Summary
Aashirvaad deployed full-funnel customer acquisition & retention strategy on Amazon to grow sales for MG & SRC Atta. Health-conscious and diabetes-diagnosed TGs were identified. Amazon ads were shown to target audience at various stages of customer journey. We saw 139% & 104% increase in volumes for MG & SRC compared to previous quarter. We achieved 20% increase in New-to-Brand consumers. Campaign led to 22% increase in repeat purchases & 38% increase in lifetime-value of customer-purchase.
Challenge
When Aashirvaad's healthy variants - Multigrain (MG) Atta and Sugar Release Control (SRC) Atta were launched on Amazon, not many people were inclined towards consuming healthy atta because of the common myth was that it is ‘not tasty' or ‘bitter in taste'. The brand's major challenge was to combat this preconceived notion. Aashirvaad wanted to focus on these 2 categories considering the low competition in the category as well as the day-by-day increase in health conscious and diabetes diagnosed consumers. Aashirvaad was clueless at first on how to promote these healthy atta variants for business and volume growth at a justifiable ROI. Although, the name Aashirvaad had an impact on consumers' minds regarding the credibility & quality, but the major challenge was to build a habit of consuming a more evolved kind of atta which needed to be a continuously bought product.
Objective
With the pandemic adversely affecting the offline markets, regional and national brands in staples' category clamored to shift their focus to online sales. It became imperative for ITC Foods' crowning glory – Aashirvaad Atta to maintain its no.1 position within the category. To achieve this aim, strategies were tweaked to incorporate an integrated growth plan on Amazon platform for Multigrain (MG) Atta & Sugar Release Control (SRC) Atta. The business objectives for these 2 variants were defined as follows: 1. Gain higher market share within the flour category for Multigrain Atta 2. Building awareness for Sugar release control flour meant specifically for diabetes patients & increasing the rate of New-to-brand customers (haven't bought in the last one year) 3. Increasing RoI through repeat purchases as well as upgrading customer from normal (low ASP) Aashirvaad atta to MG/SRC based on their need state
Strategy
Based on the objective & target audience, a full-funnel campaign approach spanning across 6 months was deployed which harnessed the entire ad suite offered by Amazon. For Top funnel: Ad creatives emphasizing on ‘include fiber in your diet' for MG atta & ‘Keep diabetes in control, naturally' for SRC Atta were targeted to consumers outside of Amazon basis their purchase & browse behavior on Amazon. On clicking the ad, consumers were taken to the product page which was designed to educate them about the health benefits of switching from a basic chakki atta to a multigrain atta. In the case of SRC, importance of low Glycemic index in flour to control sugar level & staying active was highlighted. This ensured that various need state of the consumer looking to buy an upgraded form of atta was addressed. For Mid-funnel: This included targeting consumers for similar products or competition as well as building an audience pool, from the top funnel to target them on Amazon Homepage & Product pages of competition brands. Vendor powered coupons were offered to such consumers landing on the page (e.g. 20% off shown only to diabetic cohorts to drive conversions) as they were already in the consideration bucket & could easily be lured into buying the product through an offer/discount. For Bottom Funnel: Since 70% of purchases happen through search, we targeted high intent keywords & products such as other competition brands, Aashirvaad base variant as well as retargeting browsers of MG & SRC atta where conversion rate benchmarks were higher than any other ad inventory. Since search campaigns were based on Cost per click model, the cost of acquisition too was lower than banner ads with limited reach.
Data
Amazon works on cost-per-click model which becomes expensive with rise in competition. Since MG & SRC atta were new as a concept, we knew that reaching out to consumers & building a strong consideration dialogue with them would be relatively cheaper. Aashirvaad is also the market leader for their regular atta range. We knew deploying the right messaging on banners while consumers browse or search & further landing them on a page with all health essential variants of atta would lead to a seamless & effective consumer experience. Second important insight was given by Amazon that healthy product buyers like olive oil, brown rice, etc. have a higher propensity to buy multigrain atta. Identifying relevant target audience was vital. Amazon helped in this as it allowed targeting audience both on and off platform through DSP. Through extensive category research, health-conscious people with affinity towards fibre, vitamin, superfood-based products were identified as the relevant prospective buyers of Multigrain atta. The TG incorporated browsers/ buyers/searchers of Low carb foods, flours, weight watchers, cereals & muesli, whole grains, Dried Fruits, Honey, Green Tea, etc. For SRC atta, consumers based on their browsing and buying patterns on Amazon of diabetes care products, glucometers, sugar-free products, karela, jamun extracts, etc were identified as the key target audience. Existing consumers of Aashirvaad base variant (Shudh Chakki Atta) and cross-category browsers & discerning consumers of brown rice, rice bran oil, etc were targeted too. Consumers typically buy 70% of their household & grocery supplies during first 7 days of the month a.k.a Super Value Days (SVD). We planned to deploy around 40% of our budgets towards SVD. Since about 90% purchases happens through mobile, the budget allocation was also more focused on mobile.
Solution
Below is a detailed description of the full-funnel (awareness to purchase) execution plan: Top Funnel Activity (Prospecting) – Off Amazon platform campaigns were run during the first 2 months where consumers on various partner websites were targeted through Amazon DSP system. The TG mentioned above for each MG & SRC were exposed to banner ads basis the recency of their purchase/interest, communicating the benefits of the product in their daily lives & landing them on to the product pages. Mid-funnel Activity (Engaging) – From 3rd month onwards, ads were shown within Amazon's environment across relevant consumer touch points, which led them to click & visit the product page thus increasing Click throughs & Detailed Page Views. The informative product page with additional coupon aided in increased view to purchase ratio. Bottom-Funnel Activity (Converting & Remarketing) - Search ads targeting category, brand, generic, competition & allied keywords as well as products were employed right from the start to tap on buyer intent. This ensured consistent visibility on platform when consumers searched or browsed for similar or competition products. Apart from this, remarketing ads targeting browsers/lapsers of the brand closed the audience shopping journey loop. Keywords were divided into 5 buckets: 1. Competition – Ex. Fortune atta 2. Cross-trading – Ex. Olive Oil 3. Discoverability – Ex. Diabetes products on Amazon 4. Up-trading – Ex. Aashirvaad Chakki Atta 5. Brand – Ex. Aashirvaad Multigrain Atta Since about 90% purchases happens through mobile, the PDP was optimized as per the screen size keeping the creative best practices in mind. Ex. Since the first scroll on mobile view only has product images, we integrated benefits & other health & ingredient related information within the images.
Results
We observed 50% increase in RoI through bottom funnel intervention & overall RoI achieved from the full-funnel strategy was 12.5. We also saw an uptick of 139% & 104% increase in volumes for MG & SRC respectively during the full funnel activation when compared to previous quarter when there was no media deployment. The annual volume growth for MG Atta grew by 153% & that of SRC by 64%. While achieving the set goals was our primary objective, we also intended on inculcating a habit amongst the Indian audiences of choosing more nutritious & beneficial atta. This was, was to a certain extent achieved with increase in the retention rate post the campaign execution. In a highly penetrated category like Flour, we saw a share gain of about 2% and achieved 20% increase in New-to-Brand consumers. We observed 80%+ adoption by consumers in various ‘Diabetic' cohorts & a sustained retention post reduction of VPC from 20% to 15% on removal of the promo. In addition, the campaign led to 22% increase in repeat purchases & 38% increase in Lifetime value of customer purchase implying that consumers successfully upgraded to this healthier atta range. The Share of searches & Detailed page views indicated interest risen amongst the TG which was higher than category growth on the platform. While searches within category grew by 1.9x when compared to the previous year, Aashirvaad grew by 2x. On the other hand, brand's detailed page views grew by 20%.
