Product Development / GTM Strategy / Brand and Marketing Launch

MTodd Men’s Collection

Brand Spin-Off, Product Relaunch & Go-To-Market Strategy

EMPLOYER
Marie Todd Inc.

CATEGORY
Luxury Men’s Fragrance

TIMELINE
6-9 Months to Launch

ROLE
Product Dev / Brand & Marketing Strategy

THE BRIEF

Marie Todd was a Los Angeles based designer jewelry and fragrance brand from 2009-2020. Within the brand’s home fragrance lineup, a cluster of woodsier, muskier scents, cheekily named after male archetypes, had quietly become top performers and fan favorites. The products were doing relatively well commercially; the opportunity was to stop treating them as an afterthought within a broader catalog and build something intentional around them.

The decision was made to revise and spin off the men’s line entirely into a standalone brand with its own identity, packaging, positioning, and market strategy. That brand became the MTodd Men’s Collection. I led the project from product development through launch, across every function that touches brand: market research, product formulation testing, packaging design, pricing, creative direction, and go-to-market execution.

MY ROLE

Led full product development cycle: market research, competitive analysis, product-market fit testing, manufacturing coordination
Directed brand identity creation: naming architecture, packaging design, visual system — working with in-house and contracted design teams
Built go-to-market strategy across all sales channels: e-commerce, showroom, wholesale/sales reps, trade shows, and print
Developed brand messaging framework and ensured consistency across PR, social, copywriting, and retail touchpoints
Managed tradeshow strategy with showroom reps that became the primary engine for wholesale account acquisition
Managed ongoing e-commerce operations including Amazon Seller Central and DTC platforms

MTodd’s Men Collection – packaging design

man in striped shirt resting his head on a hand with a dark candle in the foreground

Brand lifestyle campaign creative

“The fragrances already had a following. The job was to give that following something worth belonging to.”

GO-TO-MARKET APPROACH

The channel strategy prioritized wholesale from the start, as tradeshows were the proving ground where buyers could experience the product and brand positioning in person. That channel drove the majority of new account acquisition, including placement with independent specialty and boutique retailers across the country.

E-commerce ran in parallel, with Amazon Seller Central managed alongside MTodd’s own DTC platform. Online sales initially accounted for roughly 35% of total revenue, a meaningful contribution that also served as an always-on brand awareness channel, reaching buyers who discovered MTodd outside of traditional retail pathways.

Marketing assets were developed across all touchpoints (product photography, lifestyle imagery, promotional materials, and digital content) with a consistent visual language that positioned the collection as a legitimate standalone luxury line, not a brand extension. The brand’s socials took on the fictional persona of a world traveling, culture maven and fragrance designer (M.Todd). The character was based on a collective of archetypes that the fragrances in the line were structured around. The cheeky voicing strategy helped further separate the line from the parent product line and jewelry.

Digital & E-commerce Presence

Brand Marketing Collateral

Brand Social Channels

IMPACT & RESULTS

SALES LIFT - YEAR 1

yrs

TOP CATALOG PERFORMER

REVENUE VIA E-COMMERCE

THE BAD BOY EFFECT

One fragrance in the line, “The Bad Boy”, became more than a bestseller. Within a year of its’ re-launch it was the number one product in the entire Marie Todd catalog, outperforming every piece of jewelry and fragrance the company sold. It held that position for four consecutive years. The successful MTodd product launch showcases how powerful a brand creation story is to the success of both a single product line and an entire collection.

The broader MTodd Men’s launch generated a 40% category sales lift (fragrances) in year one and validated the spin-off thesis entirely. The brand developed its own wholesale accounts, its own retail presence, and its own loyal customer base, successfully creating a distinct commercial identity that complemented rather than competed with the parent brand.

The Bad Boy — #1 product in the Marie Todd catalog for four consecutive years

CONCLUSION

MTodd Men’s is a case study in what happens when you take something that’s already working and give it the strategic and creative infrastructure it deserves. The products had an audience; the job was to build a brand around them. From packaging to positioning to channel strategy, every decision was made with the goal of launching something that could stand on its own. It did so, successfully, for years.