FMCG Industry work with LReply

For a long time, the consumer goods industry could rely on its customers. Leading brands have consistently increased their returns by almost 15 percent over the decades. But those times are over. Customer demands have changed – and the industry needs to find new ways to understand them. Leveraging the power of the community, LReply offers FMCG companies new access to the minds of consumers.

Digital customer dialogue as a strategic success factor

The seismic generational change has firstly repositioned and secondly re-evaluated marketing and customer management in the FMCG industry. Mass campaigns, mass brands and mass communications with investments that are easy to calculate are giving way to data-driven marketing and sales practices that have neither a clear start nor a clear end point.

The digital transformation is far from complete, and the new digital map for the consumer goods industry is far from being fully mapped out. According to a Google research, there will be further profound developments in the online world in the next five years, which will fundamentally influence at least one third of the total revenue of the FMCG industry. This will be particularly noticeable in the men’s cosmetics, baby care and beauty ranges. For Google, the conclusions are obvious: digital must be viewed as a strategic medium, digital growth paths are needed and, ultimately, a new way of thinking about the brand portfolio.

What does the new generation of customers want?

The generation change is not only evident in communication. According to McKinsey, millennials, who are currently the dominant target group for many FMCG brands, prefer young and new brands in particular. Compared to the baby boomer generation, they make a conscious decision about four times more often to buy products that do not come from a corporate group. This runs through all product groups, but is particularly true in the food sector.

The key to sustainable growth in a digitized FMCG industry lies right in the minds of customers – and in the power of real-time data. What consumers think about a product has always been important. But in digitization, it is all the more important to record and respond to these settings directly and in real time.

LReply creates a direct dialogue between consumers and the industry in real time. This dialogue influences the product development cycle, marketing and last but not least the growth strategy. A linear development path becomes a circular exchange that enables quick adjustments and even faster innovations.

Our goal is to connect consumer goods manufacturers and consumers via a transparent and independent platform. With test projects, companies can work on the foundations and challenges of new products directly with their target group and thus generate reliable indicators of success.