Why Authenticity is King in the Marketplace with Deena Bahri, CMO at StockX

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We do all kinds of research from, you know, user interviews to quantitative studies to informal panels on discord to listening to inbounds. Right. We even have a form on the site that says, hey, if you want to see buyer, if you want to see a product here, like tell us about it. So we're always listening and we really try to mine the various sources that are at our fingers fingertips to make sure that we have a holistic picture.

To thrive in a rapidly evolving landscape, brands must move in an ever increasing pace. I'm Matt Britton, founder and CEO of Suzy. Join me and key industry leaders as we dive deep into the shifting consumer trends within their industry, why it matters now and how you can keep up. Welcome to the Speed of culture up. Today we're going to be speaking with Dina Bari, chief marketing officer at StockX. Dina, thanks so much for joining us today.

Hi Matt, thanks for having me.

I'm a huge fan of StockX and I'm a big fan of your work. I was actually reading one of your past interviews and you mentioned that as a kid when you were growing up, instead of watching cartoons like Tom and Jerry like I did, you liked watching commercials, especially car ads. Tell us about that and why you got into advertising at such an early age.

Well, it's still true to this day when I watch TV with my family and the commercials come on, I'm still like, shh, everybody, the commercial, why is that true? I think it's the storytelling. I think it's, you know, the ability that advertisers have to capture a consumer with a very short sound bite story. And, you know, that's a hard brief right to Tell something compelling to your consumer in, you know, 15, 30 seconds and leave them wanting more. So I think I was intrigued by that challenge and I think it really did shape the consuming. Those commercials really did shape me on my journey and helped lead me to this place where I sit today.

Yeah. And I mean, and obviously StockX is a type of company that, you know, if I described it to many people maybe 20 years ago, they wouldn't really think a company like this could exist. Right. Just the notion of a marketplace, the notion of people actually paying for collectibles. You know, the world's changed so much. You started off at Reebok, if I'm correct, and now here you are, you know, years later at StockX. How has, you know, you think the consumer change and the notion of marketplaces changed over time to enable a company like StockX to thrive?

Well, I think you have to talk about E commerce as a driving force of that change. So if I go back to, you know, over 20 years ago when I was at Reebok, E commerce looked very different. Right. It was so nascent. I think pretty much every company that had any E commerce and there weren't many, they were running off one of maybe two platforms that were out there. We ran off GSI platform commerce. Everything looked the same, more or less, very limited capabilities to create a compelling journey for the consumer. And that touch point of E commerce was so disconnected from the other touch points that a brand had. Right. It was like retail channels, offline advertising. That's where we spent all of our time. And then it was, oh, yeah, we probably should start spending some time and money on this E commerce digital marketing thing. So it was totally an afterthought. And I think that was clear in every way from, you know, how you resource teams to how you reach the consumer. Fast forward to today. Obviously everything's different. It has to be different. It has to be integrated. And E commerce and digital everything have to be at the center. And that's, I think, what has enabled the emergence of marketplaces and the prevalence, the popularity of marketplaces. When you think about what a marketplace like StockX does, it connects people to goods, products, ideas, experiences that they seek, that they want and maybe never were able to access before. And that's thanks to technology. So it's, I think it's super exciting. I think, you know, the rise of the marketplace is just beginning and we're super excited to be poised where we are to facilitate that.

Yeah, I mean, you talk about the rise of marketplace beginning. One thing I think About a lot is in this world of supply chain issues and rising costs and inflation, you know, consumers that want to buy things often just say, oh, if it's sold out at retail, I can't get it. But you know, it, not only is it more sustainable of a practice, but I think it's much more of an enjoyable practice for consumers to be on the hunt and to look at marketplaces as a way to acquire goods. And I'm surprised that, you know, whether it's companies like StockX or more mass market, you know, platforms like ebay that hasn't been more, you know, heavily embraced during recent times. Inflation. What are your thoughts on that?

I agree. I mean part of our founding story is pricing, visibility and putting the power of data and, and understanding what is the right price. Whether you're on the buy side or the sell side, putting that power in the consumer's hand. It's funny, in the last two years we sort of haven't talked about price as much. Right. Because boom times, people I think were less sensitive. Obviously today it's different and we are back to, you know, heightened price sensitivity. And I think in times like this it's absolutely a value proposition to deliver to consumers the ability to, to price hunt and to pay the right price for you, whatever that may be. So I think, you know, it's interesting with, with a company that has a pretty varied value proposition, I think there are different times when you dial up elements of what you can offer. And today I agree with you that being able to offer the right good at the right price is more important than, than ever.

And as CMO StockX, which first of all is such a cool, cool role, but I would imagine that, you know, your day kind of goes back and forth between the notions of kind of art and science because Obviously, you know, StockX is an arbiter of culture, so that's where sort of the art plays in. Yet you're a marketplace that probably has, you probably have a lot of pressures on you to hit numbers and you're, you're a growth oriented company. So science in terms of performance, marketing, all those things probably are a big part. How do you divide your day and how would you describe your overall role at the company?

Oh, I feel so understood, Matt. You just explained my life in a nutshell. That's actually how I, when people ask me, tell me about your role, tell me about your day, that's what I say. It's left brain, right brain, it's art and science. And I really, I think that is the role of the CMO today, especially in a technology driven business that, you know, touches the consumer directly. Marketing at StockX is all those things you just described. It's the brand magic, it's the customer experience and the journey. It's storytelling through content and social channels. It's making great creative and it's quantitative. It's being very analytical and intentional about how we touch customers, who we reach, how much we spend and what we expect back as a return. And then of course, given the long lifetime of a relationship with a customer, it's also thinking about how do we nurture that relationship, how do we get them to keep coming back, to keep loving what we have to offer, keep spending money with us?

And where are you getting your signals in terms of entering new spaces or categories? Because I would imagine, you know, you need to kind of walk a fine line because you need to drive growth, but you also need to kind of maintain the cool factor, so to speak. Right. And be able to speak to your very discerning audience. So where are you getting your signals to make those decisions?

Yeah, absolutely. We listen very carefully. We're huge believers in listening to the consumer. And for us, the consumer has two faces. It's the buyer as well as the seller. And we look to both. Right. So the sellers tell us a lot about where is their arbitrage opportunity, where is there a business opportunity which is such a key pillar of what we have to offer? And so often we will get signals from the sell side. Now, the thing that's not always there in that signal from a seller is the current culture piece which you referenced. Right. Is this sort of upholding our brand position and really serving the buyer in the sense of helping them play to their passion points and helping them play in current culture. And so for that piece of it, we listen to the buy side and we do, we do all kinds of research from, you know, user interviews to quantitative studies to informal panels on discord, to listening to inbounds. Right. We even have a forum on the site that says, hey, if you want to see buyer, if you want to see a product here, like, tell us about it. So we're always listening and we really try to mine the various sources that are at our fingertips to make sure that we have a holistic pace.

Yep. I'm sure it's always a moving target. You know, there could be things on your marketplace a year from now you may never have expected. But, you know, we're in a world where new trends can pop up so quickly. And as you Mentioned the arbitrage opportunity. It's, you know, I have a son who's 14 years old and like many young Gen Z kids, they have no interest in going down the tried and true path. They want to be entrepreneurs. It's both a good and a bad thing, in my opinion. But if they can execute, if they understand the laws of supply, supply and demand, which is sort of the age old rules of business, StockX is a great way to apply sort of your business acumen within sort of a platform that. Where your interests lie.

Yeah.

So I think that, you know, if people who can take advantage of it the right way, it creates amazing opportunities. Didn't exist 10 to 20 years ago.

Absolutely. You nailed it. I feel like we should hire you because what you just said about.

Let's talk about that afterwards. Dina.

No, you have a great job and I know you're. But I'm, you know, you really just articulated so much of how we talk about what we're trying to do. Right. Providing economic opportunity, but also empowering people to do that in the intersection of their passion points. And that is current culture. And it's also fluid and dynamic. Right. The definition of current culture, which is frankly something that we made up, but the way we've defined it is that it is fluid, it is dynamic because the consumer moves so quickly. And it doesn't mean that they're fickle, it just means that they have broad interests, they're influenced by the pace of technology, social media, entertainment, sport, and these spaces are just moving so quickly today. And so we have to be dynamic and flexible too.

Absolutely. And in that regard, do you think that the macroeconomic environment is going to impact the way you go to market moving forward? Because obviously during the pandemic we saw rising prices of all collectibles of baseball cards and not too much after that. NFTs. And you know, we're in a world right now where I'm reading the New York Times and one section talks about how people, people can't afford homes and the next section, people are spending $350 million for real estate in the metaverse. And to me those are just that something isn't aligned there. Right. And I look at a platform like yours and the question becomes, how are you going to have to evolve when there's less cash in the system, when the impact of fiscal stimulus starts to go away? I think the passions will still exist. But how will that impact your marketplace?

Yes, the passions will remain. I think the constraints change and the priorities change. Something that we saw early in the pandemic, which is obviously it's a different time, it's not comparable but there was some uncertainty and some, you know, real concern around job stability. We saw a huge influx of new sellers because people looked to our platform as an opportunity for making money. So I think, you know, we may see more of that where people perhaps need to augment their income, more inventory.

Right.

Yeah. And can look to selling or trading current culture products as another economic opportunity. I think the other place where we'll see that is, you know, price points. Right. Obviously what a consumer is willing to pay in boom times like we talked about before may be different than what they're willing to pay in a more recessionary like environment. And so that's another signal that we will watch is you know, kind of average order values and how high high premium products trade versus perhaps below retail or more value oriented products.

It could be a trade off for example of lower average order value but higher volum. I mean I guess I'll just have to wait and see.

I think that's what makes this time so interesting. We were talking about the change of pace and even from a business perspective in the last I've been at the company two and a half years and I think about the cycles we've been through in two and a half years. You know, so many things have changed contextually, you know, macroeconomics and culturally of course. And so we just live that every day and staying on our toes is kind of a critical step. Yeah.

Finding the right audience shouldn't feel like doom scrolling with Experian. It doesn't. Experian syndicated audiences help you reach holiday shoppers, car buyers and more across over 200 top platforms with over 2,400 pre built audiences. There's no more doom scrolling. It's audience targeting you can trust. Made simple. Learn more@experian.com Adweek that's experian.com Adweek.

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So we're going to go into the next section where we basically are just going to discuss some of the topics you're passionate about and your business priorities to really help give our listeners some insights into your world and perspective. The first of which is leveraging some of these new social platforms and even in person experiences that to connect with consumers. Last year you, your company launched its first virtual digital multi day activation on Discord. How did you decide to use Discord and what impact does that platform had on, on the business?

We had been watching Discord for a few months as they were rising in the conversation as, as a new emerging social platform. And when we were doing our planning for StockX Day last June, which is sort of this marquee brand moment that we came up with, we thought this is such a great time to launch something new. Let's launch a new channel with a bang so that we can really have a big impact. And it worked. We launched as part of our StockX Day activation on Discord. We launched and immediately had 20,000 followers and participants on our brand server, which according to Discord was like a record for a brand launch. And I think this was representative of some of the signals we had seen and some of the reasons we'd been interested in this platform, which is that consumers want to engage in a two way dialogue on social and the sort of community.

Right. It's a gorgeous community. Yep.

Yeah. And the platforms that we all grew up with in social, sort of first gen social platforms are wonderful, but they're more one way. We are a brand, we're posting, people can comment, but it isn't truly interactive and we're not really bringing the community together. Whereas on Discord we're really able to open the door to a two way conversation and we're able to bring our community together and bring fans of the brand together to interact amongst themselves. And so that has been incredibly powerful for us as a brand, for our community. And we use it in all ways. We use it to celebrate brand moments, we use it to foster cultural conversations with our ambassadors and influencers who have something to offer to our user base. We use it to celebrate team member events, whether it's like Women's History Month and we want to have a panel to help young women think about building their brand, or for Black History Month, you know, having a sort of cultural conversation for our team members. We also use it for customer insights. We talked about this a little bit just a minute ago, but we actually glean insights from, you know, proactively from the Discord groups. So it's proven to be very beneficial for us and we're going to keep investing in that platform and in other two way community building platforms.

Yeah, I mean we had Sophia Hernandez on our first episode actually, who's the head of business marketing at TikTok. And what Sophia was telling us is that the rise of community commerce is a huge driver of their business where essentially they'll have influencers that have these active, vibrant communities and then they'll leverage these communities for kind of live engaging content and then commerce kind of becomes the platform which it becomes monetized over.

Yes.

And I think community commerce, I mean it dates back to history where people used to go to the shopping mall with their friends as a social activity. Right now we're just bringing in a much more scalable way and surrounding passion points. And so I think it's all about executing the right way. When you do these discord events, are you bringing in like narrators? Like are you picking sort of brand evangelists that are coming and leading these conversations?

So we, we curate very carefully our panels. Usually we'll have one of our team members as sort of the emce, the host facilitator and then we'll curate different participants based on the topic. So that's during that StockX day last year, we had some of our brand partners joining to talk about just the speed of culture. And I think we had one of our partners from New Balance, we had a few of our creator partners. So we always mix it up. But we do try to bring people in who are creating some of these products, some of the people who are really influencing through sport, music, fashion, etc. As well as our own team members to MC. And it's usually that sort of mix.

Yep. And when you talk about, you know, these brand collaborations. So are you, when you talk about brands, are you talking about mass market brands or are they kind of small, more niche brands?

We love them all. We have, of course, you know, some of the biggest, well known brands out there that are key to our platform. But we also really spend a lot of time and increasingly so curating an assortment of less known brands that are perhaps more local. You know, especially given that we're a global platform. Right. Having local brands for our key markets is really critically important. So one of the categories where that's really playing out is in apparel. Well, you'll see a lot of the more local brands being added to the catalog. And even, you know, we create product with some of our partners and collaborators. Like for Coachella as an example, we just did a big brand partnership with in April and we created a capsule of apparel with various artists and brands. So it sort of takes all shapes and forms. When we say brands, we sort of think big.

Yep. And you know, in terms of thinking big, you guys have obviously jumped on some of these more merging platforms out there, including NFTs, which has been obviously white hot up until recently, but still something where a lot of people are quite bullish in the brand marketing space in terms of its impact on their business of creating a true platform. Early this year your team launched Vault StockX. So what was that all about and what was your experience with that product so far with your customer base?

Yeah, I think, you know, part of again our founding DNA is the idea that these current culture products are actually investable assets that you can trade just like a share in a company. And so as NFTs started to emerge, we looked at our original founding thesis and this new trend and thought we can do this in the stock X way. Right. Vault NFTs are really unique in that they're a digital asset that's tied to a physical product. And so we are enabling customers to invest in an asset that's backed with a physical pair of shoes or a trading card or a collectible item, and yet there's a token that allows it to be traded more easily and more dynamically.

So just so I understand, I owned a 1958 Mickey Mantle card. Right. I could basically turn that into an nft, a virtual item and my card would be shipped to a vault that you would have. So somebody else could buy the NFT and then. But the card still stays in the vault and basically the NFT is attached.

To the ownership and then flip it and then you know, the next person could flip it again and that actual underlying asset stays vaulted securely with us. Right, Right. So that's the idea. You got it.

People don't have to worry about shipping it, losing it, it getting stolen. And the buyer has security in knowing that they're getting and it's backed by your company.

And in addition to the safety and security, it's also more efficient because without having to ship it, authenticate it again and again, we're reducing the fees. Right. So for you as the seller, you're able to keep more of that upside in your pocket.

Yeah. Wow, that's fascinating. And I would imagine also in terms of people being able to flex the ownership of something, you know, if you own a trading card, you know, it's almost like the art based NFTs, how do you actually prove they actually own it? And this actually proves ownership because you're validating it on the blockchain Absolutely, yeah.

And. And so, like my. The NFTs, the vault NFTs that I own sit in my StockX portfolio alongside my, you know, normal items that I've bought. And you really are able to sort of broaden the definition of what's in your portfolio and which investable assets you choose to trade in. So it's been quite exciting. We launched this back in January, sort of, you know, in a really iterative fashion. Our desire was to move quickly and test a lot of things, and that's exactly what we're doing. And obviously the market has been a little bit frothy around NFTs, but for us, because we have this different approach that's really pairing the digital with the physical, we feel like this has a lot of promise and really delivers on what the customer is seeking from StockX.

Yeah, it's fascinating in terms of where it's going. I'm just thinking in my head, like, if I bought like a Basquiat piece of art, you know, on one hand, I'd want it to be in the vault because it protects that asset. But I kind of also want it on my wall. Right. Because art you want to look at. So, like, I guess with certain things, that's less the case with, you know, like a sports card, where you don't necessarily want it on your wall. So I think, you know, there's going to be different applications for that, some of which work more than others. But we're obviously in the earliest stages and everyone's trying to figure it out, which is interesting.

Absolutely. And I think what you're speaking to is the complexity of the consumer and the segmentation. Right. Like, some users are in it for the investment and the opportunity to trade, and some are in it for the consumption and enjoyment. And we need to figure out how to serve both.

Yeah, absolutely. So for our final section, we're going to be introducing our Ask America segment, which is where we go to our Suzy market research platform and ask consumers and get responses. And basically, you know, we'd love to see how consumers are responding to questions that we think are big into the marketplace. So the first question that we asked was what percentage of people on our platform, 18 to 34, prefer buying shoes directly from a marketplace versus a brand directly, like, you know, versus Nike or Adidas. So if you had to guess what percentage of people would rather buy from a marketplace versus a brand directly, I'm.

Going to say 60%.

It was 50%. Very close.

Okay.

I think that obviously, you know, when, as this space evolves I think ultimately to me it would be more about trust. Can they trust it? And can you change consumer habits? And I would imagine that this obviously skews more towards the Gen Z audience, which is sort of going up with these new platforms. The second is, who do you think is willing to pay more for collectibles? Gen Z Millennials or Gen X for collectibles?

Did you define collectibles for this?

We didn't. So. So this could be a trick question.

It is. It is tricky. I'm going to say Gen X because I think when most people think collectibles, they think trading cards. And I think that Gen X has led the resurgence of trading.

Nailed it. Gen X. There you go. And our last question. What percentage of Suzy respondents are currently using collectibles as an investment vehicle?

Oh, well, I don't know.

Goes back to what we're just talking about, right. In terms of.

But I don't know anything about your Susie respondent demographics, but I'm gonna.

It's nationally representative for this question.

Nationally representative, 40%.

28.

Oh, I went a little high. Okay.

Exactly. Makes sense because you're obviously working at a company where that's all you guys talk about. So I think some having some skew makes sense. So that was great. Just to wrap things up, Dean, and thank you so much for joining in this crazy world that we live in and you working at such a fast paced company, what actually slows you down and allows you to kind of take a breath in your life?

That's a great question. We all need to do that more often. For me it's family. I have three kids and we spend a lot of time together, my husband and I going to their sporting events, just being outside, traveling. And as they get older, it gets more fun to have shared experiences with them. So that's a big one. And then I'm a big a mover. I'm a mover. I like to be on the go, you know, walking, exercising, doing yoga. So that's my. When I need just me time. Because sometimes you do need to get away even from your most beloved ones. I like to go work up a sweat in some way, shape or form.

Yeah, that's great. Well, I bet your kids feel that mom has a very cool job, that's for sure. So I want to thank you again for joining. This has been really fascinating to dive a little bit into your world. You obviously work at a transformational company as it relates to consumer culture. And I'll definitely be continuing the track your journey as well as the journey of StockX. So on behalf of myself, our entire team at Suzy, and the team at Adweek, I just want to thank you for joining the Speed of Culture podcast today and we'll see everyone next time. Thanks again. Dina.

Thanks Matt.

Speed of Culture is brought to you by Suzy as part of the Adweek Podcast Network and a Guest Creator Network. You can listen subscribe to all Adweek's podcasts by visiting Adweek.com podcasts to find out more about Susie, head to Suzy.com and make sure to search for the Speed of Culture in Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Google Podcasts or anywhere else Podcasts are found. Click follow so you don't miss out on any future episodes. On behalf of the team here at Suzy, thanks for listening.

Finding the right audience shouldn't feel like doom scrolling with Experian. It doesn't Experian syndicated audiences help you reach holiday shoppers, car buyers and more across over 200 top platforms. With over 2,400 pre built audiences, there's no more doom scrolling. It's audience targeting you can trust. Made simple. Learn more@experian.com Adweek that's exp E R-I-A N.com Adweek.

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