Case study
A Community Built On Purpose, Not By Accident.
SheaMoisture already knew community support was its most powerful asset. It did not have the infrastructure to keep up with it.
The Problem
SheaMoisture was founded by Sofi Tucker in Bonthe, Sierra Leone, and generations later was an immigrant-owned brand operating out of Amityville, New York, making eco-friendly, cruelty-free, fair-trade products from organic and natural ingredients.
The brand was growing faster than the infrastructure behind it could support, and it saw an opening to become the first-in-class provider for its community. It had a social response team. That team was outnumbered by its own audience.
The opportunity had a clock on it. Taking it needed significant work behind the account and there was no time to spare.
What We Changed
Gave the brand one aesthetic and one calendar
Our social and design teams built a content calendar and an overall look for the brand, then tested and monitored against audience response rather than against internal taste.
Let the audience decide what got made
Rigorous research and continuous monitoring identified what actually worked as judged by the people it was for, and then we produced more of it.
Staffed community management as its own discipline
Our in-house community team joined the relevant groups, became known members of them and earned trust there, which is slower than posting and is the part that compounds.
Made the team answerable, fast
The community team studied every product and memorised the FAQs so a customer with a problem got a fast and accurate answer rather than a queued ticket.
What Else Came Out of It
- Deeply entrenched community engagement, raising the lifetime value of each customer.
- The Tucker family legacy preserved and set up to last.
More work
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FAQ
Questions We Hear Every Week
Straight answers. If something is not here, ask us on the audit call.
Do you work with national brands?
Yes. The consumer brand work has included SheaMoisture, Unilever, MET-Rx and Sky Organics.
How should a DTC brand measure paid social?
On contribution margin and incrementality, not on platform-reported return on ad spend.
Is Amazon part of consumer brand work?
Usually, because for many categories the marketplace search result is where the decision actually happens.
How do you support retail partners?
Sell-through support, co-marketing and local demand generation around store locations, measured on velocity rather than on impressions.
What is the most common mistake a growing brand makes?
Optimizing to the last click, which quietly defunds everything that created the demand in the first place.

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