Gyan Fresh: Digital Transformation in the Dairy Industry
The case study is set up on a regional dairy player Gyan Fresh Private Limited in Uttar Pradesh, India. Gyan Dairy, founded in the year 2007 by Mr. Chandra Prakash Agarwal, was a privately held subsidiary of C. P. Milk and Food Products. Gyan’s vision was to become the most loved dairy brand in India by 2025.
Gyan worked consistently to deliver fresh and pure products with consistent quality, which made Gyan a very popular household name among its customers. However, the Government of India’s lockdown in March 2020 due to COVID-19 significantly impacted businesses nationwide, only allowing essential services to operate.
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This situation presented a unique set of challenges and opportunities for Gyan Dairy, particularly concerning logistics, supply chain management, and consumer delivery mechanisms. Jai Agarwal and Anuj Agarwal, joint directors of Gyan Dairy, were forced with many questions and unknowns about logistics, supply chain, and most importantly, the final delivery of products to consumers.
Since consumers were living in a state of fear and anxiety, the biggest challenge was to get orders from consumers and deliver to them by adhering to the government guidelines and protocols. Agarwal brothers were aware of the rising e-commerce industry in India and changing consumer behavior due to the extensive use of 14 mobile apps. Agarwal brothers launched the flagship ‘Gyan Fresh’ app to start the home delivery model based on self-orders.
The app allowed consumers to self-order and helped Gyan integrate the omnichannel strategy. To ensure continuous consumer engagement, they used social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.
Further, Gyan used the app as a platform to showcase all its offerings and promotions in one place and provided exciting offers and discounts only for mobile app users to attract new customers. Within seven months, the app was downloaded more than 100,000+ times and has more than 24,000 active registered users.
After a sufficient number of app installations and average orders, Gyan started to use data analytics to manage and promote offers by hiring a dedicated analytics team. Gyan used its app for customer services as customers could also check the past order history and transactions to track the billing and avoid any dispute. Gyan utilized the data collected from customers to offer customized discounts and promotions (market penetration strategy).
Group Discussion Topics
Gyan filtered customers who stopped ordering or were not regular and sent discount offers via SMS. Gyan initiated a call-to-customers program, where a customer service executive called customers and enquired about reasons for not ordering. Gyan collected such data to get direct feedback from customers and took appropriate actions to resolve the issues.
Gyan further introduced a very interesting aspect of gamification on its app, where consumers could spin the wheel and get some discounts on their next purchases. So, in summary, Gyan used a mix of marketing and promotional strategies to handle the challenges related to consumer behaviour, channel conflict, and customer acquisition and retention.
From a corporate perspective, Gyan Dairy’s successful digital transition highlights the importance of digital agility and innovation in traditional industries for maintaining competitive advantage. The successful adoption of a digital business model showcases the potential for other players in similar unorganized sectors to transform their business operations.
Societally, the case highlights the shift towards digital consumer behavior and the increasing demand for safety and convenience, which can drive digital transformation across various industries. For the dairy industry and beyond, this case suggests that embracing digital technologies and consumer-centric approaches can lead to sustainable business models that are resilient to unforeseen crises.
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The full research paper can be accessed here – Mishra, A., & Shukla, A. (2023). Gyan fresh: digital transformation of dairy business with resilience and technology innovation. FIIB Business Review, 12(1), 20-30.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/23197145221113374