A decade ago, product reviews were mainly for large ticket items such as cars or electronic household items. However, over the last few years, reviews have also become important to smaller items. Savvy consumers have become accustomed to seeking the views of others before buying FMCG and beauty items. The product review has become ubiquitous.
Here are some recent stats:
74% of consumers say that ratings and reviews are key to learning about products they’ve never purchased before.
98% of consumers are more likely to read reviews for a product they’ve never purchased before
45% of consumers wouldn’t purchase a product if there were no reviews available for it.
94% of consumers who use reviews would not purchase a product with less than a 4-star rating
Finally, an academic study by Barnes, A.J. and Shavitt, M (November 2023) concluded that shoppers are more responsive to the statement “Top Rated” than “Best Seller” highlighting how important social proof is now to increasing sales.
A challenge for the NPD
Launching a new product can be a real challenge, especially when dealing with crowded markets and established products. Fortunately, our NPD service can help you overcome these obstacles by combining brand awareness campaigns with user-generated content and review capture. By doing so, you can maximise the utility of your budget and increase the chances of a successful product launch.
How it works:
1. Product or sample to a prospective audience
Relish will get your product or sample version into the hands of a target prospective audience
2. QR code and Try.Love.Buy
A QR code will be added to your campaign that directs consumers to the NPD survey
3. Brand awareness, insight and reviews
Your product benefits from exposure with a new audience, insightful metrics, audience understanding plus the all-important reviews that have consent for publishing
The start point is a brand awareness campaign for your new product. We can facilitate this through a variety of ways: social sampling, influencer sampling, brand partnership with e-commerce partners, beauty boxes and a host of experiential campaigns. We will advise you on the best route for your audience and goals.
The campaign will feature a TLB QR code and our NPD survey. This survey will provide a comprehensive range of insights such as purchase intent and product recall. Crucially, it features ratings and reviews, that are marked as being used for publishing to gain user consent.
Some stats from our NPD service:
5,659 participants have taken part in our NPD trials so far. The average product review length is 17 words. The majority of reviews are between 4 and 49 words though a few have been known to exceed 200 words!
89% provided product reviews (where it was clearly stated they would be published)
81% were qualified as valid reviews
88% enjoyed their sample and gave a positive review
7% were neutral towards the sample
5% were negative towards the sample
…Oh – uh, I don’t want negative reviews for my new product.
Yes, you do – and here’s why…
80% of consumers purposefully seek out negative reviews as being most insightful to decision-making.
95% of buyers suspect censorship and fake reviews when they don’t see any negative reviews.
Finally, from our own data, we can see that negative reviews are longer than positive ones (+4 words on average) providing more detailed feedback for product development. We use Nvivo software – the gold standard qualitative platform to pull out key themes and trends to help with future product development or marketing ideas. So for many reasons, the occasional negative review is to be celebrated not feared.
Using reviews
There are several ways a brand might choose to utilise the reviews. They can be:
– Published on websites as testimonials.
– Published as social media cards
– Used in advertising
Working with third-party review sites
Our customer reviews are exported in a format that means they can be bulk-uploaded to Trustpilot if you have an existing account. Customers who purchase your product can be encouraged to leave reviews through Feefo or BazaarVoice if you have an existing account.
Need a review for your new SKU?
Product reviews are now an important part of the marketing mix. A key focus of any new product activation will be to gain the product reviews necessary to build trust and give the product clout to prospects. So, if you are looking for a brand awareness campaign with sophisticated performance tracking, detailed insight and potentially 1000s of ratings and reviews for your marketing effort – please get in touch to talk it through with us at insights@relishagency.com
Sources:
Power Reviews
Statistica
TLB database 2024
Barnes A.J. and Shavitt M (November 2023) Top Rated or Best Seller, Cultural differences in responses to attitudinal versus behavioural consensus cues. Journal of Consumer Research
