Editorial Articles

Muhammad Karim, Senior Brand Manager at AB World Foods on social media and FMCG

Social media as a strategy to drive products or brands, no matter which industry you’re in, is like Play-Doh. You can make it whatever you want it to be. A successful social media strategy for your brand or product could be totally different to another brand or product. One man’s garbage is another’s treasure, so to speak.

First you need to understand your business. What do you want to achieve for your business independent of social media? Is it Increased sales? Higher brand awareness? Product trial? Each one of these totally alters the approach you will have to social media specifically and digital media in general.

For those interested in increasing sales (indeed it is the objective of almost every organisation), Social commerce has just recently caught the attention and buzz of the market. Firstly , the only proper example I’ve seen of some sort of successful corporate enterprise in this arena is that of Heinz Tomato Sauce with Balsamic Vinegar, an NPD which was sold solely through Facebook.

I’m not sure of the success of the campaign but the structure behind it, as explained by David Parfect (Facebook’s UK Sales Manager) in response to my question to him at the Social Media World Forum recently, is that Facebook only provided the front page and the platform to create a 'Buy Now' button on the page. The rest of the elements around distribution, sales tracking, delivery, etc were handled by Heinz itself.

Social commerce I would say is at the beginning of its product lifecycle. E-commerce itself is still growing and slowly being adopted only now by most major companies. Social Commerce could come into its own faster than E-commerce given the platform and level of consumer engagement but the trend seems to show only a gradual growth. But as with all technology, things could change in an instant.

www.abworldfoods.com