Visitors to tikibrand.com who read reviews are 24% more likely to buy

Bazaarvoice Sampling lights up sales for TIKI Brand torches

For decades, TIKI has been the brand that’s synonymous with outdoor torches. Today, TIKI Brand offers a variety of innovative products for backyard enjoyment — and recently collaborated with Bazaarvoice for a successful launch of Clean Burn Tabletop Firepieces and Torch Fuel.

TIKI Brand implemented Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews in 2015, and understands the positive impact that user-generated content (UGC) has on shopper conversion. As the team prepared to launch the Clean Burn Tabletop Fireplaces product, it turned to Bazaarvoice Sampling to get products into the hands of loyal brand advocates and to collect reviews early. The hope was to have a large number of reviews available at launch to influence retail shoppers to buy.

All reviews submitted by participants are attributed and badged as incentivized to ensure transparency to consumers and to inform their research.

The strategy worked exactly as planned — and delivered other benefits in the process.

Not only did 85% of all customers who’d been invited to sample and review Clean Burn products follow through with submitting a review, but the TIKI Brand team also recognized the reviews as valuable sources of feedback for pre-launch product improvements.

Data we’ve collected from Bazaarvoice Sampling spurred us to make some changes in our packaging to clarify how our tabletop vessel and fuel work together, explains Robert Pickart, Associate Brand Manager for the TIKI Brand. As a result of changes inspired by customer feedback, we can be confident people are getting the intended product benefits and enjoying the best possible experience.

Relying on reviews to drive sales

The data for TIKI Brand’s UGC program told a clear story. Visitors to tikibrand.com who read reviews are 24% more likely to buy on the site than those who don’t — and are also more likely to have a higher average order value and to generate more revenue for the brand. In addition, site visitors who read reviews are 60% more likely to click on Where to Buy.

Because TIKI Brand products are mainly sold in retail stores, rather than on the brand website, review syndication to retailers is a key component of the TIKI Brand’s UGC strategy. Bazaarvoice enables TIKI Brand to easily syndicate review content, including the reviews generated through Sampling to leading retailers. In addition, Bazaarvoice Connections enables TIKI Brand to directly answer customer questions and respond to reviews on retail sites.

Relying on Bazaarvoice for successful sampling

Bazaarvoice not only provided the technology to solicit participation in sampling, collect customer reviews and publish the results online, but also provided valuable guidance on how to maximize the impact of the initiative.

The Bazaarvoice account team collaborated with TIKI Brand to develop a detailed strategic plan that defined approaches to customer targeting, audience segmentation and reporting. The plan also identified the type of information they needed about participants in the sampling program, such as whether they had children or pets, how they typically used TIKI Brand products, where they lived and what their outdoor space looked like. Specifically, the geotargeting capability of the program allowed samples to be sent to customers in areas of the country most likely to use the torches right away.

The Bazaarvoice onboarding team was very helpful, says Pickart. They really listened in terms of what we were striving to achieve, and their advice was spot on.

Realizing benefits beyond sales and revenue

When the reviews started coming in from the Clean Burn sampling, it was clear the benefits extended beyond review content generation. For example, TIKI Brand’s strategic focus on loyal brand advocates resulted in high-quality reviews that were remarkably positive, detailed, descriptive and compelling.

We expected quality reviews, but what we got went far above and beyond our expectations, says Pickart. Many reviewers sent photos and videos with their reviews, without even soliciting that type of rich content.

The reviews also contained important insights and feedback — not just for the marketing team, but also for product development, customer service and other areas of the business.

The sampling program has also given us a great way to connect with passionate customers with strong opinions about what they love about us and what they would like to see in the future, says Pickart. It’s great to hear praise, but also helpful to be in touch with people who’ve been using our products for years and have great ideas to share.

After the outstanding results of the Clean Burn campaign, TIKI Brand is expanding its use of Bazaarvoice Sampling to other products — and not just for product launches.

After seeing the review volume we got, we wanted to turn around and pursue those results for products we already had out on the market, says Pickart. The success of our campaign with Clean Burn led directly to several other campaigns being approved.