Loyalty Dogs Blog

by David Rosen | SVP Strategy and Channel Development

I’ve been following two trends that make me very excited to be a Loyalty marketer. Developing high-value, enduring relationships with loyal customers/guests/shoppers/members isn’t new. But what were starting to see on forefront of smart marketing is simply awesome.

Trend One – Farm Cash for Fans.

I used to work at a company called MyPoints. It’s an amazing marketing engine that could change the behavior of hundreds of thousands of members by offering points in exchange for purchases, registrations, surveys, etc. Problem was, points are expensive. Basically it costs about ten dollars to reward a member with a ten dollar Starbucks card. And we mailed a lot of Starbucks (and Target, and Red Lobster and Macy’s and Amazon, etc. ) cards.

Last week players of Zynga’s amazingly popular game Farmville were offered Farm Cash for fanning Bing. Twenty Four hours later, 400,000 virtual farmers had taken the bait and signed on. In a flash, Bing surpassed Google in the hyper-followed ranking of “how many fans do you have on Facebook” stat.

And guess how much Farm Cash costs Zynga? A lot less than a $10 Starbucks card I’d guess.

Trend Two – Check In and Earn Points.

I’ve been watching for this one for some time. The very cool fro-yo shop Tasti D-Lite is now offering loyalty points when its members check in on Foursquare. Cool on so many levels: drives engagement, posts to Facebook – and more interestingly begins the process of geo-based permissioning for offers.

I strongly believe that location is the next frontier for right offer at the right time to the right person. However, geo-based targeting really does bump up against the marketing creepy factor. Loyalty programs bridge that gap by establishing a fundamental permission level for members and rewarding that additional permission with some type of gift or reward.

More to come on this one and we’ll make sure that we’re driving what happens next.

By Jason Hornik | Senior Director, Product Marketing

Tropicana is the latest CPG brand to launch a loyalty program with the objective of adding value and building direct relationships with their consumers. The program offers incentives through a points-based system for purchases and touts 20,000 reward options from partner brands such as adidas, Harrah’s, Coleman, and TaylorMade.

The loyalty program represents one of the largest marketing investments ever by PepsiCo in the Tropicana brand. Points are awarded by entering under-the-cap codes at the Juicy Rewards Web site:
http://juicyrewards.tropicana.com

Marketing for the launch involves TV spots, product packaging, print and digital executions, as well as social marketing through blogs. Andy Horrow, Tropicana Chief Marketing Officer had this to say about the program:

“I don’t like to think of it as a marketing campaign, but as a platform that supports everything we’re doing. It’s a great way for us to get our customers engaged and our retailers excited.”

This is a bold initiative for the Tropicana brand and they had 10,000 consumers registered in the 3 days prior to the actual launch of their marketing push. We will definitely keep an eye on this program and report back on any roll-out results.

By Jason Hornik | Senior Director, Product Marketing

Recent initiatives from P&G and General Mills signify a continued investment in e-commerce by CPG brands looking to build direct selling relationships, engage consumers, and garner insights. P&G is planning a full-scale launch of their eStore in the spring of this year despite the fact that e-commerce sales represent less than 1% of their total annual revenue. The site will primarily serve as a research lab to test search, coupons, store promotions, and social media integration. P&G intends to share consumer findings from their new site with their retail partners.

P&G currently sells direct through theEssentials.com, a site they inherited as a result of the Gillette acquisition in 2005, and through partner sites which include Target.com, Walmart.com, CVS.com, Drugstore.com, and Amazon. Overall, P&G is looking to aggressively move their annual e-commerce sales from $500 million to $4 billion.

General Mills is also making deeper inroads into e-commerce, as well as developing digital content for their brands. For example, their recipe site Tablespoon.com boasts 25,000 recipes with detailed nutritional information and at BettyCrocker.com you can download their Digital Kitchen Assistant app for interactive recipe building and sharing with friends.

Leadership at both P&G and General Mills are voicing their increased level of attention to e-commerce:

“The eventuality is a one-on-one relationship with every consumer, and obviously e-commerce needs to be a big part of that.”
P&G CEO Bob McDonald (AdAge.com)

“The beauty of digital is it’s very effective–great ROI and very efficient–to talk directly to consumers and to give them customized and more relevant information about what the brand can do for them.”
General Mills CMO Mark Addicks (Forbes.com)

There is no doubt that CPGs and other consumer brands will create innovative strategies and programs to connect with their most loyal consumers as the iron curtain for selling direct continues to come down.

By Jason Hornik | Senior Director, Product Marketing

In his updated bestseller, CRM at the Speed of Light, Paul Greenberg digs into Social CRM with nearly 700 pages of lively guidance and practical examples of how brands can innovate to better engage their consumers. This book provides a comprehensive view of the Social CRM landscape and is bound to trigger ideas for your strategies, tools, and techniques as the title so claims. A recommended cover-to-cover read:
http://www.ebooks.com/ebooks/book_display.asp?IID=471477

By Michael Greenberg | COO

Ever since the WSJ article on the end of email, its been a cage match between email service providers and social media/emerging technology. Hyperbole aside, this is just part of the natural evolution of technology. Ideas that were cutting edge become mainstream and eventually become background noise.

What makes this time so different from years past is the sheer number of channels for interaction. Its tempting to try and take on all of them, but unless you have a large team or superhuman skills, you won’t be able to put enough time and energy into each channel to get a good return.

So the key here is to pick your battles, find the channels that make sense, and put in the resources to make them work. We love what Express is doing on Twitter – focus, cadence, good content, personality, and fits naturally with the rest of their marketing and brand voice. We also love what Pink does on Facebook – it also has focus, cadence, good content, personality, relevance, and stays exactly on brand.

Brands can learn a lot from these examples. Success in the new (mostly) social channels comes from resourcing and focus more than anything else. Just check out Chris Brogan, who has become the foremost social marketing guru through sheer force of will…51,000+ tweets, over 100K followers. And he seems to have conversations with every single one.

by Mickey Neuberger | VP Loyalty Strategy

One of the best marketing examples I’ve seen for driving that next visit.

After my meal at CPK the server handed everyone in my party a secret envelope thank you card BUT DON’T OPEN IT. On your next visit to CPK, a manager will open it for you and you win the prize inside for being a loyal customer … EVERY CARD IS A WINNER. And some envelopes contain $50k prize.  Mine contained a 20% off discount (yeah I opened it).

As if the great Sicilian pizza and BBQ chicken salad weren’t enough.

by David Rosen | SVP Strategy & Channel Development

Thank you to Mark Silva of Real Branding for posting this graphic from SXSW today.  It’s a great visual of Zappo’s culture = brand = customer loyalty presentation by their CEO Tony Hsieh.   Here is a link to the original

by Joshua Tretakoff | EVP, Services

One of the more controversial aspects of a retail loyalty program is around the concept that a customer is made aware that you, as a retailer, are gathering their purchase information. For some privacy advocates, this seems intrusive, which is why loyalty programs are always opt-in. However, in recent months, some retailers are turning that aspect into a benefit to the customer; recent examples include food retailers being able to contact customers who purchased items that were subject to a recall.

Safeway has decided to add some significant value to their loyalty program, the Safeway Club, by unveiling a special site called FoodFlex.  You sign up, input your Club Card number, and within 6 hours they import your last 6 months of shopping data. Once the data is imported, you can then use a series of reporting tools to analyze your purchase history for cholesterol, protein, and more. Best of all, you can then see healthier alternatives to the items you have been purchasing, all without the customer having to enter in a single receipt or write down anything. In addition, the site supports goal setting, as well as advice.

This type of complimentary service allows customers to truly appreciate a retailer as not just a purveyor of goods, but as a partner, and recasts a loyalty program as a two way communication strategy.

by Joshua Tretakoff | VP, Account Management

Kermit was right. With every statement I get in the mail, whether it be utilities, credit cards, or frequent flyer programs, there is inevitably an included blurb that I could be much greener if I chose to receive my statements online instead. Hey, I’m all about the eco-friendliness, but playing to my guilt to help cut your bottom line costs of mailing is not exactly going to be the best way to get me to save you a few $, or engender my loyalty.

Looks like HSBC has gotten that message, so instead of just hitting their customers with the guilt stick, they are offering a loyalty carrot, with a sweepstakes: cardmembers earn one sweepstakes entry when registering for Online Account Access and an additional two entries when electing to receive paperless statements. It even works for existing guilt-ridden folks who have already registered for online access.

While sweepstakes are not always the most effective method to drive loyal customer behavior, they sure are ideal for something like this. Now we’re hopping.

From the inbox: Today, you may have inadvertently and inaccurately received the below message during an initial email testing process. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience or confusion. You continue to maintain your current membership status. If you are eligible for the Reward Zone program Premier Black test that will run in a limited number of select markets, we will notify you by a separate email.

Best Buy emailed all its members promoting them to a ‘Black’ loyalty program tier. But then said ‘Sorry—just kidding’. Imagine 5 million members being told, ‘Sorry, we didn’t really mean to invite you to our new party’. It is critical that brands run test lists and be super careful at the trigger. This is a costly mistake and surprising for a mature program.