How Zoflora cleaned up its competition

This post is sponsored by Zoflora.

The expected red ocean

With the evolution of consumer behaviour, and COVID-19, eCommerce being the first principle of marketing may not be a surprise. I used to think that it wouldn’t matter; even if all marketers shifted towards eCommerce only the strong would thrive regardless of the numbers, but that was wrong because the whole ecosystem of eCommerce is heavily based on an auction system. 

Even if your products could sell, your cost to deliver your ads to an audience tends to continually increase as your return on ad spending (ROAS) decreases. That is what makes the number of competitors such a pain. 

Expanding your horizons of eCommerce

With more demands from the auction system, it is why this campaign for Zoflora took a unique route. To increase sales in a typical manner, we might have been limited to traditional eCommerce such as CPAS or media platforms where anything could be regarded as eCommerce as long as it sells. 

This campaign combined the uniqueness of the product in an unconventional manner by letting it be naturally named and called something weird, and unrelated to the brand’s identity. The approach came with the usage of media that marketers normally consider as a branding tool such as KOLs or installation. 

That was how the product was called “Dettol Jo Malone” among real users. By being called Dettol, it automatically exuded the strongest disinfectant quality as the market leader. For the Jo Malone part, it contributed a strong competitive advantage such as luxurious scents against regular hospital-like odours.

It is one thing to understand the intricacy of eCommerce, but it is another story to win an unpredictable army of consumers if we continued to play it safe.

Relying on courage and creativity, not resources

In the past, to sell products on a massive scale it was necessary to have enough media coverage for the whole world to be aware of your existence, distribution channels for people to be able to reach your products at their disposal, or a production budget to create memorable communication. 

With digitalisation, you do not need any lump sum of budget to kick-start your business journey, you only need to have creativity and courage to prevail. You can do self-bullying social media marketing with the lowest cost of production to convey communication with a sense of memorability. 

With budgets tightening, people won’t think of you as cheap, but rather root for you. From a great beginning that anyone can embark on, it leads the way for any courageous entrepreneurial minds to be successful without needing unattainable financial support.

The core mechanics for Zoflora’s “Hacking Growth” campaign were the same. We revolved our core idea based on how to make the most out of limited resources. 

Conventional approaches for any brand would be starting the communication funnel through awareness such as constructing perceptiveness through videos or branding campaigns. That is a solid way to do things, but not when we have alternatives to win in a shorter period of time through digital approaches.

Understand how consumers think, rather than being a technician

I used to hear countless eCommerce success stories by doing all the fascinating tricks in the world. When my opportunity arose to do such a campaign, I was full of confidence and high expectations to succeed like those guys I looked up to because I studied every move they pulled. 

Surprisingly enough, I failed miserably; ROAS was less than 0.10x. As much as it hurt my pride, I have learnt the hard way that when you are under such an impression that techniques and mechanics from platform providers will be the only key to eCommerce success, that is when you spiral downwards. 

Personally, the key to eCommerce for me was to step out of your understanding of the eCommerce landscape and understand “why they buy what they buy” – when you think like a consumer, you will have your epiphany. 

Thus, Zoflora’s campaign achieved its maximum efficiency through natural methods rather than engineering its results by fixating on technicalities from eCommerce platforms. Consumers purchase because they believe in what their peers say, not because they listen to brands narrating their beliefs. 

Fixation on brand identity is getting old

Brands must keep their composure, which is marketing 101. Some luxury brands do not even consider explicit eCommerce as their option because it potentially devalues perspectives their target consumers have towards them. Having dealt with situations where sales channels have been limited, this turns the marketing world upside down.

Brands should be adapting to consumers’ ever-changing perceptions which revolve around world context, and Zoflora did this. 

The Hacking Growth campaign was aimed to allow the brand to be naturally perceived by consumers. This was how we connected with consumers, and how Zoflora became the standout disinfectant brand among stiff competition.

The writer is Don Gorrith, strategic planner for Zoflora.