CATEGORY: PANTRY STAPLES

Lotus Foods drives retail velocity and review growth at Walmart

Lotus Foods

COMPANY SIZE

High Growth

CATEGORY

Pantry Staples

USE CASE

Increase sales velocity

RETAILERS

Walmart logo

IMPACT AT A GLANCE

6,301

community members engaged on offer

732

reviews collected for syndication with an average 4.5/5 star rating

81%

new customer acquisition

87%

of shoppers intend to repurchase the product

Lotus Foods has been sourcing organic, heirloom rice and rice noodles from smallholder farmers around the world since 1995. The brand is rooted in a commitment to supply chain transparency, Fair Trade practices, and regenerative farming – all while bringing clean, simple ingredients to consumers looking for healthier alternatives to traditional grain-based products.

We sat down with Bryn Kline, Marketing Communications Manager at Lotus Foods, to hear how they’ve partnered with Social Nature to reach their core customers of millennials and health-conscious families.

What challenges was Lotus Foods facing before Social Nature, and how did our platform help?

Bryn: We specifically wanted Social Nature to support our new distribution at Walmart. Being a natural organic brand at Walmart is difficult because we get lost on shelf. Also, we only had one SKU in Walmart, so it’s not like we have a huge brand impact at shelf. We really needed to educate consumers about who we are at Lotus Foods, and how to find our product at Walmart. I had tried a lot of different tactics to support the Walmart business, and they all just kind of fell short. Either I wasn’t able to get enough data behind it to see if it was successful, or I just didn’t see a lift in our velocity at all. It kind of just felt like we were throwing stuff at the wall and nothing was sticking.

And so, we found Social Nature, and what separated it was the fact that we could get insights from consumers through the survey and the reviews. In all of our retail reviews with Walmart, they’ve always said that reviews are really important, and we haven’t had a way to get reviews before. So, we thought if nothing else, we’ll get reviews. We’ll be able to move those to Walmart, and that will help us on the platform. That was the huge push for us. And then the bump in velocity, we obviously saw that happen as well, and being able to compare the data that Social Nature provides through the platform is amazing. We were able to download redemptions, compare that to our velocity, and track week by week to see what kind of lift we were getting. So, it’s easy to calculate the return.

What were some of the key insights you gained from working with the Social Nature community?

Bryn: I’m still going through it, there’s so much information. I think the first moment was just starting to read the early reviews that came in, because it felt like, “Oh, these people actually get us, they get our brand.” Sometimes we’ll get emails or reviews and we’re just like, “No, they don’t get us. That’s why it’s not hitting with them.” And it just felt like Social Nature – those are our core customers, so it felt like we were talking to the right people who understand who we are as a brand and they appreciate the products. It’s been really helpful, and like I said, I still need to keep digging in because there’s so much data and I haven’t had a chance to fully go through it yet.

Lotus Foods Garlic Chili Udon Noodles

How does Social Nature stand out from other shopper marketing platforms you've used?

Bryn: There’s really no other opportunity to coupon with Walmart. To provide a coupon that doesn’t look like a coupon to Walmart, there’s no other platform, that I found, that can do that. To be able to provide like a BOGO or, you know, $X off, we hadn’t been able to do that before.

What was your experience like working with the Social Nature team?

Bryn: I think that Social Nature’s team feels a lot like Lotus Foods’ team to me – small, feels like a family or a team, so I think it just was easy to connect with them. It felt personal, being able to easily email Gus or Ashley or hop on a call to chat through it. With any new platform, there’s a learning curve, so to be able to get that one-on-one time to help guide me through it was really beneficial.

Lotus Foods Spicy Udon Noodle Soup

What was your experience like using Social Nature's Brand Admin platform?

Bryn: It was really intuitive. I’ve been on so many different platforms, and they’re not all easy and this one was easy. Sometimes you’re just kind of given login and videos that you’re never going to watch, but I didn’t even need that with Social Nature. It is just really intuitive to kind of toggle between.

I also liked that when we switched our coupon from BOGO to free, it separated it instead of keeping it combined, because I feel like other platforms just keep it together and you can’t see a really clear cut-off between the differences. I wanted to be able to see that, so I thought it was easy to use.

Would you recommend Social Nature to other brands, and if so, why?

Bryn: Yes, I would. Especially brands like us, natural organic brands, that are trying to get into conventional grocery stores. It’s just such a hard move, and being able to have a community or an audience of people who are your customer, but also shop conventional –that kind of access is just great. And to be able to get insights from them through surveys. I think you can’t really beat it, because there are so many different things you can gain from Social Nature while also seeing a return, which is what our managers want to see, so it’s good.

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