How Sony used online reviews to engage their customers
A Case Study On the Sony SRS-XB20/SRS-XB30/SRS-XB40 Portable Wireless Bluetooth speaker
Even though they sell most of their products through brick and mortar stores, in the last decade, Sony has seen their greatest growth on their digital platforms. The consumer electronics industry is notoriously competitive and has only gotten more so in recent years. Consequently, at Sony this question arose: “How can we make our brand stand out from the crowd, increase brand awareness and e-commerce growth?
SKU’s
Authentic Online reviews
Average Word Count
Sony EU Headquarters decided to make online review programs standard procedure when launching new models onto the market, with the aim of generating consumer trust, and helping online customers feel more informed – on a personal level – about products. Additionally, products appear more prominently in online search results when online reviews have been written. This is an increasingly vital way of exposing consumer goods to the public.
Following up on this strategy, Joost van de Beld, Brand Activation & MarCom Specialist at Sony, became responsible for executing these online review programs in the Benelux. “We tried several review marketing solutions and I collaborated with online retailers to run cashback campaigns. But I realized quickly that quality reviews don’t come from people that are expecting an incentive.”
Sony needed authentic customer reviews that were of a high quality, very specific, and longer than the average review. The reviewers had to be intrinsically motivated, not incentivized, to maintain authenticity, add valuable product information and prevent the product from looking too good to be true. That’s when Van de Beld contacted Stars and Stories.
Our independent community of product lovers just want to have the opportunity to test the latest products that interest them. After a month of experiencing the product at home, they send it back to us. In exchange for the experience, they post reviews. This was exactly what Sony was looking for. And a new partnership was born.
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Joost van de Beld
Online Brand Activation & MarCom Specialist
Sony Benelux
In the past years Stars and Stories has played a part in multiple product launches ranging from headphones to speakers, camera’s and televisions. The goal is always to provide new products with small numbers of high quality reviews, right after the market introduction. By now, we can account for more than 600 product reviews about approximately 45 SKUs on the e-tailer platforms that are most important to Sony. One of our latest review campaigns was supporting the launch of Sony’s new Bluetooth speakers. In less than 4 weeks we delivered 38 authentic reviews with an average word count of 187.
The review quality is very important to Sony’s online customers, since there’s no store employee present to answer their questions. Van de Beld: “The average word count is much higher, people seem to take their considered time to write their reviews and back up their story, name specific product features and talk more about the USPs of the product. ” In addition, two speakers were awarded ‘Best Reviewed’ by Kieskeurig, a leading Dutch online retailer that caters to millions of savvy consumers. “These types of accolades not only contribute to greater exposure for the product but also greater consumer trust.” Van de Beld says.
“As with many marketing departments, pressure is high and time is of the essence. That’s why we love working with Stars and Stories. Communications and expectations are always clear and transparent. We know the investment and we know exactly what we get in return, with a detailed timeframe included. The sooner we deliver on all the needed information and material, the sooner the campaign goes live. From that point Stars and Stories takes over and we have only to sit back and relax. That’s when the online dashboard becomes important. It’s one of our favorite features: a reporting tool that gives you a tremendous insight into the progression of the campaigns. It saves time and makes it easy to report back to your team.”
TimS
To start with, this is a mobile device, so the battery should be expensive. This is certainly the case. I had him on the boat for 3 days about 8 hours a day, so the promised 24 battery life is certainly true. The influence of the RGB LED lights is for my feeling nihl. The LEDs are of course not comparable to’ real party lighting’, but my cousin thought it was super fun. The LEDs also seem to start flashing more actively and rhythmically when the music becomes busier. A disadvantage of the speaker is the external damage. The outdoor use of the speaker is particularly encouraged, which is an environment where the speaker can be scratched and damaged. A scratch on the matt black exterior becomes…. You guess it all, WHITE. If you look very closely, it is light grey, but it looks white. This is a missed opportunity. I am very pleased with the sound quality and volume. Speaker used on a campfire with about 25 people. Leave volume at about 75% because otherwise we could not understand each other anymore. Even at maximum power it remains quite pure. It’s a real party speaker, so the bass tones are active, delicious in mixes, dance, house and techno. He is doing a little less well on vocal. This was too clear with Dutch-language music. All in all, very satisfied with the speaker.
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