apt blog

Does Loyalty Pay?

After reading David Benady’s story on www.marketingmagazine.co.uk regarding the downward spiral of the Tesco Clubcard, it got us thinking about the objectives of new loyalty schemes.

The main objective of a Tesco Clubcard is customer loyalty and the consumer data it allows retailers to capture.  To the customer, the importance of a Tesco Clubcard is the benefits that they will receive.

However, this scheme doesn’t benefit occasional users such as myself. I receive vouchers which in effect will eventually give me money off, but not at a proportionate rate to the amount that I would need to spend. You also find there are restrictions on what the vouchers have to be spent on and by when and this inflexibility detracts from the benefits of the scheme in the first place!  

One of our clients, SOHO Coffee Co., has just launched their first loyalty scheme – Club SOHO - where they give something back to their customers, whether long term or  occasional.  For example, buy six coffees and receive a seventh coffee free. This only takes a short amount of time to acquire and also entitles the member to something for free. If a member of the loyalty scheme enjoyed a SOHO coffee each weekday morning, they would be making quite a saving by receiving one free coffee per week! Boots runs a similarly successful with their Boots card; a membership opportunity that you can easily place a value on. Spend a pound, receive 4 points. 4 points is 4 pence and once you have enough to buy a particular product you can use your points as money. Simple!

It seems with some schemes – a bit like Tesco Clubcard - that they are losing their way slightly in seeing what their customers really want in return for their loyalty and it is something for all marketers to keep in mind when running similar membership schemes. Keep your rewards simple, of value to the customer and of course relevant to them.

Remember that if a competitor is offering something better, then ultimately you will lose out….so make your customers feel like they are number one.

Gap has the bright idea for their new adverts

Following our post last week about McCain's potato smelling bus stops, it seems public transport has become fashionable again, with buses the latest targets for innovative campaigns...

Fashion company Gap has become the very first advertiser to use new illuminated bus technology for its advertising. Part of the 'be bright' campaign, the new t-side adverts will be making their way around central London, in a bid to target the shopping audience, particularly in the dark evenings. The campaign will be supported by non-illuminated ads on other buses.

We love this; it really shows what you can do with standard campaigns if you think outside the (light)box and treat things a little differently...

A more sophisticated scratch and sniff - McCain has bus stops smelling of potatoes...

Although there has been a lot of interesting things happening so far this year (many of which I have tweeted about), there hasn't been masses of exciting, unusual campaigns for me to get my teeth into on the apt blog. That's why, I have to take the time to comment on the new McCain campaign for 10 UK bus stops...

McCain (frozen food galore) has taken over 10 UK bus stops in a bid to promote sales on their new Ready Made Jackets range. Each bus stop has been installed with a more sophisticated version of the 'scratch and sniff' - a 3D fibreglass potato that heats up and pumps out the delicious smell of cooking jacket potatoes, all at the touch of a button. It doesn't stop there though; once you've pressed it, the 'magic' potato will also dispense money-off vouchers.

I have to say I love this idea; simply because of the innovation and uniqueness of the campaign - it has to be an industry first! What's more, it offers that seductive temptation of being able to press the big BUTTON that creates the magic and appeals so much to kids (and grown-ups alike). The only negative I can see - on a very cold February morning when you'd like nothing better than a hot meal, I think I could find myself resenting the smell!

It'll be interesting to follow sales figures in these ten locations; we wonder if they have been clever enough to use bus stops near to stockists? Let us know if you have one popping up near you...

The Queen as a brand - the perfect example?

After watching The Diamond Queen on BBC1 last night, it got me thinking about the Queen (obviously) and particularly about her as a brand. Crudely speaking, if we look at the Monarchy as a business, they have a number of sought-after USPs that they can claim; they are long-established, loved, profitable and well-known, unique and most of all infamous. The Queen herself is at the forefront of this business, appealing to the old and young alike and she is touted as having an uncanny ability to make everyone in a room feel special.

Having been on the throne 60 years, that's not a bad claim! In fact, there aren't many businesses (if any), that have been established that long and emerged almost entirely unscathed!

Many would argue that this is down to an excellent 'pr' team, comprehensive training, an arguably unlimited budget and the time to consider everything she does; but is it? If we look back at her uncle, King Edward, despite being fairly popular, he abdicated before actually being crowned and wasn't exactly the perfect candidate. Elizabeth on the other hand has succeeded in establishing the Royals as an integral part of British life and opinion polls support this, showing that the majority of us feel it's important to keep the Monarchy.

Alongside 'merchandising' herself (stamps, coins, garden parties etc), with things which are hers by privilege, she has also set up a successful franchise system (for example Royal Warrants - see Marketing Week) as have many family members (Prince's Trust, Highgrove products etc). She's also built a positive international reputation and has excellent CSR.

Whilst many of these we cannot even begin to distill for our own brands (we're just not quite that well-placed), there are still a number of things we can learn from this example such as:

• Stick to your core values - Don't keep trying to reinvent the wheel if the wheel is already working. There might be new up-and-coming brands treading on your toes with cheaper, lower quality offerings, but it isn't long before these lose their appeal. Sticking to your heritage, values and offering something extra special should ultimately win out in the end
• Think about how people perceive you - Take the time to consider what you say! You never see the Queen rushing about, running from person to person and offering glib comments; ok so she may have more time allocated to a task, but is it time we all took a long hard look at what's important and prioritised a few tasks we can execute well?
• Have a purpose - Innovation is important and is a key thing for any brand, but make sure what you are doing isn't just for the sake of it. What is the purpose of your actions, how will it help and what do you aim to achieve from it?

It hadn't ever really occurred to me before and yet, I think the Queen might just be the perfect brand! Granted she hasn't actually been established as a brand first and foremost unlike the majority of companies, by my gosh is she doing a good job! Congratulations to her and here's to the next decade...

The Diamond Queen episode is available on iPlayer until Monday 27th Feb.