DTC863: Nescafé’s LTV Playbook, Maker Wine Strategy, and Tariffs Impact on Chinese Factories

Good morning, 

Here’s what you’ll find in today’s DTC: 

​​💡 Nescafé’s LTV Strategy, Explained
What paid teams can learn from their long-game approach.

🍷 How Maker Wine Scaled Smart
The strategy behind this canned wine brand’s growth.

🚨 Daily Tariff Update
Trump hosts Philippines leader Marcos to discuss tariffs. 

🏭 Supply Chain HitsHow tariffs are impacting Chinese factories. 

You’re reading this newsletter along with new subscribers from: Stark Skincare, Bongo’s Bingo, and Mikuta. 👋

🕵️‍♀️ What Are Winning Marketing Teams Really Doing Behind the Scenes?

Ever wonder how your marketing team stacks up to others? 🤔

👀 1,500+ marketers reveal all in this report — what’s driving them, what’s blocking them, and their secrets to success.

Here’s a peek of what's inside:

• 📊 43% say their biggest blocker is internal misalignment
• 💸 Budgets are shifting — fast. Find out where the money’s going
• 🤖 AI anxiety? It’s real (but not where you’d expect)

🤝 Some teams are thriving cross-functionally. Others… not so much.

Find out the keys to a thriving marketing team, and what’s holding your team back from the success you deserve.

Dive into the secret lives of marketing teams.

☕ Why Winning Brands like Nescafé Play the Long Game

‍When a brand seems to scale overnight, it’s rarely luck.

Whether it’s a Fortune 500 company or a fast-growing DTC startup, the secret behind sustained growth is simple:

They prioritize customer lifetime value (LTV) over quick wins.

A great example? How Nescafé broke into the Japanese market.

Pilothouse shares that when instant coffee first launched in Japan, it flopped. 

Most Japanese consumers were tea drinkers, and the coffee brand couldn’t gain traction.

Instead of pushing harder, Nescafé pivoted their strategy. 

They brought in French psychoanalyst Clotaire Rapaille, who uncovered a key insight:

Emotional connections to food and drink often form in childhood.

So Nescafé shifted its strategy, targeting children with coffee-flavored candies. 

Over time, those kids grew up with positive memories tied to coffee’s flavor and smell.

It didn’t pay off immediately. But by being patient, Nescafé helped create a coffee culture in Japan, securing long-term market success.

What DTC Brands Can Learn From Nescafé 👇

Many DTC brands get caught chasing monthly KPIs and ROAS targets, but brands that scale sustainably take a lifetime value-first approach.

Here’s a proven LTV playbook Pilothouse implemented:

1. Lead with an Easy Entry Point
   Offer a small sample for free—“just pay shipping.” 

Yes, it’s a short-term loss. But acquisition costs are lower than pushing expensive, education-heavy ads to cold traffic.

2. Retarget Thoughtfully
   Follow up with Meta ads or email flows designed to convert those sample buyers into full-size product purchasers.
   
   
3. Expand into Subscriptions or Bundles
   Once trust and product affinity are built, move customers toward higher-value orders like subscriptions or bundles.
   

Why This Works

Each step requires patience and planning. But Pilothouse has seen brands hit 400% year-over-year growth by playing the long game.

When you shift focus from single-purchase ROAS to total customer value over time, your acquisition costs start working harder. What starts as a small upfront loss can lead to outsized long-term returns.

If you find yourself stuck chasing short-term numbers, take a step back:

Build an LTV-focused plan that prioritizes steady growth over instant wins.

LTV isn’t a growth hack. It’s a mindset.

Smart brands know: patience pays.

😬 Uh Oh… Is Your Fulfillment Routine Actually Hurting Retention? 

Shipfusion ordered from 30+ deodorant brands to find out where friction lives in the post-purchase experience.

Here’s a sneak peek at what they uncovered: 

• 🚫 74% didn’t offer cross-sells at checkout
• 📦 Only 1 in 10 included free samples
• ⏳ 73% failed to set delivery expectations

From checkout to unboxing, this report reveals what brands are getting right and where they’re losing trust (and repeat business), and how to fix it.

👉 Get the full breakdown of what DTC deodorant brands are getting right, where they’re falling short, and what it means for 2025.

Not in the deodorant game? That's okay! If you ship to customers, you’ll want to read what was uncovered.

📦 Your Daily Tariff Check-In

Whether it’s a minor tweak or a major shift, we’ll keep you posted on the latest tariff changes—so you’re always in the know. 

July 22, 2025 update:

• President Marcos Heads to Washington
  
  • Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. met with President Trump this week to secure a more favorable trade deal before the August 1 deadline.
  • This comes after President Trump raised the threatened “reciprocal” tariff on Philippine exports to 20%, up from the previously proposed 17% rate.
    

🎧 Premium Wine, Any Dang Time: How Maker Scaled DTC, Wholesale, and Airline Growth

In this episode of the DTC Podcast, Maker Wine co-founder Sarah Hoffman shares how the premium canned wine brand grew from bootstrapped virtual tastings to securing airline partnerships and nationwide retail distribution. 

From leaning into education to out-ranking wineries on Google, Sarah explains the mindset behind creating a category-defining brand that puts small winemakers at the center.

In this episode, we dive into:

• The Maker Wine Origin Story: Why Sarah and her co-founders launched a platform for small winemakers instead of starting their own winery.
  
• Scaling Through Virtual Tastings: Tactics used to acquire sticky, long-term subscribers while building brand awareness.
  
  "Some of our club members today still reference a tasting from five years ago."
  
  
• Building a Membership, Not Just a Subscription: Why Maker focuses on customization, surprise perks, and exclusive wine drops instead of discounting.
  
  "We always wanted it to feel like a membership versus a subscription."
  
  
• Transitioning to Omnichannel Growth: How Maker shifted from 90% DTC to a true omnichannel model, including placement on all United Airlines North America flights.
  
  "We stopped majorly investing in digital marketing and reinvested those dollars into wholesale marketing and content."
  
  
• Using SEO to Break Into Retail: Why ranking for terms like “best canned wine” helps Maker attract customers.
  

👉 Listen to the full episode with Sarah here.

📦 Set your business up for growth with Walmart Marketplace & WFS. Lavazza, a successful coffee brand, saw more than 200% growth in Walmart Marketplace sales within 18 months of leveraging Walmart Fulfillment Services (WFS) to manage fulfillment. (^Data provided by Lavazza.) Sign up. *

Aaron, CEO of ShipHero, shares this email which highlights the real business impact of ongoing tariff fluctuations, showing how both ecommerce brands and their suppliers are under pressure. 

A Chinese factory shared that it must shut down for five months due to unstable market conditions and insufficient orders, directly affecting production timelines. 

For brands, this underscores how global trade disruptions can impact inventory and product launches.

📥 Got a B2B Biz? 

Join dozens of B2B companies finding demand-gen success through our niche community of 150k brand leaders and founders this year. Talk to our team to learn more.

Have you heard our latest podcasts?

• 😀 AKNF 526: Ad-venturous Preview 
• 📸 Ad-venturous 11: UGC v.s. CGC, v.s. EGC 
• ⚡ TWBERP 42: Optimizing for Profit, Not Just Conversion Rate
• 🌱 Three Ships System for Trust-Driven Brand Growth 
• 🧠 AKNF 524: The Retention Blueprint for 4 Customer Cohort Types 
• 🫐 Ad-venturous 10: A Little Lad That Loves Berries and Cream?

Don’t forget to rate the DTC Podcast on Apple (⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️)

DTC Newsletter is written by Rebecca Knight and Frances Du. Edited by Eric Dyck.

Please note that items in this newsletter marked with * contain sponsored content.