Burt’s Bees Makes Consumers Its Best Advocates

Clorox Co.'s Burt’s Bees turned to solutions provider Bazaarvoice to assist in the launch of the company’s first cosmetics line – its biggest launch to date – veering away from traditional and often costly marketing strategies and instead focusing on a changing customer journey and leveraging the power of the consumer voice.“Burt’s Bees has really embraced this concept of the consumer voice,” said Bazaarvoice director of product marketing Adrianna Nowell, in a presentation at the Path to Purchase Summit on March 13. “People want relevant and authentic content when they’re interacting with the brand. They want to know what other people have to say about it [and] be able to obtain that information very rapidly.”Burt’s Bees sought a deep-rooted understanding of the consumer and her expectations for a product and a marketing message, aiming to deliver on current consumer values by providing transparency, authenticity, affordability and natural ingredients.“We saw a macro trend in health and beauty where consumers were not just caring about what they were putting inside their body [and] how they were taking care of it exercise-wise, they were caring about what they were putting on their body and their face,” said co-presenter Taylor Steele, assistant e-commerce marketing manager at Burt’s Bees.Aiming to meet new consumer needs with its products, Burt's Bees tapped Bazaarvoice to help the brand change how it went to market. Rather than using traditional advertising materials, the agency worked to amplify the voices of consumers who had tried the brand's products."[Consumers] want to hear from people like them – other humans who are not on your payroll,” said Nowell.Burt’s Bees and Bazaarvoice made the decision to delay the national cosmetics launch so they could first gather and analyze as much consumer data as possible while building a portfolio of ratings and reviews by and for consumers that could be released when the line hit stores nationwide. The brand participated in Bazaarvoice's sampling program, reaching reviewers who had a record of providing quality feedback. While the initial goal had been to gather 20 reviews, the brand received 300 and a 94% completion rate compared to its previous in-house rate of 30%.E-commerce also played a huge role in the multifaceted pre-launch period, dubbed the soft launch or “dark period.” While only a tiny part of the brand's business comes from burtsbees.com, the website helped it learn about the consumer, what sites she spends time on, where she spends her money, where she lives and other products she uses which could provide cross-marketing opportunities. Burt’s Bees also introduced notsynthetic.com, which touts the benefits of natural products and helps shoppers find the perfect color match for their skin type through a shade finder feature. The “dark period” also let the brand hone its product page messaging to focus more on the consumer by making product images bigger and star ratings more visible, which helped increase conversion.Burt's Bees also tried several other new tactics to support the launch. The brand introduced a “Burt’s Box” filled with eight full-sized products for $65. Even though shoppers didn’t know what was in the box, the product sold well among loyal consumers as well as new customers. The brand continued to emphasize its natural credentials with a TV spot released on Oct. 15, one month after the brand's official September launch. Other tactics included a “get the look gallery” where influencers provided images and videos to inspire natural looks.Burt’s Bees saw strong results with a 16% incremental lift in conversion and 20% in revenue. Reviews started pouring in organically as consumers enjoyed telling others about the products. The success has inspired Burt's Bees to again partner with Bazaarvoice for a line of liquid lipsticks launching in the spring.

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