The digital wave has been around the bend for a while and the pandemic forced even the less tech savvy audience online. With so much diversity in the online audience, it is imperative that your brand has strong checkpoints for every digital platform . Here’s the story of one brand who succeeded in doing this.
Two decades ago at the turn of the century, people talked about the millennials and how they are different from people born in the previous century. That fact has now been unequivocally proven – especially when it comes to the way they go about fulfilling their desires, wants, and needs.
For instance, a youngster two decades ago would debate whether to buy those pair of Nike shoes he so desires, online or to visit a shop. That’s not true anymore. Today, he’d simply pick up his mobile phone – or laptop – and jump into Amazon or the official Nike store and place the order there without thinking twice about it.
Looking at this from the lens of a marketer, if you are not online, your product won’t sell enough. It’s as simple as that. Gone are the days when you’d look for your consumers through a billboard – a.k.a. hoarding – or an advertisement in a newspaper or magazine. Oh, the last two still work but even those are online now.
Where is your consumer?
If that is not reason enough for you to initiate and expand your digital branding efforts, here’s another reason. “Mothers are heavily engaged on social media, both giving and receiving a high level of support via their networks,” says PEW Research.
More than half the world’s population uses social media for over 2 hours each day reports Smart Insights. So if you want to reach out to your consumer you should undertake creative digital marketing rather than turn to traditional media like print or open-air advertising – though those are not to be discounted. But if you are a millennial you already know that. So without wasting any more time on discussion, let’s see how Epigamia – the Greek Yoghurt brand – leveraged its digital presence to better understand the need for strong checkpoints on digital platforms and how you can use them effectively.
The Digital Marketers’ Challenge
Before we jump into the story, a word on the challenge before the present-day marketer. Brand management is cyclic in a sense. The consumer moves from the first impression to trial and evaluation and then to purchase. She then learns more about the product, evaluates it once again, and then decides whether to purchase it a second time. As a brand manager, you are expected to create a great first impression, ensure that evaluations are positive, and convince the customer to make a repeat purchase – and the cycle continues.
With that challenge before us let’s see how Epigamia achieved this through its creative digital marketing strategy.
Epigamia – The Early Beginnings
The two founders of Epigamia first began their business selling ice cream but soon realized that sales were not steady because it was a seasonal product. So they began looking around and soon found that over 65% of Indians did not consume dairy products because they were allergic to lactose. They also discovered that Indians could not make firm flavored curd at home. So they decided to create thick whey-free and lactose-free flavored yogurt which was ideal for the Indian market. Having done that, the next challenge was to create awareness – the first impression – which needed to be strong because their research showed that Indians were not an experimental bunch and would not spend much on something they could make at home.
The Challenge
In 2015, when Epigamia was launched, the digital wave was already underway. So they had to market digitally. Yet, Indians not being too trusting of anything digital still went to stores to make purchases – and often discovered new products at stores rather than online. The challenge was amplified by the fact that the product was a staple to the diet of the target market – almost every household in India has homemade curd every day – at least during one meal. Another challenge before them was that while the Indian youth – who was the primary target – were divided into two groups – the health-conscious and the taste seekers – and they wanted to target both.
So they decided to position their product as a healthy and tasty snack for the millennial Indian consumer. The goals that they set for their campaign were:
- Create a demand for a healthy snack that sated hunger but was not fattening.
- Appeal to the sensitivity of Indians to Lactose
- Urge Indians to experiment with flavored off-the-shelf curd – encouraging them to push boundaries and go contemporary.
- Impress and entice both online and offline consumers
The first step was to create a video showcasing the different qualities and properties of the product. The team leveraged Facebook to increase reach. Simultaneously, articles interspersed with the brand message about a healthy and tasty snack were published across the internet.
Having created informative content and generated awareness, they followed this up with a series of YouTube videos about how modern millennial families are breaking the stereotype and emerging with a new perspective on life that bridges generation gaps.
The series featured a second season with a different family after the great success of the first 5 episodes – all the while integrating the brand message of a contemporary lifestyle with healthy food through the content. Season 2 featured 6 episodes culminating in the revelation that Epigamia was the perfect evening snack to replace unhealthy eating between meals. Season 2 also introduced two new products – Smoothies and Misti Doi.
While these series were trending, the Epigamia marketing team leveraged Facebook and other social media driving discussion about the video, healthy snacks, and consequently about their product. In order to push their product further, they set up Epigamia booths at select theatres.
Soon Epigamia became a household name among the upper-middle-class modern families. Demand increased and they registered an online engagement of over 100 million views and 2.5 million responses. Social Samosa quotes the CMO of Epigamia, Siddharth Menon in the following words:
“Season 1 gave us high ROI in terms of brand awareness with consumers, which we saw in the form of comments and shout-outs, inquiries from around the country, and first-time trials of the product. Season 2 is so much bigger and we believe that this will be a perfect platform to launch some of our new products – Greek Yogurt Smoothies, lactose-free curd, and Mishti Doi”.
The power of digital marketing is something that every brand must take advantage of. There are several branding companies in India that offer a blended experience of proper branding and digital marketing. Litmus Branding, a branding agency in Ahmedabad, is one of them. Call +91 99984 12378 or write to us now and we’ll help you create your very own digital checkpoints.