What You Need to Know About Digital Marketing

When hearing talk about digital disruption, it can sound like something to be feared. Some paint digital disruption as this unstoppable, inevitable force dead set on flipping what we know on its head.

Big tech is coming, so batten down the hatches, save the crops, etc. In all this digital disruption talk, we lose why it’s even happening—increasingly plugged-in consumers want their products to follow them into their new digital world.

If your consumers have adapted to and embraced the digital revolution, so can your CPG brand. So, what does your brand and its marketing team need to know to face digital disruption head on?

Go Big or Go Home

Gone are the days of creating a website and just calling it a day. We face digital disruption because of consumer demand, so shift your thought process from digitizing to meet your needs and instead start digitizing to meet more of your customers’ needs.

Knorr, the brand known for its beef, chicken and vegetable stock, knocked this out of the park. Instead of crafting a simple online store as their site, they created a great resource full of recipes using their products. Save a click searching through another third-party recipe site that may recommend generic stock and find all you need within the Knorr tool.

From beef to chicken to meatless to seasonal specials, consumers can seamlessly connect their physical and virtual activity with the help of a single brand. Buy products, use products, learn more about Knorr, why and how it makes its products, and where they’re sold in one digital info oasis. When Knorr’s consumer base went online, Knorr didn’t just follow them—they looked at what was bringing them online and made it their own.

Don’t Be Afraid to Be Unique

Old dogs can learn new tricks. For older CPG brands, venturing into digital marketing can feel like an alien planet. For decades—for some, more than a century—traditional marketing efforts were enough to bring consumers to brick-and-mortar stores to pick up their product. However, these brands are quickly beginning to learn that there’s no going up without going forward.

It’s what MoonPie, the hundred-year-old snack cake brand, learned when evaluating their ad tactics. They were doing well and were stable, but we’re missing out on key younger markets. That’s when the infamous MoonPie Twitter was born. If you don’t follow it, your kids definitely do. The “sleepy” brand took on a sassy, snarky Twitter voice that won the hearts of users and increased their sales by 17%.

Now, we’re not suggesting that you come after your competitors and burn your followers like MoonPie, but the lesson is clear: it may be a big departure from what your brand has done in the past, but embracing digital disruption in unique ways can really pay off.

Whether digital disruption pushes you to a new look, voice or sales tactic, it’s important to remember that it’s here to bring you to new heights, not take you off the map. If your consumers are craving a digitally savvy CPG, your brand is ready for the challenge.