FMCG and Influencer Marketing: A Miss or A Hit?
What could possibly influencer marketing offer for industries with short product lifespan?
Stands for “Fast Moving Consumer Goods”, on the surface, products in this category have a relatively shorter lifespan compared to automobiles and real estates. If you think of products such as detergents, packaged food, even cigarettes, admittedly, influencer marketing is not the first strategy comes to mind. After all, what good would possibly come from promoting daily necessities using the power of words of mouth?
What brands possibly overlook though is the fact that purchasing decisions are often influenced by irrational elements such as emotions which in turn, are easily affected by social media, especially via influencer marketing.
Consumers are Only Humans
Remember the times when you were down and the first advice you normally heard other than to eat ice cream is to go shopping? Or the time when you walked into a clothing store and a blouse catches your eyes. Just like that, all rational thought seems to go out of the window as self-illusory hedonism takes over and you indulge in the purchase.
Like it or not, these above scenarios are all too familiar and described perfectly how consumers often make their purchasing judgments by relying on their feelings and emotions while momentarily letting their cognitive evaluations lapse.
Indeed, emotional associations with brands grow out of customer experiences and over time are linked in consumer’s memory to said brands subconsciously. As a result, when a memory is recalled, not only are the cognitive associations of the brand such as benefits or features recalled, but also the emotional feelings about the brands.
However, unlike when purchasing luxury products, which usually requires more in-depth contemplation beforehand, purchasing FMCG products such as cereals or toothpaste does not usually include complex trail of thoughts. Still, for advertising companies, the short seconds where consumers stopped to think about making the actual purchases of these FMCG are extremely crucial to determine the employment of suitable advertisement strategy.
Current Marketing Strategy
While industry such as electronics and high end retails might already run with more sophisticated and technology-driven marketing strategy, marketers of FMCG industry, such as P&G, are still sticking to the good, old, traditional tactic. Yes, we are talking about TV ads-era here.
Now, there could be plenty of reasons behind P&G’s marketing decision. For one, it could be because the main target audiences for FMCG brands are mostly housewives. And at such, televisions could still be the perfect medium for marketing FMCG products because only housewives would have time to access televisions and be exposed to TV ads the most.
Another reason is closer to functionality and practicality of the FMCG products. Unlike other products normally advertised on Instagram, let’s be real, FMCG products work simply because of their functions. Imagine if you as a marketer from P&G decided to pay influencers to upload a series of posts of them putting scoops of Tide detergents into washing machine on their Facebook accounts. Chances are the posts will be passed by most audiences as yet another daily lifestyle posts and the money spent on the influencers will totally lose its value.
The main idea of influencer marketing is to create a viral content which in turn will drive traffic and increase brand awareness. On the other hands, the main selling point of FMCG comes from their functions. They are stuffs that people would already know, or at least get the gist, of their main features and benefits. So bluntly speaking, there is really nothing ‘trendy’ or ‘hip’ about daily necessities. Moreover, people become more aware of the importance of protecting the earth nowadays. Going “green” is the trend and as of now, many of FMCG products are still standing on the other side of the coins.
No Room for Influencer Marketing?
Looking back at those reasons above, it seems like that there is no room for influencer marketing for FMCG brands today. But, it doesn’t mean this is the doom of this particular tool or industry.
For one, remember, these Gen X, Y, Z users will be older one day. So, it is almost inevitable that social media channels will one day be flooded with people from various generations. At such, there is a possibility that influencer marketing will finally find its value when that time comes. After all, marketing strategy is constantly shifting.
Now, the first option might need more patience as it is admittedly more time-consuming. So, supposed we implement influencer marketing today, is that option possible? Well, an ad from Carrefour portrays a clever use of influencer marketing to attract younger audiences. The ad shows a series of hilarious pictures making fun of various FMCG products, which easily caught the attentions of young adults. Influencer marketing, therefore, is implemented here to transform the image of FMCG from ‘housewives-friendly’ to ‘millennial-friendly’ in the form of funny images that are more relatable to the younger generation.
Further more, while it is true that many of FMCG products are often associated with issues such as the exploitation of natural resources, labor mistreatment, or the use of artificial preservatives, which easily raised a number of criticisms from public, however, at the same time, marketers could seek leverage from influencers to turn that skepticism to their advantages. The term ‘there’s no bad publicity, only publicity’ is never been truer. By aligning themselves with influencers as brand advocates, FMCG brands could launch marketing campaigns that put forward the “green” image and integrate them into their brand story. For example, when a dairy brand is promoting their ‘non-preservative, organic’ milk product, the company could collaborate with influencers to create a content focusing on the ‘eco-friendly’ image of the milk, such as telling a story of the cow that produced the milk or how the milk has helped the influencer to stay active for a whole day.
Bottom Line
There is no denying that influencer marketing has proved itself as one of the most efficient marketing tools in today’s digital landscape. Though many FMCG brands are seemingly still stuck at the era of TV ads and billboards, but there’s a big chance that influencers will one day expand their reach into the industry as well.
The question that FMCG marketers must consider beforehand is what type of influencer marketing strategy works best for the industry.
