Case Study
Rafra Japan increased sales by 108% with help from Kaizen Platform’s video creative services
Rafra Japan Co., Ltd., a Unilever company since 2019, has a goal of helping people around the world feel beautiful both inside and out, with beauty products from Japan. The skin-care brand, which was founded in 1999, launched as one of the company’s subsidiaries—a core business of Rafra Japan—that carries out everything from product planning and development to sales in one place.
Rafra initially started selling in physical stores, and the rise of digital shopping resulted in roughly equal online and offline sales. The brand wanted to improve both online and offline sales to achieve further business growth, so they implemented hybrid business models that could expand both within a limited budget.
Engaging customers with quality creative
In November 2022, Rafra Japan began a partnership with Kaizen Platform, a creative platform that specializes in delivering high-quality video ad creatives at scale for businesses. By optimizing Rafra’s video creative on the Amazon store with their social media branding and physical store promotions, Kaizen Platform provides a sales promotion service called “Kaizen Retail SNS” that assists with initiatives from brand recognition, store visits, and procurement within a streamlined system.
As Rafra Japan launched their new videos across their digital and physical storefronts, they used Sponsored Products, Sponsored Brands, and Sponsored Brands video to re-engage consumers who were interested in Rafra’s products. For their sponsored ads approach, they used trademark keywords such as “Rafra” and category keywords like “oil cleansing” to help reach customers.
Driving awareness with product video
Rafra Japan saw that the video content across their digital storefronts helped increase their sales. And they learned that videos that performed well on their storefront had different implications for their business than videos that went viral on social media. For example, videos that performed well on social media were key drivers for brand awareness and bringing new-to-brand audiences to their digital stores. However, videos that performed well in the digital store had different goals, which were to help inform shoppers of their products and increase their confidence to purchase.
— Jiro Tsukuba, head of APAC, Kaizen PlatformThe secret to making the most of video is that viewers can visualize how to actually use the products rather than just going through the traditional method of watching video reviews. We are working with advertisers to increase sales by reaching customers who recognize the brand from the videos and are interested in purchasing products.
Digging into the results
As a result of their multilayered approach, the number of searches and product page views on Amazon for Rafra products rose by more than 40%, with an increase in sales of 108% from the previous year.1 Sales exceeded Rafra Japan’s expectations, increasing to over 300% compared to the previous year when accounting for sales from physical stores.2
The partnership with Kaizen Platform has also led to a change in staff priorities, such as an increase in employee interest and involvement in digital content within Rafra Japan. Through these initiatives, it has become clear that significant results can be expected by strengthening online and offline synergy of a brand’s creative approach.
— Tsukasa Kimura, president and CEO, Rafra JapanI was really surprised at the speed with which the service was provided by Kaizen Platform. It took only a month and a half. The proposed plan with updated video creative could be used at physical stores, too, so I felt it was a great initiative.
1-4 Source: Global Overview, United States, 2023.