FMCG brands would benefit by sharing online platforms

FMCG brands are still reluctant to engage with consumers outside their own websites because they want to directly own and control the relationship with the consumer. However, this insistence on trying to force unnatural behaviour by driving consumers to FMCG brand websites is puzzling.

It means brand owners must invest heavily in online and traditional media to target potential customers and get them to visit their website where they can then engage them further, sign them up and capture consumer data.

All of these benefits can be more easily achieved, and for a tiny fraction of the cost, by taking a more natural route aligned with shoppers’ behaviour and attitudes. Brands share shelf space in store and in Google search listings, so why not share space with other brands on an aggregated promotional website?

Any snobbery that pooling brands together online may be somehow demeaning to the brand fails to appreciate just how sophisticated and creative multibrand promotional sites can be. The right digital platform will offer advertisers a positive brand association as well as the same engagement tools valued by brand owners running promotions on their own websites, all of which can be combined with a printable coupon to drive measurable in-store sales.

Jo Malvern, product and marketing director, BeforeIshop