Challenge

The world’s largest and India’s leading alcobev brand aimed to transform the management of incentive schemes for its channel partners—counter sales managers (CSMs), waiter staff managers (WSMs) and retail outlets. The brand also sought to build direct connections with retail outlets and restaurants to drive growth. A major challenge stemmed from the decentralised and fragmented manual management of incentive schemes across clusters, driven by diverse distribution models. While it was necessary to meet local market needs, this approach led to limited data visibility. As a result, both the corporate office and clusters were unable to gain a cohesive view of schemes, track performance, measure success, and leverage historical data for future promotions. This absence of a unified technology also hindered the ability to launch or scale up the schemes at a pan-India level, making the process expensive and inefficient.

Another significant challenge was the mismanagement of the rewards system. The bulk-purchased rewards, lacking aspirational value, were stored in partner-managed warehouses and distributed by on-ground sales staff, often hired on a contractual basis. This led to issues with pilferage, damage, and poor tracking. Without a proper supply chain mechanism, the brand lacked visibility into reward receipts, the recipients, and the validity of reported damage, making it impossible to verify claims. This lack of control led to fraud and inefficiency. Additionally, the delays of 3 to 6 months in receiving the rewards meant that channel partners experienced significant delayed gratification, causing the rewards to lose their value. Given these challenges, the brand initially sought a rewards fulfilment provider but soon recognised the need for a more comprehensive and compliant solution.

Solution

BI WORLDWIDE India developed a robust and unified channel loyalty Program leveraging Channel Smart—our end-to-end channel management solution, available on both web and mobile platforms. Launched in 2022, the Program initially targeted CSMs and expanded to include retailers and WSMs. It ensured secure, scalable onboarding for the partners, preventing discrepancy in Program management. The solution enabled multiple Programs for different channel partner profiles within a centralised platform. This provided an accurate and cohesive Program view to both the corporate office and clusters. Role-based access to various reports allowed the brand to identify and engage growing, degrowing and latent channel partners, enabling targeted promotions.

The Program also provided flexibility and agility, enabling clusters to launch and scale schemes at outlet, district, and regional levels, or a combination of these, all within a single platform. This reduced costs and improved the efficiency of marketing activities such as display contests, brand activations, and both on- and off-trade promotions. The end-to-end rewards process was revolutionised, offering instant gratification through a persona-based catalogue featuring 13,000 items—including experiences, aspirational merchandise, petro cards, and utility vouchers—tailored to Retailers, CSMs, and WSMs. Leveraging technology to manage rewards eliminated the operational burden on salespeople, allowing them to focus on driving business. The Program is further supported by ongoing training such as live demos, weekly sessions, and a comprehensive video repository of all the modules, ensuring seamless adoption and long-term sustainability.

Impact

A key outcome was the successful unification of the brand’s channel partners under a single Program and platform, enabling seamless, single-window operations. It has earned widespread recognition and become the most sought-after Program in the industry. It also ensured full compliance with relevant Indian regulatory and tax laws applicable to the alcobev industry, while providing real-time data access and a central repository for smooth audits. Some of these measurable results highlight the Program’s significant impact:

• 10X increase in scheme deployment across India
• 60% reduction in logistics and rewards fulfilment costs
• 90% reduction in marketing spend, enabling large-scale campaigns at a fraction of the cost
• 95% reduction in rewards settlement turnaround time.

These exceptional results earned BI WORLDWIDE India the prestigious 2024 Supplier Award for Operational Excellence, presented by the brand in recognition of our strategic role in driving efficiency, innovation, and measurable impact.