Consumer activation in the traditional last mile.

As against at modern trade outlets, undertaking brand activations at traditional trade outlets is tough to undertake and even more difficult to measure for impact and ROI.

AaramShop can not just help your strategize with creation of last mile campaigns, but also undertake the comprehensive program, including reaching-out to partner retailers, rolling-out consumer engagement and measuring the impact of your marketing initiative. 

We have fine-tuned our solutions to specifically engage with independently owned, A category, neighborhood outlets. It is with these outlets that we help drive tertiary sales for your brands. Our on-ground activations are backed up with digital initiatives to ensure that your product gets into the shopping list of consumers.

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Change in focus of IT spends.

Interesting to note a shift in the focus on IT spends with the CPG companies. While CPG companies have traditionally viewed technology as a necessary business expense to be managed in the most efficient way possible, during the past few years, CPG companies have grasped the commercial potential of the burgeoning supply of information about customers’ behaviors, needs, and wants. 

The volume of data emanating from point of sale, in-store engagement, mobile platforms, and social media is exploding and unleashing value from technology in ways that go beyond operational efficiency. This is leading to a fundamental change in what businesses expect from technology. 

Read the full article here

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Seamless Marketing Support from AaramShop.

AaramShop helps ensure brands can meet the marketing and sales challenges, throughout the products' life cycle, ranging from sampling to specific consumers, to selling to the same consumers and then help the upgrade them as and when the opportunity arises.

AaramShop ensures consumers can engage with brand both online and offline across thousands of neighborhood retailers. To know more talk to us.

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From the web to the consumers' doorstep; enabled commerce for FMCG brands.

FMCG brands are uniquely challenged when it comes to exploiting the digital boom. The in-ability to close the loop using a traditional e-commerce route has plagued the sector forever. 

Almost all digital spends undertaken by FMCG brands have resulted in an increased awareness and engagement, however, resultant transactions have been a challenge. 

Traditional ecommerce has been a non-starter in the sector due to low product cost, lower retailer margins, very high logistics costs etc. 

AaramShop’s unique model, enables FMCG brands to extend their digital campaigns to have a last mile connect. 

Connecting digital assets to last mile assets for FMCG brands

AaramShop enables home delivery of your brands to millions of households across India via its thousands of partner retailers who are strategically placed within the neighborhoods. 

View a simple example here of how a “buy now” integration can change a touch-point to an action point. 

To ensure that your next digital campaign or your existing digital assets get you a higher and a trackable RoI, do contact me.

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• AaramShop Grocery Festival - the power of many.

AaramShop Grocery Festival - the power of many.

We have all seen "festivals and discount sales" being advertised by leading retailers on a month on month basis - and therefore it is quite obvious for folks to turn around and question the uniqueness associated with the AaramShop Grocery Festival which has been announced today for the next 8 days. 

The similarities end it being called a festival - the format is unique as it is probably the very 1st of it kind of multi-retailer, multi-brand format focused on FMCG / CPG brands.

The festival would run for 8 days at over a 1300 independently operating neighborhood grocers across New Delhi and 5 satellite towns catering to a population of over 22 million. 

AaramShop Grocery Festival is the largest unified consumer promotion created for small, independently operating retailers operating out of our neighborhoods.

The ASF is not designed as a "discount sale", but rather about creating pleasant surprises for shoppers when they buy any brand of groceries and daily essentials at their trusted neighborhood store. It is all about getting a little more than what the shopper had expected. The shopper gets to be part of the festival either by walking into the store or by ordering on the phone or by ordering groceries online from his neighborhood retailer using AaramShop.

The festival has been cleverly created to adopt to the varying business practices of the independent retailers and thus does not need modifications in the "business as normal", while at the same time helping the retailer grow his business.

The festival also helps brands connect with their consumers and retailers in a meaningful manner and therefore the festival has been partnered by some of the leading brands. The lead sponsor of the festival is Catch Salts & Spices (DS Group) & it is co-sponsored by Kohinoor Rice (Mc Cormick), Colgate Total (Colgate Pamolive), Saffola Oats (Marico), Red Label Natural Care (Hindustan Unilever), Sofit (Godrej Hershey) & Vanish (RB). 

 

The Delhi & NCR edition of the festival is the 1st of the series of festivals which would be held across the country and with the hope that the festival would have a positive impact on the businesses of the retailers over time and during the initiative. Contact us to know more about this initiative.  

"Clicks to Bricks" integration for FMCG brands' digital campaigns.

The growing importance of digital marketing is not lost on anyone. However, most brand marketers in the FMCG / CPG space find it difficult to justify the high engagement cost per consumer, especially because most current digital assets are restricted to creating awareness. 

There is now an option to change that. AaramShop has digitized the FMCG brands' existing last mile, thus enabling an integration of a “purchase now” prompt option within all digital assets. 

The consumers can now browse through all manner of digital communication, have the additional option to click on a “purchase now” tab, enabling them to order a brand from their preferred neighborhood retailer, who packs up and deliver in a matter of hours. 

Here is a neat example of seamless "Click to Brick" integration by Saffola (Marico Industries) giving its consumers a “purchase now” option on its website and at the same time it helps build a stronger bond with its channel by helping generate direct demand and action specific to the retailer outlets.

All digital assets of the brand like its websites, social media presence on platforms like Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, etc, review sites, blogs etc and and digital marketing campaigns can be now made to perform harder for the marketing dollar spend, and go beyond the just feel good awareness.

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Mobile and Social Steering Future for CPG.

"We see a merging between social and mobile as two really popular platforms coming together, not only for ecommerce, but also to drive multichannel behavior. It’s just incredibly dynamic, and we’ve really adopted an integrative planning framework that takes into account the consumer journey and how the consumer is using digital channels and platforms. That’s become the driver for how we plan our entire marketing strategy and budget."

It was good to read this interview of Jeff Jarrett, vice president for global digital marketing, as he spoke about the most effective ad formats for consumer packaged goods, and how online CPG sales have required the industry to establish a larger footprint in digital. Read the full interview here where-in he talks on strategies, RoI, impact of mobile & social media and the changing consumer behavior. 

A must read for all FMCG / CPG marketers on how the trends are shaping up.

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A Framework for Keeping CPG's Relevant Online

Came across this comprehensive and insightful essay by Jordan Julien. He has arrived at the insights based on examining internal documentation, and conducting ethnographic studies, from four different global CPG's and finding correlations. 

 

The synthesis of this work has culminated into "The Ecosystem of Understanding", a framework for keeping CPG's (and everyone else) relevant online.

Jordan been able to extract 5 insights common (as under) to every CPG he has worked with; even the most innovative.

1. We don't know who we're talking to, but we like to pretend like we do.
2. We don't know why we're talking to them, but we know we should be.
3. We suffer from Shiny Object Syndrome.
4. We're inconsistent, but we're learning.
5. We're old, scared, and angry; but its only a matter of time before we're phased out.

Read more here

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