History of Toothpaste.

Why do we brush our teeth? Who says brushing leads to better oral care? Why do we wake up every morning and head to the bathroom cabinet?

Obviously, now it is all a subconscious act. I wonder what was the situation with our ancestors? How and when did we start brushing?

Came across this rather interesting article on the secret of creating a habit and routine which I thought worth sharing.

Read it here

Now add "Shoppability" to "Reachability".

FMCG & CPG brands reach out to consumers using every media option available - both offline and online. However, what has often been missing is the possibility of translating brand awareness into action - that too real-time.

AaramShop's plug-ins now enable consumers to add the brand they want directly into their shopping list - commerce happens across touch-points and across devices.

Talk to us to understand how we enable EveryWhere Commerce.

Key consumer drivers that influence grocery buying.

This info-graphic is based on our experience, over the past few years, of influencing grocery buying using the unique hybrid model of AaramShop.  The hybrid model of AaramShop allows us to view both the online and offline buying behavior of consumers.

This info-graphic is focused on the process of buying.

Extending Shareability to Shoppability.

 

Here is our much awaited solution for all brands that have created a large community of "fans" on Facebook. Here is the next step - a step that helps the brands get into shopping lists of consumers and ensure that the product is bought regularly.

Would like to know more? Let's talk.

Digital is dead.

Brilliant.

What is The Social Customer?

What I found particularly interesting in this presentation is the increasing important of the offline connect for the customers.

Tech innovation that I love.

 

Loved the tech innovation - I believe it offers great opportunities for everyone. Just wanted to share along with a bunch of songs I love.

EveryWhere Commerce.

The ‘e’ in ecommerce no longer means electronic, it means everywhere.

Ecommerce is defined as the process of buying or selling over electronic systems, but as the shopper's experience has become more complex, the 'e' in ecommerce no longer means electronic, it now means everywhere.

The Harvard Business Review asked in 2011: "Is it an e-commerce sale if the customer goes to a store, finds that the product is out of stock, and uses an in-store terminal to have another location ship it to her home? What if the customer is shopping in one store, uses his smartphone to find a lower price at another, and then orders it electronically for in-store pickup?"

From the customers' perspective, they now expect access to the whole catalog, not just the range of goods in a particular location, and they expect this catalog to be available whenever and wherever they want it. People can shop potentially every minute of the day.

From the companies' perspective, there is an opportunity to connect with shoppers and have a much fuller relationship than traditional, mainstream bricks-and-mortar retailers ever did.

Download the full report on Future Shopper from here

Business Model Innovation.

A good guide and a thought thru' approach.

Introducing AaramOffers.

For more information on AaramOffers by AaramShop, and how they can be used by retailers visit the Channel Engagement Center

AaramOffers are hyper-local offers on grocery and daily essential products, that enable consumers to find the best offers within minutes from their homes and have them delivered at their doorstep.

AaramOffers are currently restricted to retailers within India.

 

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• Reaching A Diverse Target With Your CPG Brand

The internet & The Local Business.

Local businesses and brands that use local businesses to market / sell themselves understand the power of "word-of-mouth" marketing. However, it is normally expected that the internet marketing is the domain of larger corporates and that your local store is immune to its impact. 

Contrary to that belief Milo, an online product locator, has put together this infographic that speaks volumes about the power of online reviews for local businesses.

According to the Small business Search Marketing Survey by American Express OPEN, U.S. small businesses can still count on word-of-mouth as a top way for shoppers to find them. Close behind, however, is the Internet. Local consumers now heavily rely on search engine power when shopping locally. 

This trend binds in very well with the AaramShop's strategy of bring the local neighborhood grocers online, thereby get them future-ready.

View the full infographic here

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• 
  

15 Marketing Buzzwords to Stop Using - Guilty as stated!

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.  

Extending the print media. The New Standard.

It is wonderful to see the Augmented Reality (AR) integration with print media brought about by Times of India and Adstuck Consulting.

What sets this use of AR aside is that it is not designed as an one-off advertisement that has AR integration which are generally viewed as gimmicks, but rather is firmly planted as a standard feature on the morning newspaper on a daily basis and that will ensure its wide-spread adoption and usage in a short time.  

This technology has been around for years as QR code readers, but no newspaper in the world has used it editorially to delight its readers and create a new level of interactivity.

Believe this is how the future of not just newspaper but most print media would look in the era of convergence. The increase in the user base would have a huge and a positive impact on the usage of the technology for advertisers.

Download and test it from here and let me know what you think.

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10 Brand Marketing Trends that Should Dominate 2013

Came across this article in Forbes and I thought it was worth sharing - as these are the brand marketing trends that can open significant opportunities or create big challenges over the next 12 months.

What makes it even more interesting is that 7 of the 10 trends (to a lesser extent the other 3 as well) are significantly dominated by social media. Interesting to see that Susan has given traditional media a skip, other than stores that help create "brand experiences".

Wonder if brand's media marketing spends are going to follow the marketing trends.

Read more here

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A New Era For Experiential Marketing

Experiential marketing has been around since the days of the traveling salesman. But with a strong assist from technology, it now it is re-emerging as the backbone of many branding plans.

Came across this wonderful article on CMO and felt it was worth sharing. 

The article captures the key changes and the fact that the empowered consumer has made experiential marketing a necessity in some areas, such as retail and electronics, where showrooming is turning products into commodities. 

And with the rise of online and mobile shopping empowering consumers to commoditize products, a tactile experience becomes a good way to set one product aside from another.

Read the full article here on CMO

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KLM Travelpredictions

Here is another great example of good use of digital by KLM. Using the digital footprints we leave on Facebook, KLM Travelpredictions is able to "predict" a future travel destination based on the interest graph. 

This was created by River. The service is launched in 25 markets and is now earning revenue from actual sales.

Try it here