Customer Loyalty is still a ‘holy grail’ for many brands and it has become increasingly difficult to achieve is this world where marketing and offers are in your face 24/7 across an ever-increasing set of media. In fact, Anaylin think there is a growing trend of ‘offerholism’, where for some if your product (even luxury and premium brands) is not accompanied by a promotion it is dismissed very quickly.
Loyalty schemes have and continue to be a way of enticing repeat purchases and ‘brand of choice’ but fundamentally despite the success of some Loyalty Schemes, do they amount to ‘bribery’ and an unnecessary or difficulty to manage overhead and fuel the ‘margin spiral’?
Some Loyalty schemes we have been asked to review in the past have simply been a means of hiding poor product performance, poor service, etc. We often found that they were attracting promiscuous ‘offerholics’ and not rewarding the value-driving behaviour that the business really intended.
Therefore, we have recommended substantially changing the scheme mechanics, closing it down or even telling some major brands to avoid going down the Loyalty Scheme entirely and focus on customer strategy, customer engagement, growth and retention.
Improved Customer Insight via customer analytics is the key to Brand /Product/Service Innovation and differentiation. Bringing this customer insight to market via data marketing and delivering the right service with the most relevant positioning/messaging to the individual’s circumstances, at the right time, through the right channel(s) and at a price that clearly represents value for the individual is the best form of driving loyalty whilst optimising your marketing spend.
Now is the time to act and rebuild customer loyalty at the right price for the business! Data is now available more readily, is easier to ingest and analyse and means that ‘Real-time intelligence can combine with Right-time/Real-time multichannel delivery to deliver and track ‘real and valuable loyalty’.
If you wish to discuss or know more contact Neal Rimay-Muranyi