Steps by Steps Guide to Digitally Transform Your FMCG Brands

Digital transformation is the integration of digital technologies into all aspects of business, fundamentally changing the way you operate and deliver value to customers. It is also a cultural change that forces organisations to challenge the status quo, experiment and be comfortable with failure. Since digital transformation will be different for every business, it can be difficult to find a definition that applies to everyone.

However, in general terms, we define digital transformation as the integration of digital technologies into all aspects of business, leading to fundamental changes in the way businesses operate and how they deliver value to customers. Besides that, it is a cultural change that requires organisations to constantly challenge the status quo, stand the test of time, and be comfortable with failure. This sometimes means moving away from long-standing business practices that companies have built in favour of new practices that are still being defined.

How FMCG Brands Are Using Digital Transformation to Accelerate Their Business

Digital transformation is not just about taking advantage of new technologies to speed up business. It is a cultural change and evolution towards digital at the heart of the company. It's a journey many traditional FMCG brands are taking to compete in a market that is now seeing direct consumer start-ups.

Customer watch

Today, having a competitive advantage means being customer oriented. Have a deep understanding of our customer's needs and meet them better than anyone else. Not only do we need customer data (and lots of it), but also ways to collect and interpret data to gain valuable insights into customer behaviour.

Customer experience

Brands continue to strive to provide an increasingly connected customer with a unique experience. Customers want a personal experience and connect with brands on a human level. Digital automation helps reach customers on a large scale, not only with personalised emails and content but also with geolocation targeting and the proliferation of personal AI assistants or chatbots.

Research shows that consumers are also willing to pay more for customised products. Up to 20% more premiums in the UK for example in a YouGov report published by Deloitte. Nutella, Coke, and Marmite are just a few of the FMCG brands that still offer traditional packaging for example.

A new business model

Amazon is in a unique position, with one of the world's leading e-commerce platforms and logistics systems delivering goods on the same day they are ordered to selected locations. Amazon Pantry offers popular food brands, while their newest addition is Amazon's newest food and beverage line. Using existing e-commerce infrastructure, Amazon adjusted the subscription level.

It is personal, convenient, and in the worst case, members only, adding value. Amazon can add its existing Prime community and trust-based reviews. Amazon's subscription service, an incentive and long-term savings for members, leads to savings. With years of access to customer purchase data, they also have information for further product development.

Organisational performance

Selling points are also not always available in stores, especially for the younger generation where it is bigger; Order directly from Uber Eats, Amazon or small shops or craft stores for things like coffee beans, food and spices, fruit juices, olives and more...

The Need of Digital Transformation in FMCG Brands

New marketers, millennials, prefer to search for information on the Internet instead of going to dealers or catalogues. A product or service is first reviewed online before a potential customer enters the business. Therefore, in this era of the digital world, it is not enough to promote only good products.

If statistics are to be believed, in the B2C business model, 81% of customers do online research before buying non-essential items. In the B2B model, 92% of purchasing decisions begin with online digital research.

To be successful, a brand needs to have a good web presence. They have to work hard systematically to improve their digital presence. Traditional methods of marketing require salespeople to create the initial push or "push" through cold calls, potential customer meetings, personal sales presentations, etc.

In today's market, power buyers follow a "pull" logic where they decide when and where the market will take place and how they will want to interact. For this reason, the information must be provided directly and directly to the end customers.

Although offline stores will remain important in the FMCG industry, the rise of digitalisation means that all brands need to improve their online presence through a better website and the use of available social media. various work well and effectively.

Brand trust and loyalty surveys look at brands and social media at an early stage; using this data to help make more productive brand supply decisions. In addition, marketing staff can benefit from personalised recommendations for customers based on customer behaviour data.

They should also look to capitalise on the popularity of e-commerce and social media. Research shows that consumers spend more time on FMCG products online than offline physical stores. Digital technology and the power of Big Data are important tools for the brand to realise its value.

These digital tools allow marketers and marketers to get the reactions of consumers to their products and services accurately and engagingly to create a strong sales force. and powerful. Traders can see different trends and start trading.

FMCG's efforts to create and build awareness in the emerging retail industry are real. However, the unique insights provided by Big Data help customers to differentiate themselves from competitors by creating new products with better focus, which ultimately results in increased revenue.

By combining digital technology with the abundance of data that supports it, brands have developed new and effective methods to improve customer engagement, which in turn influences purchasing decisions.

Benefits of Digital Transformation

Here are 9 business benefits of digital transformation you can't afford to miss:

1. Increases customer satisfaction

One of the most obvious benefits of digitisation in business is that you will be able to implement strong digital applications and strategies, such as the change of license from the site or the office in an automated process. These digitised processes directly lead to increased customer satisfaction.

2. Provides data-driven insights

One of the most important benefits of digital transformation is that your business will be able to collect and analyse data that you can turn into actionable, revenue-generating insights. In the past, your data has been expelled in several data that connects, or bad, you can receive and use data and use all data compiled. Digital changes will permit the hard data package, centre data and the gender of the device to review and translate data promoting serious determination.

3. Makes software available

Today, every business leader knows that they need to move from a product-centric to a software-centric approach and software financing provides the best business and investment opportunities. However, many companies are stuck in the hole because they don't know how to start monetisation engines.

4. Enhances user experience

High-value companies know that they don't just deliver products, they deliver experiences. Digital transformation enables effortless, beautiful experiences based on automation, AI, and self-service tools. Prove you've embraced the digital age by providing customers with a seamless user experience.

5. Encourage cooperation and improve communication

To drive innovation and productivity, you need a digital platform that promotes communication and collaboration between all internal departments. Digital transformation eliminates back-end communication, redundancies, slow response times, information loss, and inefficient idea sharing. When you improve communication within your company, you increase productivity, compliance, and creativity, and gain the edge you need to stay ahead of the competition.

6. Increases performance

Products are changing, reliable income streams are drying up, and customer needs are very different than they were just a few years ago. The solution? Digital Transformation Strategy. With the power of the digital business environment, your business will be able to anticipate challenges and develop solutions effectively to stay alive for years to come.

7. Eliminate human error

The obvious benefit of going digital is that digital systems eliminate errors by eliminating time-consuming manual data entry and human inefficiencies. Digital systems are more sensitive and riskier than any human-based system that is prone to errors.

8. Fosters the best employee environment

One of the keys to a successful digital transformation is getting widespread corporate buy-in. You need to create a company culture where it is clear to everyone that they will eventually see the benefits of going digital. To get employee buy-in, invest in digital training for your employees. Organise in-house webinars, attend conferences, and send your employees to courses that will update their skills.

9. Increases operational efficiency

Digital transformation gives you increased operational efficiency. You can streamline manual processes and reduce overhead by integrating with backend systems, streamlining delivery and product updates, enabling device activation, managing multiple product types, etc. With a digital marketing strategy, you'll save time, close financial gaps, and reduce frustration.

What Factors Lie Behind the Need for Digital Transformation in The FMCG Sector?

First, private label products increase shelf space every year. Manufacturers compete against each other. But now, retailers such as supermarkets and pharmacies have become producers themselves, so they are also competitors. Realtors are aggressively selling home brands to differentiate themselves from the competition and generate higher margins.

This is a growing trend these days. Second, new players are selling directly to consumers (D2C), bypassing retail channels. Products from these brands are usually more expensive than the typical offerings from major manufacturers. Consumer preferences are highly fragmented.

People are increasingly willing to pay top dollar for what they love when it comes to consumer packaged good. So, the competition is fierce as these brands fight with the big manufacturers for a share of the action. Third, manufacturers do not have final purchase data, a problem that has plagued FMCG manufacturers for years. They sell directly, so they don't have perfect data, but it's nowhere close.

So, they faced a dilemma. They don't know exactly what kind of people buy their products through the sales channel. In addition to these three industry-specific challenges, there is a fourth: weak spending due to Japan's declining population and the COVID-19 pandemic.

FMCG manufacturers are increasingly considering digital transformation as a way to change the tide. They want to apply the concept of lifetime value (LTV). This means communicating directly with the customer and using data to understand who they are. It also means implementing programs that make customers love the product more, so they buy it.

Steps For Digitally Transforming Your FMCG Brand

How to succeed in your digital transformation? Consider these ideas:

1. Change your thinking from product focus to customer focus

If you understand your customers' problems well and provide them with a personalised experience that can solve their problems, they will become your loyal customers. Take the example of restaurants, instead of promoting their food and menus more, they are making changes to provide customers with regular delivery services by partnering with technology companies.

2. Enhancement by creating new digital experiences

Consumers now expect stores and businesses to create customised digital content, quickly and cheaply (or even for free). Therefore, entrepreneurs must adapt to this trend and increase the speed of digital, collaboration and content creation to engage their customers.

3. Make customer journeys independent of technical teams

You can easily find no-code platforms. For example, Squarespace and Canva for website content and design; WordPress and Wix for hosting; Hotjar and Google Analytics for analytics monitoring. Codeless technology is designed for entrepreneurs who may not have the technical skills or design background to successfully build a digital experience without hiring a third party.

4. Support remote users and automation

With the help of technology, employees no longer need to work in the same place all the time; Robots can take over some jobs. For example, in retail, store robots are used to perform business tasks such as checking merchandise at store doors and fulfilling orders in real-time.

5. It's time for digital transformation

COVID-19 is truly a wake-up call for businesses to embrace digital transformation. It may not be easy to change the way you do business long-term, but be aware in the beginning

FMCG Industry Trends

If you watch TV, use the Internet, or go to a supermarket, you've probably seen some trends affecting the production, marketing, and sales of consumer goods, but it is FMCG in short. Here are some of the key FMCG trends, and challenges, for 2022 we are watching:

Consumers want quality

As consumers and their families lead busy lives, they want more convenience, especially when it comes to shopping. There has been an increase in professional restaurant delivery services, such as Uber Eats, Grubhub and Deliveroo, and others, such as Blue Apron in the US and Les Commis in France, which distribute groceries with recipes and ingredients in 'the customer's door. Supermarkets are also upping their game by offering more ready-to-go meal options, from pre-cut fruit-vegetable-vegetable packs to three-course dinners.

Health is an important consumer interest

Seemingly healthy low-sodium, low-fat and sugar-free products have been around for decades. However, other options previously only found in speciality health food stores have found their way into "regular" stores, as consumers seek out foods and beverages that they believe will be less harmful or active in their health. Products such as plant-based protein milk (such as soy or almond milk), lab-grown "cultured meats," and non-alcoholic "mocktails" are gaining acceptance.

Eco-conscious consumers

Consumers are increasingly aware of the negative effects of FMCG production and its by-products. Products labelled as "organic" and "local" are growing in popularity, as is the adoption of plant-based foods.

Customers want experience

CPG manufacturers have realised that consumers, especially millennials and Gen Zers, are more interested in experiences than actual products. Therefore, industry players want to create experiences around their products and encourage participation among consumers by investing in digital capabilities to enable well-organised communication through social media and king and city management.

Use technology

Technology is a phenomenon that lasts for a while and continues for some time and is constantly changing. Today, it is more important than ever for consumers to stay on the cutting edge of this technology as it develops.

Smartphones are now an extension of reality, so marketing brands need new ways to reach customers, improve their experience, drive engagement, and deliver exciting products and ideas that match their values. Using data can help a brand understand how its customers interact with it today and how it can use customer insights to work in its favour.

In Summary

Creating and implementing a digital transformation plan doesn't have to be a challenge. With the help of the right digital adoption strategy, you can define your processes and procedures to affect the efficiency and effectiveness of employees across all departments. With the right support and expertise, you can make any changes and surpass the market.