Navigating Ramadan Marketing by Harnessing the Power of 3 Ps

Speaker A: Welcome to Growth Maestros by Moengage. In this podcast series, we'll be speaking

Speaker B: to industry leaders from various business verticals and understand their approach towards marketing and growth. We'll be focusing on aspects like customer acquisition, retention, engagement and personalization, among others, and provide key insights to a community of product owners. This is your opportunity to learn and emulate these learnings in your campaigns and marketing initiatives to to churn exceptional results.

Speaker C: Hello and welcome to another special episode of Ramdan um, Bytes, part of the Growth Maestro series. In our last episode we spoke to Vuk Vokovic, ex retention head of Delivery Hero. In this episode we're shifting the vertical focus or industry focus to E commerce and apparel. Our, uh, speaker for the day is currently the Assistant Manager CRM at Momsworld. With almost 10 years of experience, she has worked with brands like Landmark Group, Rain Creative and concept communication. She's a subject matter expert when it comes to B2C marketing, customer acquisition and retention. Welcome to the podcast, Rachana. It's a pleasure to host you.

Speaker B: Hi Shitesh.

Speaker A: Thank you for having me on this podcast. You've already given a good introduction about me and I will keep it short. Uh, so I started my, uh, career in ad agencies as a copywriter and eventually got into the corporate world with Landmark Group. So, um, I mean, also as a content marketer. And slowly I, you know, started exploring things like social media, CRM and you know, even uh, uh, in store marketing, on ground marketing and all of that. And I found my calling with CRM and I pursued that further, which, uh, you know, after four years, four, uh, and a half years in Landmark, I moved to Mom's World and I've been here for about a year. And uh, this uh, experience of mine has been nothing short of exciting. So. Yeah. And I look forward to having this conversation with you.

Speaker C: That's wonderful, Rachanan. Thank you so much. And even we look forward to having this conversation, you coming from, you know, a, uh, completely different world to a CRM world. And it'll be great if you can share insights that, that you've accumulated over the years. Right. And it'll be very, very valuable for our listeners. But before I, but before I start, since you mentioned Mom's World, I would just like to congratulate you for becoming a new mother. And you know, the uh, the, when we had interacted previously, the correlation between you becoming a mother and Mom's World, I think you would be an ideal customer for them.

Speaker A: So, yeah, so I have all the, um, you know, I have all the insights in place because I know exactly what a mother, uh, needs and I put that to great use when I'm doing my marketing and uh, you know, email marketing and push notifications and all of that. So it's a, uh, two way street for me.

Speaker C: Yeah, that's, that's wonderful. And we'll definitely, we'll hopefully put, put some probing questions there to, to you know, to call your consumer part as well, as well as the marketer part within you. Right. So yeah, moving on, let's just talk about the topic that, that is there under the discussion and which will soon be part of the. The region. Very soon as a matter of fact. Right. So here we're talking about Ramadan. Right. So just talking briefly about Ramadan, um, season and you know, why it is different or rather important for a marketer or a CRM, CRM. CRM marketer like you. If you could just give us a brief on that.

Speaker A: Absolutely. So, um, I've lived in, uh, Dubai for almost eight years now and uh, you know, I have, you know, realized one thing. Ramadan, of course, you know, has the religious significance for, you know, the people over here and all of that. But uh, you know, it's culturally very big for even the non Muslims and you know, the expats that live here. And um, you know, we tend to do a lot of these iftar gatherings and suhur gatherings and you know, all of that. We look forward to the season because it's so full of surprises. You don't know m, you know, what kind of offers the, you know, retail giants are gonna get. You, you, you know, look forward to the wonderful iftar spreads that, you know, most of these restaurants do and all of that. And uh, you know, so take you and me for example. I'm sure, uh, you know, you would also have friends who, you know, host these iftar evenings and iftar gatherings for, uh, you know, their friends. And that is what the spirit of the season's about. Right. So as a marketer, the uh, season lends itself beautifully to, you know, our creativity. So whether you're talking about these, uh, food delivery and you know, dine out apps like Zomato, Talabad, uh, Deliveroo, and all of them, you know, you, they have a lot of these iftar offerings and suhur offerings. You know, everyone's working 24 by 7. Everyone's sending communication 24 by 7. Um, especially, you know, right before an iftar, uh, right before it's time for iftar or right before it's time for suhoor. Similarly, uh, when it comes to uh, fashion and makeup, you know, the retail aspect of it, uh, you know people want to dress appropriately during the season. You know, all these gatherings, whether it's an office iftar or an iftar with friends, you want to look your best. So you know those kind of offers that come up and of course the fact that you know there are, it's shorter working hours uh, through the week, it's some of. Sometimes it's flexible working, sometimes it's work from home. Uh, so people tend to use this season to say travel back home, spend uh, time with their families or spend time you know, with their friends and you know, and whatever, or travel abroad for that matter. And so the travel aspect also comes up uh, you know, during this season. So all of these, you know, uh, all of these uh, it's, it's like a 360 degree thing, right? It's, it's uh, food, it's uh, fashion and makeup, it is travel, it is gifting. And apart from this, even the uh, charitable aspect comes up.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: A lot of companies do charities and do their CSR initiatives during this time of the year. And I uh, think you uh, know it's for an average customer, they look forward to all these, you know, beautiful offerings that the marketers bring to them. And for a marketer, you know, creativity is endless during the season.

Speaker C: So I think you wonderfully put it and, and you talked about almost all the industries that get um, positively impacted if I for the lack of better term, positively impacted uh, during this, during this season. And how marketers, um, I mean your closing statement that there is endless creativity that marketers can bring forth and do. And speaking about that, uh, and speaking about that and just taking cue from the points that you mentioned, um, loyalty is something that you've also closely been involved in. You've had some experience in loyalty. So I'll just try and tie the loyalty and the CRM part when it comes to your experience with, with say a theme based marketing, say Ramdan campaigns. Right. Um, so in terms of uh, in terms of the season, uh, it is, it is a season of reflection, gathering and, and you know you mentioned about iftar parties and Suhur parties. So basically families coming together and having a good time. Right. Uh, from a marketer point of view, I think, I think one thing that, that would probably make a customer special is the loyalty part of it. In case is there and he or she is part of the loyalty program and there's a good uh, gift to be received or Something in terms of the loyalty points or bonuses that are there. It obviously makes uh, the customer feel really special. Right. So I just wanted to understand when it comes to the loyalty lens, what are some of the strategies that marketers, you know, deploy during this season to make it extra special for the customers?

Speaker A: Like I was saying, uh, loyalty is uh, is a very big thing and a very uh, it's. It's also, it also gets very granular during this season. A uh, big thing because you know, um, brands like Skywards or Shukran or you know, all of these, they tend to do a lot of these multiplier programs, um, you know, where they offer 5x10x uh points on you know, the purchases or you know, whatever however you interact with the brand, uh, granular because, uh, you know, even your smallest chain of restaurants or smallest chain of salons or you know, whatever, they have loyalty programs or these loyalty cards that you can get stamps on, uh, on every visit.

Speaker B: Right.

Speaker A: And uh, you know, that makes you want to go back and use their service once again. So during this season, people tend to

Speaker B: maximize this as much as possible. Uh, because they know that, you know, there is a very high chance for repeat customers. Right. Uh, say when it comes to fashion or you know, your retail, uh, brands, they tend to have a lot of these, spend more, save more campaigns or you know, spend more on more campaigns, uh, that kind of things. So people shop repeatedly to say, you know, buy their outfit or even if it's just a sale for that matter, if you know, the brand decides to put up, um, you know, whatever up to 70 off during the season, uh, people want to shop that and earn more points so that they can burn, uh, that eventually. Uh, similarly with say Skywards, uh, you know, you earn points that you can, you know, eventually use for free ticket or you know, an upgrade. So loyalty is a very big thing during the season because the uh, spend capacity of your customer also is big during the season. So when it comes to rewards and coins, um, you know, people want to earn as much as possible so that, you know, they can, you know, do some shopping or use yours for free at a later stage or whatever. So yeah, that, that um, aspect also, you know, is. Is big during the season.

Speaker C: Understood. Understood. And uh, I think you mentioned something about the spend capacity and m. And I, I believe you're right because, because you know, people are more often than not, uh, willing to spend during, during a festive season like Ramadan. And we'll, we'll get to that because I do have a question on that as well during the ending phase of the podcast. But uh, before that I would want to just tie up the loyalty and the CRM part of the CEP part as we like to call it. Right. Um, you did mention something about the brand interaction and when it comes to loyalty, um, uh, strictly speaking from a marketer's uh, point of view, uh, when it comes to, when it comes to uh, you know, targeting the already existing user through retargeting campaign, etc. M. I think CPs and CRMs, uh, play a very big role when it comes to, you know, the personalized communication, uh, creating those event triggered flows, etc. Right. So I just want to talk about the, the tool that is sitting at the back end which is your, which is your cep and maybe maybe just want uh, check with you as to how a marketer like yours leverages these tool, you know, during a season, uh, like Ramadan or even some other campaign, say back to school campaign or something of that sort. Right. How do, how do marketers uh, leverage a uh, cep. And it would be great if you could just share a campaign journey with us, you know, from inception to conclusion.

Speaker B: Right. So, you know, what uh, you know, the CRM and CEP tools help us achieve is to know our customers really, really well. And uh, Ramadan is a great time not to just engage with say active customers, but also win new customers. Right. Or win back customers that have churned out of uh, you know, your system.

Speaker C: Right.

Speaker B: So uh, you know, you can have specific types of offers for specific uh, target groups. Right. You know, we always believe in segmenting our target groups and we always believe in personalizing our offers to such an extent that you know, you know for a fact that the customer wants to uh, convert with you. Right. So I mean, to just give you a certain idea, we can look at say acquisition as an objective like you know, because it's a very big season, you know, everyone's trying to, you know, get people to engage with their brand. M. And you know, acquisition becomes a very big part of your uh, objectives or your KPIs during the season. So two types of people that you will probably see during, you know, when you're trying to acquire them. One is, you know, someone who has signed up with you, I say seeing an ad or you a Google search and they found, you know, something, some offer that you know, they find lucrative and, but they haven't made a purchase, they've probably downloaded the app, they've signed up or whatever, but they have not made the purchase. The second type would be, you know, someone who's done research, found your offer lucrative and made that purchase.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: Both of these people are not the same but they're not very different from each other. They're very thin line. So um, these people, you know, whether you know they could have probably made the purchase because this, you know, they've seen one of their favorite influencers marketing the product or whatever. So how do you ensure that these people stay loyal to your brand or these people make a repeat purchase or these people stay, you know, make continued purchases with you? Uh, that is, that is our biggest uh, you know, objective. During, when you're acquiring someone, how do you ensure that it's not just a one time purchase or it's not just you know, that first view that you know, sort of they see you, they see your brand and then they phase out of it. So you, you know, you create a journey in such a way that you know, you ensure that they stay engaged with you. Um, so whether it is uh, say you know, you start with like an email marketing uh, uh, journey with them or a marketing journey with them or you engage them on multiple channels and uh, you know you start with like introducing yourself, who are you as a brand? Like what do you stand for? So for example, because I am with momsworld, I give them an introduction about you know, uh, kind of offerings that Mum's World has, you know, what kind of products we sell, what kind of brands we sell, you know, and then uh, you know you give them an insight into all the other sides of your presence, your social handles, your website. You know, you ask them to interact with you as a brand. You give them your contact information. Um, and then along with that you could also share some of your ongoing offers uh, in terms of you know because most of, and especially in the E commerce industry most of the times you always have um, an offer, an ongoing discount that's you know, running with a certain brand or whatever. So you you know, highlight those offers to them. You tell them that okay, there is a 50 off on this brand. Why don't you you know, uh, use this or there is you know, whatever like um, a flat uh, you know, discount on something or you know, anything of that sort. Then you also make that effort to, so whenever like you know I always use this analogy in my communication where I say if I'm interacting with a person, you um, know, CRM or your, your whole marketing journey also has to follow that same one on one sort of ah, sort of an equation. So you introduce, once you've introduced yourself you also try and get to know the person better. So you, you know all your apps have a profile section so where you get their first name, their last name, their nationality, their age, their gender, all of that. So you know, you help them create that profile. You know a lot of these fashion brands also have like sizes as part of their profile. Your uh, dress size, your shoe size, you know, all of that. So that helps you make you know uh, customers journey as tailored as you possibly can. Right. So you know you make uh, give them you know exclusive offers or secret deals or secret coupon codes or you know things like that that make them want to. So you know that okay, they've interacted with this brand so it's the next time you oh them a similar M brand or show them the same brand and then you know similar offers from uh, different brands, you cross market and you get them to you know, eventually start their journey with you as a brand. So you're also getting their data, getting their information. You are also introducing yourself that way, managing to sort of create a sense of loyalty with the brand.

Speaker C: Wonderful. And I mean it's interesting that you mentioned about you know, knowing the customer also through, through all the interaction that you have and possibly more often than not, uh, more often than not it is, it is a one way communication that is, that is offering, that is happening in terms of you know, the channels, be it SMS, WhatsApp, emails, etc. So, so knowing then, so knowing the person's detail to, to you know, curate that journey is something that, that is that, that possibly can happen through those channels and understanding and analyzing the data and insights that you gather from it. Uh, which basically brings on, brings me on to the second point right uh that you mentioned that you mentioned about creating that 360 degree user profile where you have all the data points curated tailored journey. So just, just, just uh, taking cue from that and talking about that uh, when it comes to mom's world and especially your experience, right uh, in terms of that 360° uh data points, what are some of the data points that you've looked at uh while devising a campaign uh to have that customer journey. Um, so just want to understand the data points that you look at and possibly also once you've understood the data points and build up a customer journey, um, what were the campaign metrics at the end of the campaign that you looked at to analyze whether the campaign did well or, or did not do well etc. Etc.

Speaker B: Okay, so, so data is, you know, as long as you collect selected, there are so many things that, you know, it can do for you as a marketer. Right? Like, um, you know, I believe very heavily in personalization. Whether it is, um, you know, something as small as, say, just mentioning, uh, a person's first name in the communication that you're sending out, whether it's the subject line of an email or whether it's a push notification that you're sending to them. And uh, so apart from, you know, something as small as this, I also tend to look at, you know, channel affinity. So, um, if I know for a fact that, uh, you know, my customer interacts more with me through, say a push notification or interact with me better on an email, I tend to, you know, send them, uh, communication on those channels more frequently than I would on the other ones. Not that I would cut off the other channels, you know, completely. But, you know, when it comes to say, uh, you know, SMS or WhatsApp, these channels are paid, right? So we ensure that we use them creatively, use them effectively, uh, to ensure that the conversion is better at the end of the day. Right. So channel affinity is a very big thing for me. Uh, you know, uh, and say, uh, the, you know, the profile aspects like your first name and last name. I ensure that those are things that I have about my customer. Apart from that, I also look at say, uh, you know, what kind of offer that they react to. So if I know that, you know, I'm communicating to an active base of mine, um, I categorize them in different buckets. Like some people are known to shop only when there is a discount going on your. Or they only look for discounts or sales on your website. There are some that, you know, shop no matter what they look at. I mean, whether it's full price or discounted, it's just a seasonal behavior for them. And you know, they are frequent shoppers. Say for example, as a mother, I, uh, regularly I need for diapers and wipes. Right? Um, and that too for two sizes. One is for a toddler size and one is for, you know, the newborn size now. So I have, you know, probably every two to three weeks, I, you know, place that order, uh, on um, you know, say Mom's World or any of these merchants, noon or whatever and get my film for the product. So there are those kind of shoppers who, who just have to buy these certain products at a certain interval. And uh, you know, those are, you know, there are others who say stop, like, uh, once A year maybe when, you know, sometime during Black Friday or they, you know, they are specifically back to school shoppers, um, you know, things like that. So you categorize them in buckets and you cater to them with the kind of communication that they are likely to respond, right? Like if, you know, if I am a discount shopper and I get something that says, um, you know, we have, there is a new launch. Because most uh, of the times when you launch something new, it's, you know, full price, you end up, you know, the customer may not react well to that, but in the same, when you're making a new launch, you tell them that, hey, you know, here's a discount code specifically for you. Uh, so you can get another 10 or 15% off on this product. That way you are encouraging them to make that purchase. That way you're encouraging them to look beyond just discounts. So uh, that's one, uh, you know, that's one set of, uh, audience that, that's one set of data that I look at. So whether, you know, you want to give them bonus points or you give them a wallet pop up, like, you know, nowadays people credit some points beforehand in the account and say, okay, we credited this to your account and this mainly works for like a churn, uh, base, right? Like you tell them that, hey, you know, we've credited some points to you already, or we credited the balance worth so much to you already. Why don't you, you know, come back and make a purchase. So, so these are my three important data points that I look at, like basic information like name, uh, gender, nationality, all of that. So I can cater to communication that is more specific to them, uh, then their channel, affinity. And the third one would definitely be, uh, you know, the offer type or you know, what kind of schedule they fall into.

Speaker C: Understood? Understood. Well, that's, I mean you've, you've been, yeah, you've been as granular as possible when it comes to, comes to the data point that, that you know, you look at. And I think our, uh, the marketers who are there in our listening fraternity would definitely, uh, find this valuable. Right. But uh, just to add on to this and talk about the different metrics that you measure. Right. So when it comes to the conclusion of a campaign, uh, when it comes to assessing whether that campaign has done well or has not performed to the mark, what are some of the factors or the metrics that you look at when it comes to that?

Speaker B: Oh, yeah, so obviously you're looking at your return on investment, right. When you act uh, putting so much effort into your marketing and communication and all of that, you want to see that it has paired well. So roi, of course it you know, plays the, it is the most important thing. Apart from that, you're also looking at uh, say if this campaign has run for about week, 10 days or you know, a whole month in case of Ramadan, you want to see how active a uh, user has been. So you define what is that period that you want them to be active for. So do you want them to shop week on week? Do you want them to shop every fortnightly? Like what is that you uh, know, timeline that you are defining for your customer for this particular campaign and see how active they have been and what, how successful you've been in, you know, achieving that.

Speaker A: Yeah. So of course, uh, apart from that, you have like I mentioned earlier, this season is uh, you know, one of the best times to get new customers also on board. So uh, and especially if you are you know, in E Commerce, app installs plays a very important role for you in you know, measuring the success of the campaign. So you have to ensure that you have or you've grown as compared to previous seasons or previous months in terms of your installs percentage. Um, and last but not the least, you have your average order value.

Speaker B: Right?

Speaker A: Um, like I said, you, you have customers who are willing to you know, spend that extra buck maybe you know, closer to say eid, uh, you know, closer to the last week of Ramadan, your uh, you know, customers tend to

Speaker B: spend a little more.

Speaker A: So your average order value also uh, you know, shows a bit of an incline during this season. So you have to you know, as a success metric you need to ensure that this uh, you know, also percentage wise is you know, much higher, you know, compared to your previous seasons. Uh,

Speaker C: understood. And I'm sure in terms of the ROI and the other metrics that you mentioned like installs activities of users, uh, mhm. Especially during this season, I'm. Every brand that is actively doing a campaign probably is seeing a bump in the, a positive bump in the, in these uh, metrics. Right. But if we, if we uh, you know, fast forward to a couple of months down the line, uh, post the Ramadan season and this is where I would just want to go back to the spend capacity uh, pointer that you had raised right. Initially, uh, where we. I'd mentioned that you know, people are more often than not ready to spend when it comes to a uh, season like Ramadan, uh, versus versus say a uh, non festive season for that matter during these times when it comes to a non festive season. During these times, how do brands, you know, uh, ensure that the metrics that you mentioned, like active users, installs, even the acquisition part of it, uh, the average remains consistent if, if not more

Speaker A: so when it comes to your active days, right? They uh, they know your seasonality, they know when you, they are likely to, you know, hear about a discount from you or not just an active user generally. If you have, if you look at the retail calendar, you know that these are times when people are promoting discounts or you know, going on higher sales. And these are times when there's like a bit of a. So my, like my general observation over these, over the last few years has been that okay, once you have communicated sales or communicated offers so much to them, like you know, whenever it is say um, Ramadan or Black Friday or back to school, you're always, you're constantly keeping in touch with your customers saying okay, there's this discount, there's this discount. Why don't you go shop and you know, you've left something in your cart, get this, you know, now and get, you know, use this coupon code to get a further discount or whatever. Uh, once the season is over, you need to sort of refresh your communication in such a way that you're not sounding the same, right? You, you want your customer to still stay engaged with you. So like my idea of that would be to not promote the deals but say, promote any kind of newness. So for example, whether you know, once Ramadan is over, there is a seasonal change, you know, like summer is coming up or whatever. So you talk about those aspects, have you know, make it uh, you know, trending with whatever's going on like you know, with say Instagram or TikTok or whatever. Random things go uh, viral and random things go become trending overnight, right? Like it's speak about those kind of things. Speak about say uh, the season, speak about say a random trend that has come up, uh, and you know that people are uh, going gaga over or uh, you know, instead of saying okay, get a 50% discount or get you know, uh, this uh, this thing is on sale. So there is a sort of freshness to your communication and people still want to see what you have to offer.

Speaker C: Understood. I think freshness to the communication is the key here. Um, and Rachna, I think, um, like I mentioned earlier also your, your insights, your take and your examples have been as granular as possible and I think that's a wonderful thing. Um, and thank you so much for that. Um, just to, just to conclude our podcast and, and this is my last question to you. I would really, you know, a lot of CRM marketers today who would probably be working on, as we speak, working on the campaigns for Ramdan, which is probably two, one and a half, two months down the line. Right?

Speaker B: So.

Speaker C: So, uh, as an experienced marketer, I would just like you to share, you know, your two cents for all these marketers who are probably going to prepare these campaigns and you know, just leave this, uh, podcast on a food for thought.

Speaker A: So, uh, I have my three Ps, whether it is Ramadan or any other campaign that I'm working on. One is personalize. Okay. And I don't know, I probably mentioned this quite often through this conversation, but personalization is key. And you know, even when you want something to stand out on your inbox, when you see your name come up on the subject line, or when you see something that is very close to, you know, your last purchase or anything of that sort come up in your inbox or your push notification, you're more likely to respond. I'm not saying it's some you will respond, but you're more likely to. Right? So personalize as much as you can when you're communicating with a customer. So they will also, you know, feel special or they also feel that, okay, my brand knows me and you know, the offers are very, very tailored to the customer. Uh, the second thing is planning. Plan in advance. Like you said, people are already, uh, you know, they've already started thinking, uh, about what they want to do during this upcoming Ramadan season. Right. So, uh, and if they haven't already, this is probably their cue to do that. But, uh, planning in advance. I'm sure a lot of things happen last minute. I'm sure a lot of things, a lot of alterations happen last minute.

Speaker C: Minute.

Speaker A: That is obvious that, you know, we always, as marketers, we're prepared to do, uh, those last minute changes, but having a plan in place, uh, helps you, you know, sort of try and stick to it as much as possible and uh, you know, ensure that the season is smooth and you know, or uh, having that, you know, measurement, success metrics and all of that in place beforehand will give you that uh, confidence to sort of, uh, run the show smoothly. And uh, you know, the last one is promote, you know, don't miss an opportunity to promote your brand. Don't miss an opportunity to, um, you know, uh, use your channels effectively to speak about what you are promoting, uh, Whether it is organically, whether it's on your social media, whether it is through paid advertising, whether it's through paid channels like SMS or whatever, promote as much as you can and as effectively as you can. Like I mentioned, channel affinity is, is very key. So use your channels effectively to ensure that you're speaking about your brand properly. So, you know, you get more eyeballs, you're more likely to get conversion, and you're more likely to have a successful campaign.

Speaker C: Wonderful. Uh, wow, what a, uh, wonderful way to close this conversation. The three P's personalize, plan and promote. I think this is something that marketers need to look at and, and especially those who are at the implementation stage. Right. And who are, who are implementing those campaigns. I think these three P's would, would be the key in moving, moving forward in 2024 and onwards. But, um, Rachna, thank you so much for, for being part of our podcast series, for indulging with us and sharing these wonderful nuggets. Um, and it's been, it's been great hosting you.

Speaker A: Thank you so much. It was a pleasure of mine to be on this podcast and, uh, look forward to future endeavors with you all.

Speaker C: Wonderful, thank you. Yes, sure, same here. We also look forward to, you know, indulging with you again on certain other projects and, and using your experience to spread that knowledge. Knowledge. Right. But, well, on that that note, folks, we come to the end of another episode. Uh, please do stay tuned for our upcoming episodes on Growth Maestros and Ramadan Bites. Take care, Stay safe.