Cosmetics Brand
Natura France and Germany: How to Engage Its Brand Community in 2 Countries?
Natura France
Over 600
reviews
collected
Over 800
ambassadors
Over 400
influencers
Over 400
posts
Over 12K
opt-ins
Natura Germany
Over 800
reviews
collected
Over 1,000
ambassadors
Over 200
influencers
Over 300
posts
Over 900
opt-ins
The Brand
Natura is a Brazilian cosmetics brand that uses plant-based ingredients from Brazilian biodiversity, harvested in partnership with local communities.
The Brazilian brand is currently distributed in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, the United States, and France. Since June 2020, products have also been sold in Germany through the brand’s e-shop.
Natura’s mission through its complete range of cosmetic products (face, body, and hair) is to generate pleasure, well-being, awaken the senses, and improve people’s relationship with themselves, their bodies, others, and the world. The target audience is mixed and between 25 and 45 years old: they are consumers who place importance on product composition and origin.
It’s a brand committed to sustainable development. Natura is the world’s largest certified B Corp, a label awarded to companies with a positive societal and environmental impact.
Natura’s Positioning in These Two New Markets, Germany and France
In aiming to develop in two new markets where it was still unknown, Natura had to activate several levers and adjust them according to the targets and objectives to be achieved.
To do this, the brand lacked data to implement its marketing strategy:
- What were the expectations of each target audience regarding the cosmetic products offered?
- How to reach them?
- Through what type of message?
French Consumers
Cautious, responsible, and in search of the ideal product at the best price, French consumers tend to check other consumers’ reviews online before making purchases in stores or online, especially if the brand is little known to them.
With very little brand awareness in the French market, it was therefore important for Natura to:
- Make the brand differentiating and desirable by activating and uniting a base of engaged ambassadors around the brand,
- Have Natura products tested by a highly affinity target audience,
- Collect recent insights on conquest targets to define distribution, refine the product mix, etc.
German Consumers
German consumers, who are among the most demanding in the European market, pay very close attention to a brand’s reputation before buying it. As a result, Natura, completely unknown in the German market (“one of the largest online markets in Europe) had to confront the distrust of German consumers, as well as the hesitancy of influencers towards Natura products that” they didn’t know.
The brand had to:
- Build an initial foundation for Natura in Germany,
- Develop the brand’s Instagram account,
- Gain access to German distributors and brands.
How to Build and Engage a Brand Community?
To increase its brand awareness and e-shop sales, and thus boost its development in France and Germany where the brand was still unknown, Natura had to place its customers and their feedback at the heart of its strategy.
However, in addition to a limited budget for carrying out major marketing actions, Natura severely lacked data and precise studies to meet the needs and expectations of consumers in each of these two countries…
By equipping themselves with the Trustt solution, Natura implemented an ambassador program for each country and conducted several product campaigns to gather proprietary data and qualitative insights. By engaging a community of ambassadors and obtaining authentic and detailed reviews and UGC, the brand was able to initiate a process of evangelization regarding its values and products.
Natura France: 21 Ambassador Campaigns
By conducting 21 ambassador campaigns, Natura France was able to have its cosmetic products tested by a highly targeted audience. SophIA®, Trustt’s smart matching technology, allowed the brand to select profiles based on their affinities with the proposed products. The use of this feature also resulted in significant time and efficiency gains for the brand!
The feedback from these profiles, and their potential to engage with the brand, contributed to the development of Natura’s visibility on social networks.
Natura Germany: 28 Ambassador Campaigns
The German market was a completely new territory for Natura: no social networks, no perfect command of the language, German consumers’ mistrust towards the brand, different culture, influencers’ reluctance…
As with France, identifying the right ambassadors allowed for obtaining qualitative reviews and insights. By involving German macro-influencers in product campaigns, Natura was able to tap into their audience in order to transform them into top contributors for the brand.
The ambassador program allowed Natura to strengthen its brand awareness by creating two bases of engaged and solid affinity communities (17% engagement on the German Instagram account!).
The Results: Maximum Data and Insights for a Successful Product Mix
Data to Define Its Product Offering
A product has a chance of success if it meets consumers’ expectations and needs. By using the Trustt software, Natura was able to collect a maximum of proprietary data and insights that allowed them to enter into a dynamic of co-developing their products with consumers.
Moreover, the feedback of consumer insights to the parent company allowed for better decision-making, such as modifying the formulation of certain products according to the country.
Example: The triple-phase oil that worked in Brazil had not won the hearts of French and German consumers. Why? Indeed, this product requires education and advice from the seller, which is more difficult to transpose in e-commerce.
Targeted Communication to a Qualified Audience
To achieve its brand awareness objectives in France and Germany, increase traffic to its 2 e-shops, generate more conversions, and ultimately increase its turnover, Natura relied on UGC and feedback from its ambassadors. Result: a successful communication strategy!
As part of these campaigns, all the high-quality, enriched UGC collected (customer reviews + social posts) were used on the brand’s various communication channels (newsletter, product pages, Instagram…) to boost its visibility and attract new customers. Natura was able to adapt its messages by differentiating them according to the country, and by answering consumers’ questions in a more “customer-centric” way
Furthermore, the 12K segmented opt-ins collected for Natura FR allowed the brand to address targeted communications to a qualified audience in order to direct them to its website and thus promote conversions. The same goes for the +900 segmented opt-ins collected for Natura DE.
Customer Reviews to Boost E-shop Performance
Thanks to the implementation of its ambassador programs, Natura collected a very large number of customer reviews: +600 reviews collected for Natura FR and +800 customer reviews for Natura DE.
These valuable reassurance elements enriched the product pages of both e-shops, which considerably boosted conversions and ultimately, the brand’s turnover in France and Germany.
Indeed, these detailed reviews enriched with before/after photos allow Natura’s prospects and customers, whether in Germany or France, to obtain the necessary elements to make their purchase, to feel reassured and to project themselves.
Moreover, by placing customer feedback at the heart of its priorities, Natura positions itself as a modern and trendy brand.
Finally, all these detailed and authentic experience feedbacks constitute a formidable pool of priority data that Natura uses to refine its customer knowledge and thus adjust all its marketing and communication actions.
The usage and qualitative test forms completed by +500 respondents for Natura FR and +600 respondents for Natura DE now allow the Brazilian brand to know its French and German customers like the back of its hand!
Some examples of Natura FR customer reviews collected through the Trustt ambassador program.
Social media posts to boost brand awareness in France and Germany
All product campaigns launched simultaneously to recruit French and German ambassadors have allowed the brand to collect a large number of community contents!
Indeed, the +400 social posts published on the Natura Fr Instagram account and the +300 posts published by ambassadors and influencers on the Natura DE Instagram account have greatly contributed to the development of the brand’s visibility and awareness.
In the era of social networks and online communities, these social posts have an important amplifying and viral power that allows the brand to develop its audience, win new customers, and boost sales on its websites. What more could you ask for?
Here are examples of social media posts, following the various product campaigns launched by Natura FR.
