The NOW Generation has completely transformed how brands interact with their consumers. The demand for instant gratification and a strong desire to connect with the values of the brands they consume have forced marketers to constantly seek better ways to engage with them. In today’s episode, we have the pleasure of hosting Viviana Muci, the Global Digital Marketing & eCommerce Director at Bang Energy. She shares with us her invaluable insights on this fast-paced race of brand engagement and personalized e-commerce strategies. Tune in to discover her experiences in the energy drink industry and how she has successfully positioned her brand as relevant to the NOW generation.
Guest
Viviana Muci
KEY POINTS:
- Viviana’s experience and career journey
- The shift to digital consumer and channels
- Designing a releventa consumer journey
- Personalization is crucial for the NOW generation
- Data driven marketing and e-commerce strategies
- Consumer-relevant brand communication
RELEVANT QUOTES:
“I’ve been in the marketing field for, for quite a long time now. I actually studied marketing, that’s, that’s my bachelor degree, and had the opportunity to do a master’s degree in marketing management as well.”
“From the marketing point of view, trying to define our product portfolio, our pricing, our offers compared to what we were going to be doing at the point of sale.
the whole marketing organization had to shift towards a digital consumer and digital channels.”
“It’s a very fast-paced agile market, and more so in a brand that’s completely focused on the now gen or the, the Gen Z consumer or young millennial that’s really wanting things to be immediate, and that’s really demanding from brands that convenience and speed and authenticity.”
“I think the first thing to consider is that there’s no linear consumer journey today. Us marketers have to think that it’s, it’s more, you know, it might look like a spider web, where consumers are getting, information from, from multiple sources.”
“That journey that we designed probably five years ago where everything started with a search on Google, and, you know, that led to the whole funnel that has shifted.”
“It’s important that when we define that consumer journey, today for e-commerce, we try more to focus our strategy in making that a seamless customer experience and a frictionless customer experience where we’re trying to optimize the different interfaces or touchpoints.”
“Always try to make sure that the experience in that specific touchpoint is bringing value or, being very, convenient for the consumer, right? So I, I think that’s the first thing that we, we think of when we think designing, our, our journey today.”
“Actually personalization is, is crucial. Today when we design a customer journey, Especially for The NOW gen, because these are consumers that want to, receive, their own personalized information, offers, or even products.”
“We are really trying to focus now on making data-driven decisions to understand what consumer segments are, what, is the journey of these consumer segments? And, and it, there might be multiple, right? There might be a lot of consumer se segments, and we can even go to the specific person and understand the behavior.”
“We wanted to do a campaign online on our e-commerce. And instead of, you know, doing, an offer for everyone, we, we had the opportunity to understand the behaviors of, of each, user on our site. And we were developing personalized offers.”
“If you listen a little bit up or about the story of Bang Energy, bang Energy is a brand that, has grown a lot thanks to its organic social media presence and through influencer marketing. So, we, we have started to leverage these new kinds of technologies and, and geo targeted opportunities, through paid media to be able to, to drive, more personalized campaigns.”
“As brands we have to become more international, it’s, it’s, it’s quite a fact, right? Because, right now, these, these consumers are global consumers. It, they’re, their social media, has allowed them to, to have, information readily available on what’s happening everywhere.”
“The now generation specifically is a generation that likes, or uses social media to know exactly what’s happening in terms of news, entertainment, music, sports, they, they have a pulse of what’s going on in society globally.”
“Brands really need to make sure that when they’re developing strategies, they try to be as, culturally savvy as their consumers are. I think long were the days where we focused only on doing campaigns that were, specific to markets.”
“We need to be sure that we do several things that are more tactically locally, especially in terms probably of, p o s or retail activations, but even, EV events, right? bang Energy, for example, participated a couple of years ago at a Twitch Con, which is one of the biggest, gaming events from Twitch. And, and we chose Netherlands instead of San Francisco, and it was a perfect, place for us to generate visibility, to make sure our, our brand was seen as a global brand.”
“Working now in Bang Energy, which is a, an, an energy drink that’s heavily rooted in the American culture, we, we’ve started to, to tap into these more, you know, global kind of, of strategies that really help us elevate the brand and, and make sure that we are connecting with consumers, beyond culture.”
“I think that’s, that’s really the, I don’t wanna say the secret, but that’s definitely a strength if you have a marketing team that’s capable of adapting, in a very rapid way to what’s trending.”
“In that moment of time, there’s no content calendar, right? Like, we have to literally do something the same day post it and comment and, and invite users to share as well, or to, to jump into this trend even.”
“If it’s from another brand, it’s, it means that we are being part of the conversations of where everybody is, right? And, and I think that’s, that’s what makes our brand very human and very authentic, because you really feel that it’s, it goes beyond the content calendar and that everything, it’s based as you said on the team.”
“I think it’s, it’s definitely a strength is the fact that we have our own in-house, content or audio visual team. So we’re able to produce, basically any type of graphics or video content, rapidly, thanks to the fact that we have that in-house.”
“70% of Gen Zers, that for me, it’s also like very representative in terms of the now generation. They prefer to buy brands even though it’s more, are more expensive, but brands that have us or that share that sustainability value with them.”
“Brands really need to embrace this and, and remember that this goes beyond just communicating values, you know, on a website. It’s really trying to develop campaigns, that connect with consumers and, and that that feel very authentic, that make sure that, consumers are seeing that it’s, it, the brand is doing it because we want to support it.”
“So last year we decided to revamp our e-com business. We changed all the software, the technologies, the design, and, more than really to, to, you know, sell the product, which is great because there are energy drink fans and a loyal consumer base that likes to buy, you know, their cases, and they want to have all the flavors delivered straight to their house.”
“Bang energy is a brand that grew tremendously organically through social media and influencer marketing, but when we think about data that’s, it’s very difficult to gather data right through, through those, through those platforms.”
“We wanted also to launch our e-comm, not only as a sales, you know, way to, to, for us to, to open a new channel and deliver product to, to those Bang Energy drink fans, but also to get that first party data and be able to understand more consumer behavior in terms of flavor preferences, in terms of format preferences, in terms of also purchasing behavior to be able to deliver, better product and, and, and better marketing campaigns.”
“We have been doing initiatives like, for example, free gift with every purchase. So this is an instant gratification, right? You get a free gift every time you buy on bang energy.com. And some, some consumers, again, loyal energy drink consumers prefer to buy from our own store because they know they’re also getting their free gift or they’re getting, their personalized promotions.”
“Being a brand that’s so present on TikTok, and that has such a great, in influencer, marketing, and that has allowed us to, to be very visible for a global consumer.”
“So through social media, we’re, we’re being asked, oh, when is Bang Energy launching here in, in Colombia? When is it gonna launch in, in Brazil? So there is that, that consumer demand. And, and so we’re, we’re trying to, to be as fast as possible in to en to enter into those, those markets that represent a big opportunity for us.”
“We have been focusing on making all the marketing team very data driven because, the, the team’s priority has always been innovation and being a trendsetter.”
“They like the unexpected, they don’t wanna see things all over again. So even for us, we are always trying to do things that are different.”
“I think that one of the key takeaways is that instant gratification in the, in the, gen generation of the now is here to stay. it’s, it’s something that I think with the new technologies like ai, it, it’s gonna become even more challenging for, for brands.”
“This is not only the now generation, it is the, the skip generation and, and, they’re, they’re used to just skipping and, and stopping, only for brands that have something entertaining, exciting, and authentic to communicate.”
“I think it’s important that as brands we’re, we’re constantly focusing on that and, and asking ourselves the question and our teams the question, right? Like, let me see if this is actually something worth, not, not skipping, or if this is actually instantly gratifying my consumer, because if we don’t do that, then, then our, our competitors will.”
