'Content-first approach has helped Mangaldeep Agarbatti double its e-comm sales'
Engaging with users on digital channels with a content-first approach rather than trying to sell has helped ITC’s Mangaldeep Agarbatti improve its brand recall and double the number of sales done through e-commerce. Modern sales channels, in fact, account for 20% of the brand’s sales today, says Gaurav Tayal, Chief Executive of the Matches and Agarbatti Business (MAB). Gaurav Tayal, the Chief Executive of the Matches and Agarbatti Business (MAB) of the FMCG conglomerate, believes that the brand which has its presence in every fourth Indian household is reaping the first-mover advantage in its very unorganised category to adapt to the emerging sales channels. Using the digital channels to talk about trivia related to festivals, rituals, scriptures and spirituality instead of using digital communication as a sales pitch alone, has led to the user engagement of the brand being as high as 30-35% against the industry standard of 10-12%, he says.
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In the Rs 11,500-crore category, Mangaldeep is the market leader in terms of volumes produced and second in terms of value. Despite being in a fairly unorganised sector, the brand has been able to lead the market trends and perhaps the only national player that has consistently spent considerable efforts and money on creating a brand pull. “We have been making disproportionately higher spends on building the brands for almost two decades now, from what is the industry standard,” shared Tayal.
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Historically, the brand communication has largely centered around the functional benefits of the product, said Tayal. As the brand evolved to branch into multiple categories, the company felt the need to develop the master brand Mangaldeep that has a stand-out brand purpose as well. As a step in this direction, the company has recently released an ad campaign titled ‘Dil se Karo Baat, Bhagwan ke Saath’. It goes on to show a whole montage of people and situations wherein devotees are shown to have a conversation with God, with the narration insisting that these are conversations between friends. These conversations are shown to happen at places of work, in an exam hall and even in a taxi. “The vantage points taken in the campaign film are people, places and occasions. We have tried to say how the idea of having a conversation with God by considering Him a friend and confidant, rather than fearing Him, is age, background and religion agnostic. In fact, we go on to show that these conversations need not happen in places of worship or on specific occasions with elaborate rituals,” said Tayal. He added that the underlying idea was that our conversations with God are probably the most truthful ones which should come out of hope and optimism, not fear. He also feels that there is scope to use the same montage style of storytelling and the same tagline in the long term. There are several more occasions and contexts that can be brought to life within the larger idea of having a conversation with God, said Tayal. He is very appreciative their agency Ogilvy India for getting the template right. Making an agarbatti might seem like a simple task. However, Tayal informs that there are regional and local nuances in the product which are appreciated or adopted far more strongly in specific regions. The ITC parentage, he insists, lends a lot of power and credibility to the brand and allows it to adapt fairly strongly to regional preferences. One thing that has marred the largely fragmented local players that the brand competes with is earning the trust of the consumers, or the nature of ingredients used in the products they are buying. Coming from the ITC stables, also makes it easier to build consumer trust, which has also been a great differentiator for the brand. “I feel consumers want to move towards better branded, more reliable, better quality and more conscious brands. We are placed at jist the right position to fill in this gap,” he said. Even though the agarbatti industry remains largely fragmented, Tayal feels that there is a tremendous opportunity for large, organized national players like Mangaldeep to keep growing for at least the next ten years. “Despite being unorganised, the category is growing by 7-8% annually. Coupled with the possibility of share gains, we can expect Mangaldeep to have at least double digit growth for the next decade. While Mangaldeep may stand at the second position in terms of overall sales, the brand dominates modern trade and e-commerce channels by a very large margin. “This lead has allowed us to reach those households which are buying from these emerging channels, which have varied preferences. We have been able to curate offers that appeal to this new-age consumer who also display a far higher variety of purchasing behaviour,” he said. He is confident of further growth in engaging with the consumers through the new media channels. Six years ago, when there was hardly any spend happening overall in digital brand building, Mangaldeep started doing a lot of communication through digital channels. “We have always adopted a content-first approach in this communication. Instead of talking about sales and promotions directly, we populated our pages with content around festivals, scriptures, translations and chanting which would be useful and interesting for our target group,” said Tayal. People also started engaging with this content which increased the brand recall, he added. The brand today has a followership of over 3 lakh on Instagram and above 5 lakh on Facebook, many of whom are young people. Tayal reasons that this could be reflective of the younger generation wanting to connect to their roots, but not follow rituals blindly without understanding their deeper meaning which Mangaldeep’s social media channels are helping them with. Another game-changer for the brand was a bespoke app, which too was launched in 2018. It allowed the user to read all the content put up on the social media pages of the brand in eight different languages, along with ordering the products as well as certain third-party services like booking a pujari. “We have led from the front in terms of adopting the sales as well as communication channels of the future in our sector. I think this dominance is going to continue as we see ourselves to be very well-positioned for the emerging channels and the emerging taste profiles of the consumers of the future,” said Tayal. He shared that the sales through e-commerce channels are doubling the business every year. E-commerce and organised retail together are contributing to 20% of the business, he added. In fact, consumer insights through channels like these have also led to in-house innovations and newer product categories within the brand. For example, the age-old ritual of a dhunachi that marks the evening in a Bengali household was found to have two small issues. “It involves burning coconut husks in an earthen vessel, which can be both cumbersome and messy. To solve this problem, we took inspiration from the South Indian sambrani cup (a vessel to burn herbs and other aromatics) and customised it to the tradition in Bengal to develop a ready-to-use dhuno,” shared Tayal. Along with all the commercial activities, Mangaldeep has also worked towards being a socially conscious brand. Since the last three years, the company has brought in around 150 visually challenged people on its consumer testing panel. “We do not see it as a CSR activity, but a partnership. Being in the business of fragrances, we are in a unique position to utilise their enhanced olfactory sesnes while also providing them a means of livelihood,” said Tayal. Last year, on the occasion of World Sight Day, the brand had released a campaign to show gratitude to their ‘sixth sense panel’.
CHANGING COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES
NOT A SIMPLISTIC PRODUCT
USING DIGITAL CHANNELS
SOCIAL CONSCIOUSNESS