FMCG Brands Need to Raise the Bar for Website Content
/FMCG brands often don’t have the benefit of selling directly online or using their website to facilitate purchase through a retail finder - so how can these brands generate the most value from their websites?
Much of the marketing strategy for a FMCG brand depends on availability - being as easy to buy as possible, so it’s there when you need it. FMCG brands typically use advertising to reach as big an audience as possible to increase familiarity and build memory structures, so that when people are in the grocery store (or other point of purchase), they’re more likely to reach for that particular brand. It’s one thing to create a TV ad to solve for this - it’s another to create website content. Unlike a TV ad, which most people will end up watching (despite popular myth that TV is dead), your website content will not be shown to an already-tuned in audience. The only way people will consume your website content is by actively navigating to your site - so you have to get them to want to go to your website.
To get people to visit your brand’s website, you need to offer something of value: either utilitarian value (solving a need or helping someone accomplish a task) or entertainment value. Since many FMCG brands don’t have much to offer in terms of utility (people don’t need instructions for butter and the like), they frequently rely on providing entertainment value instead. (Note: you could also argue that people go to brand websites for coupons, but if you read “How Brands Grow” and “How Not To Plan” then you may be weary of using coupons, since this is unlikely to produce long-term profits.)
If you’re going to attract people to your website based on entertainment value, then you need content worthy of people’s attention. Not just content you think will make your brand look good. This content needs to compete in the context of everything else that can occupy people’s time: work, friends, family, hobbies, cat videos, clips from TV shows, memes, celebrity gossip, sleeping, eating, baby announcements… the list goes on. It’s not enough to showcase the brand and product in a pleasing manner. The content needs to motivate people to visit and provide an experience worthy of their time. It needs to take advantage of the medium, giving people something they couldn’t have gotten through a banner ad, social ad, billboard, etc. Something that rewards people for their visit. Doing this requires strategy - to find an idea at the intersection of audience interest and brand - and creativity - to bring the idea to life in a way that’s compelling.
Unfortunately, many marketers aren’t aiming this high when creating website content. Maybe it’s the obsession with digital that clouds our judgment, or the relative ease at which website content can be created. Maybe it’s aided and abetted by how simple it is to spit out numbers for reporting showing that something happened (even if it’s not necessarily always all that impressive when compared apples to apples to other channels). Whatever it is - marketers need to think critically about whether or not potential new website content is compelling enough to compete for attention online.
Examples: Trident Gum and POM Wonderful
Trident Gum has put very little effort into their website presence to the point that there’s almost no reason to visit
POM Wonderful has an aesthetically-pleasing site, but the brand is assuming everyone shares their obsession with pomegranates and needs a more creative way to connect than history lessons
Trident Gum: When Your Website Isn’t Much More than an Oversized Banner Ad
The Trident website is pretty bare, save their Twitter feed, which features tweets that are nearly 1,000 days old. Perhaps the marketing team has given up on the website and social media channels?
The website in its entirety contains:
The flavors
A product locator (button linking out to Mondelez site)
Links to their social profiles
Their tweets
Is anyone that dedicated to gum that they need to peruse the menu? And if people wanted to follow Trident on social media, wouldn’t they go to social media for that? I don’t think anyone plans their grocery shopping around where they can buy a certain brand of chewing gum. Trident should be available wherever you are when the urge to chew gum strikes. At the very least, it should be at all the grocery stores without you having to check.
It’s hard to believe anyone would come to this site unless they were a mega-fan. Even if they did come, there’s really not much to do once they get there. The "Bursting with flavor!” header image is basically just one big banner ad. If that’s all you’re going to accomplish with the website, you might as well just pay for banner ads. It would be cheaper than paying for banner ads to send people to your one big banner ad website. The Trident website doesn’t take advantage of the additional space and capabilities a website provides.
What Trident Could Do Instead: Add Utility and Creativity
First, we could give the website some utility. According to answerthepublic.com, many of the searches people make about Trident gum are related to whether or not someone can chew it given their particular situation or dietary needs:
Will Trident gum stick to dentures?
Is Trident gum vegan?
Is Trident gum Kosher?
Is Trident gum keto friendly?
Is Trident gum ok for diabetics?
Does Trident gum have gluten?
Which Trident gum is halal?
Why not answer these questions in a simple, straightforward FAQ section? This is an area where the brand is uniquely qualified to provide the content, given they are the expert on their products.
People probably don’t care that much about Trident gum in the grand scheme of life - work, friends, family, hobbies, etc. But that doesn’t mean Trident can’t find ways to be part of what people care about, or at the very least, delightfully entertaining and thus worthy of our attention, with a creative campaign that goes beyond talking about gum.
POM Wonderful: Overestimating People’s Interest in Pomegranates
POM Wonderful is another FMCG you’d find in the grocery store, albeit a little narrower of an audience than chewing gum (although they’d probably like for everyone in the world to drink POM Wonderful). You really don’t need to go to their website to plan out your grocery store purchase. You don’t need a product manual to drink juice. POM Wonderful has a website that’s aesthetically pleasing, but I’m skeptical some of the content is really of interest to consumers. In particular, “Pomegranate History,” which snags a coveted place on the primary nav menu. This section of the site provides an extensive, narrated content experience about the history of the pomegranate. That’s right, history… going all the way back to B.C. Since there really isn’t any utility value, it’s competing squarely on entertainment value. When you are competing with the best of the internet and beyond, you better be prepared to be supremely interesting and captivating. History lessons are a tough sell, especially when people can easily choose from so many alternatives, including cat videos, clips of the Ellen show, and the latest sports highlights.
Get comfortable, because there are a lot of stories in here to read.
While I give them credit for trying to think of something closely related to the product, it still feels like a stretch that people would truly find this worthy of their time. If you’re really into history, there are better places to satiate that craving than by visiting a juice company’s website. Perhaps more importantly, there are very few people who might realistically might become fans of this. Marketers need to remember that the vast majority of consumers don’t care at all about your brand, much less your ingredients, or other details of how your product came to be.
Making Sure Website Content Adds Enough Value to Justify Investment
All brands need to raise the bar on website content to avoid producing more dullness that gets ignored, but FMCG brands have to be especially conscientious of this because they don’t have a built-in purpose for their website (i.e., shopping). When considering adding new content to your website, ask yourself whether the content:
Provides clear utility to help the user accomplish something they want to do (not just that the brand selfishly wants people to do)
AND/OR
Has entertainment value worthy of people’s attention in the context of the many alternatives they have available to them - is it truly interesting to people?
It’s not easy to create content with this level of entertainment value, especially when you have to create something from nothing. The strategy is critical - understanding what consumers care about, what tensions you can play into, how you can be culturally relevant, and finding the intersection with the brand. The creative execution needs to bring the idea to life in a way that’s compelling to people in all the ways people experience it - how it looks, sounds, and feels to them.
It may be more effective to focus on fewer, higher-quality content experiences on your website than to create more, especially if it goes ignored. As with any investment, marketers should consider tradeoffs - where else could we be investing that money, and would it provide a bigger payoff - now and in the long-run?