How To Use Humor To Make A Serious Ecommerce Product Fun (And Sell A Ton)

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Francois Marchand: You remember them—the funny commercials, the online ads, the clever, viral promotional videos that made you chuckle or laugh out loud. You've probably shared a few of them with friends and family. They may have even driven you to buy a product. So you might be wondering, how can humor or being funny helped me sell more? And is it always a good idea?

Welcome to The Ecomm Manager Podcast. Our mission is to help you succeed in your ecommerce journey with helpful advice from the experts who made it big. I'm your host, Francois Marchand. 

Today I'm joined by Jessica Postiglione, she's the Founder and CEO of Bonny. And we'll be chatting about how to use humor to make your ecommerce product fun to sell and sell a lot. So stay tuned to discover why you should understand your target audience when it comes to being funny, how to incorporate humor in your product positioning and in your brand marketing strategy, and why being funny or clever can work as long as it fits the product that you're selling, of course. 

I couldn't be more excited to talk about Bonny and talk about the product. It's such a fun product. Why don't you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about what you put in your little boxes and sell online? This is just so amazing. 

Jessica Postiglione: Thank you. That is a great introduction and I'm happy to be here. So Bonny is a fiber supplement. Believe it or not, we are helping people poop better. You gotta laugh at that. 

Francois Marchand: You have to. That's the whole point of this episode and I think we'll get into the funny, humorous side of things. But yes, Bonny helps you poop. 

How did you come up with that product? I think it has something to do with being stuck and confined in spaces during COVID. Give us a little tour of the history of Bonny. 

Jessica Postiglione: Yes. That had a lot to do with it. So I guess I am a serial entrepreneur now. Bonny's actually my second business that I've started. But during the pandemic, like a lot of people, I found myself with, time on my hands. And I got really into health and wellness and thinking about nutrition and what I was putting in my body.

I think, again, a lot of people were thinking about immunity when the lockdown and we became more apparent that this was gonna last a little bit longer, this pandemic. So I started reading everything online, like health and wellness, and you start to hear the things everyone hears, right? Cut carbs, cut sugar, reduce alcohol, sleep more, exercise more, drink more water, all amazing things. 

And then fiber kept coming out. And I said, this is really interesting because I was not thinking on the top of my health and wellness journey. Fiber. But all of these magazines and experts are talking about fiber. So I was tracking my macros in one of those apps, and sure enough, turns out 95% of Americans don't get enough fiber.

So I was one of those people. I bought all the fiber supplements on the market, went to Google, said best fiber supplements, purchased them. All they came in were plastic tubs. They haven't been changed in years. And I tried them and they tasted horrible. And then I looked at the ingredients and it was refined sugars, artificial flavors, dyes, have no idea why they were in my fiber.

And like a lot of people, I gave up on it. I said, this is, I can't drink this. This is not palatable. But it made me start thinking about why can't we make a better fiber? So long story short, I partnered with someone with 40 years of experience doing formulation in this space, and we created something great.

We said, I said to him, I just wanted to taste good. Why can't we make fiber taste good? And we wanted prebiotic and we ended up using real fruit powders. So there's nothing artificial in it. It is real dried fruit, strawberries, blueberries, mango, passion fruit, depending on the flavor. No artificial ingredients, no colors, no dyes, just fiber fruit.

And a little bit of monk fruit to sweeten it. So it tastes amazing. And that's what really resonated with people. But to get the word out there, we wanted to make sure that we were not gonna be, lumped in with those other fiber supplements. So we really leaned into humor and you can see it on the website, you can see it in our packaging. We want people to be elite poopers. And we tell them that proudly, you can have better bathroom breaks. 

Francois Marchand: That's amazing. I mean, just the presentation here, it just sums it up so well. And I don't get enough fiber, I'll admit it. So I'm going to try Bonny at some point. I have to, cuz it sounds like it tastes really good. And like you said, that product, the fiber products on the market, they're all targeted to like an aging demographic.

Maybe it's like people are not regular. I think it's, there's a history attached to it that makes it seem you know, an old product. Bonny doesn't seem like that. Bonny makes it feel like this is a product anybody can really get into. You can just drink it and actually enjoy the drink. And also the fact that, it's sustainable, it's vegan, it's gluten free.

That's all bonuses. But I gotta come back to the marketing of it because I just love the tagline. Fiber doesn't have to taste like sh*t. That's the actual messaging on your website and that's so blunt. I mean, it's just so in your face and honest about what you're trying to deliver here. So that brings us to the main topic of the conversation, what we are here to talk about, how to use humor to make a serious product, in this case an ecommerce product.

Fun to sell and sell a lot in the process, right? So why do you think humor is so important to Bonny, and how do you think it's helped your product positioning your marketing? Since the early days up till now that it's gotten so many rate reviews and magazine accolades and it's got good visibility.

So yeah, why do you think that's so important to be kind of lighthearted, I guess. 

Jessica Postiglione: Yeah. I think at the end of the day, we all want to be entertained. And is that your scroll? Is that your television show? And that's like your brand as well. I think especially with the advent of so many D2C brands pushing the envelope in terms of marketing perspective, people wanna be entertained.

And it's also a category where, to your point, like it's a little older, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't be respected and spoken to sophisticatedly, right? Like I think we also use humor in a very sophisticated way to elevate it. Cuz there's a way, there are tones, right? We are focused on, this is a premium product for your body, but it's gonna make you poop.

And, and if that gives you a chuckle and that makes you happy, that's great. If that's something that gets you to talk about your digestive issues with your doctor, your friends, we have a lot of customers that will buy this for their parents and say, mom, dad, I know that this is something that you're struggling with.

You may not have heard this brand, or maybe you're still stuck on that old fiber that you keep using. Here is the upgrade and I will buy it for you. Right? So I think it's important to use humor with a point of view, with a sophisticated level of tone to it. But yeah, no, it cuts through the noise.

And again, we're talking about something that tens of millions of people suffer with digestive issues and gut health issues. So if we can use that humor and that lightheartedness and the elevated brand to get people talking about it, that is a win. 

Francois Marchand: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people talk about it. People are not afraid of the topic. It doesn't make it sound like an issue, 

Jessica Postiglione: yeah, exactly. Exactly. It's something you would want to talk about at the brunch table or what have you. Right? And also, a lot of people love discovering our brand. We are only sold on our website, www.trybonny.com. So we're getting our word out there slowly, but people love it.

They're like, I'm telling you about my friends. I'm telling you again, my parents, which is not something historically people have done with their fiber supplements, raved about it to their friends. 

Francois Marchand: Not to name them, but you know, the ones that end in sill or the ones that end in lax. Right? So sill or lax, but not Bonny. It's not BonnySill or BonnyLax. It's just Bonny. Where does the name Bonny come from? I have to ask. 

Jessica Postiglione: Yeah, so Bonny actually means beautiful in Scottish. And that really resonated with me that we like to say fiber should taste beautiful, look beautiful in this case with the sustainable tins, but also make you feel beautiful.

Like one of the benefits of fiber, which I didn't fully appreciate until I started getting enough fiber, is that fiber can help with circulation, which can improve the look of your hair and skin and nails cuz your blood is flowing correctly. So again, there are like so many other benefits aside from the pooping in the bathroom.

Bonny can help with immunity, because 70% of your immune system is in your gut. So there's a prebiotic, meaning it will feed the good bacteria in your gut. Regulates blood sugar because fiber slows digestion, so you're not gonna get those spikes and crashes you may have with other fiber supplements that have refining sugar in it. 

Regulates cholesterol levels, like we can go on and on, number one, people use it to go to the bathroom. And that might be the struggle that you're facing and that's great. But there are also so many other ancillary benefits of fiber. It's pretty amazing. 

Francois Marchand: Yeah, and I think the product really is well outlined in terms of pain points and solutions on the site, which is, great marketing. And if you want to check it out, if you're listening to this podcast, as Jessica said, trybonny.com. We'll put it in the show notes if you want to click on the link. 

But were there any other brands that inspired you to position Bonny the way you did that used this kind of tongue in cheek lighthearted marketing approach to their product that you were like, okay, this is the direction I want to go into.

Jessica Postiglione: Yeah, I mean, I always think back to Dollar Shave Club. I think they were the brand that really showed the market that a D2C player with a, again, a humorous point of view, can disrupt a category that is pretty generic. Again, in that case, we're talking about men's razors. They later went into other personal care products, but again, no one was really caring about razors on that level.

It was something that you buy, it's utilitarian. You have a need for a razor. In that case, they, they went after the men's market and spoke to the price point. But that video that ad, went viral. And in such a crazy way that people were like, wow, I can't help but want to talk about look at this brand's website.

Be involved with it. Right? Because I think that's another aspect of it, the identity. Like you start to feel like you are a friend of the brand. That's your personality as well. Like it says something about who you are as a person. So I always think of Dollar Shave Club, and other brands have done this, like Poo-Pourri, like that video as well.

Again, bathroom adjacent with, the very stylish woman with a British accent, you know? Talking about her bathroom breaks. So those are two brands I think that, again, took two categories that people weren't really talking about. And use humor in a point of view and a very strong point of view on that to gain market share and grow sales and, continue to deliver on that.

I think that's another aspect of humor and just branding and marketing. How does that resonate at all touchpoints? It's the website, it's the emails, it's the packaging it's everything. And that is one of the difficulties of humor is making sure that everything is humorous or at least follows along those guidelines.

Francois Marchand: Yeah. Were there things that worked and you had to readjust? When you were kind of getting feedback, maybe not everything resonated. Like you said, there's so many components to the marketing campaign, so were there any sticking points where people didn't really respond the way you wanted? 

Jessica Postiglione: I have one story and it wasn't actually our marketing.

Again, as part of the humorous aspect of the brand, we encourage people to write reviews that really go there. We say we encourage potty humor, right? So, these are reviews and we encourage people to be very creative with them. And we had a review and I thought it was pretty funny and we put it out in an email blast cuz we also like to focus on our customers and share their stories.

Right? And we heard some feedback that the, one customer in particular said, I don't get this I don't get this quote. They thought the quote came from us. It was from the customer. But again, we put it out there and I thought it did align with what the brand's humor was, but it was an interesting point to take a step back and say okay.

People are really listening. Cuz sometimes you think you put this stuff out there, stuff meaning the marketing message and you write copy. And just because someone doesn't respond doesn't mean that they're not reading it and responding to their person next to them or having a different perspective of your brand.

So that was an interesting, just an interesting feedback. But I think again, you have to have a point of view. That is the difficulty with something like humor. You are gonna turn some people off. You might win a lot of people on the one side, but there are some people who are gonna be like, this is not for me.

I don't wanna see. Even if it's a beautifully branded piece of poop, I don't wanna see it. 

Francois Marchand: And that makes sense. I mean, it's not for everybody. And I think we covered, you know what my next question was going to be, which is how customers have responded to the way you present Bonny products. But the follow up to that would be, how do you think that being lighthearted and humorous has actually helped convert into sales? Specifically because you're an ecommerce brand. 

Jessica Postiglione: I think you know, one, sharing the content, which is what you want, right? I mean, these are, some of these are paid ads, but people are sharing it. And commenting it on a way that they would not if it was just another competitor's product and it was simply like, best fiber supplements, buy now.

That is not how we market, right? We are much more colorful in our language and descriptive, but we do see competitors like that, right? So it's it's just what you expect. You expect, okay, description of the product, a call-to-action to buy, but nothing that piques my interest. Maybe the photo's great, maybe the image is great. But we're, I think that again, that we're using humor.

We're approaching it with very high end design and some of our imagery videos of people talking very candidly about the product. And again, approaching it with potty humor. People are more apt to say, wow, this was funny. I wanna share this as a piece of content online, which is what people do all day, right?

They send memes and they say, look at this article. So it becomes less of an ad and more of, okay, this is funny, and it happens to be for a product that you might like as well. So yeah, I think that is the main thing, is just really kind of getting that flywheel effect out there that people are like, no, this is actually really funny.

I know it's an ad, but I'm gonna send it to you. 

Francois Marchand: The shareability aspect of it does a lot of the work from a marketing perspective. Because it just generates this kind of organic movement for your content where people are talking about the brand, they're not necessarily sharing it because they bought the product. But they're sharing it because they think, Hey, This is kind of neat.

Have you seen this quirky video, or I saw this ad today. It's really funny. Take a look at it. Doesn't mean they're going to buy the brand, but from a brand awareness perspective, that's a win. 

Jessica Postiglione: One of our taglines is, are you full of it? Or send this to someone who's full of it. And we see people doing that and they think it's a cheeky play between the two friends.

And it is. But again, it's getting to that message of, you are probably being weighed down by waste in your body right now. Let's get back to the serious message here. Fiber will clean out your colon and you will feel lighter and you'll feel better. 

Francois Marchand: We talked a little bit about target audiences and this older generation that's historically been targeted by fiber supplement products, and you were your own sort of target market to begin with when you came up with the idea. How do you see the brand kind of expanding its target audience or narrowing its target audience as the product evolves, as sales evolved over time? 

Jessica Postiglione: Yeah, I am. I mean, I use my product twice a day. I'm not full of it anymore. I am a believer in my own product. I think yeah, it's interesting cuz everyone poops, right?

So in theory, again, we focus on an adult audience, let's just say 18 and over. Everyone poops there's white space there, right? But you know, the main person is a person who has been taking fiber supplements and is upset or underserved by it. But again, they have health concerns, so they're like, I will force myself to take this because I know it benefits my health and I want, I wanna be healthier.

That is older customers, again, people who have been taking some of those sills and laxes for 20, 30, 40 years. So that would be like our main customer, I would say an older demographic. But the millennial customer is also right up there. They are, reading ingredients more than anyone right now.

They are also very conscientious about their health and aging and what they put in their body. And then I would say there is like a younger customer, call it Gen Z that is just curious, right? They're also reading ingredients and packaging, but it may not be as pressing as a concern as someone who is older who is starting to think about hemorrhoids, diverticulitis, and a bunch of other stuff that is not so great when you can't go to the bathroom.

So it's one of those things where if you have the issue, if you're constipated, if you've struggled with IBS, then you are actively searching for a solution.

Francois Marchand: Based on your experience, what tips do you have for other ecommerce brands that are seeing what Bonny's doing and thinking, Hey, that's super clever. I want to go within this direction with my product. Maybe we can try to be, funny, lighthearted, catchy, shareable with our own marketing. Yeah, what kind of advice do you have for those companies thinking this is what I wanna do? 

Jessica Postiglione: Yeah, like I said, I think, it's difficult, right? You wanna make sure that your touchpoints align.

So I would say first start off with a strategy of, where is the line for you? And for every brand that might be different. What are you willing to do? Maybe for you, you're not willing to bleep out expletives and you're like, I'm not going there. There's other brands where I see things not bleeped out, and I still don't know how they can do that, you know what I'm saying?

So, first start off with what does it mean to you? And I also would say just don't use humor just to use humor. I think people can see through that. It has to be authentic to the brand and the category and what you're doing. Just throwing, square words around is not marketing, it's not a strategy.

Think about your category. Think about the other players. Like anything like when you approach building a brand, what is that white space? How are things positioned and how are the market leaders gaining share? There are some markets where a clinical background makes more sense. If a product is, like a cosmetic, right?

If something's like a Botox alternative or something, you wanna know that works. So I think there are categories where you can dial up the humor and there's some categories where you can kind of go wild and be as humorous as you want. But again, it's a fine balance, understanding who you're talking to and how he or she might read that, given the type of product it is.

Francois Marchand: How do you feel about the validation of getting Bonny mentioned in so many different media outlets? I think In Touch Magazine, it was featured there. 

Jessica Postiglione: Beauty Independent. Yeah, the Beat. No, I think that to me that's validation, right? This is a crowded category, like most vitamin supplement categories, they're extremely crowded. And I'm sure there's a D2C brand popping up right now in gut health and digestive health like it's happening as we speak.

So again, I think it's cutting through the noise. And I think, again, other outlets have seen what we are doing and way that we approach it, that it is at a premium level, that we aren't doing it to pander or just to get clicks. It resonates with the brand and it makes sense for the category. 

Francois Marchand: I mean, it's all about being authentic, in the end. It has to be true, like you said, and you explained it so well. You have to be true to your own product and your own vision. If you're doing it just for the sake of being confrontational or generating some kind of knee-jerk reaction...

Jessica Postiglione: People see through it. They definitely see through it. And again, it comes back to, I think as well, you have to have a really good product.

Because let's say you are humorous and that resonates, but if you don't have the product to back it up, sure you can get that first sale. Because people are entertained like, okay, I'm like what you're saying. I'm into it. But we're about building lifetime value here. We know that you need to take fiber daily and drink water and exercise and all that great stuff, but there are people that we're a 30 day supply.

We want you coming back every month refilling the tin, getting the supply, and keeping healthy and continuing to improve your health. So using humor to get the first sale, okay. But if you don't have that product to back it up, that people wanna buy over and over again, you've wasted a lot of time and effort building a brand that nobody wants to see, grow in a profitable, sustainable way.

Francois Marchand: Bingo! I think you just nailed it there. Bonus question, what's the funniest thing anyone has ever said about your product that you didn't write or have your marketing team write first? 

Jessica Postiglione: Oh, I don't have my customer reviews up. We've had a lot of customers really embrace the, know, holy sh*t, holy crap.

That has been pretty funny. Crappy they'll use crappy. This is not a crappy product. Hee, hee like, that's been pretty funny. Honestly, on the flip side, those are funny. But the ones that we love are the ones where people are like, this is the first time I've been able to go out to dinner in a long time because I don't have to worry about a bathroom situation.

Or I don't have anxiety, right? I'm able to go out to my, with my husband and have dinner. And that almost brings a tear to your eye. Oh my God, like I didn't even think about that level of what this product could do and really give your life back, give your confidence back. So those are amazing as well.

We have a lot of funny ones, but it's also great to read about people's journeys and how the product is changing their lives. 

Francois Marchand: It's a serious issue. We can make fun of the topic. We can have fun with the language. But again, your product solves a serious issue and there's a lot of people buying it, and that's for a very good reason.

Any other insights you have for us, Jessica, or advice you'd like to share about your ecommerce brand building experience specifically? 

Jessica Postiglione: It's tough. It's tough, but it's worthwhile. Especially if, again, going back to the product, having something that people need and it's, it meets that need, right? It delivers.

And let's open canvas. There's so much you can do with your website and the messaging and your emails that you cannot do at the retail shelf. Not to say that there are the pros and cons to everything, right? But I tell young brands, they're always like, I don't know what to do. We're not getting traffic and it's tough. 

You gotta really think about your funnel and the traffic and the type of traffic that you want. But you do have white space opportunity to build a brand that's unique and don't feel constrained. Right? Really think about, what am I delivering? How do I deliver that to my target customer?

And really understand who your target customer is, but also know that changes, right? Like I thought it was me immediately when I launched it. And it's not to say it isn't me, but there's other me's and there's older me's and the younger me's, right? But they all wanna poop better. So always look at your data, always talk to your customers.

We love talking to our customers. And really hearing feedback of, is this working? Is this not working? Do you like this flavor? Again, marketing, does it resonate? Are you getting the information? It's great to have humor, but are you getting the basic information on my website that gets you to that purchase?

Meaning like shipping times secure checkout, all of the other important things to get that product to you. So don't, I would tell entrepreneurs, don't forget about all the other stuff. It's great to have the marketing. It's great to have the language, but you also have to deliver the product when you promised it and when things go wrong, you gotta be there to fix them.

Francois Marchand: There's so many components to running an ecommerce business and finding success and scaling and getting to the level that you have achieved. And again, congratulations on creating such a cool product. I can't wait to try it out, because I will. I promise. 

Jessica Postiglione: We will send you some samples. 

Francois Marchand: Oh, thank you so much.

I'm gonna throw in that bonus evergreen question I ask everybody. Jessica, what's your number one piece of advice to find success as an ecommerce manager? I mean, we've touched upon so many different things, but just an evergreen sort of tip from your perspective to achieve success in ecommerce.

Jessica Postiglione: Yeah, I think knowing your data, knowing your metrics, that is really important, especially if you wanna grow your business profitably. And I, I assume a lot of listeners here are bootstrapping or maybe using their brands as side hustles and don't have the luxury of VC or Angel investing at this point. 

Really know your data. What's your average order size? What and these are, and if you're on Shopify, these are basic metrics. You should go beyond it and really think about, okay, what is my churn rate? What is my cohort? But let's just start with, what's your repeat purchase rate? What's your average order size?

And then if you're running paid ads or whatever marketing you're using, how much are you really paying to acquire a customer? And then the key, what is the lifetime value? Are these people coming back? That and be really be honest about that. I think a lot of people wanna say, oh yeah, but they're coming back.

Or you gotta look at the data. Will they come back once, twice and how quickly? That's great if they come back. But if they come back twice a year, how are you getting paid back? Because you have to buy the product to pay for people. Like really think about your cash conversion cycle and be really strong with that and stick to it.

Don't start to creep and say, oh but. If you wanna grow your business and scale it profitably, really focus on your numbers. 

Francois Marchand: Yeah, it's interesting. I was talking to another guest. His name is Matt Ranta. He's from Nimble Gravity. It's an agency, they do a lot of data for ecommerce businesses and enterprise, and that's exactly what he said as well.

Those are the key metrics. Your business. So I'm happy to hear you say that because I think everybody aligns on that front. Know your data. It's very important. Do you want those repeat purchases and you want people to make, like you have a subscription model, right? So you want people to come back?

Jessica Postiglione: We do. We do. So we have subscription and one time, cuz we do have some customers who just wanna buy when they wanna buy. And I totally understand that. And we have others who are excited and forget it. I know I need my fiber. But I don't wanna go back to the website and I get that. I mean, Amazon subscribed and Save has kind of changed the game with that.

But again, meet your customers where they are. Talk to them and get to that repeat purchase. If they're not purchasing, I have reached out to customers who didn't purchase again and said, just be honest with me. What was it that did not bring you back? And some people will never respond to that email, but some may and will give you real feedback.

And sometimes it's just simply, oh, I forgot about your brand. There was nothing wrong with it. I just, or I'm not gonna prioritize my health right now. And we all know, like if prioritizing your health is hard. 

Francois Marchand: I've decided not to be healthy anymore. That's amazing. 

Jessica Postiglione: You just had to, not a focus right now and I appreciate that.

But that's the truth, right? That is real life and or, money is tight right now. I wanna focus on other aspects in my budget. Whatever the reason, at least you're getting that feedback to know it's not the product. There's other things going on. Maybe you run a sale, maybe you think about your VIPs a little more.

Maybe you think about winback more. Maybe you start a campaign that talks about the power of consistency, right? Like address it, come at that pain point in another way. But what you're really looking for is if there is something wrong with the website, if there's something wrong with the product. If it's, again, if it's not working, these are all data points to go back to and say, okay, well these are things we really need to change cuz we need to get the repeat purchase for up.

And again, we're talking about things that are repeat purchases. If you're running a business where you're running selling mattresses, maybe you only need one purchase. But this is for, again, consumable items or things that you are depending on that next sale to grow your business. 

Francois Marchand: Exactly. Thank you so much for your insights again, and thanks again for the Q and A with authority. That was awesome. We're always open to more collaborations. Again, like I said, I'm becoming a fan of the product and I haven't tried it yet, and I will. But yeah, no, it was just such a cool conversation to have with you, and I'm glad you shared some of your time with us. 

You mentioned trybonny.com. That's the website. I, again, encourage everybody to go check it out. It's very neat. That's a very cool product. I love the sustainable tins. I just love that. It's eco-friendly and all the different aspects that go beyond the fact that it's also very funny. But where else can we follow your work online, Jessica? 

Jessica Postiglione: Yeah, so we are @trybonny on all social. So @trybonny on social, so Instagram, Facebook, a little bit of TikTok, some Pinterest.

Again, our website is probably the main place you can buy it, a wealth of information. And then also just email us, [email protected] is our customer service. If you have any questions about the product, we are here to help. And we have a quiz as well on the website if you don't know which flavor. We can help you with that as well. 

Francois Marchand: Jessica, thank you so much for joining us on The Ecomm Manager podcast today. We'll let you go, get back to your busy life. And of course, if you want to learn about gut health, go to trybonny.com. 

If you wanna learn more about ecommerce best practices, and how to bring your enterprise to the next level, visit The Ecomm Manager online. All the links will be in the show notes, as I said. I'm Francois Marchand, Editor of The Ecomm Manager. Thanks again for listening to our podcast today, and we'll see you next time.