Just yesterday, online customer loyalty & engagement resource provider, WiseMarketer.com posted a blog that I think bears sharing. The notion, being, there is research supporting the argument that the more your engage your consumer market in their opinions, they more likely they will feel a loyalty to your brand. Bluntly put, company’s who invests in market research and gathering consumer opinions will reap the benefits through loyal customers.
According to market insight solutions provider Cint, “62% of consumers surveyed said they are more likely to purchase a brand’s product if they were asked their opinion in a study.
56% of the 1,200 consumers who participated in the Cint survey responded that they tended to feel more loyal to a particular brand that includes them in market research studies or polls. Additionally, 77% of consumers “felt that brands listen more to what consumers want now than they did ten years ago.” The trend of listening to the very people that use your products is taking hold, and it’s not going away.
Let this be a lesson to all those companies out there who are struggling with justifying budgeting market research for the next fiscal year. While you might think the stigma that consumers are annoyed to be approached in answering questions about your products, you’re wrong. A 1 - 5 minute survey will not only give you valuable information in the betterment of your product, but build a valuable relationship and establish long term customer loyalty.
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In September, 2011, social media giant Facebook reported they have 800 million active members using their service. Let’s just put it this way…if Facebook were a country, it would be the third largest country in the world. Marketers can no longer deny, avoid, or work against the movement of social media and its profound effects on today’s culture, trends, direction, and history.
One way marketing executives have begun to harness the power of social media is through setting up Facebook profiles per brand and embracing the notion of loyalty programs through the digital community.
In the beginning of October, digital intelligence firm eMarketer released an article addressing what Facebook users expect from today’s brands. The article reported that “58% of Facebook users within the United States expect “to gain access to exclusive content, events, or sales after ‘liking’ a company, while 58% also expect to receive discounts of promotions”.
For those involved in the Facebook world may know that ‘liking’ a company or brand is a pretty simple task. It’s not hard to search for the brand (i.e. Coca-Cola) click on their profile page, then click ‘like’. But what’s surprising is the profound expectation that just by doing that - ‘liking’ - consumers are expecting exclusive perks over the general public.
In working with this phenomena, marketers are going towards a more tiered system to their online social media loyalty program.
- Tier 1 involves those loyalists who just ‘like’ the brand access to content, small discounts, or interactive games that others would not have access to.
- Tier 2 is a little more where consumers are encouraged to blog, post comments, forward emails to their friends, etc about the brand. Marketing executives have discovered they can build a virtual ‘marketing army’ through this online medium by offering small rewards to it loyal market.
- Tier 3 is the top tier where now these loyalist are hooked, and their not only pushing the marketing efforts to their friends and family, but are buying the product themselves on a regular basis.
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Marketers of the world listen up! So most of you by now have a wonderful sophisticated loyalty program in place to keep your customers coming back for more. But did you remember that is just as equally important to continually manage the loyalty program as it is to have one in the first place? Yes, for every season, there are differences in volume, tastes, demand, and yes, moods. Especially during this, this Holiday season, due to the cut-throat pricing of competitors, it is critical to keep your customers engaged. Here are a few companies (whom you may of heard of) and what they are doing during the Holidays in an effort to ’sweeten the pot’:
1) American Airlines (Double Elite Qualifying Miles) - between December 14, 2011 and Jan 31, 2012, AAdvantage program members will earn double elite qualifying miles for traveling on any of their associated carriers.
2) Wyndham Hotel Group (My Horrible Holiday Gift) - disclaimer: I’m not making this stuff up. Last week, Wyndham Rewards launched their “My Horrible Holiday Gift”. Rewards members who are willing to trade in “their less-than-desirable gift” Wyndham will reward them for two million points and / or other prizes including $50 and $100 gift cards.
3) Kmart (Shop Your Way Rewards) - Kmart, through its ‘Shop Your Way’ loyalty program this season, is offering its customers up to 10% back in award points. Starting at the beginning of December and running through Christmas Eve, purchases of $250 - $500 of certain Kmart merchandise will earn customers a maximum of $50 in rewards.
No matter what form (or how creative) your loyalty program may be, the take-a-way is to be generous this Holiday season. Yes, the economy is tight, and corporations are having to tighten their belts as much as possible, but don’t forget…so are your customers. A well thought out loyalty program will keep your customers coming back for more.
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With Black Friday just passing, market analysts saw just how cutthroat competition really is in the consumer industry. According to Colloquy’s 2011 “Forecast of U.S. Consumer Loyalty Program Points Value.”, in 2010, “more than 2.1 billion loyalty memberships exists in the U.S.
What’s interesting to see however, is that of the $48 billion in rewards points dolled out last year to consumers, nearly $16 billion was never redeemed. So what gives? Is the market getting over-saturated with loyalty programs?
Not exactly, rather, they’re evolving. It’s becoming more important to knowing who your customer is as a person and being able to connect with them on a personal level rather than just straight dollars spent.
Try tailoring the loyalty program to each individual consumer. Find out what they like to buy, where they are located, their demographics…everything you can possibly learn about them as a person.
Allow the consumers to choose how they would like to participate in the program. Making your customers feel like they are in control of their own loyalty program will go a long way to establishing a greater connection.
Finally, while it’s becoming quite the norm amongst the giants of loyalty programs - let your customers actually get rewarded. The fastest way to turn off a loyal customer is to dangle the carrot in front of their nose, but then keep raising the carrot an inch higher when they try and reach for it. Make the reward attainable.
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Have you ever walked by a restaurant or a swanky nightclub and noticed the long line of patrons who are waiting patiently (or impatiently perhaps), the get beyond the velvet rope? Restaurant and club owners across the world have hatched quite an amazing phenomenon in creating a VIP loyalty type of attitude and giving their patrons a sense that for some lucky few, you’ll make it inside, but not everyone can. It’s the sense of exclusivity, the sense of having something that not every has, and the sense that membership has its privileges.
One such industry that has recently been stretching its loyalty program wings to gain greater market share is beer companies. For decades, beer has been attributed to the casual personae - to the guy who enjoys a brew or two out at the local sports bar watching the game. For some beer companies, however, in order to remain competitive they’re needing greater market-share by keeping their regular crowd, but gaining new ‘members’ in the form of a VIP loyalty program.
The premise of this new breed of loyalty program, is that each time you purchase a glass of Stella Artois, for example, you’ll get points. Or perhaps, each time you post a photo of you and your friends having a Heineken on a certain website, you’ll get more points. Those points add up to exclusive rewards - something not everyone can get such as VIP tickets to a concert or a celebrity meet-and-greet.
By creating exclusivity, many companies have seen the benefits of offering a VIP loyalty program to their customers. Loyalty (or membership) has its privileges.
Popularity: 15% [?]
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Ok, I’m not insinuating here that you make your customers go through hard labor in order to stay loyal, but empowering them to work towards a goal will keep them in your program for longer. It seems there are two different strategies when it comes to loyalty programs within the market-place.
Reward Them NOW - here is a simple scenario…you go into a store and purchase and item to which you get an instant prize. Perhaps buy one get one free, or instant savings. This is definitely a smart strategy in getting new customers, but does it really prove successful in keeping the customer loyal? Sure it the instant savings may make a customer choose a product over another, but certainly doesn’t entice them to buy the product again.
Reward Little By Little Over Time - now let’s take the same scenario as before of a customer purchasing a product in the store and add in that the customer can get points for that purchase. The points awarded for this particular purchase might not add up to much, but every time the customer buys the product, they get more points.Now throw in the concept that they can use those accumulated points for something meaningful - a reward.
By offering a points-based loyalty program will entice your customers to purchase your product time after time, because they are working for a goal…more points. More points can add up to something greater for them over time.
Popularity: 12% [?]
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We all get it…every company is just working as hard as they can to save money. One strategy that has been getting bigger press recently seems to be in the department of customer rewards and loyalty programs. Just 10 years ago, it seemed as if a customer could take their 20,000 air miles points and fly from New York over to Hawaii. It seems now that 20,000 air miles won’t even get your bag it fly for free (antidotally - of course).
There seems to be a lot more work on the side of customers (and $$ spent) to earn any type of reward what-so-ever. Some hotels, even are upping the number of reward points needed for a complimentary night’s stay by as much as 22 percent from last year.
It’s important for those companies who are considering to implement a loyalty program into their consumer strategies to avoid making the entire program so confusing and expensive to the end user, that they are turned off by the entire program and leave.
Popularity: 27% [?]
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