Consumers demonstrate visible intent along every stage of the journey. Marketers need to recognize the consumer need in these “micro-moments” and engage with the relevant tools and content at each stage. The need for a customised experience has put an increasing amount of pressure on marketers to emphasise engaging the buyer at every step of their purchasing journey. This constant-contact challenge can be alleviated, streamlined, optimised and scaled with automation. The buyer journey is evolving at a quick pace, not to mention simultaneously becoming more complex. Those brands that have implemented automation see an improvement in brand perception, engagement, and loyalty. However, synchronisation and cohesiveness are becoming more complicated, with the target audience typically engaging with multiple touchpoints before becoming a customer. At the heart of great customer engagement is a new marketing mix of data, creativity and technology. Technology is driving changes in consumer behaviour, and to adapt and thrive, marketers need access to the right data to know and understand their audience as individuals and to drive their creative decisions.

Case Study 2

How Hansa Cequity helped Aditya Birla AMC build an integrated customer engagement platform that enabled them to raise their marketing productivity and efficiency by 2X and helped in generating higher growth and ROI by building better customer lifecycle management programs

Deodorants is predominantly a fragrance market in India. Male deos are almost 70% of the market with aerosol & non-gas sprays as the main formats. Fogg, Axe, Park Avenue & KamaSutra are the major players in the market. The penetration of Deos is however quite low at 22% Annual Penetration in 2019 amongst Urban Males.

Deo spray users enter the category while still young, typically in their high school/college after having used proxy products such as talcum powder. The triggers for many in school/college were sweating and body odour, caused by participation in sports/PE and for those who had just started working, it was the commute that caused body odour. They enter at these life stages where self-appraisal and experimentation is likely to happen.

Trial is usually triggered by WOM (word of mouth) – part of ‘bro talk’ among peers, seniors in high school/college, and in rare situations - gym/PE instructors to manage body odour.

Ads –Chocolate Axe & Fogg Kya Chal Raha Hain is quite clearly recalled by users.

Who is our consumer?
Our TG is the urban male in the age range of 18-27, with SEC A/B. He is either a student or a first jobber. An overview of a typical day in their life reveals a collective cultural context with lives revolving around friends, family, social media, and hobbies. Spending time with friends is central to their lives – they love to hang out with friends in cafes, malls or at park/beach and catch up. Avid users of internet and social media – most active on Facebook, WhatsApp, YouTube followed by Instagram, SnapChat and gaming. Career aspirations tend to be top on of their minds and though the career choice itself varies - ranging from entrepreneurship, job in a MNC to a government job.

Our quantitative study to understand consumer behaviours has revealed a few key aspects:

The onset of Covid-19 across India since March 2020 disrupted the deo market. People were mainly indoors and hence deo had become a ‘non-essential’ product. There was a decline in deo application as usage occasions fell drastically. Axe Ticket Pack, which is an on-the-go pack for mainly college and outdoor top up usage started seeing a steep decline in sales. Non-daily users tend to use body spray only on special occasions when there is increased facetime with others, or they anticipate a more active day. No one in the category was doing any communication to build back relevance of deodorant in this The New Normal. AXE had to take the lead to get consumers back into the category.

Key objective - To get consumers who had lapsed out of category to start using deos again by bringing alive usage occasions in the The New Normal (Males, urban, 18-27 years). While AXE has come up with a new campaign with the call to action of ‘Don’t add more distance to social distancing’, we had to go beyond the TVC and engage with them deeply on the platform, where they are spending a significant amount of their time - the digital OTT platform and other innovative technologies.

The onset of Covid-19 very quickly forced us to go into a completely digital life. Transforming some every-day experiences to be 100% digital. Among many other things, it also completely transformed the entire college experience. Classes and exams were being held online. College romance was no different. So, what would a digital love story in 2020 look like?

To establish relevance and drive back consumption Axe launched a first-of-its kind interactive content partnership with MX player in India. Leveraging this unique tech, we created a short 15-minute content integration video around dating in the The New Normal for release on Valentine’s day.

Why Valentine’s day?
The triggers for the first deo usage has been led out of special occasions. About 20% have told us in our study that they first used the deo on a special occasion. Valentine’s Day is an extremely important occasion for our Target Group given their life stage.

Why college romance?
40% users enter the category once they enter college to pursue higher education. This is usually when they are new to mixed gender spaces. Hence the need to smell great is strongly acknowledged by them in order to make a lasting impression with a romantic interest.

The story - It is a first of its kind interactive film for India where viewers get to make a choice basis which story progresses. Essentially in the quest of our protagonist to find college romance, the choices which the viewers make will help him make the right moves and impress the girl. It’s a tale of a college romance set against the backdrop of the new post Covid normal in 2021. What makes this stand out from other webisodes is that it is India’s first interactive short film where consumers control the story by the choices they make with multiple different endings.

The Right Click delivered over and above benchmarks and targets

Impact on key metrics that matter-
There was a clear impact on both brand sales and brand spontaneous awareness (Top of Mind) as measured by external consumer panel

A study was conducted to understand the movement on awareness and imagery metrics with pre, during & post as the time intervals

In the During phase, significant lift is seen for ‘Makes you feel attractive to others’ and ‘Have fragrances that lasts all day’ However, in the Post phase, significant lift is maintained only for ‘Makes you feel attractive to others’

Brand Awareness:
Significant Top Quartile lift in awareness of Axe Ticket is seen for the During and Post phase of the campaign