FMCG leaders are facing squeezed margins and rising ad costs, making direct customer connection vital for survival.
Here is how communication orchestration turns mobile messaging into a scalable engine for profit and data ownership.
In this Telerivet article, we'll cover:
- Why FMCG firms are fighting for efficiencies right now
- Communication orchestration use case #1: Drive sales and boost revenue
- Communication orchestration use case #2: Build marketable database
- Communication orchestration use case #3: Cross-channel customer communication
- What is communication orchestration?
-
Telerivet: Enterprise Orchestration for Revenue and Operations
Why FMCG firms are fighting for efficiencies right now
The Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) sector is navigating a period of intense economic pressure.
While the industry has always operated on thin margins and high volume, the current market conditions are particularly unforgiving.
Global trade instability has left manufacturers exposed to volatile import and export dynamics. Even brands that manufacture locally often rely on imported raw materials or packaging, meaning tariffs and supply chain disruptions immediately impact the bottom line.
Simultaneously, consumer behavior has shifted.
Inflationary pressure has caused shoppers to become more selective, leading to a squeeze on unit volume across many categories. Brands can no longer rely on automatic growth through market expansion; they must fight harder for every purchase.
In the past, brands might have turned to heavy advertising spend to counter this, but the landscape for customer acquisition has changed. Third-party channels are increasingly difficult to navigate efficiently. Advertising prices on platforms like Meta and Google remain high, making digital customer acquisition a "pay-to-play" game where the house usually wins.
Reliance on these rented audiences erodes margins and leaves brands without direct access to their consumers. Retailers, meanwhile, guard point-of-sale data closely, leaving FMCG brands with limited visibility into who is actually buying their products.
This convergence of challenges - rising input costs, softening consumer demand, and expensive media - makes operational efficiency critical.
Brands cannot afford wastage in their communication strategy.
It is no longer enough to simply blast messages out; companies need a dedicated communications competency and the infrastructure to power it.
They need tools that bypass expensive intermediaries, reduce reliance on third-party ads, and establish a direct, owned line of communication with the consumer.
Communication orchestration use case #1: Drive sales and boost revenue
The most immediate application of a communication orchestration platform like Telerivet is the ability to generate measurable revenue quickly.
In a high-stakes environment, theoretical engagement metrics are not enough; brands need mechanisms that drive volume.
By utilizing orchestration tools, FMCG companies can deploy "bottle cap" campaigns or on-pack promotions that directly incentivize purchases.
The mechanics are simple but powerful: a customer buys a product, finds a unique code on the packaging, and sends it via SMS or WhatsApp to redeem a reward, such as airtime or a digital voucher. Because Telerivet handles the logic, validation, and reward distribution instantly, the consumer receives immediate gratification. This creates a compelling reason to choose one brand over a competitor on the shelf.
The financial impact of these campaigns is significant.
In one documented case study, a global FMCG brand utilized Telerivet to run a single rewards campaign that generated over $28.2 million in additional retail sales.
This was not a result of a massive media buy, but rather a strategic use of mobile messaging to convert physical product interactions into digital engagement. By driving sales through owned channels, the brand significantly lowered its Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC) compared to traditional digital advertising.
This approach is especially valuable for brands in regulated industries, such as alcohol or tobacco products.
In markets where traditional advertising is restricted or banned, the product packaging itself becomes the primary marketing vehicle. A communication orchestration platform allows these brands to run compliant, high-volume promotions directly from the shelf, turning a passive product into an active sales channel.
Communication orchestration use case #2: Build marketable database
Beyond the immediate revenue spike, the secondary objective of any modern FMCG campaign must be first-party data acquisition.
For decades, FMCG brands have been at a disadvantage compared to direct-to-consumer (DTC) companies because they lack direct relationships with their end users.
Retailers hold the transaction data, leaving the manufacturer blind to shopper demographics, frequency, and preferences.
Telerivet solves this by converting anonymous purchasers into known contacts.
When a customer texts a code to redeem a prize, they are doing more than claiming a reward; they are opting into a relationship with the brand. This action builds a proprietary database of verified phone numbers and purchase histories.
Owning this data changes the economic model for future marketing. Once a brand has a database of verified buyers, they can bypass paid media channels for future product launches or promotions.
Instead of paying a tech giant to target a "lookalike" audience, the brand can simply send a targeted message to customers they know have bought similar products in the past. This drives down marketing costs over time and increases the Lifetime Value (LTV) of each customer.
In the case of the FMCG brand mentioned previously, the campaign resulted in a 526% increase in their retailer database.
This creates a flywheel effect.
The data gathered from a summer promotion can be used to drive sales during the holiday season with near-zero acquisition cost. Furthermore, this data provides operational visibility. By analyzing redemption locations and times, brands gain insights into regional performance and stock velocity that they typically cannot get from retail partners.
Communication orchestration use case #3: Cross-channel customer communication
For multinational FMCG organizations, standardization is often the enemy of local relevance.
A campaign strategy that works in Kenya via SMS might require WhatsApp in Brazil or Viber in the Philippines. Managing these channels separately usually leads to fragmented data, disparate vendors, and doubled workloads.
Telerivet addresses this through unified orchestration.
The platform allows global teams to design a single logic flow for a campaign - defining how codes are validated, how winners are selected, and what messages are sent - and then deploy that logic across different channels depending on the market.
A brand manager can run a customer support line or a rewards campaign that feels native to the user, regardless of the app they prefer.
Crucially, Telerivet supports automated failover to ensure delivery.
In many emerging markets, data connectivity can be intermittent, meaning a WhatsApp message might fail to deliver. A communication orchestration platform detects this failure in real-time and automatically reroutes the message via SMS to ensure the customer receives their reward or information.
This capability removes the technical complexity from the marketing team’s plate.
They do not need to configure separate APIs for WhatsApp, Viber, and local SMS gateways. They simply set up the campaign rules once.
This flexibility is vital for helplines and customer support as well. Customers expect to reach brands on the platforms they use daily. By centralizing these interactions, Telerivet ensures that a query coming in from Viber is handled with the same rigor and data tracking as one coming in via SMS, maintaining a consistent brand experience across borders.
What is communication orchestration?
Communication orchestration is the discipline of making complex messaging infrastructure behave simply.
It is the difference between having a dozen disconnected tools and having a synchronized engine.
In technical terms, communication orchestration is the infrastructure layer that coordinates channels, routes, workflows, and data so that engagement continues running smoothly as an organization scales.
A communication orchestration platform serves as a single hub where an enterprise can access and manage every aspect of its mobile communication.
This means teams do not need to log into one portal to check SMS delivery in Nigeria and a different portal to manage WhatsApp templates in Indonesia. Everything is visible, trackable, and manageable from one interface.
This centralization offers immense flexibility.
Telerivet can function as a standalone tool for teams that need to launch a campaign immediately, or it can act as an API-driven interface layer sitting on top of a larger, existing martech stack. This means an organization can rely on this single platform to accomplish its communication goals regardless of its current technical maturity or legacy systems.
The risks of operating without orchestration are significant.
Without a central nervous system for communications, global brands inevitably lose track of campaigns. Data gets siloed in local markets, spend becomes untraceable, and compliance risks increase.
By adopting an orchestration platform, FMCG leaders ensure that their communication strategy is not just a series of isolated tactics, but a cohesive, compounding asset that drives efficiency and growth.
Telerivet: Enterprise Orchestration for Revenue and Operations
Trusted by Fortune 500 companies, FMCG giants, NGOs, governments, cutting-edge tech firms, and universities in 150+ countries, Telerivet's cloud-based platform makes it reliable, resilient, and flexible to communicate at scale via text and voice.
Engage your audience anywhere
Ensure complete global service reach that supports large-scale communication via SMS, voice, chat, WhatsApp, RCS, MMS, and micropayments.
Trust our tech when you need it
High reliability for essential communication needs. A CPaaS built to thrive in challenging use cases, from small teams to large enterprise communication.
Tailored solutions for your needs
Create engagements and workflows that fit your needs and networks with our solutioning engine, APIs and campaign builder.
“Our lives are a million times easier because of Telerivet. We're growing exponentially, doubling our reach every year... and it's Telerivet's technology that makes this all possible.” - MyAgro
"The user interface is very intuitive and detailed, making it easy to set up. The few times we have required technical support, or had a query about a needed feature, the response has always been quick" - Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders)
"One of the most important aspects of a tool like Telerivet is the user interface. We have hundreds of people across the region relying on Telerivet for their daily tasks, and we need to provide them with the most efficient way of accomplishing that." - Grab
Sign up now or contact us to chat about how we can help you implement reliable, resilient, and flexible communications.