Omnichannel: Where Should I Tell Shoppers to Buy? - With Sri Rajagopalan - Episode 142

INTERVIEW WITH CPG LEADER SRI RAJAGOPALAN

 

DESCRIPTION

Today we are joined once again by Sri Rajagopalan for the third episode in our four-part series about CPG and Amazon. With so many different retail channels that you can sell through these days, and all their marketplace equivalents and ad platforms, a lot of brands are asking the question - where do we tell consumers to buy? 

Tune in to find out expert’s opinions on this topic.

Sri Rajagopalan is an experienced consumer packaged goods eCommerce leader who has been leading the industry in much needed digital transformation as retail shifts to adapt to the consumers changing shopping habits and the path to purchase.

He has most recently led Revlon’s growth in eCommerce in beauty as Senior Vice President, including direct to consumer leadership, incubated, and scaled digital eCommerce for Frito-Lay PepsiCo and Johnson & Johnson consumer Inc as Vice President of Digital.

His knowledge of Amazon business development, omnichannel needs across grocery retailers and direct to consumers are well known in the CPG industry. He is an active LinkedIn blogger, and you can find several of his featured podcast interviews on YouTube. He is a board advisor to several CPG startups and is focused currently on launching his own supplements startup – Zenfuel.

“Every brand’s responsibility is to drive towards profitability so that you’re building a responsible growth oriented industry that delivers value for the consumer and products of nature that consumers want to consume.”
— Sri Rajagopalan

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • What holds brands back from succeeding in a digital ecosystem is working in a business model that was largely built to be successful 25, 30 years ago, with no change in the blueprint. 

  • What are the similarities between the in-store business and digital business?

  • The causals of the digital model are radically different, at least on a piece of paper and to leadership.

  • Brands are comparing temporary price reduction, location in-store, a flyer, and a coupon partnership, to search, content, user experience, and ratings and reviews - the metrics that have nothing to do with each other. 

  • Brands should start with customers, shopper insights team, understanding consumer personas, and see what can be derived from those in terms of the causals of digital versus the causals of the in-store business model.

  • With the change in shopper behavior, the time has come for folks on the digital side to learn from those in the in-store model.

  • The shopper marketing team acts as a scanner for the company to stay in touch with what shoppers are doing both on the digital side and the brick and mortar side.

  • Bracket pricing - use the same model on where to send the customer.

  • Sri explains why there needs to be a mesh of digital and in-store disciplines.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

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