How can FMCG companies leverage the power of social media

Abstract

Social Media Marketing is still in its nascent stages, especially in a country like India. For a sector like FMCG where the purchase decision is many-a-times influenced by need or impulse, Social Media Marketing can hardly establish any tangible connect between dollars invested and returns. Yet, many FMCG companies are active in the social media space. Against this backdrop, the team, through this project, is trying to understand how an FMCG marketer can succeed in social media campaigns. The project first analyzes a few social media tools and uses the AIDA framework to understand how those tools influence purchase decision. Next, it tries to segment the FMCG space from a social media perspective to understand how different tools can be targeted at different segments. An analysis of Forbes top 20 social media campaigns follows, where the objective is to get an idea of the kind of tools that can be applied to FMCGs. Later, few of the most popular FMCG campaigns, especially in India, are analyzed to understand how the market operates. Drawing on the frameworks and analysis, the project further discusses concepts like first-mover advantage, social media intelligence, integrated social media campaigns, managing an umbrella of brands etc. The project concludes with the discussion of an elaborate framework which an FMCG marketer can deploy to run a social media campaign.