In between posts about making cereal and candy from scratch, influencer Nara Smith has been singing the praises of a certain diaper brand.
“I remember how overwhelmed I was picking a diaper brand when I had my kids, but Coterie quickly became my favorite brand to use,” Smith says in her characteristically monotone voice in one TikTok.
Smith’s posts are part of a social media-forward strategy from the premium price-point diaper brand aimed at cutting through what is a competitive industry and targeting parents of diaper-donning little darlings. To do it, the brand has leaned heavily on social marketing, experiential activations, and a strategic first-party data collection strategy online, while building out its presence IRL in retailers, which have traditionally been the domain of legacy brands.
“Instagram and TikTok have been really tremendous brand drivers, not just from our own efforts, but from the partnerships that we have with influencers,” Lindsey Kling, Coterie’s SVP of brand marketing, partnerships, and business development, told us. “Finding ways to connect with and resonate with our community and create content that feels really authentic and really on-the-nose for parents is such a huge part of who we are.”
As Coterie works to carve out a niche in an industry that has long been dominated by legacy brands, its growth is part of a larger story about the increasing prevalence (and popularity) of smaller diaper brands.
“For most manufacturers, whether it’s P&G or Pampers…the biggest headwinds they face are these challenger brands. We’ve never seen a surge in micro-brands or challenger brands like we have in the last five years or so—it’s just unprecedented,” Barry Thomas, senior global thought leader at Kantar, told Marketing Brew. “We used to call them ankle biters; now people are calling them knee biters, because they’re really formidable.”
Influencer IRL
Social is the center of Coterie’s strategy, Kling told us, but the brand is looking to show up IRL, too.
Earlier this year, Coterie partnered with influencer and supermodel Karlie Kloss, who became an investor in the brand in 2023, for an ad campaign centered on Kloss’s experience having her second child. Instead of running on social only, that particular campaign got the out-of-home treatment, appearing in places like Brooklyn and LA, according to Modern Retail.
Social still played a role in that campaign, and thanks to cross-promotion on Coterie’s Instagram, TikTok, and other channels, average sessions on Coterie’s website grew by 20% in New York and 18% in LA week over week in the weeks after the campaign debuted, Modern Retail reported. Coterie’s social media following has increased by 45% in six months ending in September, according to Ad Age, and its Instagram account had 121,000 followers at the end of October.
Make an appearance
Beyond its focus on social and OOH, Coterie is also making strategic forays into experiential marketing, Kling said. To support Kloss’s campaign, the brand hosted influencer dinners, and last year, the brand hosted music classes for families in parks in Austin, Texas, and Brooklyn as part of an initiative from the company, complete with a merch collection, called “Support Your Local Parent,” Kling told us.
Get marketing news you'll actually want to read
Marketing Brew informs marketing pros of the latest on brand strategy, social media, and ad tech via our weekday newsletter, virtual events, marketing conferences, and digital guides.
“We do see the expanded reach from small events, like music classes in second-tier markets like Austin, Texas, or influencer dinners that we did for our Karlie campaign,” she said.
Coterie is also showing up IRL in major retailers like Target and Whole Foods, where legacy brands have historically had a strong presence. In-store activations can help the brand reach consumers it may not capture through other marketing efforts, Kling said, adding that between 9% and 12% of new Coterie customers each month come from retail channels.
“We actually look at it almost as a billboard,” she said. “It’s an evergreen out-of-home experience where we have a giant brand block in a store like Whole Foods or Wegmans or Erewhon, and it’s a way for people to experience and discover our brand and trial our product.”
Challenger diaper brands that own the newer marketing channels can have a competitive edge when compared to legacy brands, Kantar’s Thomas said.
“They just crush it on all things social media, digital marketing, and influencer marketing, and in many cases, they were ahead of the big legacy brands,” he said.
Numbers don’t lie
Behind Coterie’s marketing is focused targeting of its customer set. A six-pack of Size 5 Coterie diapers, each of which includes 22 diapers, retails for $100 for a one-time purchase, according to Reviewed by USA Today. Its products are aimed at a niche of customers who are willing to pay a premium for diapers that market themselves as more sustainable, more comfortable, and cruelty-free, a demographic that legacy brands are courting, too, Thomas said.
A strategic first-party data strategy also helps Coterie make inroads with that customer base, Ankur Goyal, VP of growth at Coterie, told us during this year’s Marketing Brew Summit.
The brand was seeing customers cancel their subscriptions for Size 4 diapers, and Goyal said he realized that was because that size was associated with little ones who were going through potty training. In response, the brand used its first-party subscription data to send information to customers who previously shopped for that size about a product aimed at kids who are potty training.
That strategy “extends your [lifetime value] with Coterie, and it’s a win-win solution,” he told attendees.
Baby steps
With challenger diaper brands like Coterie in legacy diaper brands’ competitive set, the latter is taking notice and updating its branding, Thomas told Marketing Brew. Take Huggies Skin Essentials diapers, which hit the market this year, as one example.
“So many of these diaper challenger brands were born out of being not toxic,” Thomas said. In response, legacy brands are “upping their game around functional benefits and being a bit more clean-label, if you will.”
Going forward, both challenger and legacy brands face the same obstacle: a decrease in diaper sales tied the declining birth rate in the US. Last year, diaper retail unit sales dipped 1%, according to the analytics firm Circana.
For now, though, there are still plenty of kiddos needing diapers to go around.