TikTok Shops journey. How did that start for you, and what, how has it gone for Skullcandy?

[00:05:03] Taylor 2: Yeah. TikTok Shop was interesting because, you know, our target consumer is Gen Z. They are there. We knew, again, going back to think of where your consumer is. Wherever they are,

[00:05:11] Taylor: yeah.

[00:05:12] Taylor 2: We wanted to make sure we were engaging them there with an offering. Um, transparently, I had very low expectations for it. Yeah. You don't expect that somebody is gonna impulse buy a $279 headphone- Right ... because they saw a piece of content around it. Um, and I will say it was quite slow when we first launched it.

[00:05:32] Taylor 2: What the unlock for us was is when we really started just increasing the velocity of creators we were working with and how we were leveraging their content-

[00:05:43] Taylor: Mm ...

[00:05:43] Taylor 2: we just saw the platform absolutely take off for us and start to have real impact in sales and other channels as well.

[00:05:50] Taylor: So there's a couple things here that are important because I think one is there's a bunch of tropes, and AOV is one of the ones you brought up.

[00:05:56] Taylor: Like, if I had built a list of all of our customers and said, "Who will succeed at TikTok shop?" You guys might have been on the bottom. Yeah. Like, I would've been like, this ... To your point, I, I don't really know that this is the right medium for it. So there's that assumption that a lot of us have prebuilt in.

[00:06:07] Taylor: And what I think the platform is incredible at though is that there is this way in which when it grabs onto something, it is really, really powerful. Yeah. And you guys were persistent. So how did you think about or have the foresight to, when it was slow, to not just give up on it, but to keep making the investment?

[00:06:25] Taylor: Was it just confident that your customer's there, we gotta continue to figure it out, or what led you to do that?

[00:06:29] Taylor 2: I think there were little nuggets that kept surfacing, and also just this, the importance of validation for consumers today- Yeah ... and of needing not to see a, a perfect brand ad- Yeah ... to convince them that that product is right for them, or frankly even need to engage with your PDP that we spend a lot of time creating- Right, right

[00:06:47] Taylor 2: content on. You know, really they wanna see somebody that is like them that has had a good experience with a product and envision themselves with it. So these little nuggets started popping up that I think really- It was enough to keep going ... it was enough to keep going- Yeah ... and, and then really, you know, allow it to just take off in Q4 last year.

[00:07:03] Taylor: Yeah. Re- yeah, really amazing. So what has been the impact from that channel across the business from dot-com to Amazon to wholesale? Like, where do you feel like you realize most of the value from that and where, and how's that showing up?

[00:07:17] Taylor 2: It's, it's in demand creation. Yeah. I mean, that's been so huge for us.

[00:07:21] Taylor 2: Yes, TikTok Shop GMB is, is strong and growing, and it's a now a core part of our DTC revenue stream. But really what it does in terms of creating that awareness and consideration for the brand in a place where consumers are more and more discovering- Yeah ... brands, discovering products, but then choosing to go buy wherever and whenever they want, it's that in and of itself.

[00:07:47] Taylor 2: We're still struggling to figure out how we measure that-

[00:07:50] Taylor: Yeah,

[00:07:51] Taylor 2: yeah ... um, and start to, to feed that back. 'Cause you're

[00:07:53] Taylor: seeing impact in Best Buy. You're seeing- Hundred percent ... impact everywhere.

[00:07:56] Taylor 2: Yep. Yeah. And it's, it's directly correlational too- Yeah Launch a creator campaign for a specific product-

[00:08:02] Taylor: That SKU

[00:08:02] Taylor 2: will move

[00:08:02] Taylor 2: and within weeks that SKU moves at retail.

[00:08:04] Taylor: Yeah. Yeah, that's cool. How do you think about, um, did you guys open up your entire catalog to s- to shops? Or like how do you think about the managing of the inventory? What in- what affiliates are allowed to post? Yeah. Like how do you think about that merchandising piece of it in the channel?

[00:08:16] Taylor 2: We did at first, and I think we're still playing around with, you know, should we offer everything on TikTok Shop again- Yeah ... just because there may be that consumer that wants an earbud versus a speaker or a headphone. When we think about our creator engagement strategy though, we're thinking of it not- Being

[00:08:32] Taylor: intentional

[00:08:32] Taylor 2: being intentional. It's not just about what we wanna sell on TikTok, but again, what do we need demand creation for- Mm ... in the entire ecosystem? Okay. This is true. And that's what we're investing in creator content. That's good.

[00:08:42] Taylor: So you'll think about, okay, where does the core expectation of SKU sales across everything, and then how do we use the creators as an engine for all of

[00:08:49] Taylor 2: that?

[00:08:49] Taylor: Exactly. Interesting. Yep. So then let's use that as a jumping off for Q4, which is what we're here to chat about is, okay, how do you think about and how will you engage creators around your Q4 program, and what is the offer strategy across all the different points of distribution for Skullcandy?

[00:09:05] Taylor 2: Yeah.

[00:09:05] Taylor 2: It's, I mean, Q4 is our season, right? Yeah. We are, as every brand in the consumer electronic space is, heavily promotional, which honestly means TikTok is likely gonna be a really strong vehicle for us again, because creators wanna talk about what converts- Yeah ... and what converts our deals. But for us, again, it's gonna be looking at where do we want to drive sell-through across our entire- Yeah

[00:09:29] Taylor 2: distribution portfolio, and how do we make sure that we have people talking about those products, knowing they'll convert on TikTok Shop, but also knowing that hopefully that'll also drive sell-through at Amazon, at Best Buy, at Walmart.

[00:09:43] Taylor: Do you have to- Build cohesive offers across all of your retailers?

[00:09:48] Taylor: Like, do you have to go to them and say, "This is gonna be the Black Friday offer. Build that cohesively." Or how, how stringent is that for you guys in terms of management of that? Yeah.

[00:09:55] Taylor 2: So we do operate with a national promo plan.

[00:09:57] Taylor: Yep.

[00:09:57] Taylor 2: Um, we like to make sure that from a consumer experience standpoint, they're seeing as consistent of a representation of Skullcandy as possible across all channels from content to, to promotion.

[00:10:08] Speaker 4: Yep.

[00:10:09] Taylor 2: Um, so that is, you know, inherently always a challenge when you are thinking how do we grow D2C as well because we can't compete with shipping times of- Amazon or whatever, yeah ... Amazon. We can't compete with, you know, somebody walking into Walmart because they're also buying their groceries there. So, um, what it means is that we also need to focus on what are some other value propositions that are gonna get that consumer to buy from us.

[00:10:33] Taylor 2: Yeah. Whether that's TikTok Shop because it's ease of access, they just saw the piece of content, whether it's our dot-com because they can enroll in the loyalty program, get free shipping, earn rewards. Um, that's really where, where we try to think about how, at the end of the day, the consumer can choose to buy wherever they want.

[00:10:50] Taylor 2: We wanna give them a value proposition to, to stay with us.

[00:10:54] Taylor: Have any of the retailers gotten sophisticated enough yet where they're recognizing that the drive of the sell-through is from creators, and they're wanting to partner in supporting your program or s- getting the creative brief to include their name or are, are any of them- Yeah

[00:11:07] Taylor: aware of that and engaging with you on it or no?

[00:11:09] Taylor 2: Not yet, but we would love that.

[00:11:11] Taylor: Yeah. That's-- I'm surprised that, like-

[00:11:12] Taylor 2: But,

[00:11:12] Taylor: yeah ... they're, they're not like, "Okay, hey, could we get the brief to say, 'And available at Target'"? Right. Like, like that they're... Or that they aren't subsidizing some of that if they're aware of some of that sell-through.

[00:11:20] Taylor: That-- I'm sure that's coming. Like, the retailers are usually a little late into this stuff, but I

[00:11:24] Taylor 2: think- And I think they are-- You know, buyers are absolutely smart enough to recognize that brands that are doing well on TikTok are- Oh, yeah ... that is driving sell-through in their channels. And so they're, they're supportive of that strategically.

[00:11:36] Taylor 2: Um, but you know, I think at the end of the day, retailers also want you investing in their retail media programs, and that's where they wanna see the dollars go first.

[00:11:44] Taylor: Yeah. Um, what other big plans or what other core initiatives do you guys have for Q4 when you think about it, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, the whole gifting, Christmas?

[00:11:54] Taylor: What is the, uh, what is the strategy that's gonna occupy most of your time?

[00:11:57] Taylor 2: You know, for us, it's already go time for Black Friday. Yeah. So we have spent the last several months figuring out how is this not just about a promotional plan, but really how is this, you know, our brand story for Q4 is, is holiday, and it's choose Full Candy for holiday, whether that's ask your parents for the product 'cause you want this, or whether it's gift this product.

[00:12:18] Taylor 2: Um, so, you know, for us, the planning, the, has already been done. At this point, it's now just get ready to execute- Yeah ... and make sure that we're sustaining it. So our goal is not just to have Black Friday in and of itself be our biggest day of the year. It may be, um, but it's really thinking about what is the full cohesive plan to drive consideration for holiday gifting, you know, starting essentially now, to then execute with promotions.

[00:12:49] Taylor 2: But also, we've seen some of our largest days be post-Christmas- Mm ... over the last two years. Interesting. Christmas Day itself. Yeah. And then, and, you know, we sort of call it, like, the buyer's remorse-

[00:12:58] Evin: Yeah ...

[00:12:59] Taylor 2: timeframe where people wanna switch something out or they got a gift card. Um, and so for us, again, it's not just about Black Friday, but it's about how do we sustain really high volumes of sales all the way through truly to the end of the year.

[00:13:12] Taylor: Yeah. I'm really interested, I think this year, to see the amount of volume that TikTok Shops does on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, this weeken- this year. Yeah. Just to see that, 'cause I think, feel like it's the first year that it's really central to a lot of people's strategies to, and to see how much of the shopping originates there.

[00:13:28] Taylor: Um, as you think about ... This is a little nerdy in the weeds question, but it's what I'm asking everyone. When you think about that specific weekend- The media spend that you deploy, usually it's a lot. Is it incremental or not incremental on day of? How do you think about day of Black Friday spending?

[00:13:44] Taylor 2: That's a good question. You know, my personal perspective- Yeah ... is that it's not incremental on day of. Okay. I think where I like to see us is investing ahead of time. Yeah. And then day of should just be harvesting. Um, and frankly, I would love to see more conversions happening through non-paid channels- Yeah

[00:14:06] Taylor 2: um, because we've already primed the pump. They're ready to go, and they're just waiting to confirm that things aren't gonna be even cheaper- Yeah ... on that day. Yeah.

[00:14:15] Taylor: What about-- Okay, so the, the other question I'm asking is, start your sale earlier, later? Where do you guys think about that, and what is your belief about how incremental the early sale is versus pull forward?

[00:14:25] Taylor: How do you think about timing?

[00:14:27] Taylor 2: Yeah. I think it's challenging because we've trained consumers, particularly in our category-

[00:14:32] Taylor: Yeah ...

[00:14:32] Taylor 2: that promos are going to start. It's just constantly occurring. Yeah. They're gonna be-- They're constantly occurring, but also Black Friday is gonna start the week leading up to.

[00:14:39] Taylor: Yeah.

[00:14:40] Taylor 2: Um, consumers know that. Yeah. So whether you want to or not, you have to be there- Yeah ... with your offers. Yeah. And I think it's, it's frankly made just purchase behavior challenging because you then have these lulls of like, there's back to school.

[00:14:54] Speaker 4: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

[00:14:55] Taylor 2: Why buy anything unless you absolutely need it in September and October until you get to Amazon Prime Day in October?

[00:15:02] Taylor 2: And then you know brands are gonna be dropping Black Friday deals in November. So there's been a conditioning of the consumer that it's a bit inevitable that we then just have to be there early with an offer that is compelling enough to have them choose us over another audio brand.

[00:15:17] Taylor: Yeah. It, so it's in your category too, where so much of that- promotional rhythm is driven by these large retailers.

[00:15:24] Taylor: It's like when Walmart goes on sale, like that's kind of- Yeah ... the behavior when it starts. You know, like, and it's, uh, it's interesting. How do-- Has Prime Day been huge for you guys this year? How's it done relative-- Is it been good?

[00:15:34] Taylor 2: So it's interesting. Prime, I feel like every year gets a little bit, not just for us, but overall- Yeah

[00:15:39] Taylor 2: it's, you know, it loses a little bit, and I think that's why we've seen Amazon introduce-

[00:15:43] Taylor: Another

[00:15:43] Taylor 2: Prime Day ... more Prime Days. Yeah. Yeah. You've got Big Spring Sale, you've got July Prime or June Prime this year, you've got Back to School, you've got October Prime. So I think it's, it's also because Amazon did a great job creating essentially a new holiday- Mm-hmm

[00:15:57] Taylor 2: and now all other retail has caught on. Um, D2C brand-- like D2C sites always match Prime- Yeah ... at this point now across brands. So, um, it is still, you know, collectively, there's a lot of revenue, a lot of sales to be done on all of the various Amazon events.

[00:16:15] Taylor: Yeah.

[00:16:16] Taylor 2: Um, and we do quite well with that.

[00:16:17] Taylor: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:18] Taylor: It's b- watching the dates that they plan to launch them, like picking October is like such a clear indication of like they're solving for the same thing you are. Yeah. There was a gap- Yeah ... between these key buying moments. We're gonna manufacture these and keep pushing them out there. Yeah, it's really interesting.

[00:16:32] Taylor: Um, any channels that you guys or that you're interested in? How much-- Do you guys doing CTV? Are you doing, uh, Snapchat? Is there anything else that you're finding that for your customer and product category is interesting or compelling to you right now?

[00:16:45] Taylor 2: Yeah, so CTV is definitely an area we're pushing into more.

[00:16:49] Taylor 2: And again, I think it just comes back to demand creation and just being in the forefront of somebody's mind. Um, definitely doing some incrementality testing there. Snapchat likely will be something we introduce to our mix- Mm-hmm ... or test into- Yeah ... in 2027. Um, for me, I'm, I'm very curious what happens with other social marketplaces.

[00:17:09] Taylor 2: You know, what does Meta Marketplace look like?

[00:17:12] Taylor: Oh,

[00:17:12] Taylor 2: interesting. When does YouTube Marketplace really start to become a thing? And,

[00:17:16] Taylor: you know- You guys do anything on eBay? Do you have like a second, an aftermarket or anything?

[00:17:19] Taylor 2: No. No, and that I think there's an interesting-- I mean, you'll, you see a lot of Skullcandy products on eBay- Yeah, I was gonna say, there, it's there

[00:17:24] Taylor 2: but it's gonna

[00:17:24] Taylor: be,

[00:17:24] Taylor 2: you know- Yeah ... resellers and, and gray market. Yeah. So that's an interesting one. Refurbished for us could be- Yeah, because you guys do a lot of that ... a really cool opportunity as well. So definitely more to be had, and I think, again, it just goes back to how is our consumer buying in our category, discovering in our category, and then making sure we're-

[00:17:43] Taylor: What about retail media?

[00:17:43] Taylor: Do you guys spend a lot on Red or any of these other retail media platforms?

[00:17:47] Taylor 2: Yeah, I mean, that's definitely an area that we'll be expanding into further. Yeah. Um, you know, we have a really strong retail media strategy with Amazon. Um, we approach that very similarly from an economic standpoint to how we're managing D2C- Yeah

[00:18:01] Taylor 2: performance marketing. Yeah. Um, and then, you know, obviously Walmart's investing a lot in their strategy there and, you know, I expect that we'll be, we'll be looking at ways to, again, get in front of the consumer more prominently.

[00:18:13] Taylor: Yeah. Um, the other thing I think that's worth just talking about, because I think you guys do such a good job, is thinking about merchandising through the lens of limited edition, licensing- Mm-hmm

[00:18:22] Taylor: and how you think about data's, uh, support for dot-com versus what does other sites get? Like, talk a little bit about sort of your, like s- scarcity and limited edition strategy relative to the core SKUs, and how you think about the role that both of those things play.

[00:18:35] Taylor 2: Yeah. It's interesting because we historically have approached limited time offers, um, collabs, things like that, as very much being D2C vehicles.

[00:18:44] Taylor 2: Mm. And that should be how we drive, again, that value proposition of coming to skullcandy.com versus going elsewhere. We now approach it much more on an individualized basis. So if it's something like a leopard print SKU- Yeah ... of a Crusher headphone, there could be massive volumes to be done- Yeah ... on Amazon there.

[00:19:03] Taylor 2: Yeah. Um, and so likely that should live there. We do, uh, an all love, um, Pride SKU every single year. That likely lives in our own channel. Yeah. And, and we think of those as, A, like community support, but, B, energy moments. Yeah. And so when we have sort of these shorter duration energy moments that are almost equally meant to drive just brand desire and interest- Yeah

[00:19:28] Taylor 2: as, as something, you know, as revenue, those are more likely to live as a DTC exclusive. Um, because, again, we wanna get people excited about them, and then we wanna sell through as quickly as we can.

[00:19:39] Taylor: What's the next big campaign that you guys are working on? The-- for those of you who haven't seen it, they have a, uh, literally our, our product collab with Bose headset, Tony Hawk's in the ad, huge commercials, big production.

[00:19:50] Taylor: You guys got anything else up your sleeves? Anything cool

[00:19:52] Taylor 2: coming? I mean, we just launched a brand new speaker line- Okay ... for Skullcandy, the, the Session speaker line. Yep. Um, there are f- three, soon to be more, incredible speakers, awesome price points. Um, I think those are gonna be incredible for gifting- Yeah

[00:20:09] Taylor 2: over holiday. Um, so we just launched a, a very fun, equally as fun as, as- Cool ... Tony Hawk, uh, campaign for speakers that we'll, we'll push into for over the next couple months.

[00:20:19] Taylor: Great. Check it out. Evan, you're a rock star. Thank you so much for coming by. Where... If people wanted to hang out and follow your wisdom, where-- Are you on LinkedIn, X?

[00:20:28] Taylor: You're like- Yes ... you're kind of-- You kinda hang out. You

[00:20:30] Evin: can-- I, I hang out on LinkedIn a lot-

[00:20:32] Taylor: Okay ... so you can

[00:20:32] Evin: find

[00:20:32] Taylor: me. Cool. Find Evan Catlett on LinkedIn. Appreciate you stopping by.

[00:20:36] Evin: Thanks.

[00:20:36] Taylor: Thanks.

[00:20:40] Taylor: Um, what? Oh,

[00:20:43] Speaker 4: man.

[00:20:44] Taylor: Um, thank you very much.

[00:20:45] Evin: Thank you.

[00:20:45] Speaker 4: Appreciate it.