Those brands that have established the DTC model have obvious advantages in this respect. Take Shapermint, a body-shaping underwear company established three years ago, as an example. During the epidemic, the sales volume of Shapermint increased by 70% year on year. Considering the implementation of various security measures during the epidemic, it is not easy to achieve such achievements. Foreign media interviewed Shapermint, the chief marketing officer of Massimiliano Tirocchi, and talked about the "secret" of the brand's success during the isolation period. The interview records are as follows:
(CM refers to reporter MT refers to Shapermint chief marketing officer Massimiliano Tirocchi)
CM: What challenges did Shapermint face during the epidemic? What aspects of the enterprise have been affected? How to adjust the marketing strategy?
MT: by negative make the most impact in March. At that time people's consumption is the main direction of life must category to March, great changes have taken place. With the epidemic compared to pre-people body shaper of the demand. In addition, previously in order to cope with China at the dawn of the new year of the hot season, the stock volume of Shapermint is relatively sufficient, and we deal with it well in terms of inventory and logistics.
The concept of our promotional activities is one of the biggest changes. For example, the original concept of our Mother's Day activity was "mother is a 'shaper '". However, due to the outbreak of the epidemic, we changed the plan to, "you make a decision (agree with the incident and encourage consumers to call their mothers). The bigger challenge is that we need to change the plan and implement it in less than two weeks.
The growth of Shapermint under the epidemic situation is mainly attributed to our sufficient inventory and in-place logistics distribution. As far as our advertising strategy is concerned, the promotion expenses of Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Pinterest account for most of our marketing budget. We adjusted the communication with the internal creative team to associate it with current hot spots."
CM: What is the reason why products are still popular under the epidemic?
MT: our products on sale include body-shaping pants, underwear, tights, etc. The sales volume occupies a large market share in department stores. Under the epidemic wave, with the closure of department stores and shopping centers, people spend more online. Because we have invested a lot in the digital field, consumers can buy our products directly from the e-commerce platform. In addition, cpm on social media also declined due to budget cuts by big brands. This means that the cost of contacting millions of consumers every day is lower for us. Few brands in the same field as ours make profits by online marketing mode.
In addition, one thing that needs to be understood is the shopping motivation of consumers. For example, the reason why consumers buy body shapers during the isolation period is that they are thinking about their future. One of our best-performing marketing ideas is "wedding". The reason is that people who hold weddings need to be more expressive on wedding occasions. The key point of marketing is that the brand knows what the customers need and can give them what the customers need. In the beginning, we analyzed a lot of data and prepared to shift the marketing focus to home wear or casual wear, but the later sales results showed that the sales volume of body-shaping pants still increased. Some consumers reported to us that because they knew they would need a more well-proportioned figure in the future, they placed an order in advance during the epidemic. Many consumers will think: "You can't do too many kinds of sports at home, but when you meet others after the Isolation Period, you still hope that your figure can be better."
The number of consumers has also increased during the epidemic. The main reasons are: first, there is more communication with consumers; Second, there is less traffic competition, third, the number of people going to physical department stores has decreased. We achieved 100% business growth in May. In addition, our investment in advertising has doubled. At the end of May, we also launched TV advertisements.
CM: How did your company improve the level of e-commerce access during the epidemic?
MT: We have products on sale on our shapermint.com and Amazon. Sales of both have increased. In April this year, our sales increased by more than 35% compared with the same period last year. The number of our visitors doubled in May. We are constantly testing and optimizing to improve our own website. We have made great efforts to ensure that we can transform every new visitor in the store. In May, we had several days of business interest rates even higher than Black Friday. This really surprised me.
CM: your company is how to use performance marketing this marketing tool?
MT: Shapermint's marketing method is performance-driven, and we focus on results. All the marketing methods we do are based on data. As I mentioned before, part of our advantages lies in the acquisition of customers. The company's marketing budget on Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest every day has reached six figures. According to the advertising effect, we formulate our advertising scale, how to improve the conversion rate and what products should be retained. Facebook is the main source of our traffic, and the budget spent on Facebook accounts for more than 75% of the total media marketing budget. We have applied this marketing thinking model to almost all aspects. In terms of TV advertising, we cooperate with Tatari to let it help us to calculate. Because they have a dedicated data analysis team that can help us analyze data and make a budget. We also have our own internal data team to cooperate with their work.
MT: Shapermint's marketing method is performance-driven, and we focus on results. All the marketing methods we do are based on data. As I mentioned before, part of our advantages lies in the acquisition of customers. The company's marketing budget on Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest every day has reached six figures. According to the advertising effect, we formulate our advertising scale, how to improve the conversion rate and what products should be retained. Facebook is the main source of our traffic, and the budget spent on Facebook accounts for more than 75% of the total media marketing budget. We have applied this marketing thinking model to almost all aspects. In terms of TV advertising, we cooperate with Tatari to let it help us to calculate. Because they have a dedicated data analysis team that can help us analyze data and make a budget. We also have our own internal data team to cooperate with their work.
MT: Shapermint's marketing method is performance-driven, and we focus on results. All the marketing methods we do are based on data. As I mentioned before, part of our advantages lies in the acquisition of customers. The company is in CM every day: What is your marketing plan for this year?
TM: At the beginning of the outbreak, our company set up a "combat team" to analyze how the economic trend will affect Shapermint's business. In March this year, the situation was unclear. Although the current situation is still unclear, in view of the good business growth situation, Shapermint's marketing target is to achieve more than 0.15 billion US dollars in 2020. As far as the marketing plan is concerned, we want to increase investment in TV advertising. At present, we are carrying out a promotion activity, and plan to slightly increase the marketing budget for different promotion activities in July and August, then review and learn from experience.