"I and love and you" increases high-quality reviews for pet owners with sampling

I and love and you boosts consumer confidence with Bazaarvoice Sampling

It can be difficult for small brands to stand out in the competitive pet food market. But as consumers—especially Gen X, Gen Z, and millennials—place greater emphasis on the caliber of food they feed their pets, small brands committed to quality, like I and love and you, can make gains on larger competitors.

Now more than ever, shoppers want to know what their pet-loving peers are purchasing. That’s why ratings and reviews and other user-generated content (UGC) are so critical to pet food brands.

The pet industry has changed quite a bit in the past couple of years, and that’s why I and love and you exists. People today are treating pets as children and thinking harder about the food they’re feeding them. Of course, reviews play heavily into their decisions, said Jeremy Dodge, Digital Marketing Manager at I and love and you.

I and love and you is a premium dog and cat food brand using high quality ingredients across all its products. The brand uses Bazaarvoice Sampling solutions to send samples of products to a targeted group of pet food shoppers to generate reviews. These reviews help I and love and you increase sales and gather insights about the foods they sell.

Bazaarvoice sampling increases review volume

I and love and you knows that reviews, especially in large numbers, plays a big role in driving consumer validation.

A product with no reviews or just a small number of reviews is an immediate red flag for consumers. It gives the impression that hardly anyone has purchased it, and the brand is too small. Having a significant number of reviews proves to shoppers that we can be trusted, said Dodge.

But collecting a meaningful number of reviews quickly enough to make a product successful can be a challenge. That’s what the Bazaarvoice sampling community addresses.

Bazaarvoice provided I and love and you with a targeted list of Bazaarvoice sampling community members to receive product samples, focusing exclusively on pet owners who expressed interest in natural and organic foods. The targeting even zoomed in on what kind of pet each member had, ensuring dog owners received dog food and cat owners received cat food.

The sampling community members received select products to sample in exchange for their honest feedback.

The brand saw immediate success. With a 92% review submission rate, the campaign generated 400 reviews with a 4.7 average overall rating. I and love and you has collected more than 1,000 total reviews, all of which are shared with several retailers across the Bazaarvoice network of more than 6,000 brands and retailers. The result is more than 4,500 total in-channel reviews from this syndication.

The reviews from Bazaarvoice sampling are also more impactful than typical reviews. Members of the community give higher quality reviews that were more thorough and informative. You don’t have those single sentence ones like, ‘I like it,’ said Dodge.

While this is certainly good for brands, retailers also appreciate higher volume and speedy review collection. Conversion rates are one of the most important things to retailers, and the biggest factor playing into that is review volume. That’s a win-win, said Dodge.

UGC drives product development and supports launches

Bazaarvoice Sampling helps inform product decisions and provides a way for brands to collect reviews prior to the launch of new items, ensuring consumer validation from the moment these products hit the market.

I and love and you plans to make that the norm. We’re now building the cost of review campaigns into product development. We don’t launch products without reviews. It’s mandatory. Sampling with Bazaarvoice is such an easy way to do that, said Dodge.

Along with the positive conversion impact, the reviews give brands vital insights. For example, when I and love and you changed an ingredient in cat food, the brand heard through reviews that their customers’ cats didn’t like the new formula. In response, I and love and you went back to the old formula.

When we switched to the new formula, we heard about it loud and clear in our reviews. It became crystal clear that we made a mistake, and when we corrected it, our sales recovered, said Dodge.

Interacting with retail shoppers using Bazaarvoice Connections

With more reviews comes invaluable opportunities for brands to connect with online retail shoppers at scale at crucial moments. Bazaarvoice Connections empowers the brand to answer questions from customers and respond to reviews through a single portal.

I and love and you then has an easy way to demonstrate its responsiveness to the thousands of other shoppers who see the interaction, ultimately increasing consumer confidence in the brand.

The customer voice matters most

By collecting a high volume of quality reviews from the Bazaarvoice sampling community, distributing them to retail sites, making customer-driven product improvements, and connecting with shoppers along the way, I and love and you is making a meaningful mark in the competitive pet food market.

When someone can read reviews and see that other people have purchased this food and their dogs gobbled it up, that’s important. That’s something that’s tough to communicate through our own branded messaging. When a shopper reads that another consumer says it tastes better, that’s impactful, said Dodge.

I and love and you stands firmly behind its products, and the company’s employees are proud to feed their own pets the very products they sell. Gathering reviews is a no-brainer for the brand. If you know you have a superior product, reviews are your best friend, said Dodge.