Increased competition from upstarts and marketplaces (hint: Amazon) are changing the game for the entire consumer goods (CG) landscape as innovative product development and distribution strategies transform the entire consumer experience. With 63% of consumers expecting new products more frequently than ever before, most traditional CG companies aren’t equipped to meet the rate of new product development, speed-to-market, and agility required to keep pace — and forge ahead — in today’s fast-moving CG market. 

That is until you lead with experiences. A full 80% of consumers say the experience a company provides is as important as the product and services it offers. Take Coca-Cola — a staple for nearly every restaurant, convenience store, supermarket, and wholesaler. Personalized Coke cans create a connection beyond mindlessly grabbing a soda when you’re thirsty. That’s memorable. That’s leading with experience.

Smarter, personalized engagements create lifetime customers

Salesforce for Consumer Goods powers B2C engagement and enables brands to personalize like never before by connecting the entire value chain, from retail partner to end consumer, with a unified platform. It often starts in a brick-and-mortar store, where 95% of sales of fast-moving consumer goods occur. The platform captures insights about effective in-store strategies and uses them to drive better consumer experiences. Combined with our Connect the Consumer Experience solution, CG companies are able to operate with the end consumer at the center of everything for more connected relationships — from awareness to purchase (and repeat purchase). 

Here’s how it works. 

How to drive B2C engagement throughout the lifecycle

1. Unify data across platforms for a 360-degree view

Salesforce for Consumer Goods is on the Salesforce Customer 360 platform — our customer data platform (CDP) that consolidates enterprise data across sales, marketing, and service. MuleSoft unifies existing systems and data with next-generation application programming interfaces (APIs) to establish this 360-degree view, which gives stakeholders the visibility to test, learn, and innovate at speed and scale with highly personalized experiences.

2. Drive online engagement with contextualized interactions

Eighty-eight percent of consumers say they would exchange relevant personal information for a simpler purchasing process and 79% say the same for contextualized interactions, including personalized service and email. Salesforce for Consumer Goods connects with Salesforce for Commerce to capture consumer activity, preferences, and buying intent. This data informs audience segmentation and the creation of relevant branded content. 

From a single platform, you can leverage these powerful behavioral insights and preferences to deliver personalized messaging with Marketing Cloud. These interactions build one-to-one relationships with real-time offers and brand experiences across preferred channels — via email, SMS, social, push notifications, and more. 

3. Adjust engagement strategies for better ROI

CG companies constantly need to reevaluate their engagement strategies as consumer expectations shift and threats continue to enter the marketplace. Digital transformation, of course, is only accelerating this evolution. As part of Marketing Cloud embedded into the solution, CG companies can use Datorama to understand campaign performance and build smarter campaigns that drive ROI and unlock continuous growth.

4. Offer exceptional support

To round out B2C engagement, Service Cloud enables an intelligent and faster service experience that ensures satisfaction, including on social channels. From a single screen, your customer service agents have a full view of all necessary data available to best serve consumers and resolve more cases faster.

By creating an industry solution dedicated to consumer goods and a solution built around connecting the entire consumer experience, CG companies can create stronger experiences through the customer journey — and win them over. Watch this demo to create closer connections across the entire value chain.