Hiki is a new DTC brand offerings genderless deodorant (and other personal care) products - Hiki was supposed to launch in March 2020. Obviously, all of the brand's launch plans changed when COVID hit. Hiki proved how a brand can launch successfully in this "new normal" and leveraged creative marketing tactics to do so.
Instead of selling the product, Hiki offered hospital and medical workers 2 HIKI products of their choice from their website, as long as they paid $2.50 shipping (which the parent company, arfa, disclosed costs them $8.04 per order). They gave away all their starting inventory they had intended to sell, as it didn't feel right to them to launch a brand in the middle of a pandemic.
Not only was their launch strategy unconventional, so is Hiki's entire business model. Hiki has employed a "Collective" - a group of consumers who help define the brand in early stages - providing feedback and testing on all stages of brand creation and brand building. In return, arfa gives 5% of their profits back to "The Collective".
In July - they officially launched for sale and realized that their model had paid off - by the time they launched, they already had 300 reviews on their website and had customer feedback that they could use on social media. They also had the help of "The Collective" who could promote the brand. They additionally leveraged micro and nano influencers to help push their organic and paid marketing channels.
While we don't yet have a read on the brand's performance since launch, Hiki is a case study of an entirely new marketing and business model adapted to changing times.
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