Marshall’s award-winning strategy drives 720% growth for Kenmore in the Amazon store

Goals

Quality, longevity, and reliability are the cornerstones of any home appliance brand. Kenmore has delivered on all these fronts since 1913, creating generations of homes powered by their trusted lines of household appliances.

In 2023, Kenmore’s Major Appliances division sought to establish business momentum in the Amazon store. They designed a strategy to bring in net new customers to Kenmore as well as re-engage with Kenmore loyalists, to demonstrate significant and consistent sales growth, and to demonstrate advertising effectiveness to leadership through measurable results.

Kenmore collaborated with Marshall Associates (Marshall), an Amazon Ads partner specializing in sustainable online retail growth through copywriting, video and photo creation, and sales support. Together, they developed an approach that earned Marshall the New Brand Architect Award in the 2024 Amazon Ads Partner Awards.

Approach

Kenmore and Marshall developed a comprehensive advertising strategy that expanded the brand’s presence across the Amazon store. Their approach included diverse advertising placements, from the Brand Store to product pages, creating multiple opportunities for shoppers to discover Kenmore’s offerings. They focused on two consumer types: net new audiences, which they discovered through browsing behaviors and lifestyle traits, and established Kenmore shoppers buying from licensees in the Amazon store.

The companies created an audience-building strategy from the ground up. They began by making 73 Posts in one week, which drove product discovery and brand engagement using lifestyle content. This increased the brand’s follower count to 6,300, which has since grown by 20% per month on average. Next, they positioned Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands ads to make Kenmore’s offerings more visible during appliance shopping queries. Then, they focused on where customers were spending time by investing in lower-funnel Amazon DSP ads. Finally, they activated mid-funnel display tactics using the classic Kenmore logo to inspire a sense of loyalty and nostalgia in brand loyalists.

Kenmore and Marshall used tools and insights from Amazon Marketing Stream to maximize the effectiveness of this full-funnel campaign. Amazon Marketing Stream made it possible to implement day-parting and top-of-search bid modifiers, which ensured that Kenmore’s products reached their audiences in key periods and key placements. Additionally, insights helped the companies discover and invest in high-performing keywords and strategies. Performance signals led Marshall and Kenmore to refine their strategy to highlight specific products. This strategic shift helped increase both click-through rates, which boosted engagement, and advertising efficiency, which enhanced return on ad spend.

Results

Marshall’s campaign helped Kenmore see results in just one month. Though sales were down by 51%¹ in Q4 2023, they increased by 25%² in Q1 2024. In April 2024 alone, the brand achieved a 720%³ year-over-year increase in total sales. Additionally, Kenmore achieved their goal of driving both first-time sales and continued business growth. Of all sales, 75%⁴ were from new-to-brand shoppers, and 25%⁵ were from existing Kenmore shoppers. Kenmore’s digital shelf ownership, pulled from their competitive insights tool, increased by 38%⁶ in Q1 2024 compared to Q4 2023.

For their work in renewing Kenmore’s brand offerings, Marshall received the New Brand Architect Award in the 2024 Amazon Ads Partner Awards. Marshall gained valuable insights from this successful campaign, particularly around understanding category trends and discovering effective browse terms. Moving forward, the partner will apply these insights to help more brands achieve their goals by creating engaging advertisements that resonate with shoppers.

Sources

^1–6 Marshall Associates, US, 2024.