Did you know ITC is the market leader for cigarettes in India? Well, it is! In fact, cigarettes accounted for 62 per cent of the company’s gross revenue in 2016. ITC is a brand for everyone – from those who love luxury to those who lead a simple life. Hence, ITC is one of those brands whose target audience is everyone. How do they then carry on their digital marketing strategies? Let’s find out!
This case study will look at ITC Ltd.’s digital marketing strategies and how they market their brand and products.
About ITC Ltd
With a Gross Sales Value of 90,104 crores and a Net Profit of 15,058 crores, ITC is one of India’s leading private-sector corporations. ITC operates in FMCG, Hotels, Packaging, Paperboards & Specialty Papers, and Agri-Business.
ITC’s desire to be a model for sustainability practices is shown in its status as the world’s only corporation of its size and diversity to be carbon, water, and solid waste recycling positive. Furthermore, ITC’s companies and value chains provide sustainable livelihoods for almost 6 million people, the vast majority of whom are among the poorest in rural India.
Founder
“ITC Limited” was initially known as “Imperial Tobacco Business of India Limited,” and it succeeded W.D. & H.O. Wills, a British-owned company registered in Kolkata. Ajit Narain Haksar became the first Indian chairman of the company in 1969. The current CEO and Managing Director of ITC Ltd are Sanjiv Puri.
History
ITC Limited was founded on August 24, 1910, as Imperial Tobacco Company of India Limited. The company’s name was changed to India Tobacco Company Limited in 1970 and then to I.T.C. Limited in 1974 as the company’s ownership steadily increased. The full stops in the Company’s name were eliminated on September 18, 2001, to reflect the ITC’s multi-business portfolio, including a diverse range of enterprises.
ITC Ltd.’s Digital Marketing Strategies
As the years went by, ITC only continued to expand its business and make their way to multiple industries, from education and stationery to branded packaged food and agarbattis. It’ll be interesting to look at ITC’s digital marketing strategies and how it markets its brand and products.
ITC Ltd’s SEO Strategies
Let’s first look at how ITC Ltd’s website performs and how well it is optimised for search engines.
ITC Ltd’s Website Strategies
ITC Ltd’s website has an authority score of 56 and gets over 522.6K organic search traffic through their organic SEO techniques.
They receive an average of 171.5K monthly visits to their website, of which 159.9K are unique visitors. The average visit duration of each visitor is approximately 03:28 minutes, and the bounce rate is almost over 90.45%.
In the graph below, you can find ITC’s website trend by the device. It is apparent that ITC has witnessed more traffic from mobile devices than they have from desktops majorly.
ITC Ltd’s On-page SEO Strategies
ITC’s main website rolls out reports on their website regarding their sustainability projects and accounts. However, many of ITC’s websites publish their own blog with titles based on their respective industry.
They generally post reports twice a year and blogs once a month. Their blogs are mostly only text and are information-based. They are written by employees.
ITC Ltd’s Off-page SEO Strategies
The analysis below shows how ITC Ltd’s website receives 1.2 million backlinks and uses 35.3K keywords.
The keyword intent represents the user’s search intent. It’s what a person is likely to do while looking for a specific phrase. To be more precise, it is what we believe the user is likely to do because we cannot always be certain. As evident from the table below, 54.2% of the keywords are inclined towards informational, followed by transactional and commercial, which take up 21.6 and 18.8% of the total, respectively.
The graph below shows the constant decrease (and slight increase sometimes) of the new referring domains since January, while the lost domains fluctuate constantly.
Most of their referring domains (i.e., 33%) are from the business and industrial categories. The other types include jobs and education, internet and telecom, arts and entertainment.
ITC Ltd’s Social Media Strategies
ITC Ltd’s Instagram Strategies
The Instagram page of ITC Ltd (itc_limited) has over 11.6K followers.
You can find many different kinds of posts on their Instagram page. All of their posts are supported by long captions to explain the posts using hashtags. In the image below, ITC has posted a picture from an orientation session they conducted.
Through their Instagram page, they have also highlighted the achievements and milestones of employees of ITC.
They have also posted many interviews of their women employees, going through their personal and professional journeys at ITC.
Finally, they do have some product-centric posts that encourage their customers to initiate a purchase.
ITC Ltd’s Instagram page has a 2.11% engagement rate and receives an average of 221 likes and 3 comments on each post.
ITC Ltd’s Facebook Strategies
ITC Ltd’s Facebook page has followers of 14k people.
Unlike Instagram, ITC’s Facebook page has little to no posts about its team and employees. On the other hand, they have posted more about their products.
The engagement rate of ITC’s Facebook page is 2.93%, and they receive an average of 370 likes and 48 comments on each post.
ITC Ltd’s Google Ads Strategies
ITC gets more organic traffic than through paid means. The cost they spend on paid traffic is $78.9K.
ITC Ltd’s Target Audience
Because of its diverse product line, ITC caters to practically every demographic. The company caters to people of all ages and genders. The majority of the company’s target demographic is young and adult people from urban and rural locations across the country.
ITC Ltd’s Best Campaigns
ITC has roled out some great campaigns and established its brand voice among its competition. Let’s take a look at some of their campaigns that performed exceptionally well.
1. Din Khatam, Fantasy Shuru
Sunfeast Dark Fantasy, ITC Ltd.’s premium centre-filled cookie brand, has launched a new, engaging campaign called ‘Din Khatam, Fantasy Shuru.‘ Sunfeast Dark Fantasy had attempted to market itself as the enticing sweet indulgence offering with its popular jingle ‘Can’t-Wait Won’t Wait.’
The campaign began with a cryptic Tweet From ITC that read Khatam, Fantasy Shuru, which probed the audience’s creative flair and found things they’d like to see the end in order for their Fantasy to begin. The exercise elicited some intriguing replies, which sparked discussion on the site.
This Twitter debate, which was trending at No. 3 on the platform, included more than 30 brands and many consumers.
2. #ProudlyIndian
ITC launched a digital ad featuring a slew of its world-class Indian brands boldly proclaiming their “Nation First” ethos. In ITC’s #ProudlyIndian campaign, a number of ITC’s Foods and Personal Care businesses created motivating creatives that exemplified the brands’ Indian character and larger commitment to the nation.
These brands genuinely embody the spirit of “Make in India,” with intellectual property developed in India by Indian scientists, produced in India by Indian farmers, manufactured in India at world-class Indian facilities, and designed specifically for the Indian consumer.
The ad was promoted on social media platforms and sparked a lot of attention among netizens. The campaign followed closely on the heels of the Prime Minister’s plea to be “Vocal for Local.”
Conclusion
ITC Ltd. used these strategies to protect and develop its reputation in the digital economy. You’ve come to the perfect place if you want to develop a digital marketing strategy for your company. Digital Scholar, the first agency-style training institute, provides digital marketing courses for aspiring marketers, entrepreneurs, students, and others interested in excelling in the digital area. If you’d like to learn more about Digital Scholar and explore your alternatives, call them immediately at +91 9513632705.
What are your thoughts on ITC Ltd’s digital marketing strategies? Please let us know in the comments!
