loyalty

At the Heart of Today’s Game-Changing Marketing Strategies

Ask a dozen professionals from a variety of endeavors to define marketing and you will likely receive variations on two or three different themes. Retailers, B-to-B enterprises, service providers, Fortune 500 companies, entrepreneurial start-ups – and everything in between — often view, plan and budget for marketing from unique perspectives.

But all of us, unique perspectives notwithstanding, count on our marketing investments to do one thing: contribute to a change – in awareness, in behavior, in loyalty, in habits or routines.

You may not think of or define marketing as an agent of change, but consider it. Regardless of the deliverable, from a single effort to an entire campaign, marketing is designed to instigate some type of change in the status quo. It may be about transforming a target into a client, expanding a customer’s use of your product/service line, creating awareness, or deepening loyalty to a brand. But effective marketing is, at its core, an agent of change.

Enter “Social Media”

I don’t believe any single solution is the holy grail of marketing; but the so-called “social media” options present marketers a new level of access to a critical dynamic of change – the oft overlooked (or ignored) element of dialogue.

Simply put, dialogue is the life-blood of enduring change. One-off decisions and temporary digressions can be precipitated by an event, an incentive or a compelling message. Dynamic campaigns can certainly win customers. But lasting change – the kind that lies at the heart of repeat business and customer loyalty – is the byproduct of feedback, conversations and the dialogue attendant to shared experiences. And “Social” provides a platform for numerous approaches to each of these activities.

We have long recognized the potential impact of “word-of-mouth” marketing. Get satisfied clients/customers talking about their experience with your product or service, and the marketing game changes. No longer is it the voice of the company extolling benefits; customer-originated messages have authenticity. Shared experiences resonate.

Add the element of actual real-time feedback, and you’ve tapped into the real marketing potential of social media; now you’re building relationships. And relationships trump everything. Relationship is the context for trust. Conversations that allow for questions and answers, musings, what-ifs, and even the airing of a problem – this kind of dialogue is the DNA of relationships that grow and thrive.

So when you wonder about the role of social media in a marketing strategy…or how to introduce the idea to leaders in your company…or what the best practices might be with respect to Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn, remember the seed that eventually gives rise to the most pervasive and enduring change your market will ever know – dialogue. Today’s game-changing marketing plans create shared experiences, encourage on-going dialogue, and build communities with clients and prospects.

Eric Fletcher

True Love, True Loyalty on #MMchat with Judi Samuels

Our twelfth MarketerMonday Chat #MMchat was indeed a Loyalty Lovefest and our SPECIAL guest, Judi Samuels @ChiefLemonhead was our guiding light! Currently with Maritz Canada, Judi has over 10yrs of experience in Marketing, Marketing Communications, Events, Experiential Marketing and Engagement Marketing.

This is only the twelfth #MMchat we’ve held and see #MMchat for more details on MarketerMonday Chat our previous SPECIAL guests, transcripts and our upcoming schedule.

Thanks again to Judi Samuels @ChiefLemonhead and @MaritzCanada loyalty dream team members @ScottJRobinson1 & @RobinsRich as well as all of you AWESOME #MMchat tweeps who joined us and participated for this LOVELY LOYALTY embracing tweetchat!

Check out the full transcript of the chat at http://bit.ly/JudiSamuels and please join us next week as Glen Gilmore, @GlenGilmore arrives on October 25th at 8:00 pm EST to AMAZE us all with his Trendtracker magic! See you all then!

Cheers

Jeff Ashcroft

@TheSocialCMO

Location-Based Ads Boost Customer Loyalty

Very often when you make a purchase in a store, the cashier asks the same question: “Do you have your card?”

The cashier’s not asking for your Visa or Mastercard. She’s talking about those ubiquitous reward cards that track how many times you might order a bagel, a latte, an ink cartridge refill, or whatever you happen to be purchasing at the time.

Buy 10 and get one free. Purchase six and get the next at half price. Promotions differ, but the concept remains the same: the store wants to inspire customer loyalty, and it’ll reward you for it.

Some people benefit from loyalty rewards and save money. Others find the cards annoying. Imagine if you could replace the process with something that suits your lifestyle better. Instead of having your card punched at the sandwich shop or scanned at the pharmacy, how would you feel if you received a mobile-based coupon on your smartphone?

Location-Based Ads: A Business Boom in the Making

Businesses are increasingly working to improve marketing ROI. A recent study by the Mobile Marketing Association shows that almost one in four adults use mobile location-based services. Nearly half of those shoppers who saw ads from location-based services took some sort of action.

Few metrics exist on location-based advertising and customer loyalty, but so far, results have been promising. Foursquare, one of the most popular mobile location tracking applications, gives its users the chance to become a location’s “mayor” by checking in frequently. Many restaurants, coffee shops and other locations give their “mayors” discounts and freebies as a reward for customer loyalty. Most recently GAP offered a 25% discount if you checked in on Foursquare. The idea was to encourage store exposure, as friends of those ‘checking in’ would see the deal and would, hopefully, also act on it.

The Proof is in the Numbers

Another great example, Starbucks, offered its “mayors” $1 off any size of Frappuccino. Since beginning the promotion, the coffee haven has experienced a 50% increase in check-ins. AJ Bombers, a burger spot in Milwaukee, reported a 30% increase in sales after offering free burgers to the “mayor” (plus free cookies to anyone who checked in.)

Not wanting to limit promotions to a select few, Foursquare lets businesses provide frequency-based specials to users who check in often. Pepsi has built upon this feature by using Foursquare to give points for each mobile coupon used. Loyal soda lovers can redeem the coupons for music downloads and other Pepsi Loot.

The promotion is designed to increase brand loyalty and also to generate valuable data about repeat customers – where they purchase Pepsi, how often they purchase and what they do before and after they make the purchase. In time, this data may help Pepsi and other businesses make location-based ads even more effective. (It’s all in the data)
Have you ever used location-based advertising to promote your business? If so, how did the marketing effort turn out? If not, do you find that location-based advertising increases your loyalty to other local businesses?

Renee Warren

In Love with Loyalty?

Everything we do – as people, as companies – is about creating relationships, engaging the audience, shaping and creating true loyalty. We’ve made it our business, at least in buzz words, to focus on the emotional bonds between humans and brands. And, don’t fool yourself those emotional bonds are very real. In fact, I give you Dove.

So, if these emotional bonds are real, then why do so many loyalty programs lack a balance in considering rational decisions that humans make, as well as those emotional triggers which are by far much stronger, much more engaging, and can be the foundation of true loyalty. In the book “Switch” (by Chip & Dan Heath), the Heath brothers explain to us that the rational side of our brain is comparable to a rider and the emotional side, to an elephant. Think about that for a moment: if the rider knows where he is going, then he can easily guide the elephant there, right? But, what if the elephant decides he’d much rather get that jar of peanuts; you know the one that is 12 miles off course. Who wins – rider or elephant?

So, what does this have to do with loyalty? In early indications of an upcoming Maritz Canada Inc. research*, over half of the respondents say that the company brand influences their decision to join the loyalty program in the first place and also agree that the loyalty program becomes an important part of their relationship with the brand. Not only that, but they also say that they actually modify their shopping habits based on where they can earn loyalty points.

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