Archive for the ‘Multichannel’ Category

MobileVoice, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews

Deborah de Freitas Sephora exec talks mobile, Facebook, and the “next generation” of UGC

March 4th, 2010 by Deborah de Freitas Director, Marketing Communications

SephoraLast week, NRF’s retail blog recognized Sephora as a brand that’s truly “getting” social media marketing. Sephora has long been a highly active Bazaarvoice client, and we were excited to see the brand recognized for their innovative efforts at engaging their customers in the social sphere.

NRF interviewed Julie Bornstein, Sephora Direct SVP, for the post. Some of Julie’s comments really struck a chord with us, and we’d like to share them here.

Julie discussed the brand’s use of MobileVoice, allowing shoppers to access Sephora’s thousands of customer reviews on their mobile devices. “Have you ever tried to decide which moisturizer to use while standing in front of a wall of options?” Julie asked. “Our customers love to talk about beauty and they love to hear what others have to say.” Mobile access to authentic customer opinions helps shoppers in offline channels – in your stores, browsing your catalogue – find the right product for them.

Julie Bornstein, Sephora Direct SVP

Julie Bornstein, Sephora Direct SVP

On Facebook, Sephora strives to make sure there is value in being a fan. “We make changes as a result of [fan feedback],” says Julie. “Given that the people who tend to interact with us are our more serious beauty mavens, they really know what’s going on. It makes us realize how in touch our consumer is!” Customer feedback offers brands a chance to interact with their most engaged customers, learning from their feedback to improve products and services and generate effective marketing campaigns. “Use this audience as a focus group to help drive business decisions,” Julie suggests.

Integrating social networks like Facebook into UGC efforts offers brands the opportunity to make this content especially relevant for shoppers. “If the first generation of ‘user-generated content’ was Ratings & Reviews, I think the next will be around filtering that input by your own network and friends,” Julie suggests. TurboTax is doing this with its “Friends Like You” feature, which not only allows shoppers to filter reviews by personal aspects like “bought a home” or “had a baby,” but also allows them to find reviews submitted by their connections on Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.

You can read NRF’s full interview with Julie here. To learn more about integrating your brand’s UGC with mobile and social networks, request a demo here.

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Community, Marketing Strategy, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content, eCommerce

Brett Hurt The “Man Purse” in ‘The Hangover’

July 4th, 2009 by Brett Hurt Founder and CEO

My wife, Debra, and I don’t get out to the movies much, but when we do we want it to count.  That’s why I check critic and customer reviews online as well as listen to my friends.

Brant, my co-founder and our VP of Business Development, told me he was going to see ‘The Hangover’ with his wife soon, and I decided to do my typical research.  Both critic and customer reviews were positive, so Debra and I decided to go.  Let me just warn you that this is one lewd and wild movie, but it is also extremely funny.  We both had some great laughs, and there are some especially funny scenes that feature a “man purse”.

Roots Village Bag featured in The Hangover

The next week I was reading the June 29th edition of “Feeding the Voice: Cutting-Edge Promotions from Bazaarvoice Clients”.  This is a weekly email from our Community Management team, and it is one of the most important emails I get all week.  Our clients are using user-generated content throughout their multichannel and online marketing in a transformative way (see recent examples from Urban Outfitters, The Home Depot, and Argos in the UK).  And the number of cutting-edge promotions by our clients working with our Community Managers has risen to 20-30 per week, which is about the volume we saw in an entire year just two years ago.  Back to the slide deck – I open it and the first example is our client, Roots, blogging about the “man purse” in ‘The Hangover’.  It turns out it is their “Village Bag in Vintage Tribe Leather“, which is rated a 4.9 out of 5!  I was showing the Roots blog post to Debra last night and her comment was, “that is a really, really nice bag”.

I thought this coincidence was very cool, and you just never know where the impact of social commerce will show up.  And if you are one of our U.S. readers, enjoy your 4th!  We will proudly be watching the fireworks tonight.

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Customer Centricity, Marketing Strategy, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content, eCommerce

Heather Brunner Optimizing Customer Voice: How Consumer Feedback Affects Your Entire Organization

March 11th, 2009 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

This post was guest-written by Heather Lippincott, Bazaarvoice Community Manager.

On March 4, Bazaarvoice hosted a webinar focused on the benefits of user-generated content (UGC) throughout the entire organization. Moderated by Bazaarvoice’s Heather Brunner, the webinar cited exemplary statistics from Bazaarvoice clients Skymall and Oriental Trading Company.

UGC provides intelligence and value throughout the organization, not just in marketing. Forward-thinking companies allow their feedback to improve their overall business structure. In addition to the obvious benefits to sales, UGC can lower operational costs such as reduced returns and support calls, as well as helping reliability departments pinpoint design flaws or manufacturing errors. However, successful permeation requires grassroots initiative within the company as well as from the top down.

Retailer Skymall has integrated UGC throughout all of their customer touch points – on their Web site, mobile site, through their catalog as well as on their CRM system. Many of their phone customers ask, “Is this a good product?” With reviews linked to the CRM system, customer service representatives can provide shoppers with real customer feedback, resulting in higher conversion, higher AOV, and shorter transaction time. The agents also have insight into every reviewer interaction, reaching out to those whose reviews are exceptional, either positive or negative. As a result, Skymall has successfully transformed annoyed customers into happy repeat purchasers.

Oriental Trading Company (OTC) pulled together an eight-person SWAT team, bridging the merchandising, marketing, and inventory departments, to break down review content by the action needed and the department responsible. Thanks to this system, the team were able to catch a design flaw based on reviewers’ comments. After investigation, they took the item off their Web site, replaced inventory, and publicly responded to customers about the flaw, creating additional processes to alert them to similar failures in future.

To date, OTC has responded to more than 700 products, updating product images on 10 percent; updating product copy on 19 percent; discontinuing 38 percent; and returning 32 percent to their vendors. As a result, OTC has seen a 16 percent increase in conversion of 4- and 5-star products.

The voice of consumers is powerful for your enterprise. Listen to your customers. Take action. Then close the loop. If you missed this webinar, ask your Bazaarvoice Community Manager to send you the link.

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Community, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content, eCommerce

Justin Crandall Customer reviews featured in Argos catalog – goes to 17 million Brits!

March 4th, 2009 by Justin Crandall Managing Director, United Kingdom

Argos is an enormous UK brand, with over 700 stores throughout the UK, serving over 130 million customers a year and takes four million orders via phone or online – and that’s in addition to in-store sales.

Argos is well-known for its catalogue. On average, 17 million UK households, or around two thirds of the population, have an Argos catalogue at home at any time.

So you can imagine our excitement when we saw they are now displaying their customers’ reviews on the pages of these well-read catalogues!

Argos joins the masses of Bazaarvoice clients who are also amplifying the power of user-generated content beyond their websites. Halfords, another huge UK retailer, also features reviews in its catalogues, Cars.com mentioned customer reviews in their Super Bowl ad this year, and TurboTax now shows reviews on mobile phones and on huge in-store displays.

Look for reviews to continue to expand far beyond the sites where they are captured.

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Marketing Strategy, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content, eCommerce

Sam Decker How UGC Impacts Every Corner of Your Company

February 25th, 2009 by Sam Decker Chief Marketing Officer

You’ve seen the case studies – user-generated content has a positive impact on conversion and other e-commerce metrics, and when we talk to e-commerce managers every day, they get it.

But the complete value of user-generated content – your customers’ direct input – lies beyond just e-commerce results. We’ve seen UGC have an impact everywhere from the customer service desk to the CEO’s office. In this series of blogs, we’ll explore how Bazaarvoice clients have seen real value across their organizations. You can read more on the “cross-functional impact” area of our site.

Directors of Marketing think daily about their brand’s positioning and messaging, how to best reach target audiences, and how to best promote – and measure – products and services. Collecting customer input on your site gives marketing directors insights into what is most important to them, and we’ve seen user-generated content improve advertising content and results throughout the channel – email, catalogs, online advertising, and more.

Providing authentic content for all marketing and advertising channels

Customer input creates great ad copy. QVC featured top-rated products on their broadcast, and business-to-business marketer Treatment Abroad, which matches surgeons around the world to UK prospects, created a compelling marketing piece. Samsung featured customer reviews in their pre-Super Bowl email campaign.

And UGC drives online advertising, as well. When they tested review content in their Google ads, Office Depot saw a 196% increase in their paid search revenue. Intuit prominently featured customer reviews in the largest online promotion of customer reviews – ever. And there are multiple case studies showing how reviews improve email results.

Improving partner and media campaigns

BrandVoice allows manufacturers to syndicate their customer reviews to retailer sites, increasing results for both parties. By syndicating reviews to OfficeDepot.com, Kingston doubled conversion, and review volumes exponentially increase for branded products on retailer sites.

Bazaarvoice’s new sponsored Stories campaigns enables brands to engage with consumers on targeted media sites, sharing content across the media site and the brand’s site – and retailers can get involved, too.

Impacting offline purchase decisions

Not all purchases are made place online, so Bazaarvoice products extend beyond the web. Recent analysis with Cars.com showed that product reviews help Cars.com drive “intent to buy“. Our newest solution, MobileVoice, lets customers read online reviews on their mobile phones, allowing them to get customer reviews from anywhere – in the store, in the mall, or even in transit.

There are dozens of ways user-generated content impacts marketing – and the rest of your business. Customer oxygen can impact your entire organization – and we can prove it.

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Community, Customer Centricity, Marketing Strategy, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content, Word of Mouth

Heather Brunner Free People engages with their community and blogs their Top Reviewer

February 9th, 2009 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

This blog was guest-written by Lisa Tu, Bazaarvoice Community Manager.

Free People is a contemporary clothing line based out of Philadelphia, PA whose apparel represents femininity, courage, and spirit. Not only is this retailer known for their artistic and beautiful apparel, but they also build their community around the FP Blog and, more recently, customer reviews.

A strong leader in the apparel industry, Free People really takes their customer’s feedback to heart.  They identified key influencers as Top Reviewers in their community. Out of this group, they reached out to their #1 Reviewer, ‘beachcat,’ for an extensive interview which they later used in an entire blog post dedicated to her. Free People dug deep and really spent time getting to know everything about ‘beachcat’—from her favorite article of FP clothing, to what her perfect Valentine’s Date would be. They also collected photos of her in FP products and then featured them in their Flickr Style Event set, a campaign where customers can send pictures of themselves styled in FP gear.

Engaging with your community is a key factor in building brand loyalty and trust with your customers. Free People realized their Top Reviewers weren’t just your average shoppers, but true advocates of the FP Brand, or what we call ‘The Influentials.’ Not only do they give constructive reviews, but they also help encourage potential customers to make confident buying decisions. This in turn helps the retailer build new relations and helps FP merchants gain insight for product enhancements as well.

Free People launched a similar campaign last year featuring Jaime’s Faves, an FP Store Manager that they featured on their blog and website. The success of this campaign encouraged them to take it to the next level. This time around they realized that although store employees are great advocates for the brand, word of mouth is also extremely powerful when it comes from everyday people—your customers.

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Marketing Strategy, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content

Heather Brunner Cars.com’s Super Bowl Campaign Builds Confidence with Ratings & Reviews

February 9th, 2009 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

This post was guest-written by Meghan Meehan, Bazaarvoice Community Manager.

 

 

Call me stereotypical, but I’m not ashamed to admit I watch the Super Bowl just for the commercials.  One of my favorite ads this year was Cars.com’s “David Abernathy – Lifetime of Confidence” spot. The ad chronicles the life of David Abernathy, an ordinary man born with extraordinary confidence. Despite his inflated ego, when it comes to car buying, David is just as nervous as the rest of us. So he turns to Cars.com, where he is able to find the perfect car at the right price. The ad was directed by Lars & the Real Girl director, Craig Gillespie, who won a DGA for Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials in 2006.

Cars.com continues to build momentum for the spot by letting it live on their website. Upon watching the video, visitors are also given the ability to search for Ratings & Reviews on vehicles! This is a fantastic example of a tightly integrated campaign, tying together TV spots, online advertising, and User-Generated Content. Cars.com even created a Facebook celebrity profile for David Abernathy, further extending the promotion’s reach.

Ratings & Reviews are a perfect fit for this campaign. There is no better way to feel confident about investing in a new car than to read what people like you have said about the vehicle. And if there ever was a site built for UGC, Cars.com is it. Last fall we conducted a joint case study, where we learned customer reviews improve Intent-to-Buy metrics for Cars.com. We looked at ready-to-purchase metrics such as lead conversion, click-through to dealer maps, and seeking finance options. In each of these cases, visitors who read Reviews were more likely to convert.

It’s always exciting to see my clients infusing traditional advertising with Ratings & Reviews, and Cars.com’s campaign does not disappoint. If you missed the spot, you can view it here. While you’re there, take a moment to read or write a review on your car!

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Bazaarvoice Stories, Marketing Strategy, Multichannel, User-Generated Content

Heather Brunner PETCO “Tails” Save Lives

February 5th, 2009 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

This blog was guest-written by Jen Renola, Bazaarvoice Community Manager.

PETCO “Tails” save lives…and the next life may be my own!  PETCO recently launched Bazaarvoice Stories by inviting its customers to share “The Moment Your Pet Changed Your Life.” Now I’ve been tossing around the idea of getting a pet for quite some time, and reading PETCO’s “Sentimental Tails” may be just the motivation I need.  These stories are incredible!

Stories about how people’s pets saved their lives…figuratively:

“I would like to tell you a story about a wonderful dog who saved my life in so many ways…So here is the introduction.”

Stories about how people’s pets saved their lives…literally:

“He helped me to get back into my home and then proceeded to walk me very slowly and carefully inside to a bed. I sat down and used the phone. I believe he saved my life, as I was otherwise alone and I would have been stuck there in the freezing, zero degree weather without anything to keep me warm.”

Stories about the tremendous role that PETCO has played in their lives:

“We buy all of Mercury’s food, treats, (his Charlee Bears, yum!) toys, and supplies from PETCO, and although he comes with me everywhere and is welcome in every store, PETCO is, by far, his favorite place to go! He even gets to make new doggie friends sometimes. Thanks, PETCO for supporting Mercury and all service animals, and for opening your doors to animals to become a dog’s social ‘hot spot!’”

These Stories have to make all of us non pet owners wonder if there is indeed something missing in our lives. And if the Stories themselves aren’t enough to make us think twice, all the photos of these adorable pets certainly are.

Once again, PETCO has proven to be a leader in leveraging user-generated content to meet the needs of its customers at every level. And as we’ve come to expect, PETCO launched Stories by incorporating Bazaarvoice’s recommended best practices: a contest promoted through a homepage banner, category page banners, and email marketing, resulting in over 80 stories submitted in the first four days of the campaign.

I can’t wait to see what’s next.  If I read many more of these, I may find myself at PETCO soon, shopping for supplies for my new pet.  Maybe by then they’ll have Stories with helpful tips for new pet owners…or suggestions for fun toys!

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Marketing Strategy, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content

Heather Brunner Argos UK sets new Bazaarvoice record for number of submissions in one day!

January 26th, 2009 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

This post was guest-written by Anna Skaya, Bazaarvoice Community Manager in the UK.

Argos, our largest European client, released an email campaign last week to all customers who had either purchased or reserved a product during December. They had postponed sends during the month of December due to the high level of gift purchases and a possible lower level of response, and this strategy really paid off.

The Argos decision to hold all email until January was an important one from a level of return perspective. It also ensured that fresh reviews were received ahead of their January Catalogue launch, a key milestone in their trading calendar. We were under pressure to process and moderate the content quickly and accurately – Argos requires the highest degree of moderation so no drop in SLA or quality would be acceptable!

Result: Argos set a Bazaarvoice record by amassing more submissions in a 24 hour period than any other Bazaarvoice client, plus it doubled the previous highest number, set by a large US client. Way to go, UK!

The epic success of this campaign is not only based on the sample size. The internal Argos team followed our post-purchase email best practices: send out the email on a Tuesday or Wednesday between 10am and 4pm when most people are at the office as this is when review submissions seem to be most prolific. We also recommend waiting to send Christmas post-purchase emails until after the holidays, to help ensure a better return of high quality reviews. This not only generates more relevant content as the gifts have been opened and the returns have been made, but it will also increase review volume, since most people are now back in their ‘normal routine.’

Community Managers help our clients hone their post-purchase emails all the time – we have seen small tweaks to marketing campaigns equal huge changes in email open rates and review volume.

How did the Argos email do in numbers? See for yourself:

  1. Total reviews submitted in one day (11am to Midnight): 63,232 reviews
  2. Total reviews collected in 24 hours: ~70,000 reviews
  3. Total reviews since email launch: 90,000+ reviews
  4. Total reviews that might make it out of SLA: NONE!

This was the single biggest spike we have seen from our hundreds of clients. Argos sets a new record on number of reviews gathered in a day, beating out the previous record of 40,000 reviews set last fall. As our case studies show, more reviews equals higher sales conversion.

I love seeing a UK retailer drive such results! Look to Argos to being a key player in the online social commerce market – with a solid internal team, the right initiatives and innovative ideas, this is a true partnership!

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Community, Marketing Strategy, Multichannel, Ratings & Reviews, User-Generated Content

Heather Brunner MobileVoice enables Turbo Tax shoppers to reach reviewers in stores nationwide

January 26th, 2009 by Heather Brunner Chief Operations Officer

This blog was guest-written by Meghan Meehan, Bazaarvoice Community Manager.

As the Community Manager for Intuit, I’m continuously impressed  by their openness and innovation. Last year Turbo Tax launched the largest promotion of online customer reviews in history. This year, they kicked off tax season with nationwide, in-store promotions for their newest functionality, MobileVoice.

MobileVoice allows shoppers to access Ratings & Reviews from their mobile phones in real-time, anywhere. Intuit, ever the thought-leader, immediately grasped the importance of allowing consumers to view feedback from people like them at the point of purchase. Proving they truly are an “open brand,” Intuit planned a grand launch for the new functionality.

On December 26th, Intuit officially launched the MobileVoice site for TurboTax. They are promoting the site on in-store displays located at every Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Office Depot, Office Max, and Staples in the US. The displays will remain in place through the end of tax season, so even folks who wait until April 15th to file can make an informed purchase decision!

In the months leading up to the launch, Intuit tested several versions of the MobileVoice ad in their usability labs. The winning version is located prominently on their in-store displays. It features a strong call to action – “Get Reviews from Real Users. Right here. Right now”. There is also an image of a mobile phone showcasing reviews, educating shoppers on how to use the feature.

Intuit is a prime example of a company that practices what they preach. They believe so strongly in the voice of the customer that they’ve made it available at five of the largest retailers in the country with the click of a button. In a time where many companies are scared to hear their customers’ feedback, it’s refreshing to find such a transparent company.

Next time you’re out shopping, be sure to look for the large, blue, Turbo Tax displays. Then head over to m.turbotax.com from your phone to read reviews from people just like you!

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