Loyalty programs rise as the economy declines …

Participation in loyalty programs is on the rise, a sign that consumers are looking to make the money they spend work harder to stretch household budgets. Consumers clearly see the value in program participation and continue to leverage their activity seeking added value and using rewards to stretch dollars. According to Jupiter Research, more than 75 percent of consumers now have at least one loyalty card, and the number of people with two or more is estimated to be one-third of the shopping population. The greatest engagement increase is among 18 to 25 years old. This same group, were also most likely to enroll in rewards via new media mediums (social networking and text messaging).

Currently experiencing the upside of loyalty programs are Grocery and FoodService establishments such as Q Mart Marketplace, Albertson's, Brookshire's, H-E-B, and Winn-Dixie. In addition, Qdoba mobilized their loyalty program making activation easier and Wal-Mart has become more relevant to its Hispanic customers.

Brands, marketers and retailers alike have all been hard hit in this recession and are striving to find that silver lining within this never-ending storm. One thing we can all agree upon is that it is vital that we offer our customers a high level of service and convenience. Therefore, loyalty initiatives offered to customers who are eager to join programs, build relationships with their favorite brands and engage with new media channels may be our silver lining and the key to new revenue growth. Who doesn’t want to experience more frequent visits by regular customers, bigger average transactions, better margins and a stream of new faces drawn to attractive deals.

Starbucks Free Pastry Day

Kudos to Starbucks (and not because they are a Marden-Kane client) on their recent Social Media efforts (and wins!). While Brands (and Agencies) are assessing the available platforms and their go-to-market strategies, Starbucks is walking the walk, and in a relatively short time frame.

In today's economic climate where "gourmet" coffee could be considered a luxury, Starbucks is using Social Media to drive relevancy and loyalty for the brand and the in-store experience. From the free ice cream coupon (delivered using an Instant Win Game platform) to today's Free Pastry Day coupon (print and mobile versions), their efforts have been smart.

Don't take my word for it, just look at their 3.5 million Facebook Fans and the references in Social Media blogs such as Mashable - http://mashable.com/2009/07/21/starbucks-free-pastry-day/. A quick Google search for Starbucks Free Pastry returned over 250,000 search results. Furthermore, Starbucks was named the most engaged brand in a report recently issued by Wetpaint/Altimeter Group (available at www.ENGAGEMENTdb.com).

How did they do it?

From what I can glean, they first did their homework by listening and responding to their customers. They turned this feedback into new products and opportunities to drive deeper relationships with customers. They gave customers a reason to engage in two-way conversations. Most importantly though, they had organizational support coupled with top-down champions in leadership.

I will be curious to see how these efforts impact the bottom line and what the respective ROI's are, but am reminded that repeated tactics (or what Paul Slovak the Marden-Kane COO refers to as Catalysts) are required to acquire and retain share of consumers wallets.

A Seat at the Table

As most promotion professionals will attest, no two promotions are created the same. Even a "simple" sweepstakes has unique variables, such as:

• Relevancy to target audience
• Duration
• Prize pool
• Seasonal factors
• Means of entry
• Awareness vehicles
• Mobile
• Social Media extensions....

Too often, clients ask "how will our promotion do?" when the concept has been fully baked (by others) and collateral is about to hit the marketplace. As such, it is important that clients engage their promotion partners at the earliest phases of the planning process (e.g., ideation, brainstorm, etc.) and include them on discussions on possible media tactics / mediums.

While the industry has yet to provide meaningful benchmarks to help derive promotion success (due to what I believe is the hesitancy on clients to provide proprietary data), promotion agencies (such as Marden-Kane) have the implementation experience (and battle scars) to help guide the discussion.

In presentations to clients, I always include a "Field of Dreams" slide to remind clients that just because you launch a promotion, that in and of itself, will not guarantee participation. Clients need to utilize available media (paid and unpaid) and tools to drive awareness for what is really a brief moment in time. Technology has enabled brands to bring the promotion to where their target resides (think Facebook Fan Pages). Furthermore, viral extensions, such as virtual branded gifts (with embedded content), can help engage your target audience and prompt pass along to friends and family.

Promotions do not need to be complicated. They just need to be relevant , timely and smartly executed.

This gives new meaning to the phrase Face Value.

Are you winning the race to expand your number of personal friends on Facebook, Linkedin connections, Twitter followers? Are you setting a goal for your brand to do the same? Be careful. There is a service out there that is trying to make sense of your personal value within your network. It’s not quantity, it’s the quality of your network and the interactions within it. Comments you receive, tags, posts, invites you get, and general chatter within your network that drive the score. You'll have high Face Value when the content you put out there matters (according to this tool). Right now limited to Facebook but no doubt soon to be expanded.

http://tinyurl.com/qek9s3

Marden-Kane ranks #9 for Interactive Agencies in the 2009 Promo 100

The rankings are just out in the 2009 Promo 100. Marden-Kane is ranked #59 overall and #9 for Interactive agencies.

Other agencies on the Interactive list:
1. Digitas
2. Hawkeye
3. ePrize
4. Big Communications, Inc.
5. Mr. Youth
6. Gage
7. Full House
8. Oddcast, Inc.
9. Marden-Kane, Inc.
10. Renegade

For the full list go to: http://www.b2bmarketingtrends.com/Webcasts/2009_Promo100.pdf

Don't Be A Twitter Quitter

Twitter is a place to build your personal brand. Who you are and what you stand for professionally and personally. It is a land of experimentation in messaging. It provides near real time ability to see response to a specific comment. As with any branding campaign you can't expect to be noticed with one, ten or perhaps 100 updates.

Same goes for cracking the code with promotional tweets. It is a channel that takes time and a lot of experimentation to see what message will be meaningful to twitter users. Much is being written about whether or not social media messaging can influence consumer behavior toward a product brand or service. No one knows the answer yet but there are insights to be gained using experimentation in building your personal brand. If your designated twitter person is having trouble nailing down who they are, how can they be expected to effectively communicate on behalf of a brand?

More here.

http://econsultancy.com/blog/3908-are-you-a-twitter-quitter?utm_medium=email&utm_source=topic

Good luck and good tweeting.

Twitter need not be a lonely place

Here is a common experience. You create a twitter account, for you, your brand etc., and post something of what you believe to be of immense interest. Then you wait. But nothing happens. So you dial it up a bit and go for the heart strings; often of the cute, or cuddly variety. I mean who isn’t interested in helping raise money for Animal Shelters just for clicking a link. Turns out you need a little help from your friends, in this case friends that are making it their business to help take away the loneliness of new twitter users.

Mr. Tweet is ready to become you own personal networking assistant.

http://mrtweet.net.

On top of finding like minded individuals happy to read your tweets you’ll get some reporting tools that can help you understand who is reading, responding or otherwise seeing value in your existence (on twitter at least).