Case Study: How Merries entered India via new mom groups

Merries made its way into India leveraging new mom network communities, seeking feedback and creating awareness with influencers.

Japanese diaper brand, Merries entered the Indian consumer market in 2018. To understand the Indian market, the brand adopted a social media strategy of connecting to moms through large mom networks such as Mompresso and JAMMs. The campaign was conceptualised and executed by Adfactors Digital for Merries India.

Brand & Category Introduction

Merries is a premium Japanese Diaper brand that sells its products exclusively on Amazon. Having had a strong presence in Japan, the brand decided to set foot in India with its premium range of diapers.

Summary

A three funnel method was adopted to create awareness. The first funnel is where the brand reached a mass audience by collaborating with Mompresso. In the second funnel, the brand reached people living in premium localities of Mumbai through a WhatsApp blast message. In the final funnel, the brand collaborated with JAMMS - an Indian Mom's community.

Problem Statement/Objective

To convince new moms to try Merries diapers, creating awareness amongst the target audience. The brand hoped to receive genuine feedback and accordingly adapt to the Indian market.

Challenges

Merries was trying to enter an already established Indian diaper market with no direct landing page to take the audiences to. The target audience consisted of new moms living in specific premium areas only. The product pricing was considerably higher than its Indian counterparts.

Brief

Get mothers to try the product and influence, other moms, to use it too.

Creative Idea

Conduct promotions on an organic, word-of-mouth basis, targeting mommy groups. New moms are likely to listen to the reviews of other moms who speak positively about a product. So, enlightening mothers about the USP of the product was key.

Execution

Three unique hashtags were created for better visibility: #MerriesIndia #MerriesMuskaan #MerriesByMom

Through Mompresso, the brand connected with new moms and mothers who have babies between the age group of 0 to 3. Forty mothers were given samples of Merries Diapers for review.

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The influential moms gave their feedback about their experience with Merries Diapers on video, which was capitalized on, leveraging the power of visual content. 

These video reviews were posted on the moms’ social media platforms (Facebook & Instagram) reaching many other mothers. The videos were also reposted on Mompresso’s social media handles giving the brand a wider reach. The brand’s banner was also featured on the Mompresso website for a day giving the brand good visibility. 

A WhatsApp message activity was conducted to reach a larger audience. WhatsApp blast message was sent to all, irrespective of the gender, to create awareness about the brand in specific premium localities of Mumbai. 

Then, the brand collaborated with JAMMs for a WhatsApp awareness activity through their network of 50K mothers from premium localities only. According to the target audience and area-specification, 20 mothers were shortlisted for a review and sampling activity. 

After trying the product for a week, these mothers posted their genuine reviews on two WhatsApp moms groups consisting of a network of approximately 200 moms each. Reaching a total of 8000 moms (200 X 2 X 20). The JAMMS admin also personally connected with mothers and took their feedback for the products provided. 

Results

1. The Mompresso activity used 40 mom influencers that got the brand a reach of 27,20,830 (2.7 million).
2. One blog post was published on Mompresso with a Merries logo that got 36,200 views and a reach of 1,69,876.
3. With a reach of 88,000, Mompresso helped the brand spread the word on Facebook and Instagram. 
4. The WhatsApp community sampling activity reached approximately 8000 mothers with babies aged between 0-3 years. 
5. The sampling activity helped the brand garner over 1000 loyal customers for the premium diaper brand.
6. The Merries India Facebook page likes shot up to 17K likes from a mere 100 likes and a total reach of 8,48,866 in October 2019 alone.
7. The brand's monthly sales shot up to 50% in October 2019.