FMCG brands in emerging markets have realized that digitization is more than just a buzzword and that digital commerce, data analytics and other solutions will transform every aspect of their businesses. Many FMCG leaders have even set ambitious goals to reduce costs and increase revenues with a focus on digitizing sales and marketing processes as more of their customers move online. This is a well-considered move as new or repeat orders made through digital channels rose to 50 percent in 2019, representing trillions of dollars in value.
Despite FMCG sales and marketing leaders understanding the importance of digitizing sales and marketing, only a few brands have made extensive efforts to drive digital transformation, and the few that have, struggled to execute such initiatives successfully. Industry statistics show that as much as 70 percent of digital transformation initiatives fail to reach their stated goals. Too often, “going digital” has meant loosely connecting pockets of digital activity instead of developing and implementing a coherent and unified digital strategy.
To have any hope of competing with smaller, digital-first brands who are growing rapidly, large FMCG brands will have to combine a step-change in leadership with intelligent change management to transform how the organization works and build an automated sales and marketing engine that will drive growth over the long term.
Drive transformation with an automated sales and marketing engine
In many FMCG companies, marketing and sales departments operate in their own silos, each having their separate organization, processes, and objectives, and is further complicated by a web of organizational complexity where sales units are structured around customer segments, products, or geolocations.
FMCG sales and marketing leaders must transform their sales and marketing processes, especially on how they engage retailers, use technology, and structure their teams. Whilst it can be difficult to change long-standing ways of working, the cost of resisting change grows higher. Brands that fail to co-operate closely and build an automated sales and marketing engine will misallocate resources, alienate their customers, and lose them to smaller, more agile brands who are deep-rooted in their communities and can directly engage with retailers. Large FMCG brands that get this transformation right, however, display impressive results, including a 15 to 30 percent improvement in marketing efficiency and a 20 to 50 percent higher ROI on marketing spend.
To digitally transform how their organizations work and build an automated sales and marketing engine, FMCGs must:
- Invest in understanding how customers use digital: Many FMCGs think they know their customers well, when in fact they do not. Understanding how distributors, merchants and retailers use digital technologies is key to redefining how FMCG sales and marketing teams engage customers. To achieve this, companies must invest in technologies, data, and analytics that improve insights into buying behavior and help provide more relevant, personalized experiences that improve customer engagement and increase sales velocity.
- Integrate technology and data across marketing and sales: Building the right digital solution that connects both marketing and sales teams and processes are critical. Many brands struggle to achieve this as marketing and sales technology platforms continue to grow rapidly. However, it is increasingly important to integrate all the components of sales and marketing such as sales CRM, marketing automation, and data analytics into a technology stack, so that the solution supports a well-executed, integrated go-to-market approach.
- Integrate with channel partners: The traditional distribution chain leaves FMCGs competing with their channel partners and restricts valuable data from flowing through the chain. To succeed, brands must extend their digital systems and data to connect with distributors, retailers, and merchants to collaborate, not compete. For example, direct connection to merchants will allow sales and marketing teams to access valuable data at POS and receive direct feedback on the success of any campaigns or promotions.
The needs of merchants and retailers today are changing, and understanding this changing behavior, as well as the evolving role FMCG marketing and sales teams must play in the new digital economy is vital to designing a go-to-market approach that can capture market share and drive growth.
Build your sales and marketing engine with RedCloud
To successfully drive digital transformation, FMCGs need a solution that integrates data across the distribution chain while providing actionable insights that sales and marketing teams can leverage to drive sales. RedCloud has built the world’s first open commerce platform to unlock the full value of the distribution chain and enable cross-functional collaboration across FMCG sales and marketing teams.
For the first time, sales and marketing have equal access to syndicated data at POS that deliver insights into where the demand for products is and who is buying their products. With RedCloud, FMCGs gain a sales and marketing engine that integrates data across both departments. This results in increased sales-force efficiency by up to 15 percent, as less time is spent physically visiting merchants, and the time saved can be re-invested in revenue-generating activities. Marketing efficiency is also improved as FMCG marketers spend less time trying to understand the data available and more time leveraging the data to create targeted campaigns that drive sales and increase revenue.
Schedule a demo today to see how RedCloud is helping FMCGs increase revenue by up to 25 percent with an automated sales and marketing engine.
