How Benefit Cosmetics used Supermetrics to boost customer reviews, diagnose regional performance, and make informed strategic decisions

When Benefit Cosmetics, a renowned beauty brand that prides itself on bringing feel-good experiences to its customers, faced the challenge of losing critical review data that helped steer strategy and insights for the brand, they turned to Supermetrics. This case study explores how Benefit, part of the LVMH Louis Vuitton Moët Hennessy group, leveraged Supermetrics to overcome this challenge and streamline its data integration process.

The challenge

Benefit Cosmetics relies heavily on Google Profiles data (formerly Google My Business) to monitor the performance of its 8000 plus doors (stores) worldwide. But, when Google deprecated the endpoint connecting them to Google Business Profiles, Benefit urgently needed an alternative solution to maintain its competitive edge.

Rebecca Friedberg is Director of Marketing Analytics & Insights at Benefit and was responsible for finding a solution to this challenge. "Ratings and reviews are essential to our business as they're criteria that consumers use to evaluate whether they trust a business and therefore choose it over competitors. This is particularly true for beauty & health service-oriented businesses, where trust is paramount and competition is fierce, so we needed to find an alternate solution, and fast. Rebuilding the connection in-house would've been time-consuming and involved continued ongoing maintenance, so we decided to look for external support,” she says.

Why Supermetrics?

Several factors influenced Benefit's decision to partner with Supermetrics:

• Timeliness: Supermetrics demonstrated exceptional responsiveness and delivered a short ramp-up time, aligning with Benefit's urgent needs.
• Scalability: With over 8000 doors, Benefit required a solution that could accommodate their large scale, which Supermetrics readily provided.
• Support: Supermetrics offered clear communication, efficient issue troubleshooting, and valuable guidance throughout the integration process.
• Ease of Integration: With a lean engineering team, Benefit appreciated Supermetrics' user-friendly interface, which minimized setup and deployment time.
• Flexibility: Supermetrics worked closely with Benefit to tailor the data retrieval process to their specific requirements, ensuring they obtained the insights they needed efficiently.
• Simplicity: The simplicity of Supermetrics' platform further reduced the burden on Benefit's engineering team, allowing them to focus on other critical projects.

“We already had an idea of the kind of information we wanted, which was very specific. Supermetrics worked with us to troubleshoot how to best obtain the data we needed using their product and they were exceptionally responsive delivering our needed integrations within a short ramp-up time,” Rebecca adds.

Why it matters

Google Profile data, particularly ratings and reviews, plays a pivotal role in consumers' decision-making and also helps steer the broader marketing strategy for Benefit Cosmetics. For consumers, higher ratings and positive reviews enhance brand credibility and visibility, impacting consumer trust and business performance. In addition, having a large number of reviews and strong ratings increase the likelihood your business(es) appears higher in search results for relevant keywords. For marketing leadership, this data gives a clear understanding of where they're under-investing and where revenue opportunities are in the market.

How benefit uses the data

Benefit utilizes GMB data to assess performance across its numerous doors, employing two primary metrics as "stop lights" to guide their actions:

% of Doors with 10+ Reviews: Indicates market performance based on the percentage of doors with a substantial number of reviews.

% of Doors with +4 Rating: Reflects market performance based on the percentage of doors with a high rating.

Benefit categorizes market performance using these metrics in a stop light format, with red indicating low performance, yellow indicating middling performance, and green indicating high performance. It takes appropriate actions based on their findings, including diagnosing performance issues, reviewing GMB profiles, analyzing customer feedback, and implementing marketing and in-store strategies to address areas of concern.

Rebeccas says, “We start by diagnosing why the lights are red, this means looking at trends over time, what are store locations doing to encourage people to review us online, and is our digital marketing spend enough or generating enough engagement. Then we look to ‘Green Light’ locations to see what they are doing well that can be executed in the ‘Red Light’ locations.”

This granular understanding allows Benefit to develop targeted strategies – such as increase marketing spend, make operational adjustments, or launch customer experience initiatives. It also allows Benefit to move beyond a general understanding of their vast network and identify specific areas for improvement, ultimately leading to a more successful and customer-centric local presence.

Conclusion

By leveraging Supermetrics, Benefit Cosmetics has transformed customer insights into a powerful tool for local success. This data-driven approach empowers them to optimize their online and offline presence in every market, enhance customer experience, and drive brand credibility maintaining its competitive edge in the beauty industry.

This case study underscores the importance of retail brands leveraging technology solutions like Supermetrics to navigate challenges and unlock growth opportunities in today's digital landscape.

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