With the rise of native direct-to-consumers (DTC) brands, more traditional brands are discovering the advantages of connecting with, and selling to, consumers directly. The consumer behavior changes ushered in by the COVID pandemic have accelerated this refocus. Here’s how Modern Retail puts it:

[The familiar model of retail] is changing however, as less boutique consumer products, such as a case of Diet Pepsi, for example, enter the mix. As consumer preferences change, brands are witnessing rapid growth in the form of more traditional CPG brands seeking out DTC-like business models.

As brands evolve their DTC strategies, many are missing major moments in what has become the new customer journey, thereby losing direct sales and the ability to create longer term relationships with consumers.

The Importance of a Digital Experience

One thing that often hasn’t kept up with the move to DTC is the digital consumer experience of these established brands. Many of these digital properties weren't designed to focus on conversions, and that's something that needs to change.

Part of this entails revamping websites. Required updates can range from creating content marketing that encourages conversions to building an ecommerce platform. But even then, brands are forced to rely on consumers to find their way to these websites. 

Fortunately, there’s a better way. 

Put the Digital Experience in Consumers Hands

Blue Bite transforms CPG products into digital platforms, making it easier than ever for consumers to visit digital brand experiences. When connecting technologies like NFC and QR are installed directly on packaging, consumers tap or scan with their phones to launch dynamic digital experiences.

Unlike a static website, these digital experiences are inherently personalized to the specific user based on a variety of contextual factors like the item scanned, physical location, position in the customer journey and more. 

Drive Sales

To illustrate, take the example of a CPG detergent brand, Sparkle. The brand's containers are transformed into smart packaging with the addition of an NFC tag, and a call-to-action instructs consumers to “Tap to Repurchase.” In the digital experience launched on the consumer’s phone, there's an option to repurchase the exact product they just scanned — and this purchase is made directly from the brand, even if the initial product was purchased through a retailer.

We call this product commerce; it not only encourages consumers to visit a digital experience, but also immediately provides the opportunity to reorder the exact product, driving new sales for the brand

Drive Relationships

The digital experience for the Happy Acre brand of potato chips allows the brand to tell their story like never before, building a new kind of consumer connection that leads to significantly increased lifetime value.

For example, when a consumer scans the QR code on a bag of chips, the brand includes a video related to the specific flavor that is scanned. While this same video may get lost in the social media noise, the brand is able to repurpose it here to actually have it seen by consumers.

Don’t create new CPG content, make your content work harder for you.

Drive Data

There’s another huge value CPG brands are deriving by connecting directly with consumers: they now gain first party data that helps them better understand consumer behavior and, thereby, inform future strategy. 

No-Code Puts Innovation in the Hands of Marketers

Particularly at large brands, the prospect of updating the digital consumer experience can seem daunting, bringing visions of long meetings with IT departments and long implementation times. Fortunately, these are different times.

"In this no-code/low-code era, good business leaders and strategists have every reason to take the driver’s seat and change the conversation," said Kashif Zaman, writing in Forbes. "If limitations of the e-commerce platform dominate the dialogue too often, know that in today’s day and age, there are many ways to overcome or bypass such limitations."

He goes on to call for people with a strong product leadership background to lead initiatives to update the DTC customer journey. We've also found that innovative marketing leaders are also very integral in turning products into obsessions.

Using a Blue Bite-powered dynamic digital experience empowers CPG brands to directly engage consumers and offer them more value. In return, brands see better direct sales and more long term value through a new kind of relationship with consumers.