1.
How does Foodpanda position itself in terms of affordability,
convenience, and service quality?
As a value brand, foodpanda tries to appeal to consumers with affordable prices yet high service quality.
“We are a value brand,” Ali Mehmood says. And so we're not the premium brand, we're not the cheapest
brand anyway, but we are a value brand,” he says in an effort to be accessible while maintaining quality.
The strategy is very much driven by affordability, as he highlights they are very core to our offering.
Foodpanda also positions itself merely as a convenient service. When hungry, a customer wants the
experience to be smooth and quick, which the brand makes sure of. From a convenience point of view I
think it's been about availability, speed, being on top of mind,” said Mehmood. “It also needs to be
seamless, quick, effortless when someone opens the app and they’re hungry.” This shows that
convenience is integrated into the product experience.
The emphasis is on logistics in terms of service quality. Then, as Mehmood explains, “Logistics, logistics,
logistics from a service point of view.” They do that by ensuring that whatever the food is, whatever the
delivery time is if we can get it to them in 25 minutes, 30 minutes, they’re happy.” It also shows that
Foodpanda’s reputation is heavily tied to operational efficiency in delivery of food.
2. What strategies does Foodpanda use to expand its reach into smaller
cities and towns?
Foodpanda’s approach of localization to go on to smaller cities and towns focuses on hyperlocal
marketing and offline engagement. Ali Mehmood points out that the company has grown that to over 40
cities now. For us, the first thing we try to onboard when we go into a city is the top restaurants.” That
guarantees that the platform instantly gets immediate credibility in brand new areas.
To their strategy, they need to understand local context. “We also a lot of hyperlocal marketing because,
you know, whatever city we’re entering, our team is from there, and they know the language and the
culture,” says Mehmood. Foodpanda's addition of this personalized outreach is both relatable and makes
foodpanda a more relatable image for new users, as Foodpanda’s presence throughout the world is being
portrayed as a trustworthy service that cares about the outcomes their users intend to accomplish.
In addition, offline activations make it possible to be present in these areas. “We do a lot offline
activations, it’s true” says Mehmood. And that is why we also did events, we did mall activations, we did
university activation.” Building brand familiarity and trust through this physical visibility is necessary
where digital marketing alone might not go all the way in communities. Moreover, he shows that in these
areas “micro influencers are really powerful,” which is in line with the brand’s localized influencer
strategy.
3. How does Foodpanda ensure food quality and customer satisfaction?
Ensuring the food quality and customer satisfaction is foodpanda’s mix of quality assurance, real-time
monitoring and proactive support. “With restaurants, we have a QA team that interacts very closely with
them,” says Ali Mehmood.
It is due to customer feedback. “There’s a system of rating,” he says. ‘So if a restaurant falls below a
certain level, we contact them, assist them, we also sometimes take them off platform temporarily if they
are not performing,’ he says. The system also ensures that the vendors uphold quality.
The consumer is monitored in regard to satisfaction closely on the side of the consumer. This is something
that Mehmood says that they constantly monitor through the day, through the hour, making data driven
decisions that solve problems that is encountered day, hour by hour including cancellation rate, delivery
time, food preparation time, ratings, complaints, etc.
4. How does Foodpanda manage restaurant partnerships?
Foodpanda only has collaborative and strategic restaurant partnerships; a mutual growth push program.
Ali Mehmood explains that it's the ‘very collaborative relationship’ we have, ‘we call them partners, not
vendors’. What you see is perhaps a long term rather than a transactional way of working in this language.
Data and operations help is provided by Foodpanda to its partners. They share with restaurants: which
products sell, which don’t, which categories are growing, so restaurants can optimize their products, he
explains. “We help them in photography, menu optimization, sometimes in pricing,” meaning we’re hands
on in assisting partners to increase performance.
Strong communication is ensured by a dedicated team. The depth of these partnerships is supported by
Mehmood’s description that “There’s also a full account management team that is in touch with them
regularly.” His final topic, the goal is not just platform listing, but rather a full business development
relationship he shows with, “It’s not just a listing its a business relationship.”
5. What marketing channels does Foodpanda use (TVCs, influencers,
in-app promos, etc.)?
Foodpanda has a digital first approach to marketing backed up by some selective traditional media and
influencer collaborations. “For us, digital is our bread and butter,” Ali Mehmood explains. Our consumers
are on Meta, YouTube, TikTok – that’s where our consumers are.” The good thing is that these platforms
enable the brand to be visible and accessible to a tech savvy crowd who comprise most of their audiences.
Especially for launching a city specific campaign, influencers are the heart of it. According to Mehmood
however, “We have influencers as part of our strategy especially for launches or when we expand to a new
city.” Targeted reach is created by appealing to our local audience alone.
Impact is reserved and they are generally used sparingly as traditional media, for TV, for example. He
also tells us that a lot of our TV C has the seasonalness of Ramadan, or PSL, which isSTEM meant for
times of high consumer attention. The last point of importance in terms of the global ecosystem of the
app: “Finally, our in app marketing is strong.” A whole ecosystem,” you have a banners, we have the
vouchers, we also have the category placements.”
6. What role do discounts, promotions, and loyalty programs play in
influencing consumer behavior?
Consequently, Foodpanda uses discounts, promotions and loyalty programs as conversion and retention
tools. Ali Mehmood then says, “Discounts are critical.” This is the number one driver of conversion in
this category.” The discounts that we give are constantly being optimized according to performance: ‘We
test different types – percentage, flat, bundles – and see which is working.’
The pandapro program strengthens the loyalty. Mehmood describes pandapro as our ‘loyalty program’
and explains, ‘pandapro does the free deliveries, and discounts for you, and gives you some exclusive
offers.’ As a former benefits director, I know that this program is not a perk but a growth lever, 'Loyalty
helps retention.'” Once a customer is on pandapro, they purchase more frequently from a smaller set of
restaurants".
Foodpanda uses these tools in order to maintain high engagement of customers and nudge the consumers
behavior to more profitable habits.
