How an electronics retailer won consumer trust and increased purchase intent by inviting customers to honestly review products after 18 months of use
In June 2023, French consumer electronics retailer Darty launched the Let’s Make it Last campaign, highlighting sustainable services such as repairs and product trade-in. Following the campaign, created by Publicis Conseil, Paris, Darty kicked off an initiative to change online reviews.
Customer reviews heavily influence customers’ decisions to purchase, but since 77% of consumers write reviews for a product less than a week after receiving it, they aren’t a good gauge of whether a product will last. To verify the longer-term value of products, Darty sent out an email to its customer base inviting them to share honest feedback about the efficacy and appearance of products they had purchased and used for over 18 months.
Darty then analysed the Long-lasting Reviews (a campaign we covered here) to grade products according to their durability, and began showcasing long-lasting grades in-store and online, helping customers make wiser purchase choices. Darty also shared the data with manufacturers, to help them make better products.
Results / The campaign, which was awarded a Gold in the Direct category at the 2024 Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity, led to increases in metrics such as ‘A trustworthy brand’ (up 23 points), ‘A brand that offers products with good value for money’ (up 19 points), and ‘A brand I feel connected to’ (up 23 points).
The campaign also increased people’s desire to recommend the brand (up 26 points) and to purchase products offered by Darty(up 21 points). Darty consumers reviewed more than +33,000 products, meanwhile five major brands (including Tefal and Electrolux) have committed to leverage the Long-lasting Reviews improving the durability of their products.
To find out more about Darty’s approach to e-waste and how communicating around sustainability is a point of difference, Contagious spoke to Théo Tiret, strategic planning director at Publicis Conseil, who said:
- Darty is reframing sustainability as durability to appeal to price-conscious customers
- Darty has always provided after-sales services such as repairs and trade-ins, which used to be a differentiator from price-focused competitors
- The Let’s Make It Last platform is an alignment of the business strategy and consumer communication, highlighting the economic and environmental benefits of durable products
- This CRM campaign saw open rates above industry norms despite not relying on monetary incentives
Tell me about the brand and the challenge of marketing in this category. __ __ Théo Tiret: Beyond France, Darty is not necessarily a super well-known brand, but it’s the leading home appliances store in France. There is a high level of awareness and a strong heritage as well. But the business is highly challenged by players that sell home appliances cheaper, in a category where price is the first criteria [when it comes to choosing where and what to purchase]. Secondly, competitors have invested over the past few years to improve their shopper experience, especially after-sales services, which was a big differentiator for Darty for decades. Darty needed to reignite their singularity and competitivity.
Where did the impetus to address e-waste and sustainability come from? The industry, the consumer or within the business?
With the birth of Darty – a long time before sustainability became a big thing. The Darty brothers, since day one, envisioned a business model which is not necessarily just about selling products, but also bringing added value, especially through services. For instance, repair services. Darty always had this sense of helping their customers to make the most of their home appliances – an innate ideology which is sustainable by design.
More recently, when Enrique Martinez became the new group CEO in 2017, he really pushed sustainability as a key pillar of the company strategy. What does that mean? It means continuing to innovate and offer best-in-class after-sale services, like recycling and repairing, but also to [improve] the purchase experience as well, offering guidance to help customers make good choices.
In a category where every product looks the same – it’s super tough to see the difference between one washing machine and another, for instance. Darty is explaining that invisible difference to help people [choose] appliances that are made to last, and then offering them all the services they need to make it last.
How did this initiative come about? Did you receive a brief to do a campaign?
It was really more a brief for revamping the brand platform, trying to align the company’s vision and strategic plan to the brand. Because the brand was not necessarily owning this vision of sustainability. The key tension was that sustainability in this kind of category could be a bit counterintuitive in terms of business performance. If you go back to the key [purchase] criteria, price is number one, quality is number two, and green [credentials] is somewhere in seventh or eighth position.
It’s not necessarily something that influences purchase decisions. That’s why we made this strategic choice to reframe sustainability as durability. Durability obviously implies a sense of sustainability, but the idea of quality [is linked to] making the right investment in home appliances that you will have for years. It blends ecological with an economical dimension. That was the starting point of all the new storytelling, this new platform – Let’s Make It Last is more about durability than sustainability.
This is a useful example of appealing to convenience or price to sell sustainability – amid the rising cost of living in the UK, more people are practising incidentally sustainable behaviours like reusing and repairing. Is there a similar trend in France?__
Yes, definitely. It’s super hard to go fully green, especially in these kinds of categories, and especially in the context of decreasing purchase power – we know we are living in tough times. So it’s really about finding a compelling way to talk about sustainability as something that can bring an immediate benefit for customers. The idea of making the right investment is a compelling way of reframing things, as is [the reminder that] if you buy something that is made to last, it helps decrease waste and resource depletion and so on.
This is how we managed to align the business side of Darty with the communication side – we said, durability is the number two criteria [when purchasing appliances] so this helps us take sustainability from seventh [most important] to the number two criteria, just after price. And knowing that you’re making the right investment in something that will last for years to come, that helps us talk about price – it’s not necessarily the cheaper option, but if you think about the whole life cycle of your product [it may save you money in the long run].
We know that people really value customer reviews. But how did you incentivise people to write these reviews? Honestly, there was no incentive. It was purely CRM communication. We explained why we think this is something that matters, explained the initiative, and asked them to join us and help us in this purpose. We were just counting on the willingness of people to think this is a topic that matters and by sharing a long lasting review [they can] have a positive impact to help other customers. That was the only incentive.
