Billion Dollar Brand Club

by Mike Hunter

Dollar Shave Club and its hilarious marketing. Casper mattresses popping out of a box. Third Love’s lingerie designed specifically for each woman’s body. Warby Parker mailing customers five pairs of glasses to choose from. Each may appear, in isolation, as a rare David with the bravado to confront a Goliath, but taken together they represent a seismic shift in a business model that has lasted more than a century. A growing number of digital entrepreneurs have found new and creative ways to crack the code on the bonanza of physical goods that move through our lives every day. Where there were once walls that protected big brands like Gillette, Sealy, Victoria’s Secret or LensCrafters, savvy and hungry innovators now can compete on price, value, quality, speed, convenience and service.