The consumer goods sector is undergoing change. Faced with demanding consumers, anxious to preserve their purchasing power but also to spend as little time as possible in shop. However, retailers can evolve thanks to innovative marketing strategies.
The players in the consumer goods sector are having to implement marketing strategies to differentiate themselves, win the loyalty of buyers and gain market share.
For these companies, gamification is a way of engaging consumers both online and in-store. It’s also an opportunity to multiply the points of contact and to strengthen customer relations. In this article, we look at the advantages of this marketing strategy with concrete examples of playable marketing campaigns.
Consumer goods: a sector in the throes of change
Since the health crisis and the arrival of 100% digital competitors (such as Amazon), mass retailing has undergone a transformation. It is being called upon to adapt to buyers’ new habits.
1. The end of hyper-consumption
Inflation has come and gone, and consumers are concerned about preserving their purchasing power. Overall, we are seeing a historic fall in sales volumes in the consumer goods sector. Both in terms of size of the average basket and the frequency of purchases. This trend can be explained by rising prices and by low purchasing morale (down 9 points compared to 2015).
2. Less loyal consumers
Shoppers are volatile, tending to flit from one brand to another. Competition between brands and consumer habits are responsible for this decline. Companies have to respond to a range of needs: online purchasing and in-store collection, takeaway, home delivery. This means broadening their field of action, while knowing how to adapt their services.
3. More responsible buyers
Today’s buyers prefer brands that are committed to the environment. They are turning to retailers whose products embrace their values (fairness, reduced plastic packaging, respect for environment and people). Retailers must expand their catalogue by distributing exemplary brands. They need to incorporate a CSR approach into their marketing to appeal to consumers for whom the buying act is a transformative one.
4. Omnichannel purchasing paths
Consumer marketers embrace the omnichannel shift in their sector. Today, physical and digital purchasing paths are complementary, with click&collect and supermarket drives.
Increasingly present online, supermarket chains must capitalise on interactions to collect data and gain an understanding of their audience’s needs. This is the key to reaching consumers and personalise the brand message and offers.
Why gamify consumer marketing?
To create marketing campaigns and engage consumers, you can rely on gamification. By integrating game mechanics, you can multiply the contact points. But also create a deeper relationship and build loyalty.
The advantage of gamified marketing is that it offers a wide range of formats and mechanisms. It can be adapted to different strategic objectives.
1. Boosting the brand awareness of supermarket chains
Gamification is a way of boosting your company’s visibility, in a competitive sector. By focusing on fun formats and offering rewards, retailers can capture shoppers’ attention effectively.
The Famille Mary brand has relied on a game well known to users, the Bandit Manchot, to expand its audience on social networks. Through generous prizes, it was able to reach nearly 9,000 participants.
2. Promote your products and generate new leads
Gamification is an effective strategy for promoting your offer in an interactive way. Rather than presenting its products in a static format, the brand encourages consumers to discover specific features, reinforcing the memory of its value proposition.
Through a Memory game, the Motta brand invited participants to discover the brand’s flavours in a fun way. As well as boosting consumers’ purchase intentions, the campaign captured the data of 12K leads. Then, the brand reactivated it with email campaigns.
3. Boost sales with an effective drive-to-store strategy
Interactive marketing formats are effective for redirecting leads captured online to shops. Retailers can create an omnichannel shopping experience that begins on social networks and continues int their shop. Depending on the objectives they have set, the gifts distributed (such as discount vouchers) can be activated on their e-shop or in the supermarket.
Gamification is used to liven up physical shops by installing terminals. These are used to capture visitor data, provide them with information about products, or manage queues at the checkout (by competitions to increase the shopping basket).
4. Reinforce brand loyalty and boost website retention
Playable marketing can also be a retention lever, to maintain the relationship with the consumer after the act of purchase. It can be used to offer a unique loyalty programme, through which shoppers can collect benefits by taking part in exclusive games. It is also an effective tool for humanising the brand and uniting a genuine community through playful interaction.
The consumer goods industry is facing marketing challenges. Gamification can help you boost your brand’s visibility, differentiate yourself from your competitors and better engage and retain consumers. Discover our game mechanics and create a more dynamic, high-impact omnichannel shopping experience!
