Bazaarvoice takes an ‘and’ strategy to UCG in e-retail

Can you tell us a little bit about your career and your role as CMO for Bazaarvoice? Before joining Bazaarvoice, I was a marketing leader at different tech companies including IBM, SAP, and Rackspace Technology, as well as private equity portfolio firm Syniti. And previous to that, I actually worked in sales, which I believe has been invaluable to my career in marketing. When my friends and family ask me about my job here at Bazaarvoice, I usually say, “I love my job and my mission at work, and being paid to do this every day is simply a bonus. Why? Every day, I get to practice my trade as a business leader, an observer particularly on retail trends, a brand ambassador, a storyteller, and most of all, being an everyday shopper!” What sort of brands have you worked with and what should retailers know about user-generated content (UGC)? Here at Bazaarvoice, we work with brands and retailers from all sectors of retail, ranging from food and beverage to CPG, beauty, home improvement and automotive. One can imagine the top brands in each of these categories and the likelihood of them being brands and retailers whom we work with is nearly 100%. I believe retailers around the world, particularly those who are customer-centric, are aware of organic and user-generated content. The one key all retailers should be aware of is the fact that authentic and organic content such as ratings and reviews have a 2x to 4x multiplier effect for brand awareness, purchase conversion, and brand trust. While many brands and retailers lean single handedly on branded content for shopper engagement, taking an ‘and’ strategy to infuse both branded content with user-generated content on all channels along with paid channels like digital ads, owned channels like the brand’s website, and earned and shared channels like social media, is becoming a mandate for most. In your opinion, why is UGC more than just reviews of products? While ratings and reviews, particularly text-based reviews, have been the original and prevalent form of UGC over the years, the term actually is more inclusive by design. Categorically, UGC refers to content that is user-generated compared to brand-generated. In essence, reviews, photos, videos, product questions and answers are also extensions of UGC. User-generated content is a true representation of the voice of the consumer! Collectively, they are most informative and help prospective customers make informed and confident purchase decisions. They are also fodder for all types of marketing and advertising, help with SEO, and include rich and invaluable insights that can help brands and retailers improve everything from their messaging to their processes to the products themselves. User-generated content is priceless and can help to improve all areas of a business. Why do you think UGC should be a major priority for retailers? It should be more of a priority than ever. Brand trust and loyalty is at an all-time low, thanks in part to the pandemic. When looking to purchase a product, consumers want to hear from each other much more than they want to hear from the companies from which they're looking to buy. This is why 52% of brands and retailers we surveyed are considering moving their budget away from paid advertising efforts to owned and earned content creation, while 30% are already doing so. A vast majority (86%) also said that they believe that more authentic UGC in their paid and owned media would improve the performance of their ads and content. So, UGC collection and syndication is top of mind for many. How does removing negative reviews impact retailers, and should they ever be removed? This is the holy grail for authenticity, in my opinion. While it may seem counterintuitive to showcase negative reviews or other negative UGC, if they are true and authentic, they actually add to the trust of your brand! 85% of consumers think negative reviews are either as or more important than positive ones. Unless they are found to be fraudulent, irrelevant, or inappropriate, negative reviews should never be removed. Doing so destroys customer trust, and plus, consumers like seeing negative reviews. Seeing negative reviews on a product page helps consumers to know that the reviews are authentic – if they are all positive and five stars, people start to get suspicious. In your opinion, what are retailers’ opinions of marketing solutions for 2023 and how does UGC factor into their plans? In meeting with retailers around the world, I observed and sensed a strong conviction among them all, and for that matter, retail media networks are increasingly engaging and incorporating content that is based on the voice of the consumer, and hence user-generated content. As the world of marketing and commerce continues to converge, retailers are leveraging the combined effect of marketing solutions, particularly in the digital and social domain as part of their overall commerce solution design principle and solution stack. In fact, small and large retailers are following suit on some of the retailer best practices such as vendor scorecards to measure and encourage use of UGC and digital marketing solutions.