FITS achieves rapid decision-making on ad strategies

The company

FITS Corporation, Inc. sells a range of original products focusing on cosmetics and perfumes, as well as importing overseas brands. Their corporate philosophy is “Creating with the aroma of affluence.” FITS has sold products on Amazon since 2006, and they started advertising on Amazon in 2016 with the launch of its advertising business in Japan.

FITS, which had only limited experience with Internet advertising up to that point, saw the potential in Amazon, where the effects of advertising could be easily confirmed and adjusted as necessary. They saw Amazon Ads as an advertising solution that could be started with very little effort.

They also sell products in many brick-and-mortar stores, and given the fact that many consumers search Amazon when considering purchasing products when offline, they decided that advertising on Amazon would be an effective strategy.

The challenge: From in-house operations to working with advertising agencies

FITS manages its own advertising operations, and they have sold one of the company's main brands, “Ocean Trico,” which is an original licensed brand in the men's hair wax category, on the Amazon site since November 2017.
However, a shortage of knowledge to track the results of their advertising, and personnel to optimize advertising on a daily basis, led them to search for external partners areas. Ad agency Ubun Co., Ltd. proposed clear keyword analysis strategies and report content, and FITS chose Ubun from among a number of various companies' proposals. In October 2018, they started an initiative with Ubun Co., Ltd.

The strategy: Optimizing to maximize sales

Ubun is an agency providing consulting and advertising operation services specializing in Amazon's usage strategy, tactics, and operations. Ubun provides strategy to boost FITS’s sales on Amazon as well as non-advertising field services, such as improving inventory pricing control and the product detail page.

When Ubun started providing service to FITS, they first made innovations in the account structure and divided the campaign by distinguishing between branded keywords, competitor keywords, and category keywords, which had previously been managed together. They changed the design to one in which it was easy to visualize and verify the effects of the advertising. Ubun actually searched for target keywords and found ways to strengthen advertising based on the results, creating opportunities to consider expansion of the budget. Additionally, by bundling of key products and popular products and the release of variations, they were able to bolster the product lineup and increase exposure.

Specifically, this included drawing up keyword strategies and using bidding controls for each ASIN, and operational management of Sponsored Products advertising, such as keyword addition. UBUN also tested Sponsored Brands ad creatives with a single product versus a set of products, and focused on cross-selling of FITS's products with Sponsored Display. They also provided suggestions for improving product detail pages and proposals for product lineup strategies to drive Add to Cart conversion. In particular, under the keyword strategy, they implemented a policy to release product variations while maximizing exposure of the key products with popular keywords, and have FITS products displayed in all Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands advertising frames at the top of the actual shopping results page.

As a result, by displaying FITS products in places where they are visible when searching by main keywords, they were able to expand the share of and increase sales for “Ocean Trico,” their flagship brand in the men’s wax category. In addition, by increasing the number of brands being advertised from 2 to 15, the company will be able to boost awareness and sales at drugstores and convenience stores throughout Japan. Sales of FITS's fragrance brand “RISINGWAVE,” whose scent is used in “Ocean Trico,” also increased.

quoteUpI believe that there is something that the brand owner must have when working with partners. It is the awareness of having a clear mid-term plan for the brand from a single year.”quoteDown
— Eri Mikawa, Amazon Supervisor and Ocean Trico Digital Advertising Manager, FITS Corporation

The results: E-commerce growth and advertising investment

Both companies are currently actively working to increase sales and enhance brand presence on Amazon. Ubun focuses on creating reports that will allow FITS to make appropriate business decisions each time, while viewing their overall results, by taking an approach in which the number of products displayed on the search screen is increased even if the advertising ROAS is lowered. These reports and proposals from Ubun link to an understanding of e-commerce growth among internal stakeholders in FITS, and they are promoting sales activities based on an understanding of product development and continuity of sales at brick-and-mortar stores.

Currently, a cross-organizational partnership between the product planning team and sales team has been established. They are making decisions and responding in a prompt way, without business opportunity loss, to Amazon.co.jp limited sets and product bundling.

“For sales representatives, I think that it is often difficult to make judgments due to a lack of experience in handling Internet advertisements as part of normal business. However, I think you can resolve all of your problems by cooperating with an experienced partner,” says Eri Mikawa, Amazon supervisor for FITS and Ocean Trico Digital Advertising Manager, explaining the benefits of working with an advertising agency. Based on her own experience, she lists the following points as being important for brand owners.

quoteUpAdvertising is simply a way to get customers to know about your products, so I think it's very important to clarify the brand plan and how we communicate with our customers. I think that sharing that plan with our partners and running in parallel will lead to increased sales on Amazon.quoteDown
— Eri Mikawa, Amazon Supervisor and Ocean Trico Digital Advertising Manager, FITS Corporation

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