Retail & Ecommerce

What is the Purpose of Branding in the FMCG Sector?

Illustratin Brand visibility
(Last Updated On: December 5, 2023)

FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) is one of the most significant sectors in the economic market nowadays. It is also recognized as the sector most resistant to the economic crisis, which became clearly visible when pandemic hit. Nevertheless, brand visibility in this sector can be really important. Products in the FMCG sector are the fast-moving ones, the bare necessities. At first glance, it may seem that the FMCG sector does not need such a large visibility increase. However, advertising campaigns are a must-have mainly because of the great competition among brands in the FMCG industry.

In this article you will learn:

  • How to build FMCG brand visibility
  • How much money is spent on FMCG branding
  • Which factors determine the success of branding campaigns
  • What are the benefits of taking the right approach to seasonal campaigns

Table of Contents:

Why should we build FMCG visibility and how to do it?

The FMCG industry is one of the most demanding when it comes to marketing activities. The equality of the products is determined by many factors such as ingredients, recipes. Why should we build FMCG branding? Firstly, it is important because of the visibility of the brand. Brand visibility may be defined as the rate in which a brand is seen by the audience (consumers, customers, etc.) through various channels (online and offline). The FMCG sector is also an industry in which competition is fierce. That’s why particular brands should do everything to be perceived by customers as important and visible.

Due to high competition and specific shopping paths in this industry, the effectiveness of marketing is primarily determined by the selection of appropriate marketing tools. Making a brand visible can be done using video campaigns, ads in social media, blog posts, and others.

Expenditures on advertising and brand visibility campaigns in the FMCG sector over the past few years 

The report ‘Business Intelligence – FMCG Food and Drink’ forecasts that FMCG brands will increase their advertising expenditure in digital channels by 7% annually until 2023. FMCG spending fell more sharply than the overall advertising market in 2020, down 10.7% to $ 26.7 billion.

In 2020 a lot of FMCG companies reduced their promotional efforts for products they were unable to deliver to consumers quickly enough to meet demand. That was all related to the pandemic and the feeling of uncertainty. Companies invested in distribution infrastructure, especially e-commerce operations and partnerships. In 2021 this trend has changed and now a lot of FMCG companies are investing in brand visibility marketing and advertising. 

FMCG brands allocate 52% of their budgets for TV campaigns. Experts are now saying that this may change slightly. Digital advertising expenditure in the FMCG industry will increase from USD 12.3 billion in 2020 to USD 14.9 billion in 2023, and its market share will increase from 46% up to 49%. 

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Examples of brand visibility campaigns in the FMCG sector

There are many great examples of brand visibility campaigns in the FMCG branding sector. 

  1. Coca-Cola: the data shows that about 7.1 billion people can recognize Coca-Cola (94% of the earth’s population). One of the brand’s most popular campaigns is a video titled ‘Share the Coke’. This brand is not successful only because of the products, but also because of the marketing ads, videos, and campaigns. Nowadays almost everyone who thinks about Coca-Cola sees two colors: red and white.
  2. Dove is a brand that is associated with social campaigns. One of the most important campaigns is the one called ‘Reverse selfie’. As a part of this initiative Dove wants to draw attention to how popular social media networking applications falsify reality and this really may affect the mental health of teenagers, young people, and middle-aged people.

We cooperate with brands like Nestle, Pampers, PepsiCo, Coca-Cola, Danone, Budweiser, Budvar, Mars, and Procter & Gamble. Video advertising is becoming more and more important. We encourage you to see how we deliver end-to-end video campaigns at RTB House. 

What determines the success of the FMCG branding campaigns?

Many factors determine the success of brand visibility campaigns such as:

  1. Selecting the target group – it is really important to choose a particular target group as the campaign shouldn’t be directed to everyone, even in the FMCG industry. Campaigns with no targets can fail. The Internet is now a ‘wide space’ that includes both Open Internet and Walled Gardens. It is important to take both components into account when selecting the target group. The Walled Gardens need personal information to allow the user access to the particular system. At RTB House, we focus on contextual targeting with particular potential, as the phasing out of support for third-party cookies in Chrome seems inevitable.
  2. Advertising in the right places – means that the brand does not need to advertise everywhere but in particular places. Sometimes it is more important to write blog posts, sometimes Facebook or Instagram ads are better. The tool is related to the target group and the campaign goals. Walled Gardens are not the only path to follow. It is also worth remembering that programmatic ad campaigns can be really powerful thanks to the use of advanced algorithms and Deep Learning Technology. 
  3. The owner of the brand should remember the budget. Every budget should be spent effectively for video and ads campaigns. Effectively in this context means maximizing the number of completed views in a given budget. 
  4. Tracking awareness key performance indicators (KPIs), viewability, VCR. It is the tracking of the results that can help the owner of the campaign understand the data and check if the campaign was effective. Measuring these indicators and selecting effective partners is essential. 

The most important advantages of brand visibility campaigns in the FMCG sector

Firstly, the visibility of the brand is higher, so consumers are more involved and interested in purchasing products. What is more, brand visibility builds brand equity. The other advantages are:

  • keeping the brand at the top of the audience (and also potential consumers),
  • increasing consumer loyalty which is very important in this sector,
  • increasing sales which is related with income,
  • increasing word of mouth marketing. 

In the fast-moving consumer goods industry customer awareness of a brand is of particular importance when choosing a product. This is due to a large number of competitors in product categories, as well as the speed of decision-making at the store shelf. That is why it is so important in this industry to conduct brand visibility research and build its position.

If you have any questions, comments or issues, or you’re interested in meeting with us, please get in touch.

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