How a strong local streak is powering Nando’s marketing strategy in India

The food and beverage (F&B) industry in India has seen remarkable growth over the past decade, driven by changing consumer lifestyles, increasing urbanization, and a growing appetite for diverse culinary experiences. The market is intensely competitive, with both established brands and new entrants vying for consumer attention. In this dynamic landscape, brands must continually innovate and adapt their marketing strategies to capture and retain customers. The rise of digital marketing, influencer collaborations, and hyper-personalized consumer experiences are key trends shaping the industry, making it essential for brands to stay agile and responsive to evolving consumer preferences.

In an interaction with Adgully, Anushree Bose, Marketing Head of Nando’s India, discusses how the brand has adapted its marketing strategy to resonate with Indian consumers, the importance of their CRM strategy in fostering customer loyalty through personalized communication and offers, collaborations that allow influencers to infuse their personal style into authentic and engaging content, and more.

How has Nando’s marketing strategy evolved in the Indian market over the years, and what key factors have driven these changes?

Globally, Nando’s marketing approach is the one that challenges conventional thinking and grabs attention. In India, we integrate cheeky humor with a dab of local idiosyncrasies and topical issues to create a brand personality that translates well and has a local flavour.

Nando’s brand identity has evolved over time, from being known as the OGs of flame-grilled PERi-PERi chicken to a global lifestyle brand that offers a wholesome experience. Apart from changes in brand positioning or image there are various other factors like embracing localization, innovation, digitalization, and community engagement driven by a deep understanding of local consumer behaviour and market dynamics – that influenced and shaped our marketing strategy.

Could you elaborate on the role of influencer marketing in Nando’s promotional activities? How do you measure the ROI of such campaigns in the F&B industry?

F&B is an intensely competitive industry, with new and existing brands vying for consumer attention. We allocate a decent portion of our digital spends on influencer marketing. It plays a significant role in forging meaningful connections with the audience and consumer decision making. We love to work with influencers passionate about gastronomy and photography and believe in collaborative content creation where we give creative control to our influencers and encourage them to infuse their style to create authentic and engaging campaigns.

Influencer marketing delivers tangible results that can be measured by a combination of metrics like monitoring engagement in form of likes, comments, and shares. The second most important metric is reach and impressions of the content. Moreover, embedded trackable links, promo codes and microsites can accurately calculate the revenue generated from influencer collabs. A parallel increase in brand mentions and positive sentiments are also an indicator of successful campaigns.

What unique CRM strategies has Nando’s implemented to enhance customer loyalty and retention?

We operate a loyalty program where customers can register and earn rewards points for every purchase they make at Nando’s outlets. These points can be redeemed for free meals or exclusive offers as applicable, thus incentivizing repeat visits and fostering customer loyalty.

Most of the CRM platforms provide analytics tools to track KPIs such as customer acquisition, retention rates, average check size, and customer LTV. Our CRM strategy leverages this data to send out targeted and personalized communication or offers for individual customers on SMS or Whatsapp. We have observed a better conversion rate when messages are tailored to individual preferences, behaviors, and past purchases.

Which macro and micro marketing trends do you believe will dominate the F&B industry in the next five years, and how is Nando’s preparing to leverage these trends?

Health and wellness will be a key factor for consumers choosing one brand over another. Hyper personalization of dining experiences tailored to individual preferences, diets and lifestyles will pick up. Brands offering personalized recommendations and loyalty programs will attract and retain customers. The rapid rise of AI will continue and significantly contribute to the above. Technologies like AR, VR will create immersive marketing campaigns, virtual restaurant tours or food visualization. Influencer partnership and UGC will continue to drive brand differentiation.

Nando’s is already known for the quality of food and its health quotient; a sizable percentage of our patrons are health enthusiasts. So, we try our best to inform our customers of the ingredients so that they make an informed decision. Our CRM strategy is built on customization, and we are constantly finding out ways to hyper personalize brand engagement for both cohorts and individuals.

With Nando’s presence expanding globally, what are the key challenges and opportunities in the Indian market specifically? How do you plan to address these?

Nando’s global growth strategy combines strategic market selection, agility towards local preferences, customer centricity, continuous innovation & NPD and an adaptable marketing approach. Nando’s decision to enter India was driven by factors like market potential, diverse food culture, urbanization and most importantly the opportunity to fill a gap in the competitive landscape. Having said that, the intense competition and establishing brand awareness in a culturally diverse country like India could be challenging.

Factors like growing urbanization, change in lifestyle, large youth demography work in our favour as it resonates with our primary target audience, and we strongly consider it in our marketing strategies. We also focus on the online food delivery platforms, which right now are on the rise, as it presents an opportunity for us to reach a wider audience, first time trials and brand adoption.

How do you conduct competitive landscape analysis in the F&B sector? What tools or methods do you use to stay ahead of the competition?

We conduct brand health tracking research on a regular basis. It’s the best way to do a status quo check and measure important brand metrics. It starts by identifying direct and indirect competition in the category and gathering data followed by an exhaustive analysis of product pricing and menu offering. This analysis is particularly helpful in synthesizing insights and actionable recommendations. We use this study to look for gaps in the market, underserved customer segments, emerging trends and to review existing marketing strategies.

How does Nando’s adapt its menu and marketing strategies to cater to diverse regional tastes and preferences across India?

Nando’s is primarily known for its signature flame-grilled PERi-PERi chicken and its distinctive flavour profile, characterized by a balance of tanginess and spiciness. Customers can choose their preferred spice level to suit their individual preferences. In terms of localizing the menu, we do experiment with local flavours and have launched various items which are created only for India. However, as a brand we believe in staying true to our roots and focusing on our core. Our dine-in menu remains the same across the country.

Our marketing strategies have a strong local streak, as our campaigns and brand content are tailored to local context while keeping the global stature. We dwell a lot on TG demographics, dialects, culture, aspirations, challenges, etc. before rolling out region specific campaigns. We will be soon opening outlets in multiple regions and our marketing approach will factor in regional insights.