In the previous two articles in this mini-series dedicated to the use and potential of Marketing Automation in FMCG, we analyzed how it is a fundamental tool for your strategy and how it can make your marketing campaigns more effective.Let’s now analyze, taking a cue from a concrete case, how it is possible to leverage Marketing Personalization tools to create a platform that simultaneously allows you to maintain a constant relationship with your consumers, managing to aggregate a community capable of nurturing consumption but above all word of mouth.Let’s take a cue from one of the most successful cases in Italy: “Nel Mulino che Vorrei” by Barilla.
In the mill I would like: the consumer protagonist
Investigating and dialoguing with its consumers, collecting opinions and product advice from them is one of the examples of activities that can create a bond that goes beyond the simple consumption of the product. The platform “In the mill I would like” born, now several years ago, with the intention of collecting ideas from consumers evolves into a hub capable of acting as a collector of their advice but also of building their loyalty through point collections, the disbursement of coupons and gifts that allow them to keep consumers connected. Analyzing the results to date-almost 11,000 ideas generated and more than 1 million comments-it can definitely be said that this is a successful solution, and the key is all in the ability to engage the consumer, making them the protagonist of the brand’s view by also inviting them to comment, vote and share the ideas generated by other people, thus creating a sense of brand ownership and community.
The information gathered from an active community becomes true ongoing market surveys, which turn into a very considerable competitive advantage, allowing us to constantly gather feedback.
How to create and manage an engagement platform?
Creating and managing such a platform, which must necessarily be viewed from an omnichannel perspective, is a feasible task only through tools that enable the collection, analysis, and operation of a multitude of data from different sources.An additional boost can be brought by the analysis and prediction capabilities of technologies based on artificial intelligence.The 4 basic steps must therefore necessarily be:
- Collect data, including from different online and offline sources
- Segment users, determining which segments are the most relevant
- Analyze and predict user behavior
- Personalize and automate communication about each user, whether through website customization or communications via email, text message, or social campaigns.
FMCG brands normally target a large number of consumers, and evolved automation systems therefore represent not only an indispensable operational tool for managing communications with their customers, but also an opportunity to be able to collect and analyze data. The goal of this collection and analysis is obviously to generate important insights for strategic marketing, which allows one to devise new campaigns or refine one’s strategy.It is also very interesting to note how, with the construction of a loyalty program, one can transform a process of collecting ideas into a tool for building consumer loyalty. In fact, it is possible, thanks to artificial intelligence, to be able to interact in a personalized way with its users, gathering information from them that allows us to predict their behavior and offer them products in line with their expectations. Mapping even partially their purchases, trivially by digitizing the old point collection, allows us to analyze their purchasing habits by understanding what they consume and how often. It will then be possible to identify patterns that allow optimizing the proposal (and ultimately the results), exploiting all the data collected both from their offline purchasing behavior and from their interactions with the pages of a portal, as in the case of “The Mill I’d Like.” Returning to our example, it is undoubtedly interesting to understand which ideas are the highest rated, but we can go much further: by what target audience are they voted for? by what type of buyer? by consumers of what product? from what geographic area? and so on…
These are all questions that enable brands to engage with their consumers in a direct and relevant way , bringing them actual value.We are facing a momentous revolution that cannot be missed.
Concluding
We have seen how, even in the case of a FMCG company and in the absence of direct sales through an ecommerce, it is possible to take advantage of the enormous analytics and personalization potential of a marketing automation platform to establish a personalized relationship and dialogue with your consumers.
Don’t miss the next episodes of the series!
