Consider the following scenario: You’re immersed in an Agatha Christie-inspired mystery when you feel a small tug in your tummy. It’s not the type of tug that says, “Feed me some indian cuisine,” but rather, “Excuse me, a bag of chips would taste quite nice with this sizzling murder mystery, eh?” Munchies is a new Quick Commerce start-up that delivers snacks and breakfast supplies in less than 30 minutes.
“The idea of Munchies was initially suggested during a Unilever-sponsored Hackathon at NEST I/O. Munchies began as a strategic way to accelerate Wall’s foray into e-commerce , with VentureDive as tech partners. Snack cravings are a very time-sensitive impulse, so a hyperlocal model was adopted to get the target audience their frozen desserts before their craving subsided,” say Umair Kazi, Partner, Ishtehari and Humza Mahfooz, Head of Marketing, Munchies.
Munchies is a snack delivery service that operates on an on-demand basis. Munch fans may download the simple app, search for their favourite snack, and make an order; after riders get the order, they bring the goodies to their home. The team goes on to say that the target demographic was narrowed down to urban Gen-Zers, and the brand shaped its personality to appeal to them through humorous content and guerilla marketing (a branded twist on pop culture such as memes and movies).
The start-up, on the other hand, has recently come under fire for exploiting the buzz around the NFT area and solidifying its image as a youthful, modern brand. “We believe that NFTs are the way of the future for creative expression.” Members of our aesthetics teams had already been exploring the domain on their own, and we saw that the technology is providing artists with a new way to showcase their abilities and works,” Kazi and Mahfooz explains.
Munchies’ foray into the NFT pool has grabbed the interest of retail executives and blockchain enthusiasts alike. Many people are curious about the role of NFTs in local business models at this stage.
Ishtehaari, a Kazi-led firm with huge names like Unilever’s ‘New Normal’ commercial under its belt, is Munchies’ partner in this endeavour. “Creating buzz isn’t only the duty of one team. Ishtehari is more of a growth partner for Munchies than an advertising partner. “The teams work on our north star metric as a group, tapping into every phase of the customer experience from awareness through acquisition, activation, retention, and referral,” Kazi and Mahfooz explains.
“We recognise that some snacks are not entirely physical; they are bite-sized content pieces that our audiences love to enjoy. These ‘digital snacks’, be it memes, illustrations, videos or tweets have allowed us to build the community-led marketing engine we have today. So while we don’t have any current plans to use NFTs in our core business model, we are planning to use the medium to co-create exclusive digital art and expression along with our community which will become part of the Munchies journey,” shares Kazi and Mahfooz.
By the second quarter of 2022, consumers can expect a “Munchies NFT gallery for creators within our community; the next round of Munchies NFTs will be created by snack-loving artists versus our teams,” the teams add.
While Munchies is the first delivery app to venture into the NFT space, the quick commerce ecosystem is peppered with new ventures such as Airlift Express and KraveMart – with their ambitious claim to deliver in under 10 minutes!
Munchies’ marketing material and activities, for the time being, are what set it apart from its competitors in the eyes of the ordinary consumer. “Our marketing initiatives are built around the ethos of ‘bite by byte’ – which means that we do multiple small content experiments and then scale them up according to the data and learning we obtain from them,” explain Kazi and Mahfooz.
The company has released a Datavertising video that highlights the strangest order combinations received in 2021. Munchies will also host a second Snackathon, a digital activity combined with a university drive that allows student teams to influence content and marketing for Munchies for a week and then be crowned the champion.
