Background

Malaysia, a Melting Pot for cuisines is also a burgeoning country for the baking community. In recent years, with the rise of e-ordering and the democratization of commerce, home bakers began to offer craft baked goods, sold online. Anchor Food Professionals, Fonterra’s foodservice business wanted to reach out to these new entrepreneurs and equip them to be more successful. Selling baked goods online comes with its own unique set of 7Ps - such as digital marketing as primary promotion medium, online store or social front as place, delivery fulfilment as part of its process on top of the traditional areas of product, price, people and physical evidence - and home bakers need all the help they can get. The objective was to recruit a community of burgeoning home bakers with the intention of turning their passion into a business by assisting in their journey.

Describe the strategy

Partnering with Kuali, a food and recipes website since 1998 from the Star Media Group to grow this community was a synergistic choice. Many Malaysians, including baking ingredient shops and consumers have grown up with Star’s food and recipe recommendations, known for assisting in growing local chef celebrities like Amy Beh and Chris Chan. Kuali got to work and came up with a methodical plan to recruit home bakers in a multi channel and engaging way. Kuali Bakers with Anchor Food Professionals was coined. Ads and social boosts were initially broadly targeted towards people who had an affinity with baking. Through a microsite purpose built to input members’ data, an additional field asking for their shop URL or social handle selling baked goods was included. These additional email data were then uploaded back onto Facebook and Google to create lookalike audiences to find more small commercial bakers.

Describe the execution

‘Life is batter with cake’ Monthly newsletters with tailored recipes and ingredient handling tips suitable for commercial bakers were rolled out. Bi-monthly social contests pitted home bakers amongst each other, showcasing the baking gladiators of Malaysia and spurring home bakers to dream Bigger. Due to the unforeseen Covid-19 circumstances, the pre-planned Quarterly Live classes were converted into FB Live classes. Using the social digital platform, Anchor Professional Chefs were able to demonstrate trendy recipes and discuss storage and handling tips for commercialisation to a larger base of audience, facilitated by radio presenters. Beyond technical matters, a Half Yearly ‘Bake and Make’ Entrepreneur Webinar helped home bakers with professional advice on digital marketing, photography, financing as well as lively panel discussions where matured home bakers could share learning curves. The consistent schedule of Kuali Bakers’ activities ensured that the community was engaged regularly.

List the results

Seven months into the programme, Kuali Bakers have reached over 13.9M users with 1.3M engagements. This translated to 4,313 Kuali Bakers recruited to date, surpassing initial targets by 8X. In this period of time, Anchor Food Professional also recorded a 12% increase in free trade product sales vs the same period in 2019 and increased awareness of Anchor products amongst home bakers and baking ingredient stores. Kuali with Anchor Food Professionals are not stopping here. In 2021, Kuali Bakers doubles down on efforts to build a more tangible and approachable digital platform to continue empowering Bakers in Malaysia and to deepen their resolve in growing their new businesses.