Reinventing Retailer Engagement Strategy for India’s Top FMCG Brand

Challenge

A leading Indian FMCG manufacturing brand was generating 50% of its gross revenue from the platinum and gold segments of its retail distribution channels. To substantially boost sales, they looked at onboarding 1.5 lakh platinum and gold retail outlets into their loyalty Program within a year. The retail outlets primarily included grocery stores, convenience stores and eat and dine restaurants. As part of the loyalty Program, the retailers were rewarded with cash-based schemes (cash cards), which were purely transactional in nature, and consistently failed to establish strong brand loyalty. Moreover, the reward schemes were managed in silos, and the delivery and complaint resolution mechanisms were ineffective. Retailers were highly dissatisfied and felt emotionally disengaged from the brand. The brand needed a new partner with the right strategy to drive emotional engagement with its channel partner ecosystem.

Solution

BI WORLDWIDE India redesigned and implemented a channel partner engagement and loyalty Program, focused on rewards, communication, engagement, learning, and growth. We leveraged Channel Smart, our patented, enterprise-wide technology solution, to establish an efficient end-to-end channel management process – consolidating all three reward schemes into a single technology platform. The existing cash-card schemes were revamped into a point-based, motivating loyalty Program. Persona-based reward catalogues, including a wide range of 12,000+ products across 500 brands, were curated for each audience segment. Predictive analytics tools helped identify growing, degrowing, and stagnant outlets, and targeted campaigns were rolled out. To create a positive partner experience, a unified helpdesk was created with 4 dedicated agents, supporting across 6 languages.

The Program was implemented successfully through a series of pre-launch activities, online platform trainings for key stakeholders, and launch-day goodies in the form of welcome kits for retailers. Our post-launch strategy included a 30-, 60-, 90-, and 180-days plan to stabilise the Program, drive awareness & adoption, and build a meaningful relationship with the retailers.