Lessons from 7 Consumer Brands That Have Mastered Omnichannel Marketing

In the post pandemic world, one thing is clear -Businesses need to get on the ball when it comes to digital transformation as it is on a hyperdrive.

A lot of businesses have adapted self-service hubs, eCommerce websites, and omnichannel approaches. These unprecedented times forced brands to focus on enabling remote experiences that are personalized, with sharp execution of omnichannel strategy.

What exactly is Omnichannel Marketing?

Omnichannel Marketing is a multichannel sales approach highly curated to offer an effortless buying experience to patrons. This approach uses the customer’s perspectives and interests to optimize the consistency of the company's marketing pitch and customer journey. By integrating the power of available communication channels, marketing teams can make use of omnichannel marketing methods to deliver more compatible and compelling information.

Omnichannel Gives the Consumer Choice
According to the Harvard Business Review from Brighton USA, 73% of customers shop across multiple channels, yet the most typical first touchpoint starts online. For those consumer brands, wanting to drive sales, omnichannel strategies offer a way forward.

Businesses often understand omnichannel as buying online, online to offline (O2O), or making a purchase from physical stores through Local Inventory Ads (LIAs). But a typical customer shopping journey can either be Onsite or Offsite.

We did some research into prominent consumer brands implementing Omnichannel Marketing and found some interesting juice to share. What these consumer brands are doing can be used as a guiding compass to define omnichannel marketing strategy.

1. Nestle Food and Beverage Company expanding with Marketplace Commerce
Nestle has built up its global presence in e-commerce by signing a partnership with Alibaba in China, to expand online sales, grow crucial brands and offer new products to millions of customers. With the intent of tapping into China’s frequently digital consumption patterns.

Nestle says their partnership with marketplace Alibaba is all about the consumers. They announce - China is the relevant place to mark Nestle’s incumbent 150-year growth story as Chinese buyers are quicker to adopt new consumption technologies, and have a prominent passion for innovation.

“E-commerce is becoming the greatest growth driver for Nestle business in China,” which has become the company’s second-largest market worldwide, declared Vice President Wan Ling Martello.



Alibaba selling Nestle products

2. Kraft Heinz – the fifth-largest Food & Beverage Company across the globe, expanding with Mobile App Marketing
Kraft’s Philadelphia brand is using Mobile app marketing to drive up in-store sales by creating rewards based on buying behavior. Here buyers scan the barcode of the item they’re purchasing in the Kraft app, snap a shot of their receipt, and rack up loyalty points that can be converted into cash-back savings.

Allowing consumers to pull out their phones in the aisle, check the offers and revert the savings into a payout, the consumer gets various opportunities for increased customer engagement and brand loyalty. Kraft saw an average redemption rate of 15% in every 3-month with Mobile App Marketing.

Percentage of Kraft Heinz Mobile Users v/s Desktop

Image view of how exactly mobile app works

3. Dominos American multinational pizza restaurant resort to Digital Wallet Promotions
Digital Wallets Promotion allows buyers to make online payments via mobile phones. Due to the severe impact of COVID-19 worldwide, mobile wallets are considered to have numerous opportunities to swap cash-carrying to cashless transactions and empower brands to highlight offers.

Percentile of Mobile Users vs Web Users

Example - Dominos availing offers for customers on Paytm UPI (Source - Paytm)

The research in Vietnam states that the impact of using the mobile wallet and focusing on understanding the relationship of promotion has common factors in technology adoption research and social influences. Dominos has partnered with applications having UPI Features and grants great discounts.

Dominos states the surging sales of its pizza aid the company to generate $491 million or $12 for every share during the pandemic.

4. Sephora thriving the Beauty Industry by collaborating with Instagram Ads
Sephora signed digital collaboration with Instagram, binding beauty inspiration and shopping together for an omnichannel customer experience.. Together, brand community and social platforms are setting up an excellent online shopping experience for Sephora’s brand of 20 million followers.



Sephora’s own Instagram presence

Sephora has gathered almost 80 sub brand and products onto Instagram checkout to make client shopping quick, effortless, and more appropriate. Sephora says Instagram has scaled its business and helped them offer a connected beauty buying experience.



Sephora Instagram Shopping Page



Another Example of Instagram Shoppable Ad Content from Selena Gomez’s Rare Beauty

5. PetSmart - A chain of pet superstores fattening with the hottest trend - Video Marketing
YouTube matters to CPG marketing as the target audience increasingly prefer visual content. PetSmart worked directly with YouTube to find the top search terms for puppy training videos in order to pinpoint exactly which topics they should shoot on.

PetSmart shows that a good content creator understands the importance of reaching people through mobile channels. So, they offered a mobile video game. This enthralled customers and enabled them while shopping.

This is in line with the research that shows that 93% of all individual’s communication incorporates the visual senses. Of this, 90% of the intelligence sent to the brain is from visuals. According to the Owler research from San Mateo, California - the annual revenue PetSmart booked is $7 Billion.

 
PetSmart social traffic clearly sets YouTube as the biggest source

6. Coca Cola broadening its range and presence on Social Media Platforms
Coca-Cola is one such brand that promotes creativity, passion, and cheerfulness. Coca-Cola wants to be globally known as a brand that conducts business ethically. It has succeeded in attracting millions of fans through the social media platform.

Coca-Cola holds its presence on great social media platforms like - Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google+, Instagram, LinkedIn, Pinterest, and Flickr.



Coca Cola social traffic analysis

• YouTube:
  YouTube was the initial social platform Coca-Cola joined. Coca-Cola’s first-ever went live on January 1, 2006. Currently, they have 6,77,555 subscribers and millions of views on every post.



• Facebook:
  Coca-Cola has over 96 million fans and followers on Facebook. The brand page on Facebook is highly active and engaging. It encourages fans by posting content such as fill in the blanks which takes users seconds to respond. It is the platform network for reach.



• Twitter:
  Coca-Cola’s Twitter page has 3.11 million followers and they have tweeted almost 143 thousand times which makes it huge and highly active amongst the competitors. It also has dedicated pages for different products and sub-brands, like diet coke, coke zero, etc. No wonder Twitter is Coca Cola’s biggest source of social traffic.



• Pinterest:
  Coca-Cola’s Pinterest account is very interesting as there’s only a single board that relates to a particular Coca-Cola ad campaign, while the others are all images that concentrate on any random theme. Including some ultimate photos, that are all taken from Flickr, so none of it links back to Coca-Cola’s own official websites.



• Instagram:
  Instagram is the latest booming social platform, and Coca-Cola has hit this market too. Today, they have over 2.8 million followers and 489 posts on their Instagram page, and it is growing every day.

7. GAP Inc Global clothing & accessories brand bestowing Discounts & Promo Codes
The GAP is a discount haven. According to Morgan Stanley American multinational investment bank, Gap’s level of promotions hit a seven-year high in February and March. Discount and Digital coupons have now become a pillar for Gap’s marketing outreach.

Gap runs a program called Gap Cash, wherein buyers can earn back rewards on purchases. Buyers can earn between $10 to $120 worth of coupons, depending on how much they shop. The vouchers are redeemable for a specific period.

Promo codes and discounts have become one of the facile ways to grow sales. Consumers can avail more discounts by signing up and making steady purchases. Coupons can be received via - Emails, Messages, Instagram promotions, Store visit gift cards, Digital wallets, New Registration, Survey Winners, transaction rewards, etc.

GAP also divulges that this marketing strategy has been the flavor of the past decade and consumers have become hooked on discounts.



Example of Gap Promo Code

The Bottom Line -

Omnichannel Marketing allows you to remain relevant and competitive in a crowded market. Having so much competition means you need to figure out efficient and effective ways to stay ahead and connect with your buyers.