What is helping McDonald's & TacoBell strive through the pandemic?

Good Friday Morning,

I hope the week's has been good for you. And if it hasn't you still have three days to make it better😉

Without a doubt, my highlight of the week was the Ronaldo-Coca Cola incident. To all those doubting the power of influencers, here's a solid example. Coca-Cola lost $4 billion just because Ronaldo removed Coca-Cola from his desk during his press conference & asked for water.

That's the power of branding & social media right there for you🔥

In today’s edition:

• Three Ways The Pandemic Made Sales And Marketing More Effective And More Human
• How is McDonald's making restaurant experiences more inclusive in India?
• How Taco Bell India grew repeat sales by 69% using X-Box Giveaways?
• Hand-picked tool for the week: OTranscribe

Marketing Strategy

🛍️Three Ways The Pandemic Made Sales And Marketing More Effective And More Human

According to findings from Accenture, 89% of business leaders believe in the value of pairing a human-centered approach with a business strategy that leverages data.

Business-to-business gives way to human-to-human

Now that customers have grown accustomed to personalized digital experiences their standards have skyrocketed. According to research from Accenture, 73% of B2B executives acknowledge customer expectations for meaningful services and experiences are significantly higher than even a few years ago.

The takeaway? Companies need to step up their outreach game or a competitor will swoop in instead.

As you strategize customer outreach post-pandemic, here are three practices worth considering:

1. Know your buyer and their priorities: Even during the height of the pandemic, when budget constraints limited buyers’ purchasing power, successful sellers and marketers were able to retain (and even gain) customers. Their success was, in part, due to their knowledge of the customer and understanding of how their offerings contributed to the customer’s goals.
2. Commit to being a responsible business: The global health crisis coupled with growing consumer awareness and activism has made corporate social responsibility more important in our current business environment. Customers, both B2C and B2B, want to support businesses that are doing their part to make the world a better place. Revenue-generating professionals can connect with customers in ways that show their commitment to doing good.
3. Leverage technology to personalize the buyer journey: Today’s buyers expect their experiences to be frictionless, relevant, and connected. CRM software, customer enablement solutions, chatbots, sending platforms, and marketing automation software can help revenue-generating teams streamline and personalize outreach at scale — while preventing data silos.

Learn more here

QSR Branding

🍔How is McDonald's making restaurant experiences more inclusive in India?

Last December, around the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, QSR brand McDonald’s announced the launch of EatQual in India. Conceptualized as a special pack for customers with limited hand mobility, this is in line with the brand’s inclusion agenda and making their restaurants accessible to everyone.

EatQual is essentially a special pack for customers with limited hand mobility and has been introduced in most of the restaurants in the West & South of India.

Life beyond the product design and the stores: An India-only launch, wholly conceptualized and developed in India, this innovative packaging has already been introduced at key McDonald’s restaurants in West and South India, and the feature is soon to be launched on the McDelivery app as well

Creative storytelling: In an era of increasing awareness and conversation around diversity and inclusion, the fast-food brand is actually seeking to make an experience inclusive and that is what makes it unique – by making the very act of eating a burger inclusive thanks to EatQual.

Happy recovery for the happy meal brand: Outside of the inclusivity drive, McDonald's is riding a post-pandemic recovery, along with the QSR sector. Firstly, there is an increased focus on safety and hygiene. Secondly, there is a preference for convenient ways of accessing food. In fact, the brand has the highest number of drive-thrus in the country and the drive-thru stores were the first ones to recover vis-a-vis the pre-Covid levels

More about their initiative here.

CRM & Personalisation

🤑How Taco Bell India grew repeat sales by 69% using X-Box Giveaways 🤔

What if you could win an Xbox at the cost of buying a Taco? Wouldn’t you try?

Well, that’s what Taco Bell took advantage of! They came together with Microsoft’s latest Xbox series for an epic collaboration.

The customers just had to place an order with Taco Bell to enter into the contest and the more orders they placed, the more chances they had of winning.

The idea was so simple and it worked wonders for them. Well, that’s what Taco Bell took advantage of! They came together with Microsoft’s latest Xbox series for an epic collaboration.

The customers just had to place an order with Taco Bell to enter into the contest and the more orders they placed, the more chances they had of winning.

The idea was so simple and it worked wonders for them.

To know the entire step-by-step strategy that led to a 69% increase in repeat sales, click here to download the case study.

🔎Hand-picked tool for the week: OTranscribe

Your chance to discover some of the most unknown & helpful tools to make marketing easy.

OTranscribe is a free, open-source tool that can be used straight out of your web browser. It has a simple interface that lets you control the audio player and text editor in the same window, which means you don’t need to click out of tabs to stop and start the audio.

Everything can be controlled through your keyboard, and interactive timestamps help you navigate the transcript. OTranscribe also saves your progress automatically as you go

Check it out here.

🤗Brand & Marketing News

1. Clubhouse expands Creator First programme to India
2. PepsiCo drags Parle Agro to court over 'For the Bold' tagline usage
3. Ronaldo knocks off $4 billion from Coca-Cola's value

That’s all for today folks. Hope you liked today’s edition.

Stay in & stay safe :”)