In the Rs. 4.3 trillion Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) market of India, improving awareness, easy accessibility, and remodeling conduct according to circumstances has always been the major mode of evolution. The growing FMCG sector is now India’s fourth-largest sector of the Indian economy with 50% sales and 55% revenue in the urban segment. However, during the nationwide lockdown a year ago, India witnessed the hurting FMCG growth.
During January-March 2020, the market saw a development of 3% and a 19% fall from April to June. But, though, 2020 was a challenging year for FMCG markets but 2021 is rewarding. According to the released FMCG snapshot for Q1 2021 by Nielson IQ’s Intelligence team, the FMCG industry in India experienced accelerated growth of 9.4% in the quarter ending March 2021 after 7.3% in the previous quarter (October-December 2020). Comparatively, the FMCG market in rural India has shown more growth than in urban India over the last few years.
Key Takeaways
- India’s FMCG market is growing, with 50% sales and 55% revenue in urban areas.
- The FMCG industry in India experienced accelerated growth in Q1 2021 after a challenging 2020.
- FMCG companies have adapted digital marketing strategies to cope with the pandemic.
- Consumer goods are available through various outlets, including e-commerce.
- FMCG marketing has evolved with the rise of digital marketing and the impact of the pandemic.
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FMCG companies are one of the biggest beneficiaries to cope up with the wave of change in the ongoing pandemic. To start with, FMCGs have adopted comprehensive digital marketing strategies with massive marketing budgets in 2021 considering the changing times and penetration of the internet in our lives. So also, as consumption in India grows at an unprecedented rate, the availability of these consumer goods is available at different outlets like supermarkets, grocery stores, superstores, hypermarkets, warehouses, or online through e-commerce.Â
To educate you more: from fundamentals of FMCG, and FMCG marketing plan to FMCG digital marketing tactics in detail, as a Digital Marketing Agency in Mumbai, we have curated the following topics:
What is FMCG?
Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) are consumer-centric goods that are available at low rates and consumed daily basis at a rapid pace. With fulfilling all the essentials of household and personal care such as detergents, toiletries, tooth cleaning products, cosmetics, footwear, etc.
The FMCG sector in India also comprises consumer packaged food packets, consumer electronics, beverages, chocolates, and pharmaceuticals. Nestle India, Coca-Cola, Hindustan Unilever Ltd, Patanjali, Britannia Industries, ITC Limited are some examples of the FMCG companies in India. Â
What are the market segments of the FMCG companies in Mumbai?
 The FMCG sector of India has market segments like:
- Home care
- Health care
- Beverages & Food
- Personal care
What are the key attributes of the FMCG industry?Â
The FMCG industry has an agile business as it showcases the faster rotation of goods. But consumers are finding it interesting, easy, and advantageous features with a great shopping experience-online or physical.Â
The key attributes of the FMCG industry:
- Grasping the aggressive edge of the business sector
- Wide and controlled distribution with large stockpile turnover
- Managing visibility and timely availability
- Routine inventory distribution and regular acquisition by customers
- Maximum volume of goods with lower prices and less durability
But, to maintain these and sustain them during the global crises was very difficult after the announcement of nationwide lockdown by the Indian Government. This resulted in the worst economic slowdown in a decade that the Government was surviving before the outbreak of the pandemic Covid-19.
This lead the FMCG companies in India to paved the way towards FMCG Digital Marketing Agency in Mumbai for techniques and strategies to combat pandemic crises, and the convenience of customers while maintaining Covid-19 social distancing norms and retailing consumer goods in 2021.Â
But first, let us tell you:
What is FCMG marketing?Â
Gone are the days, when FMCG advertising or digital marketing for fmcg brands was done through mediums like newspapers, banners, and door-to-door salesman, and radio advertisements to convey one message to a diverse crowd and hope for success.
But, today, the digital marketing strategy of FMCG companies has gained momentum in recent times, and FMCGs are evolving their marketing strategies and tactics. With the change in the medium of communication, the FMCG industry has adopted the much-needed modern transformation.Â
Here, we say much needed because the turmoil of pandemic Covid-19 has had a wavy effect over every business-managerial oversight, training, and compliance, and coordination between cross-functional teams. In the toughest battle of survival, all businesses are forced to evaluate if it is worth spending after digital marketing when consumers are reluctant to buy.
According to reports, amidst the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020, ad revenues and earnings from social media platforms like Facebook were sharply reduced across various verticals like retail, travel, FMCG, and entertainment whereas they contribute 30% to 45% of total revenue generation for companies.
As a proficient Digital Marketing Agency in Mumbai, we believe that in such a situation, every business must reevaluate their financial and marketing strategies based on art, science, and pressure and heighten the strategy to a few notches higher.Â
But how can you do that? Optimize your business website to add a great website experience. Remember it is a must to focus on the good and high quality, easily accessible check-out process and robust plan for conversion. So your e-commerce can create a great impact on digital marketing while facing sustainability challenges.
But this should be executed with a well-planned to sustain during an outbreak. The digital marketing activities must go on without any interruption. It is critical for brand safety. Therefore, you must take better and more effective digital marketing strategies as a leading brand mechanism to improve brand visibility and drive conversions.
Now, as a leading Digital Marketing Agency in Mumbai, let us update you and discuss in brief the FCMG digital marketing strategy adopted in 2023:
1. User-generated content (UGC):
Through the traditional medium, only one-way communication was allowed i.e. only the company product promotion to the users. Now, the inception of digital platforms has reformed the communication scenario between companies and users.Â
Now with the help of social media, smart organizations allow their users to do their promotion drills through UGC or User Generated Content strategy. In this strategic technique, the FMCG user promotes the product or service through a social media story or post, tagging and sharing hashtags.
Such content strategy plays a pivotal role and is a great piece of digital word of mouth. FMCG also relies on this strategy more as it is considered the most authentic and trusted medium of digital marketing. UGC’s FMCG digital marketing strategy also enables the user to share and talk about the brand with simultaneously increasing the brand’s recognized authenticity by the people who notice their friends’ social media posts and stories.Â
The best user-generated content marketing of 2021, surely and unsurprisingly is Netflix because the company itself is content-oriented. Who does not like entertainment and good content? People are bound to create and share UGC. Netflix has initiated the #Whats Your Power campaign and used this brand hashtag to boost audience engagement on TikTok by deploying a branded effect that allowed users to recognize what their superpowers were. Though the outcomes were not similar for every user as they were designed to reflect users, people excitedly participated and shared in the campaign with over 1,00,000 user-generated videos are being posted to TikTok.
2. Customer-centric content marketing:
The traditional and most common practice of FMCG product marketing was only talking about attributes through mediums like televisions, newspapers, and radios with the same product message. Such tactics were not effective, individually appealing, and helpful to the product.
The arrival of the game-changer digital marketing strategy of FMCGs in India changed everything. With customer-oriented content, FMCG products and brands engaged and showed the people what they use and enable brand recognition with smart digital content efforts so that each customer receives more personalized branding and relevant advertisements. FMCGs have heavily capitalized on this trend. Starbucks is one such FMCG company that has adopted the customer-centric content marketing strategy in 2021.
3. Automated e-mail marketing:
Automated e-mail marketing is the newest innovation in marketing. This e-mail marketing is also known as Drip Marketing. For instance, when a customer signs up, one email will be sent regarding the same. Next, after signing up, if the customer goes and puts an item in their online cart, but does not check out, later another intimation mail will be sent to complete the purchase formalities and so on.
Automated e-mails are a great way to hold a customer. By sending specialized triggered emails, you can communicate with your customers in a better way to guide them to make a purchase. Such e-mails can also assist you to retain your old customers.
In 2021, focus on data privacy is the ongoing email marketing trend. According to Google, only 8% of consumers trust brands for the safety of their personal information. So providing the thoughtful unsubscribe option from mailing lists ensures the list fresh list.Â
BBlunt is the best example of this new marketing technique. With the success of their hair brands, they created a brilliant digital e-mail marketing plan for FMCG cosmetic products.
4. Online reputation management:
When customers dive into online shopping, one of the crucial factors before making a purchase is online reviews. All the e-commerce websites maintain a review section where every customer who has made the purchase can put a review. These reviews enable the rise in the authenticity of the product and create trust with the customer that the product quality and usage are pleasant.Â
Customers who write reviews are the most engaged users of the brand; hence a conversation with such customers is pivotal. This process of engaging the users in digital marketing is called ORM. Every FMCG can capitalize on each positive review overcoming all the negative reviews with a proper ORM strategy.
In our view, Amazon and Grofers are the best examples who adopted this strategy in 2021. Surveys say that 78% of consumers trust and give the same importance as any personal recommendations. Therefore, ORM is very imperative, especially for physical products.Â
5. Hosting in-house e-commerce stores:
It will be weird to say that FMCGs do not have their e-commerce stores on their brand websites. FMCGs possessing a portal like Amazon and Facebook add an advantage to capture their customers everywhere.Â
Baba Ramdev promoted FMCG brand Patanjali by announcing the launch of its e-commerce platform www.patanjaliayurved.net which helped them to make sales of more than 10 crores in December at the time of the trial phase of the portal.Â
6. Influencer marketing to achieve mass appeal:
Influencer marketing has become a big trend in 2021. This trend includes brands looking for ongoing partnerships, and the growing popularity of micro and nano influencers, performance-based deals, and different types of social media platforms. As per Google, this has expected to reach $ 13.8 billion in 2021.Â
From the hype Auditor’s report, we understood that half of the surveyed influencers (48.5%) make money from their Instagram account. On average, an influencer earns about $2970 per month.Â
7. Social media presence:
In 2021, social media assistance and existence have improved FMCG products sales. As a social media marketing agency in Mumbai, the priority of FMCG brands is to own their brand space on social media platforms. These suggest that the brand needs to be significantly outstanding when a user searches for the brand names in channels like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Linked In, Youtube, and Google.
The influence and adaption make social media a space for generating incredible ROI.
Trends shaping the future of the FMCG industry in India
The FMCG industry in India is undergoing rapid transformation, with several trends shaping its future. The increasing penetration of digital technology and the rise of e-commerce are changing the way consumers interact with brands, and FMCG companies are adopting new digital marketing plan for FMCG products to keep pace.
Additionally, consumers are demanding more sustainable and environmentally friendly products, and FMCG companies are responding by investing in eco-friendly packaging and using natural ingredients in their products. The growing middle-class population and rising incomes are driving demand for premium and niche products, which is creating new opportunities for companies to diversify their offerings.
Lastly, the focus on health and wellness is leading to an increase in demand for healthy and organic products, and companies are responding by launching new product lines in this area. Overall, the FMCG industry in India is poised for continued growth and evolution in the coming years.
Conclusion:
As an FMCG marketing agency, we would suggest digital marketing for FMCG brands for visibility and dominance in the marketplace online. This is possible by providing relevant content related to brands and product ranges. For this SEO can help here with the dominant keywords where customers are looking for a product to fulfill needs. According to India Social Statistics 2021 available on Google, the number of social media users via mobile has reached 444 million out of 572 million mobile internet users.Â
If you want more information for your FMCG marketing companies and to stay connected with your audience, sign up here or buzz us here.
I recently started my business of FMCG goods and wanted to do digital advertising and was looking for Digital Marketing Agency in Mumbai. In this blog, I started relating to the things mentioned here and got a brief idea of where to start. Thank you.
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