The Brand

24 Mantra is a leading organic food brand and brings the full grocery basket from farm to fork. The brand sources ingredients from over 45,000 organic farmers across India for its inventory of over 200 stock keeping units (SKUs). The brand sells USDA certified organic products and is a  dominant category leader in the markets and segments it operates in.

The Challenge

Being a market leader carries the onus of expanding the category. Category growth is driven by getting new consumers into the “organic fold” after they try the product and experience the benefits themselves. The challenges in achieving this include the following:

1. The ‘switch’ from conventional to organic needs customer education. This is difficult and requires a significant upfront investment.
2. There’s no tried and tested way to substantiate claims related to health benefits from using organic products. The brand could leverage the several anecdotal pieces of evidence shared by consumers of how they feel healthier when they make the switch. But, such observations will need to be backed by research studies and statistical data.
3. Finally, driving sampling needs to be done at scale.

Based on past consumption data, the brand believed that those who experience the products through sampling are likely to make the switch to organic products. The expectation is that such consumers would buy only a few SKUs, to begin with, but gradually buy more SKUs from the brand. Therefore, sampling could directly help scale sales.

The Approach

The approach entailed running a 360 Degree campaign on digital platforms, to educate consumers about organic food and get them to try the product. The overall approach is shown in the schematic below.

 

While this was a sampling program, it was decided to charge a nominal price for the sample distributed to ensure that the consumers are more committed to the cause.

The creative communication plank: #OrganicIsEarned

Consumer interactions led to some good insights which became input for the campaign. These insights were:

• Consumers believe that anything precious needs sacrifice. Short cuts imply compromises.
• Consumers are not aware of the effort needed to grow organic food, especially in comparison to conventional food.
• There is awareness about use of excessive pesticides and chemicals in food, but a lack of awareness that purer choices are available.

The brand chose to tell the story about what it entails to go back to the roots and create organic food. How purity is ensured and why it is hard work.

The idea was to use the inherent expectation of the consumer that everything virtuous requires hard work and sacrifice. Growing pure organic food is no different. The fact that farmers must nurture their farms over a period of time to make them pesticide-free implied that they would commit and stay the course for a few years in order to switch to organic. By making this connection, the consumers were expected to understand why organic food is valuable and worth the effort.

 

The communication #OrganicIsEarned came with a call to action suggesting that while growing organic was difficult, the brand was making it easy for consumers to make the switch by helping them use some products and experience the benefits first hand.

The Execution

Campaign microsite

A microsite was created that became the hub of all the action points related to the campaign. The microsite had informative content and a simple call to action which required consumers to:

1. State their health objectives or questions.
2. Register for an organic “starter kit” and pay a nominal amount to reserve the sample.

 

Campaign video

To further add credence to the brand’s ‘Organic is earned’ idea and communicate their ‘farm to fork’ story, a campaign video was added on the microsite. The concept video titled ‘A world without pesticides’ was created to showcase how 24 Mantra is actually helping with the cultivation of the farmlands of more than 45000 farmers across the country and ensuring that their end product remains pure, authentic and organic, every step of the way.

Digital ads across platforms

Users were directed to the microsite through a series of engaging yet informative display ads that told the ‘Organic is earned’ story of the brand in an impactful manner.

 

Influencers & Experts to encourage and help consumers “make the switch”

In order to help consumers appreciate the significance of organic foods and understand how using organic can help improve their health and wellness, a panel of experts, comprising of nutritionists, chefs and food specialists was setup. Consumers could reach out to them and engage them with questions about organic food and its health benefits.

 

The Q&A platform with the experts allowed users to ask any query related to organic food and intimately understand the category. The users could choose from a series of set questions or had the option to submit their own unique question that was promptly answered by the expert panel. The exercise not only helped the brand educate a larger consumer base about the benefits of organic but also dispel a lot of myths and misconceptions surrounding it.

Consumers could easily ask common questions or specific questions they might have.

Encouraging users by showcasing exceptional consumer stories

Motivational consumer stories were further documented on the microsite in a section called ‘Organic Champs’. This section had stories from people who had made the switch to organic food and had experienced positive health and lifestyle because of the switch.

Working with e-commerce players to deliver free samples.

Every consumer who came on the campaign microsite and engaged with the expert panel was rewarded with a free brand sample and online shopping coupons of Amazon & Big Basket. This helped distribute samples at scale across the length and breadth of the country.

The Outcome

The campaign turned out to be a huge success with overwhelming results:

• Reached 30,000,000 (30 million) people, over a period of 3 months.
• 56,773 people engaged with the expert panel through Q&A
• Over 50,000 consumers requested the organic “starter kit.”