Nayara Energy opts for a digital-first approach in all customer-facing schemes

India's youngest petroleum brand is leveraging chatbots, AI, and clean amenities to enhance customer loyalty and expand its market share.

Nayara Energy, India’s youngest petroleum brand, has taken a digital-first approach in differentiating itself in a category that has a very traditional approach to marketing. From loyalty programmes to other customer service conversations, Nayara uses chatbots and artificial intelligence tools to enhance the quality of its interactions with consumers.

Nayara, formerly Essar Oil, leads the pack of private players in the fuel retailing segment and has about 6,500 retail outlets in the country which contribute to more than 4% of all retail fuel sales. It competes with public sector companies Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Hindustan Petroleum, and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited. In the private sector, its rivals are Reliance backed Jio-BP and Shell, which has just about 1% share of the market.

Private sector companies together have cornered about 8.7% of the market with Jio-BP being the second largest private player after Nayara. The company claims to bring in 20% of the market share of the incremental sales that happen year on year.

While it has a healthy market share, earning brand loyalty right after a major rebrand could not have been an easy task. Madhur Taneja, chief marketing officer, Nayara Energy, says the company focussed on offering value additions to consumers that are often not associated with retail petroleum brands. “We are in an industry where customer centricity was not as loudly heard as it should be.”

Therefore, the company decided to prioritise clean and hygienic washrooms and the availability of water at its retail outlets. Calling it a core Nayara offering, he says, “We are looking at providing core amenities like clean drinking water which is certified so that our customers feel that not only it is clean, but also, you know, standardised and certified through laboratories. It is also about clean and hygienic toilets — a very basic value addition but unheard of in the industry.”

Nayara’s rural-first strategy also prioritises these value additions. Taneja says that as the company expands its network, it ensures that it meets its stated philosophy of "In India, for India." He adds that one out of every two retail outlets is either in a rural area, on a state highway, or on a major district road. The company is adding 500 retail outlets with a balanced focus on both urban and rural areas, especially in Western and Southern India.

Technology is another major pillar of Nayara’s marketing strategy. The company has moved all its consumer-facing initiatives online. The petroleum sector is one that has always had loyalty programmes for consumers.

But Taneja says that these loyalty programmes are filled with mistrust. “Promotions in this industry have been largely run in an archaic manner. Customers take part in lucky draws where they have to fill up a manual slip and drop it in a box and wait to find out if they win a reward. We learnt that there is fatigue with such contests and a trust deficit because customers don't understand what is going to happen with such manual lucky draws,” he says.

Therefore, the company moved all its consumer-facing schemes online. “We use WhatsApp and QR codes. Customers need to scan a QR code to participate in our consumer schemes.”

He says the company decided to make this shift because the consumer is now digitally savvy and understands how to use QR codes. Taneja reports that all customer schemes are turning out to be successful.

“We had more than three million customers participating in the last promotion which we ran,” he adds. He calls it a success because it is hard to get three million customers to take part in seasonal offers and schemes.

Given the company’s success with WhatsApp chatbots and QR Code schemes it is planning to integrate artificial intelligence into its other marketing and point of sale experiences for customers. The company will soon announce its plans, informs Taneja.