Gazprom-Media has set up a company to sell products online under its own brand based on the D2C (Direct to Consumer) model. This model provides for the direct delivery of products from the producer to the buyer without intermediaries. In this way, the Holding is continuing to develop its presence in media-related markets. The launch of functional products under the STARVIT umbrella brand is a pilot project.
The first product under the STARVIT brand is the functional drink of the new generation, VITAMIN ENERGY. The brand’s target audience are successful millennials, young people aged 20 to 40 who live in big cities, are used to online shopping and consume visual content in various formats - from Instagram to traditional television.
The Holding plans to use its own extensive experience and developments in Data Science to promote the product, including creating models for customer retention and release, as well as increasing the effectiveness of communications with clients.
The D2C market has a number of undeniable advantages. In particular, the delivery of products directly to the consumer provides ease of management as well as the minimization of costs for storage, which leads to a high marginality of the business. Nappy Club uses a similar business scheme. It is a Russian e-commerce project working on the children’s product market, which has received investments from Gazprom-Media.
“Launching STARVIT on the market will allow Gazprom-Media to set up business processes, which will be scaled up and transferred to new projects in the digital sphere,” said Galina Degtyareva, head of Gazprom-Media’s investment department. “Now we are building business processes for new tasks, fine tuning the interaction between our own departments, as well as with partners outside the Holding. We are expanding our possibilities in using advertising and other forms of communication with our audience, improving the ecosystem of television channels and digital platforms on the basis of user centric and data-driven strategic concepts.”
The D2C model of e-commerce is showing strong growth. According to Data Insight, the segment grew by 29% in the first half of 2019 as compared to the same period last year.
“Using the D2C model with our own product allows us to study formats of direct interaction with our vast audience,” Galina Degtyareva said. “We will check the product hypothesis, the effectiveness of existing channels of communication with the target audience for entering new markets. We can also take a fresh look at the synergy of traditional television and digital, and to study conversions and other parameters for new business directions.”
Gazprom-Media Holding has already invested in the following projects, either directly or through its subsidiaries: Happy Monday, Nappy Club, Catery and Native Rent. The goal of the investments is to strengthen existing business through the introduction of innovations and access to new digital markets, as well as the search for additional formats for interaction and monetization of the audience through portfolios and new businesses.
More about the projects:
Happy Monday works on the market of online advertising. In particular, it focuses on the promotion of products on social networks with the help of influential bloggers. The company owns the website influencer.ru, and also develops a number of technological solutions in the cross-platform placement of interactive and video content.
Nappy Club manufactures, sells, promotes and delivers children's products under its own brand name.
Native Rent develops advertising technology for renting content articles. The company helps advertisers to place native advertising in media materials on partner websites.
Catery is a service for ordering food to the office and for events. It was founded in 2016.
Website: https://mystarvit.ru/