It is in the physical store that we create connection
The Mexican chain of local markets Oxxo came to live in Brazil just three years ago, but is already recognized as the most helpful neighbor on the street. The business has an aggressive growth plan in São Paulo. There are 500 stores transformed into media channels with simple but powerful messages to connect people. “There is no better marketing than a physical store”, believes Camila Assis, head of marketing and external communications at Grupo Nós, owner of the brand. With the concept ‘Close to you, close to you’, Oxxo wants to be the neighborhood-friendly brand, as close as the resident next door, “who lends the sugar”, compares Camila. Next, the executive talks about the differences in communication, presence on social networks and partnership with the industry to meet all consumer needs.
How did the Oxxo brand come about?
Oxxo was born in 1978, and is part of Grupo Nós, a joint venture carried out four years ago between Raízen, responsible for more than eight thousand Shell gas stations and 1.2 thousand Shell Select convenience brands, and Femsa Comercio, which acquired the Valora proximity stores in Europe, in 2023. Today, Femsa is already the largest company in the proximity and convenience market in the world. We want to be in Brazil to bring consumers closer and make life easier. That is our purpose. The brand name refers to the shopping cart gear. People started calling the stroller wheels Oxxo, and it stuck.
What are the results since arriving in Brazil three years ago?
The focus is on geographic expansion in the state of São Paulo. E-commerce is part of our proposal, but our business is the physical store. Today, we have 500 establishments. We arrived in October 2023 in Baixada Santista, in Santos, Guarujá, São Vicente and Praia Grande. We should add 50 stores in this region by September this year. We are also in squares in the interior of the state, such as Sorocaba, but the main markets are the cities of Campinas and São Paulo. There are more than 20 thousand units spread across Latin America, including Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Peru and Brazil. We didn’t reach our store opening target, but we are happy with the results, and we will continue to grow. This is also the year of development of our CRM project. My team doubled in size from one year to the next. All areas support this advancement.
How did the brand attract people’s attention?
It all started with the ‘Pronuncia ó-quis-sô’ campaign. After presenting the differences, value proposition and the concept of proximity, we noticed doubts surrounding the pronunciation of the name. We decided to use this in favor of communication, with the aim of connecting Oxxo to people. We are a neighborhood-friendly brand, as close as the neighbor who lends you sugar. We wanted to help people with pronunciation without impositions. This was the success of the brand. It’s okay if the person says it wrong. The important thing is to connect and be authentic. On social media, we saw comments about the brand’s presence, such as ‘I blinked and opened an Oxxo’. Without speaking to us, opinion leaders who participated in the campaign recognized that Oxxo is close and friendly. There is no technology capable of generating connection like we do. In the façade campaign, the first action was to change the sign in physical stores, with the phrase ‘Se fala ó-quis-sô’. There was nothing being driven.
What is the presence on social media?
We averaged more than 20% engagement last year. Squid is our influencer agency. We work a lot with micro and nano-influencers. If I’m a friend of the neighborhood, I have to have local influence, from the people around the store. Diversity is also worked on. Every month, there are new influencers, with different topics. They talk about our value proposition, exploring customer needs, such as practical food, replacement, integrating everything from young people on the street, on TikTok or Instagram, to people with a more traditional routine, in addition to the family profile or of singles, who live or work close to a specific store. Oxxo wants to be a good neighbor.
Read the full article in the propmark edition of May 6, 2024
