Challenge

Taika is a popular beverage brand that specializes in unique canned coffee and matcha drinks. As a business in the food and beverage space, customer retention is essential — which means the brand wanted as many people to try their drinks as possible so they’d keep coming back. Taika also wanted to emphasize accelerating sales velocities in-store, especially with Sprouts and Whole Foods, so finding a way to drive trial was one of their top priorities.

Taika had been using Thingtesting for unbiased reviews for a long time before the launch of our product testing program for businesses. They decided the solution was ideal for their needs and it has since become one of their primary marketing channels.

Solution

Kal Freese, Co-founder and COO of Taika, notes that the brand had previously tried multiple review and sampling platforms that didn’t have the kind of traction they were looking for. These platforms often rely on the brands themselves to drive traffic to their sites, whereas Thingtesting has an existing community of over one million monthly testers that Taika could, in Freese’s words, “piggyback” off of. He says:

“Thingtesting is an incredibly cost-effective way to drive in-store trial. All we pay to Thingtesting is the flat monthly fee and small percentage of each customer reimbursement, and in return we get to reach customers we otherwise wouldn’t.”

Freese also sources marketing content from reviews gathered through their Thingtesting campaign. Thingtesting reviews are less biased compared to other platforms due to our third-party nature, meaning brands cannot influence what reviewers say, leave fake comments, or hide negative ones. Taika collects data from these reviews — through the customized survey feature — to better understand how consumers are discovering their beverages and which varieties they enjoy most.

Results

Taika’s first Thingtesting campaign performed impressively. Between their own marketing efforts and Thingtesting’s loyal audience, the brand was able to:

☕ Attract over 1,500 new customers

☕ Gross $5,700+ in sales

☕ Collect 786 new reviews

Freese also expresses his appreciation for Thingtesting’s much clearer ROI compared to social ads on Meta and Google thanks to captured customer receipts.

When asked about tips for other brands, Freese says that businesses shouldn’t be afraid to spend money to drive sales velocities, and Thingtesting is a worthy investment for accomplishing that. Not only is it positive for merchants, it makes their retail partners happy as well.

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