How Beko expanded globally with user-generated content

How Beko broke into new markets and won more retail customers with UGC

Having established itself as a leader in home appliances in Europe for a decade, much of Beko’s growth now comes from expanding into new regions across the globe. Even with a positive reputation in one market, entering another can be a major challenge.

To introduce its brand name and products to Australian shoppers, Beko applied what works best: Letting its loyal customers do the talking.

“When we first started doing business in Australia, people here didn’t know who we were,” said Amanda Hart, Marketing Manager at Beko ANZ. “We needed to build a swell of customer voices to validate our brand quality here. It has definitely helped support the validity of our brand among new consumers.”

That’s where user-generated content (UGC) came into play.

“Reviews are an essential part of our successful strategy that’s getting Beko products into more homes across Australia,” said Hart.

Syndication drives sales, strengthens retail partnerships, and increases distribution

Beko collects and displays customer reviews on its site and distributes them to retailers in the Bazaarvoice Network. This gives Australian shoppers confidence in its products, everywhere they’re shopping. And more confidence leads to more conversion.

“We’re seeing exponential sales growth, not just uplifts, from syndicating content,” said Hart.

Beko has actively gathered 8,000+ reviews, most from post-interaction emails sent to customers after registering their appliance. The brand now has more than 30,000 reviews on retail sites from syndication, which accounts for 97% of all Beko product reviews on those sites.

Increasing review volume helps Beko become retailers’ favourite vendor.

“The feedback we’re getting from the retailers we syndicate to is extremely positive. The positive relationship we’re building with our retail partners is icing on the cake,” said Hart.

The voice of over 8,000 customers cannot be ignored, and this product validation has helped Beko plug their products onto more shelves in more stores.

“Getting as many reviews as possible is helping expand our distribution. We can show new retailers that consumers are very loyal, will come back to our brand over other brands next time they purchase, and that we can increase their own review volume immediately,” said Hart. “We compete against bigger brands with broader product ranges who should have more reviews in theory. But retailers are blown away by the number of reviews we have that they could get access to, which is a really compelling selling point.”

Not only does UGC compel more retailers to carry Beko products, it also improves the brand’s visibility on those sites.

“Some of the biggest retailers won’t promote products without a certain number of reviews, so they don’t sell. And if a retailer questions a product and thinks anecdotally that it’s no good, we can show them all the positive reviews that prove it’s a great product and is meeting consumers’ needs,” said Hart.

Insights power Beko’s important business decisions

Bazaarvoice Insights provides Beko with a more scalable, cost-effective way to gather insights than traditional methods.

“To see what resonates with consumers, we used to invest quite a bit on consumer research. We’d hold a couple of focus groups every year on a different range of products. We would also leverage an online research community that would cost us more than $100,000 a year, and managing it was a full-time job. The beauty of reviews is that we’re getting insights across all our product categories at once and all the time,” said Hart.

And Beko broadens the value of customer feedback by sharing this wealth of knowledge across the business.

“Reviews give us invaluable insights that we share with our product management team, research and development teams, headquarters, and other departments. Those teams want data to inform their decisions, and we’re able to provide them that through reviews. In turn, they take constructive customer feedback and build better products,” said Murat Dora Product Manager at Beko.

For example, Beko recently identified a consumer preference for more cutlery options in dishwashers through reviews, and the brand took action by implementing more cutlery options as a standard feature in a new range.

The company also noticed that customers weren’t happy with the position of the handle on one of its fridges, so the brand responded by modifying the handle on a new range.

Beko also uses Bazaarvoice Insights to easily identify the best reviews and to amplify them in other channels.

“We give our digital agency access to our Insights dashboard, and they can conveniently find snippets of some of our most powerful positive reviews and work them into our social media posts and other touchpoints,” said Hart.

Creating new brand advocates and increasing lifetime customer value

Beko customers are very loyal and most are repeat buyers, which reinforces the value of capturing new customers.

“Once they get one of our products into their homes, they become advocates and buy our other ones. And when they need to replace a product from a different brand, they choose to replace it with one of ours. We want to give that first-time customer the confidence and a compelling reason to buy from us, since we know they will become frequent customers. This is where reviews come in and why they’re so important,” said Hart.