Sunday, June 14, 2020

FMCG companies and Advent of Web Analytics

Written by Subarna Maitra

Overview :

Indian consumers are changing at a faster pace than expected. Today, FMCG manufacturers rely on consumers ‘pulling’ products through the supply chain; thus, they require a better understanding of consumer behaviour and choices. Consumers are well-informed about product information—in particular, promotions and price comparisons via the Internet—which makes predicting behaviour very complex.

 

Some statistics

·       India’s 28 million affluent and elite households will contribute to 40% of overall online FMCG consumption translating to a value of $45 billion by 2020, of which 60-65% will be digitally influenced.

·       The population of online users, buyers and influencers is steadily shifting from well-off adult males in large cities to women, digitally savvy Generation Zers and residents of smaller cities

·        There is a growing mobile Internet revolution in India, with some analysts predicting that at least 50% of online buying will take place on a mobile device by 2020

·        Online consumers spend 2X more on FMCG purchases than offline consumers.

 

If FMCG companies in India are to win the race for the digital consumer, we believe they must move quickly to gain mindshare—and wallet share—in the growing online community.

 

Those who do not could face material opportunity costs, not only in terms of revenues and profits, but also in digital shelf space, scarce ecosystem resources and connections to digitally savvy shoppers.

 

While digital is a high priority for most FMCG companies, many are still hesitant to engage.

The main barriers block the way: Lack of  experience in digital space,  lack of clarity on measuring the returns on digital,  a data privacy concern, quality of data, insufficient KPI and measuring metrics, Inertia with traditional media  and finally lack of appropriate talent and poor infrastructure support

 

To compete in the digital era, the FMCGs shift through the 5“gears”:

è Stop and rethink the role of digital in their categories, brands and portfolios

è Choose where to focus among consumer and product segments

è  Perfect the online and offline consumer experience

è Reallocate resources in marketing, promotion and research

è Build the capabilities and partnerships necessary to get Results and sustain growths

 

This is where business/ Web analytics plays a very important role, as it allows organisations to derive predictive insights to enable competitive fact based decisions ,armed with deeper insights into consumer behaviour, FMCG manufacturers will be able to direct brand investment, marketing campaigns , promotions , Ad tones and messages , consumer freebies & promotions overall improving the effectiveness of digital activities.

 

 

Key FMCG Insights necessary possible with FMCG Web analytics

Gear 1: Uncover categories’ digital truths

FMCG Companies need to understand how does their categories fit into the digital world, how does their consumer interact with them , consumer them and talk about them , what are the potential profit pools, , marketing and sales efforts in line with their  existing brand strategies .

 

Analytics solution and results

è How Category’s digital involvement and digital density—and trend analytics on- how are they likely to evolve?

è Industry benchmarks for target goals to acquire and engage consumers?

è Which products/ offering are creating more value for the consumer and hence impacting the profit pools changing in the digital world—e.g., which product are becoming commoditized, and which are starting to command a premium?

 

Gear 2: Choose where to focus

 

Next, Companies need to get a granular perspective on their portfolio, including a nuanced understanding detailed consumer behaviour analysis to gain a perspective of most

relevant opportunities , in current and future scenario – taking an omnichannel view to decide how to integrate their e-commerce approach with their offline retailing, in each case thinking through the margin structure for intermediaries and channel partners, the appropriate promotion formats and how best to utilize consumer data and insights.

 

Analytics solution and results

è Segment and prioritise consumers , products , Portfolios

è Capture and analyse consumer feedback across social media by using their behaviours

è Gain competitive insights by analysis consumer interactions with competition brands

è Create a seamless online and offline experience

è Uncover new micro markets or consumer segments

 

Gear 3: Deliver a perfect online experience

Creating and reinforcing a strong brand image, with memorable brand stories across various digital media to engage effectively, with existing and potential new consumers. This would require actionable insights on consumer behaviours, engagements, message impacts, promotion impacts, via various different media source.

Analytics solution and results

The Impact can be easily assessed by using the Google analytics à to understand consumer engagements/ CTRs/ page bounce rates

Gear 4: Reallocate resources

Its important to plan the reallocation of resources in line with the effectiveness of medium, channels, campaigns, on a regular basis, keeping track of consumers behaviour, their evolving media-consumption interaction and engagement habits, and dynamically adjusting advertising spending to match.

This is most effectively managed by judiciously use of web analytics  to run sophisticated analyses for millions of data points about consumer behaviour  and generate actionable insights which can help in timely interventions thus saving cost and resources.

Analytics solution and results

The solution involves three broad activities:

a) Attribution: Quantifying the contribution of each element of advertising

b) Optimisation: Use of predictive analytics tools to run scenarios for business planning

c) Allocation: Real-time redistribution of resources across channels/ ad campaigns to optimisation scenarios

 

Gear 5: Deliver results and sustain Growth

Ongoing investments in analytics, and incorporating analytics as a part of strategy is essential to deliver and sustain the results and benefits of consumer focused initiatives.

 

Analytics solution and results

è A robust web analytics – makes it possible to compare present campaign results over a period of time- thus helping to fine tune

è The web analytics tools helps in understanding changing trends

è Anticipate consumer intent from past behaviour , competition activities and environment

è It helps in getting insights from monitoring associated consumption categories

 

Some of the key Web Analytics tools

1. Comprehensive Tagging of Critical Site Events and Activities

On-site event tracking is important to understand the information their users are looking for on their websites, and the specific activities that they’re engaging in. For an example By implementing comprehensive tagging of the “Where to Buy” – tab  on their websites, its possible to  get the answers to key questions :

è Which products are consumers trying to find the most?

è Which cities/locales are most in-need of specific products?

è Which product/size variants are the most needed or in-demand?

Utilizing this type of information can help to make decisions about supply chain investments and strategies.

2. Configuration of Conversion Activities for Key Site Objectives

To have clearly defined goals—to be disseminated via the brand’s websites, and could cover topics such as:

  • A new launch or initiative
  • Regular, ongoing updates about product launches and new featues
  • Contact resources for consumers to use to directly engage with the organization

By configuring the viewing and engagement with this type of content as “conversions” in analytics tool (Google Analytics, for instance has the “Goals” functionality that allows this), its possible to gage the reach and impact of these key content pieces

3. Optimization of On-Site Messaging and Offers

Using Google Optimize, digital teams can quickly deploy different variants of important corporate messaging, then split-test those different variants in real-time without any on-site code changes necessary. This allows the organization to see which variants of a message are resonating the most with their audience—ensuring that they can quickly pivot their content delivery strategy to have the most impact for their consumers.

Additionally, a tool like Google Optimize also allows for the personalization of website content based on the specific characteristics of a user who is visiting the site. For instance, if an organization knows that their products are currently in high demand in a state, then they can feature specific messaging on their site (through Google Optimize) that will ONLY show to particular users while ther state users may see other targeted, more personalized content.

4. Establishing Audiences to Re-Target Consumers with Important Messages

Creating audience lists in order to remarket product or service offerings differently to first time users and by sending different specific promotional or useful message to retarget concerned consumers with relevant messaging. They can then be informed about the promotions and offers via ads on other websites and social media platforms, rather than them having to continuously return to the site .This ongoing messaging strategy can greatly enhance the information that customers have about the availability of products and services.

5. Deploying Comprehensive Dashboards for Real-Time Impacts

Its possible to create more real-time, agile reporting dashboards , for quick action and turnarounds , for this its important to create and utilizing comprehensive dashboards which will show real-time snapshots of their digital KPIs, rather than relying solely on “deep-dive” reports. A tool like Google Data Studio is perfect for a quick transition to the dashboarding-world. It’s completely free to use and has an easy-to-learn user interface which can quickly surface powerful insights about the key events, conversion goals, and optimization variants that an organization has deployed (as discussed above).

 

Identify the best analytical approaches

          To establish the right marketing mix, organizations need to evaluate the pros and cons of each of the many available tools and methods to determine which best support their strategy.

          Advanced analytics approaches such as marketing-mix modeling (MMM)

          MMM uses big data to determine the effectiveness of spending by channel. This approach statistically links marketing investments to other drivers of sales and often includes external variables such as seasonality and competitor and promotional activities to uncover both longitudinal effects (changes in individuals and segments over time) and interaction effects (differences among offline, online, and—in the most advanced models—social-media activities).

          Heuristics such as reach, cost, quality (RCQ)

          RCQ disaggregates each touchpoint into its component parts—the number of target consumers reached, cost per unique touch, the quality of the engagement—using both data and structured judgment.

          It is often used when MMM is not feasible, such as when there is limited data; when the rate of spending is relatively constant throughout the year, as is the case with sponsorships; and with persistent, always-on media where the marginal investment effects are harder to isolate. RCQ brings all touchpoints back to the same unit of measurement so they can be more easily compared. It is relatively straightforward to execute, often with little more than an Excel model.

          Emerging approaches such as attribution modeling

           

As advertising monies move online, attribution becomes increasingly important for online media buying and marketing execution. Attribution modeling refers to the set of rules or algorithms that govern how credit for converting traffic to sales is assigned to online touch points, such as an e-mail campaign, online ad, social-networking feed, or website.

 

 

The huge data of consumers currently available to make smarter decisions using various analytical tools is the biggest game-changing opportunity  , taking an integrated analytics approach is the key to uncovering meaningful insights and driving above-market growth for brands.

 

è Using analytics to identify valuable business opportunities from the data to drive decisions and improve marketing return on investment (MROI)

è Turning those insights into well-designed products and offers that delight customers

è Delivering those products and offers effectively to the marketplace both online as well as offline

è Helps in moving the consumer across the sales channel.

 

Companies that inject big data and analytics into their operation show productivity rates and profitability that are 5 percent to 6 percent hight than those of their peers.

The pressure on business leaders to demonstrate return on investment from a diverse portfolio of marketing programs is only increasing making , hence this goldmine of data and its analysis represents a pivot-point moment for marketing and sales leaders.

 

References

https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-analytics/our-insights/how-companies-are-using-big-data-and-analytics

https://www.bain.com/insights/adding-to-cart/

https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/McKinsey/Business%20Functions/Marketing%20and%20Sales/Our%20Insights/EBook%20Big%20data%20analytics%20and%20the%20future%20of%20marketing%20sales/Big-Data-eBook.ashx

https://www.pwc.in/assets/pdfs/consulting/technology/data-and-analytics/pwcs-analytics-solutions-for-the-fmcg-sector.pdf

https://brandequity.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/advertising/digital-to-influence-45-billion-of-fmcg-consumption-by-2020-report/60855676

https://infotrust.com/articles/5-analytics-tactics-for-cpg-fmcg-companies-in-crisis-periods/


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