Traditional Marketing Vs. Digital Marketing? The Dilemma Of A Mass Brand

An FMCG professional with 13 years of experience in brand management, product development, consumer engagement, channel management, sales & distribution management spanning across diverse categories & geographies.

- Aishwarya Pratap Singh

Marketing is an ever evolving field with a core underlying objective - to create desire. Every now and then a new wave of change interrupts the market, pushing the marketers to rethink their strategies to reach out to the consumer. The latest wave on which the world is riding right now is the digital marketing. How relevant is it to India and how does it alter the scales of traditional mass marketing (TV, Radio, Print, magazines etc.), especially in the FMCG (Fast moving Consumer Goods) sector.

What is FMCG?

FMCG is the 4th largest sector of Indian economy at approx. 3.65L crores of consumer spend. Growing at 7 percent per year (Source: IBEF’18), it is considered to be the backbone of consumption sentiments of an economy in a developing nation.

The products are characterised by frequent purchase, (relatively) low involvement during purchase, low price and quick (ready daily) consumption. These products are physically made available through kirana stores across India backed by a complex distribution network. Simultaneously, FMCG companies also create consumer pull-through marketing across various communication mediums. So it is a fine balance between mental availability and physical availability. Due to massive scale and scope of its products, FMCG marketing accounts of 1/3rd of total marketing spend on traditional media. And that makes the views of FMCG marketing towards selection of a communication medium critical for its growth.

The Rise of Digital Marketing