How you doin'?
Yes that's the F.R.I.E.N.D.S fever talking
There were so many emotions flowing down while watching the reunion yesterday. Honestly, Friends was the first-ever show that I had binge-watched, like so many others who grew up in the 90s. The one that introduced us to the world of global pop culture and the one which will always be special :)
And if you haven’t watched Friends, all of this is gonna be a moo point for you🤷🏻♀️ Anyway, let’s dive into today’s edition now.
In today’s edition:
- How to market lipsticks during lockdown-The L’Oréal way
- How e-commerce brands have been influencing consumer behavior and scaling-up interactions digitally
- How Spotify will use marketing and communication to bring in its next phase of growth in India
- FREE CRM ASSESSMENT: Learn how to maximize ROI with a limited budget
- Hand-picked tool for the week: Buzz Sumo
Artificial Intelligence
How to market lipsticks during lockdown-The L’Oréal way
The transformative power of lipstick has been spotlighted as never before during the ongoing pandemic. But selling it, in a world of shuttered beauty counters, has posed challenges to marketers.
L’Oréal is betting big on a new AI-powered at-home device called Perso, which will launch in early spring under L’Oréal-owned YSL Beauty as Rouge Sur Mesure. The 6.5” device, which might sit on a bathroom shelf, enables consumers to experiment with lipstick and other cosmetics as never before.
It pairs with a smartphone app, which customers can use to explore lipstick shades via four options. They include: a trends portal, browsing other users’ uploads in a social media-adjacent space; using their phone camera to scan a color from an item they own, to prompt an AI-driven shade recommendation.
The device meets a sweet spot between tech and play.
Likewise, in November of 2020, L'Oréal Paris launched a digital makeup collection called Signature Faces, which consists of 10 looks that customers can wear on video-call platforms such as Zoom & Google Duo. L'Oréal has also seen a 100 percent increase in usage of virtual try-on tools on its website.
What’s more, AR can make brand advocates out of regular consumers. It’s a very natural and effortless way to build advocacy, and often consumers become advocates before they even become customers.
But AR is not just a temporary fix. Even in a post-pandemic world, VTOs offer exceptional benefits, such as the opportunity to gain real-time data insights. If a brand rolls out its tools globally, it can easily analyse which markets and demographics respond better to different products and shades, and tailor future launches to suit.
E-commerce
🤷🏻♀️How e-commerce brands have been influencing consumer behavior and scaling-up interactions digitally
Recent shifts in consumer behaviour have driven brands across sectors to pivot and reimagine how they communicate. With these shifts, there’s been an increased need for brands to reach out to their consumers where they’re most active, making it even more important for brands to be digitally supercharged.
When we speak of digitisation, the e-commerce industry shines as a silver lining in the midst of a dark pandemic past. Prompted by this influx of consumer attention and needs, e-commerce brands have been amplifying their digital presence to communicate and establish a sense of reliability in their consumers’ minds.
- Decoding the pulse of the online shopper: While fashion and lifestyle have been the drivers of the e-commerce industry for a long time, recent years, especially 2020, saw many new purchase categories pick up pace with consumers. Right from groceries to gadgets and home appliances, the Indian shopper has been adopting digital transactions with ease.
Brands need to be on their toes and preserve their customers as there is an increased tendency of seeking more feasible alternatives.
- Addressing customer sentiments through engagement-driven solutions: Initially, e-commerce brands looked at the digital space to grab eyeballs, increase their following and engage with existing or prospective customers. Their focus has now shifted to establishing reliable relationships with their audiences, driving purchase behaviour and converting shoppers to loyal customers - things that have, for long, been a challenge for most e-commerce brands. A key driver that turns intent into purchase behaviour is the prospect of rewards and discounts.
- Leading the way through technology-driven communication: Through systematic use of artificial intelligence and machine learning tools via chatbots, online assistance services, virtual trial rooms etc., brands have been able to establish reliability in providing seamless experiences, instant support and grievance redressal. With everything happening online, building the right digital strategy thus becomes indispensable to their business model.
With a strong presence and a promising future, e-commerce brands stand in front of a massive opportunity to tap into the Indian market. Amplified digital outreach via strategically chosen channels and communication designed to engage audiences will pave the way forward for these brands.
Digitalization
How Spotify will use marketing and communication to bring in its next phase of growth in India
It’s been 2 years since Swedish streaming platform Spotify launched in India and in these two years, the platform has had quite a few milestones. Since its launch, its brand popularity has increased 3X, Spotify recently share and the way it has marketed itself in the country has a lot to do with this reception.
Neha Ahuja, Head of Marketing - India, Spotify discusses the things she feels worked in the platform’s favor in India, and a few things they plan to do, to capture a wider audience here:
- India and the importance of localization: Spotify launched officially in India in February 2019 and from the very start, its focus was on localization. The platform launched at a time when people were slowly getting used to the idea of streaming music online. While a lot of the younger population knew about the platform, the task at hand was to bring in new users to sample Spotify and to stick to it.
- It made sure it tailor-made its campaigns based on the geographies it was targeting. So while it featured Anil Kapoor to target the Hindi-speaking markets, it roped in South star Nagarjuna to target the southern markets.
- The impact of 2020 on Spotify: While the year 2020 was difficult for most businesses, music streaming was one of the lesser affected categories. People were stuck at home and looking for entertainment and music came to the rescue.
- Spotify’s India story: Another strategy that has worked for them in India is introducing different subscription packs for different sets of audiences. In terms of pricing, India is a unique market. India is the only country in the Spotify world to have over 15 plans. Whether it’s an annual plan, mini-plan, a weekly, or a daily plan, they have it all.
On what her focus areas as a marketer are going to be in the year ahead, Neha Ahuja said, “One is to educate people on this music streaming behavior, two, to drive a love for audio, more and more people should consume more music and podcasts. So that's the intent. And thirdly, we want to leverage advocacy-both consumer and artist – where I use my current users to bring in more users along with the fandom of an artist to bring in more users.”
Next-gen CRM
FREE CRM ASSESSMENT: Learn how to maximize ROI with limited budget
Even though COVID has hit India hard, you can still generate maximum revenue from the limited marketing budget you have.
How?
- By understanding your customers’ behavior, and
- Reaching out to them on digital channels where they're active like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, etc.
To help you do that, Xeno is doing a FREE CRM Strategy Assessment, no strings attached! We’ll give you the exact strategy to execute with or without Xeno.
But we have limited time and resources to help only a few brands. If you want to be among the first ones, sign up here.
Hand-picked tool for the week: Buzz Sumo
Your chance to discover some of the most unknown & helpful tools made for marketers like you.
If you want to better understand your competition or if you want to learn what type of content performs best with search engines and your audience, Buzz Sumo is all that you need.
Brand & Marketing News
- No, Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter and Instagram will not stop working in India (Not right now)
- In a surprise to no one, Instagram is testing ads in Reels
- Streaming giant Netflix is expanding its podcasting footprint
That’s all for today folks. Hope you liked today’s edition.
Stay in & stay safe :”)
