Zomato — 4 Companies in 1
This article outlines how over time Zomato has managed to excel in business areas beyond food delivery and discovery.
Zomato has very quickly become a household name in India. It’s one of the latest emergence in the list of products being known by brand names. For example, whenever we have to mention glue which is the product, we usually say “Let's get Fevicol”. Xeros (Photocopy), Maggi (Noodles), Post Its (Sticky Notes) all lie in the same category. Similarly, it’s now ‘We’ll order Zomato’ more than ‘We’ll order food’
I’ve been an avid user of Zomato for about 6 years now. Through the years, my engagement levels have only increased. I engage within their app by participating in polls, giving reviews, exploring restaurants, ordering food, and more. I even engage with the brand outside their core product — On their social media. It's not something I started doing consciously, but very slowly & over time because of the high-quality content they make.
Here’s how I believe Zomato is 4 companies in 1 — But all moving in the same direction
- Discovery & Discounts: It’s the go-to app for restaurant discovery. Want to plan an outing? Want to save money on food? Want to find out about popular food delicacies in a city? It gives you an easy solution for all. Imagine this — Nearbuy.com & Dineout — Both do exactly what 1 feature of Zomato does.
- Food Delivery: Zomato launched its food delivery service just after Swiggy did. Swiggy was the go-to application for everyone along with Foodpanda when Zomato was not in the picture. As soon as Zomato launched, it acquired a huge market share. As of 2021, Zomato & Swiggy had almost an equivalent market share in the food delivery market.
- Content & Media: Zomato is a trendsetter when it comes to content. Being in the branding & content space, I’m always in awe of their brand strategy. The ease with which they communicate to their audience is brilliant. For Instance,
Close Friends — Creating a feeling of FOMO. How often do you see people wanting to be part of a brand's close friends list?
Food & Pop Culture — Zomato integrates its core business proposition with pop culture with ease.
Admin Campaigns 1 & 2 — Over time, the brand has managed to build a very strong connection with the audience. Admin campaigns are ones where you challenge your social audience to complete a task in exchange for something.
Product Marketing (ZPL Feature) — Product marketing as a role requires you to communicate product features & offerings to the users in the most efficient manner. It's challenging because many times you end up promoting features in a way where your content looks forced. However, Zomato does this in a quirky & fun manner. Office banter & memes for the win!
Not just Instagram, their Linkedin, YouTube, Twitter & Push Notifications have an identity too! I will most certainly have to write a separate article to deconstruct Zomato’s social strategy.
If I had to imagine Zomato as a person, it would be Panda who’s funny & resourceful. Someone you go to for a healthy dose of entertainment & munchies.
4. Fintech
Very recently, I came across the feature of Zomato called Edition Card. You can navigate to the right-most icon to see ‘Money’ and click on the Edition Card button. If you don’t see it yet on your app then in all probability it has not been made available to you.
Zomato Edition Card is essentially a credit card that gives users benefits like cashback on orders, discounts on restaurants & petrol pumps, rewards on online spends & more. Credit card companies earn money by charging you hefty fees on late payments. With this move, would it be wrong to say that Zomato is also a Fintech company in the making?
The team's ability to make superior product offerings with an extremely strong content game makes it stand out from the competition. Looking forward to seeing & learning more!
Thank you for reading :)
