Summary
Our strategy has been to grow organically at a steady pace and move from being an offline brand to an online brand in the short term and becoming an omnichannel brand in the medium to long term. Unlike other brands, for social media influencers, our approach has always been to let them create content in their style vs. seeding the same. It gives their followers an authentic view of SMOOR from their influencer All
Challenge
Pre Covid, SMOOR chocolates was primarily an offline business anchored with its brick and mortar stores. business model. Pre-covid share of online sales from all channels was less than 10%. Once COVID struck the brand had to go omnichannel. The team worked on increasing presence and visibility across all online channels - from food aggregator channels Swiggy & Zomato, to delivery apps like Dunzo. The brand also invested in upgrading their D2C website smoor.in targeting its existing store customers and acquiring new customers too. The challenge was to get not only existing store customers to order online but also to acquire new customers given the concern many customers had to interact with delivery people.
Objective
The brand focussed on implementing easy to access menu with deals and combos on food aggregator channels. We also advertised on these platforms to capitalise on visibility and grow our customer base. For the D2C website, there was a multi-media digital campaign run on Google and Instagram. With the website delivering to over 9,000 pin codes, it was necessary to also capture customers in newer markets. Further to ensure repeat purchases from existing customers, a loyalty program activation was done
Strategy
Our first strategy was to increase awareness as we had grown our geographic reach. Also, at the start of the pandemic, the no. of operational restaurants was less and customer base too had shrunk due to concerns on interacting with delivery person. Hence we had to assuage customer fears of safety. Then we tapped into the trends of #wfhcooking #lockdownmeals etc giving customers reason to order from us and indulge too. Content creation was defined by the themes – new flavours, new products, special family pack sizes as well as safety. We also focussed on festive specials to ensure our customers could celebrate remotely by ordering with us for their family members in other parts of the same city or at different cities Our performance marketing campaigns focussed on same while social media focussed on how celebrating from afar was also something you could do in a pandemic. Key highlights of our execution are: • Different flavours into content creation for increase customer engagement • Enhancing two-way communication street by introducing contests • There was increased use of videos as people were consuming more content from home • Development of customized products basis comments received and customer portfolios. For example, we added interesting elements to festive special range like the Raksha Bandhan / Friendship Day. Identifying the love for Spotify basis the social media engagement, we got siblings / friends to send not just chocolates but also a spotify playlist with the chocolate box. In short we added fun to gifting and creating a bond. We leveraged the same via our social media conversations • Getting influencer reaction into picture to build upon their increasing followers
Data
Our data showed that customers wanted to celebrate but the celebrations were smaller due to lockdown guidelines. We introduced half kg cakes so that celebrations could still progress. We saw a growth in home cooking and customers wanting to eat restaurant-style food at home. Hence, to enable our customers to indulge, we focussed on new products that met with the customer requirement for indulging at home - gourmet bread, dips and sauces. Seeing growth in demand for dark chocolate and immunity based food items, a range of dark chocolates with immunity building herbs was created. Aggregator sales data showed how customers were looking for more variety due to higher ordering in, we created combos to ensure repeat sales.
Solution
"WE eat with our eyes" was the creative approach to our social media and digital campaigns. Great pictures of our chocolates, cakes and desserts with a focus on more video content was the approach We also ran contest to not just engage our followers but also giving them a chance to indulge. For occasions like Mother's Day, Father's Day, Friendship Day and Raksha Bandhan, we focussed on getting customers feel connected to their near and dear one.
Results
The results witnessed were beyond our expectations. Enclosed are the highlights: - • Our consistent efforts led to organic rise of the followers on our social media platforms. We witnessed more than 5X growth in the number of followers in a span of 8 months. • We found our audience portfolio to go beyond the regular • Our brand became aspirational to many and hence we increased our product portfolios in the last one year despite the COVID times • Our business metrics came back to pre-covid levels in 6 months time. In fact we experienced growth across all metrics. Sales from aggregator channels grew by 10x and on our D2C website by 20x. • Our brand was defined by statements such as "When you want to impress someone you give them smoor" • We underwent a 360-degree reform in our business and marketing approach i.e., from being 90% offline to 90% online, achieving the desired metrics
