Inside: Cornitos' lockdown social media strategy to boost e-commerce sales

We take a look at how Cornitos made the most of social media to push e-commerce offerings and keep brand communication relevant during the lockdown.

The beginning of the lockdown was a tough time for most businesses as supply and distribution chains took a hit. For Cornitos, it was pretty much the same tale. Their modern trade stores had seen a drop in sales in the quarter as they were not operational and people were not stepping out to buy the product. By July, the brand had realised that they must step up their e-commerce presence and thus, a portal was launched. Cornitos has since been promoting is using its social media channels.

Sharing a glimpse into the process of making the portal, Vikram Agarwal, Managing Director, Cornitos tells us, "While launching our website we had to keep numerous factors like — the look of the website, easy accessibility to our consumers, the working process, information available on the website amongst others."

E-commerce at heart

The website opened up opportunities for them to reach more consumers. Currently, they are able to deliver products in Delhi-NCR, UP and Haryana. They plan to extend the geographical reach to pan-India after consolidating operations and incorporating upcoming products.

The brand has also strengthened its e-retail presence with the help of various e-grocery platforms such as Amazon, Flipkart, Grofers, Big Basket, Milkbasket, Scootsy, Suprdaily, Jiomart, Dmart, and others.

The creation of their own e-commerce platform has opened up opportunities for an expansion in the product portfolio. Earlier this year, the brand had launched wheat flour tortilla wraps and are now hoping to add products to their healthy snacking range.

The upcoming festival season is one they are hoping to leverage. "We will be expanding our product range and will start with our festive packs that will be launched during the festive season," shares Agarwal.

Cornitos social media strategy

According to Agarwal, two campaigns, #CornitosKhaoBoriyatBhagao (May) and #CornitosFilmyFlavours (June) have worked the best for the brand under lockdown. "Both of these campaigns generated good traction and brand mileage," he tells us.

We take a look at the timeline and how their communication has changed over the last few months.

March

As the pandemic started to take hold in the nation, there was a dire need for two kinds of communication: informative and supportive. Cornitos pivoted their social media strategy to do the needful and created multiple posts to tell people about the importance of social distancing. They also concentrated their efforts to boost confidence and help people know that this too shall pass.

April

By April, campaigns started coming up. The initial 21 days lockdown was taken up as a content theme and multiple posts were pushed in sync to give people ideas on how to make the most of their time at home. Cornitos also focussed on sharing recipes with brand connect, helping people with inspiration to create dishes with nachos.

The overall sentiment was that of hope and the need to be responsible to stay protected against COVID-19. People were also asked to share their lockdown stories and recipes with #LockdownWithCornitos with brand goodies being offered as incentives.

May

In May, the brand communication shifted to talk about the fatigue aspects of staying at home for an extended period. #CornitosKhaoBoriyatBhagao focussed on millennials stuck alone in the pandemic, far from their houses, and how they're talking about life coming to a standstill all of a sudden. The brand connect was found in how packs of Cornitos are keeping them happy.

The campaign was launched with an aim to associate with Cornitos' customers in a fun and light-hearted way by empathizing with their situation, shares Agarwal. The brand also highlighted the need to snack healthy under the lockdown.

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June

In June, Cornitos started with a Bollywood themed campaign that went on to be built over the course of the next two months. This campaign focussed on products as well as e-commerce channels to get them delivered at home. Several content pieces were created around the topic, in a story format to promote brand offerings and ethos.

The #CornitosFilmyFlavours campaign leveraged famous Bollywood dialogues, mapping customers to specific brand attributes and their relevance in the situation at the time. "The narrative allowed us to convey to the customers that we are scrupulously following all safe delivery rules," Agarwal tells us, adding how the campaign helped lend a sense of normalcy in the troubled times.

July

In July, the brand took #CornitosFilmyFlavours a step further with the help of influencers and extended the narrative of how it is safe to get Cornitos delivered at home. A rap song was also launched in sync with these efforts, with iconic Bollywood dialogues being leveraged to the hilt. User-generated content was also encouraged with goodies being offered as an incentive.

August

While #CornitosFilmyFlavours campaign continued to make its presence felt in August as well, the focus started to shift slightly to promoting the healthy snacking range by the brand. Also, the brand's own e-commerce channel was most prominently highlighted as a visual element in the creatives at this point.

September

In September so far, Cornitos has been concentrating on regular as well as trending content to be pushed on social media platforms.

Cornitos has been consistently vocal throughout the last few months, adapting their strategies to fit into the lives of its consumers. The Bollywood-themed campaign made up for a lion's share of their social media strategy. Offering goodies as incentives too proved to be a good strategy for the brand to encourage people to share their stories and create content around the products. These helped them stay relevant as well as push their narrative of being available on e-commerce stores.