Agon 2015, Case Study

October 1, 2015

Agon Case Challenge: Leveraging the Power of Customer

Engagement to Drive Brand Loyalty for EverShine
It was not the best of days for Shekhar. Results for the quarter ended June 15 were out, and sales for EverShine, the flagship brand of the
company, had dropped 5% from the previous quarter. To make matters worse, the market share had plummeted too, down 4%. These were
rude shocks, for both these indices had never declined during the past sixteen quarters for this market-leading brand. This sudden reversal
was alarming. Something was changing, and very rapidly so. And the company seemed unprepared to adapt itself to this change.
YourShop was the largest Consumer Products company in India, with its operations in the country dating back to more than a hundred years.
It dealt in the entire spectrum of CP goods, but the key focus was on Personal Care, Food & Beverages and Home Necessities. It was an
immensely respected company, and the market leader by far. It was known for a wide variety of high quality products, available at reasonable
prices. With a presence in almost every Tier-1, Tier-2 and Tier-3 city, the behemoth clocked revenues of INR 2500 crores from its Indian
operations. EverShine, its flagship shampoo brand, was easily one of its most popular and visible brands. With a history of more than thirty
years, it defined the word quality in its category, and had been the brand of choice for customers across the country.
However, neither the company nor its brands were known to be particularly nimble, and had started facing competition from smaller, more
agile players. Particularly, they seemed out of tune with the younger generation, or Gen Y as it is called. As a result, the customer satisfaction
indices of EverShine with this segment had been dropping (see Exhibit 1). So while the drop in sales was the first such occurrence, the
company should have seen it coming from these trends.
It did not take much for Shekhar to realize that the problem lied in the brands reach towards the younger generation, specifically the group
aged 18-35 years. Also called the Millennials, this was a large and growing segment and had enormous purchasing power. Being digitally
savvy, the way they thought, chose and shopped was radically different from the previous generation. Having finished his coffee, Shekhar
immediately called for a meeting with Deepti, the Brand Manager for EverShine, and Prabha and Vishal, the leads of the Marketing and IT
departments respectively. It was clear that Digital Marketing held the key to reviving the brands fortunes, and these three executives were the
most important stakeholders.
The meeting lasted for almost two hours. At the end, all four agreed that in a world that was connected 24X7, not engaging with your
consumers was not an option. The brand needed to know them, and listen to them. The use of online channels, particularly social media
channels, was acknowledged as a critical factor. It was also agreed that the bedrock of any solution had to be data. While YourShop did have

plenty of brand and consumer data, it was far from being efficiently utilized.
The following key points emerged from the meeting

Target segment - Although all consumer segments had their own importance, the youth segment was the most important for EverShine.
Indeed, failure to read the mind of this important segment was the primary reason for the drop in the brands fortunes. This was evident from
the fact that this segment was deserting EverShine for new-age, nimble competitors.
Channels - The brands presence across, and use of online channels left much to be desired. In particular, its communication with
customers was reactive (e.g. responding to complaints on the call center). There was no proactive communication strategy, they were not
listening to the constant chatter on social media channels.
Customer Retention and Acquisition - The brand needed to retain its existing customers, as well as acquire new ones. However, between
the two, it was the former that was more important. Shekhar was reminded of a popular statistic that revealed that customer acquisition was
7x costlier to the company than customer retention.
Data Management - Consumer data volumes had been growing exponentially. However, data management at YourShop was localized, and
not co-ordinated at the country level. Data was scattered in hundreds of departmental silos. Therefore, although the company had managed
to acquire and store vast volumes of consumer data, it was practically useless. It was not possible to derive a single, unified view of the
consumer from this data.
Analytics - The company at best had average analytics capabilities, limited to basic analysis and reporting. They were not designed to learn
what they dont know, and could not generate any predictive insights. In the business landscape of today, the companys decisions had to
be data-driven. However, it continued to rely on historical information and intuition to guess the way forward.
Organizational Structure - The organizational structure was outdated, and unable to deal with the nuances of digital marketing and data
management. There was no Analytics department, and the Marketing and IT teams operated as watertight compartments, coming together
only when it was absolutely essential.

So, what was the solution? Among the various steps required to be undertaken, YourShop needed to come up with a Know-Analyse-Act
(KAA) strategy to tap into the full value of customer engagement, with a view to drive increased loyalty and sales for EverShine. The company
also planned to set up a Customer Center to practically implement this strategy.
Shekhar realized that these problems could not be solved without expert professional advice. After a survey of the market, he chose
Capgemini Consulting for this assignment, owing to their strong credentials in Digital Transformation.
You have been chosen by Capgemini Consulting to work on this assignment. Mr. Shekhar Patel, CEO, YourShop India has given you the
following assignment Outline an overall Digital Marketing Strategy to arrest the fall in sales and regain market share for EverShine, with special focus on Social
Media channels and Analytics (1 slide)
Design a revamped org structure for YourShop, showing the various important functions involved and design KPIs for measuring customer
engagement (1 slide)
Exhibits:
Exhibit 1: Customer Satisfaction Indices for EverShine (Youth Segment, 18-35 years)
YourShop has been working with customer satisfaction indices to assess the performance of its brands vis--vis other competing brands in the
category. These indices are a composite of various parameters like brand quality, price, appeal etc. The graph below shows the index for
EverShine, compared to the category average.

Exhibit 2: Customer Segmentation and Targeting

Identifying and targeting the right customer segment is critical to any successful marketing campaign. The table below shows the customer
segmentation for EverShine.
Age (Years)

Female

Male

0-17

Medium Priority

Medium Priority

18-26

High Priority

High Priority

27-35

High Priority

High Priority

36-48

Medium Priority

Medium Priority

49-60

Medium Priority

Medium Priority

60+

Low Priority

Low Priority

Exhibit 3: Traditional versus Modern Marketing Approaches

Traditional marketing approaches are unable to cope with the demands of the Digital age, and need to be replaced with new and innovative
methods. The table below compares the current and planned approaches, along various parameters and objectives.
Objective

Current Approach

Planned Approach

Customer Sentiment

Contact Center

Social Listening

Customer Data Management

Relational Databases

Advanced Analytics tools

Customer Engagement

IVR/email responses

Gamification / Online contests

Promotional Campaigns

Print Media, Emailers

Social Media channels

Note: Social Media Channels include but are not limited to - Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest etc.

Powered by Group Internal Communications Newsletter Builder

This message contains information that may be privileged or confidential and is the property of the Capgemini Group.
Copyright 2015 Capgemini. All rights reserved.