Bryan Pearson's Blog, page 36

Wise Cracks: A Q&A with Andrea Coville, Author of ‘Relevance’

We often think communications that yield awareness and belief are successful, but author Andrea Colville believes differently. She contends that relevance occurs when those communications not only resonate, but also create a change in behavior. In her new book, “Relevance” Coville shares how this is done, and how one good egg can be a game changer.

No regular business guide, “Relevance” provides sensible, honest direction on how to influence change that benefits all involved. Coville, also CEO of Brodeur Partners, a Boston public relations agency, took time to answer my questions with insights about brand magnetism, the importance of authenticity and the Relevance Egg. Our Q&A follows.

Question: What event inspired you to write this book? 

Answer: I was taking a long run a couple of years ago, training for a half-marathon. Running is when I do my best thinking.

Anyway… I realized that for my life’s work to have real meaning, I needed to share what we’ve discovered rather than keeping it to ourselves. Although relevance has been our trade secret, it’s an important enough idea that it warrants sharing with the world. We hope not to just promote our business but to elevate the general commercial discourse. Putting our ideas into the public domain was a good way to start that process, and good way to contribute to the greater good.

Q: How do you define relevance? 

A: In simple terms, relevance is that which provides meaning in our lives. It’s the full experience of a product, brand, candidate or cause that we can relate to. It changes not only minds, but behavior. And it sustains that change.

Q: You mention that a key step in creating relevance is in focusing on a single guiding principle, which you describe as “magnetic.” Can you give me an example?

A: Great question! It’s hard to articulate, but it’s the principle that permeates your brand or company. As metal keeps being drawn to a magnet, communicators are drawn back to the genuine core of a company’s identity. By identity, I don’t mean a brand constructed for public consumption; I mean what the company is about day in, day out, at the peak of their success and through their toughest times. What is Calvin Klein’s magnetic principle? Clean, simple style. What is IBM’s? Getting business done. What is John Deere’s? Helping farmers farm. Of course, it’s not enough to identify those “headline” principles. You need to mine them for truths.

Q: You write about qualitative and quantitative relevance. What is the difference?

A: The simplest way to think about it is this: Quantitative relevance is about sorting prospective customers into categories based on their needs, which tend to be very measurable. Qualitative relevance is about understanding their relationships to products, most fundamentally though the Relevance Egg.

Q: What is the “Relevance Egg”?

A: It’s our conceptual model that simply and memorably lays out the relevance pathways: sensory, thinking, community and values.

Q: I’ve often looked at relevance through the guidelines of content and context, but you add a third C: Contact. Can you explain it?

A: That’s about how a message is conveyed to you. The same message may have different impacts depending on the source. Let’s say you get some legal advice. Is it coming from a lawyer who advertises on TV or from your daughter? We categorize our contact channels as family, economic, community, society and personal.

Q: What is the biggest mistake organizations make in determining relevance?

A: I’d have to say it’s confusing press coverage or social media metrics with true behavior change. Press coverage and metrics are great and valuable; but if you’re getting attention without changing behavior, you are not relevant.

Q: I believe relevance is a requirement to achieving emotional loyalty. But what else can it achieve?

A:  Emotional loyalty is nothing to sneeze at! But what relevance can do is leverage that emotion to change behavior, individually and collectively in ways that make a difference. It can mean the difference between knowing you should quit smoking and actually doing it. It’s the difference between a communications “campaign” and a true movement driving positive change on a large scale.

Q: What tips would you offer to achieve relevance without appearing manipulative?

A: Always go back to authenticity. Search your soul. Do you believe what you’re saying about a brand, product, candidate or cause? If you don’t, your audience won’t believe it, either. We as a society have consumed so much media and listened to so many talking heads that we have become immune to spin, and our BS detectors are finely tuned. That doesn’t mean you have a mad passion for every product you sell. It does mean you have investigated the offering and fully explored its true value to the world.

Q: Say you’ve achieved relevance as an organization. What’s next?

A: A run!

 

May 7: Loyalty Links & Likes

1. Localytics’ New Report Measures App Stickiness – Inside Mobile Apps

Marketing and analytics company Localytics has released its first App Stickiness Index, measuring app engagement and loyalty values across multiple app genres.

2. How a Tactile Complement Can Strengthen Digital Campaigns – Chief Marketer

With advancements in digital technology, consumers have the ability to be “tuned in” at all hours of the day. Ironically, this group of intentionally “tuned in” people can quickly become involuntarily “tuned out” by the sheer volume of digital interactions and their fleeting nature.

3. Grounds for a Relaunch: A Q&A with Dunkin’ Donuts – COLLOQUY

When Dunkin’ Donuts relaunched its DD Perks program in January, there was as much to consider behind the scenes as there was in front of the customer. In this Q&A, Dunkin’s vice president of global consumer engagement explains the strategy behind the changes.

4. How Vehicle Recalls Drive Automotive Brand Loyalty – Business2Community

In the face of a traffic jam of recent auto recalls, it may help automotive manufacturers to also recall their industry has faced times like these before. It turns out that some auto brands come out with less brand-damage than others. But why is that? Why do some auto brands manage to steer through a recall better than others?

5. Marketing Shifting from Acquisition to Engagement – 4Hoteliers

Marketers have long known that it is much easier to sell something new to a current customer than it is to acquire a new customer; Now, for the first time, small businesses are investing more of their resources, including time and money, in strengthening relationships with existing customers, rather than acquiring new customers.

 

Why Tiers No Longer Rank: New COLLOQUY Research

For a lot of loyalty program members today, getting to gold is a treasure hunt, and only the program operator holds the map.

Almost one-third of consumers do not know which tier they belong to in the loyalty program they use most, according to a recent study by COLLOQUY. Of those who do, 42 percent never make it out of the lowest tier.

These are among the findings of the April report Fears for Tiers: 2014 COLLOQUY Study on Membership Status In Loyalty Programs. Based on a February survey of 3,077 U.S. and Canadian consumers, the study finds that the traditional three-tier loyalty structure is actually creating confusion among some members, not fostering loyalty.

For example, 80 percent of those members in the bottom tiers are discouraged by the requirements needed to achieve top-tier status; it just seems too difficult. One-third of lower-tier members do not think they are properly acknowledged, even though they participate in their programs often.

“The traditional tiered rewards system is an outdated solution to the ongoing challenge of maintaining  customer engagement,” the report states.

Among the other findings:

• 50 percent of respondents said they increased spending or changed purchasing behavior to achieve a higher tier status

• Non-travel program members are more than twice as likely as those in travel programs to be unsure of their tier level (34 percent to 16 percent)

• The positive feeling associated with reaching a higher tier status is stronger among men (39 percent) than women (33 percent).

Why the lack of engagement? In part it’s because loyalty operators, in their effort to be relevant, keep tweaking their tier structures. These changes threaten the member’s motivation to pursue a higher tier, and results in less participation. Sure, half of those surveyed said they spent more to reach a higher tier, but half of them have not done anything. Of the 50 percent who did, the most likely method was purchasing products or services that offered “bonus” points or miles (22 percent).

Fortunately, loyalty marketers do have a map to their own brass ring – the highly engaged consumer – and it follows a pretty straightforward path. According to the report:

1. Keep the benefits simple and clear cut;

2. Stop changing lanes – choose an earnings structure and stick with it;

3. Educate members with easy-to-understand guidelines of program requirements and what they need to do to reach the next tier;

4. Recognize consumers based on what motivates them, not on transaction values; and

5. Set short goals within tiers, to step members through to the next threshold.

All of this adds up to one key takeaway: share the journey. If we want consumers to get to that gold or platinum level, we should be guiding them. Otherwise, everyone is lost.

April 30: Loyalty Links & Likes

1. 5 Points to Make Your Loyalty Rewards Pay – Troy Media

For millions of Canadians, rewards points are a good as money in the bank. The fact that so many retailers have reward programs speaks to their success as a marketing tool, but consumers may need a strategy to make them pay.

2. Why CMO Leadership is Essential to Data-Driven Marketing – Forbes

Today’s CMO’s face a key leadership challenge as they shift their marketing organizations to take advantage of the data revolution, but getting your team to take advantage of this new paradigm is not easy.

3. Fears for Tiers: The 2014 COLLOQUY Study on Attitudes Toward Membership Status in Loyalty Programs – COLLOQUY

As today’s loyalty programs tweak their tiers and fuss with updating their value proposition it begs the questions: Are tiers still producing the intended results? And if not, what are the best practices when building offer structures into different tiers?

4. If Customers Knew How You Use Their Data, Would They Call it Creepy? – Harvard Business Review

There is so much promise in what data can do, opening up opportunities for optimization and uncovering insights from correlations. But while data is flowing in novel ways, for most consumers it’s all hidden in a big data black box.

5. Should I Focus on Existing Customers or Work on Adding New Ones? – The Globe and Mail

It’s widely held that it’s five to 10 times more effective to sell more to existing customers than it is to find new ones. Getting the most out of your existing customers is not only cheaper, but the lead time will be shorter, allowing for better customer service, brand messaging and customer loyalty.

Loyalty Limelight: Lancôme Elite Rewards

The initiative: Lancôme Elite Rewards

In a nutshell: Lancôme, the luxury maker of cosmetics, skincare and fragrances including Poême, is versing itself in social media loyalty. The French beauty brand on April 21 launched a social media-heavy program, Elite Rewards, which rewards members for their social media engagement and purchases. The program is free and offers various reward earning levels based on activity. Rewards, once earned, can be redeemed for Lancôme products or for soft rewards such as spa treatments.

Features: Members of Elite Rewards earn 10 points for every $1 they spend in a store or online, but the real earnings are in social engagement. Every time members connect with Lancôme on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or Foursquare, they earn 50 points. In addition:

• Members get 25 points every time they share a product on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

• Members can earn points for activities like watching online beauty tutorials or just visiting Lancome.com

• Members can redeem their points for Lancôme products, or for special services and events such as private beauty consultations, all-inclusive spa visits, and admission to New York’s Fashion Week, among others.

• Each member gets an online dashboard on Lancôme’s U.S. website to track and manage points.

The Takeaways: Lancôme is operated by beauty giant L’Oreal, and its Elite Rewards program may be guided by L’Oreal’s own loyalty endeavors. The company operates the Gold Rewards consumer loyalty program and Elite Loyalty, a program for professional salon operators. Lancôme said it analyzed seven years of customer data to determine the value of interaction at every customer touch point.

That kind of lead-time should ensure a pretty snappy launch. But Lancôme Elite is not yet complete. For example, Elite Rewards mobile apps are not expected until later this year. The program is launching on desktops and tablets alone for now.

Some other takeaways:

• Despite its social media emphasis, Lancôme Elite requires members to create their own profile, and does not offer the option to sign in through Facebook or other social media channel. This may be to ensure the company gets the data it requires for effective messaging, which may not be information available on Facebook. Requirements for enrollment are birthdate, email address and postal code. Once registered, members can earn 25 additional points for giving their phone number.

• A big challenge for consumer packaged good makers is determining how the customer is shopping across retailers and channels and then augmenting those self-reported purchases with social media activity to round out the brand experience and recognize their most-active customers. There is little net new in terms of technology here but it has been put together to recognize how important word of mouth is in this category.

• Determining how to put a value on social interactions is difficult, but L’Oreal has either successfully mapped this out or foundationally understands the importance of capturing this kind of data. Structuring a loyalty program to connect all the dots in this manner makes good business sense if the brand believes consumer insights and understanding are pivotal to building a superior experience through relevant conversations. I like the way this program sets it up to do this.

• Traditionally cosmetics (and apparel) marketers have not had a direct relationship with their customers – they worked through and were at the mercy of the retail channel. Programs like Elite Rewards are an attempt to capture customer data and establish a direct relationship with customers. Similar loyalty efforts are underway with other consumer packaged good brands, including Kellogg’s (Family Rewards) and Johnson & Johnson (Healthy Essentials).

April 23: Loyalty Links & Likes

1. Three Steps to Retail Loyalty Programs that Connect with Customers – Retail Customer Experience

When it comes to why a customer shops with a particular brand, the loyalty program is actually fairly far down the list of reasons for why a customer engages. Loyalty marketers can take steps to ensure their programs have a higher chance of resonating deeply with consumers.

2. Hold That Tweet! Building Loyal Customers in the Information Age – Hotel News Resource

While the digital age has changed the rules of marketing, experts at a recent Wharton conference suggest that the most effective outreach centers on personal connections rather than random tweets or texts.

3. Linking Data with Desire: A Q&A with Mastercard Loyalty Solution – COLLOQUY

Schwark Satyayolu, global head of rewards and offers at MasterCard, talk about the strategy behing the Card Linked Offers initiative.

4. Digital Personalization: How Intimate Should Brands Get – Information Week UK

Personalization brings brands the chance to reach people with relevant marketing at the right time, but how intimate do consumers really want the relationship to be?

5. The Best Marketing Insight I’ve Read in the Last Five Years – Business2Community

People will ultimately buy form who they know, who they trust. That isn’t going to come from the best backlinks or optimized content, but instead the most human content and the most human companies.

Getting Emotional in the Bustling Loyalty Space

If the history of loyalty marketing should teach us one thing, it is that ubiquity does not breed affinity.

This lesson was amplified in a recent story in Entrepreneur, which points out that despite the prevalence of loyalty program membership (2.65 billion in the U.S. alone, according to COLLOQUY), few are managing to accomplish what they set out to do. Seventy-seven percent of loyalty programs that focus on awards alone fail within the first two years, Pete Maulik, managing partner at the consultancy firm Fahrenheit 212, wrote in the piece.

The root of this problem, according to Maulik, is too many operators overlook the difference between human and corporate loyalty: “… the corporate interpretation of loyalty bears almost no resemblance to the well understood – and highly aspirational – feeling that people everywhere have for their friends, family, God, country, football team and dog.”

Until a brand introduces elements of human loyalty into the corporate loyalty model, he concluded, it will not develop a sense of brand affinity among consumers.

I generally agree – programs, beyond being transactional, need to connect emotionally. If organizations only think of loyalty in the form of a program, then they overlook the long-term goal, which is to attain an emotional connection between the customer and the brand. This connection is what cultivates loyalty and ensures that the customer will continue to frequent that brand, even in the face of meaningful competitive alternatives.

Part of doing this involves loyalty program design and approach, but it also requires that the program operator think contextually about its customers and how they use the brand’s product and services. When an organization successfully uses its data to personalize the customer experience, it stands a better chance of connecting with that customer at a deeper, more complex level.

In his article, Maulik implies that rewards may be the root of evil, but there’s no question that in today’s hyper-competitive environment, marketers need to consider a number of short- and long-term consumer motivators as part of their engagement strategy.

Whether it is pricing, sales strategy, promotional programs or your basic loyalty approach (points or benefits based), these motivators should fit the desired brand experience. In fact, they should reinforce and enhance that position, rather than simply act as a me-too strategy driven by the presence of loyalty programs among competitors.

The loyalty operators we will read about in the next decade are those that will give their ambitions the opportunity to explore the full spectrum of customer engagement tools – either self created or at their disposal. For those who aspire to be among them – whatever you do, don’t forget that capturing customer information can only enhance your opportunity to be a better, more relevant marketer. That is the most direct path to emotional loyalty.

April 16: Loyalty Links & Likes

1. How to Use Big Data, Gamification for Better Rewards Programs – BizReport

Whether the business is a restaurant with a punch card or customers earn redeemable points based on purchase, there are ways to improve the reward experience to build a more loyal customer base.

2. When it Comes to Loyalty Marketing, Sometimes Less is Really More – Retail Customer Experience

The propensity to load programs with benefits and features is based on the assumption that customers will remember and value a broader offering. This approach, however, is not the most effective.

3. Tax Preparers Look to Loyalty for Many Returns – COLLOQUY

As certain as taxes may be in life, few people consider filing them an engaging experience. Several firms, including H&R Block and TurboTax, are using loyalty initiatives to fix that.

4. Seven Tools for Re-activating Dormant Customers – Street Fight Magazine

Seven examples of hyperlocal vendors that offer tools designed to re-engage lapsed customers with targeted messages and promotions.

Building and Maintaining Customer Loyalty with Today’s Consumer – ClickZ

There are three keys to securing consumer loyalty in today’s market: know your customers, coordinate online and offline customer experiences, and anticipate service opportunities.

 

Hot for Knowledge: 5 Must-See Marketing Conferences

Every so often it happens, and I become completely enraptured by someone on stage.

You may be thinking it’s an actor or a musician, but I am talking about people with Power Point presentations and bottled water. These are conference keynote speakers and presenters, and some of them have inspired the way I think as much as lyrics from John Lennon, Neil Young or Rush.

I go to a lot of conferences both as a speaker and attendee, sometimes as many as two or three times a month. Sure, it can be a grind – you get sore feet and more LinkedIn contacts than you can handle – but when that awe-inspiring presenter leaves the stage, those details are forgotten and you instead spend time thinking about how to help change the world.

As I prepare my carry-on for another event, I thought I would take stock of those I have attended over the years. I realize not everyone can attend every event, but if time and money were no barrier, I’d list these five as the must-sees given their focus and the quality of the content:

1. The COLLOQUY Loyalty Summit – Not everyone can attend the COLLOQUY Summit and that’s part of its appeal. With vendor attendance strictly limited, the COLLOQUY Summit brings together 250 loyalty marketing executives for two days of educational sessions, inspirational speakers and networking. The 2014 event will feature keynotes from futurist Mike Walsh and retail performance expert Kevin Graff. I’ve been the emcee of this event for the past 12 years and there are few better places for marketers to network with their peers and learn about the latest advancements in omnichannel marketing and other data-driven industry advancements.

2. CRMC – The Customer Relationship Management Conference – Retailers are the focus of this two-day conference held in Chicago each spring. Attendees can expect to see executives from New York & Company, Luxottica, Office Depot and Toys ‘R’ Us present alongside their agency partners. Register early as it always sells out since this conference focuses on ensuring that retailers present their own work on-stage.

3. The Art Of Marketing – These annual conferences, held in Canada and the U.S., bring together prominent leaders, bestselling authors and compelling speakers to discuss the hottest marketing topics including social media, social entrepreneurship and branding. I was honored to be one of the speakers when my book, “The Loyalty Leap,” was published in 2012.

4. Money2020 – Mobile payments are redefining the retail experience and in just two years the Money2020 event has established itself as the premiere conference in this burgeoning space. Where else can you find 6,500 attendees including 500 CEO’s representing 2,000 companies from 50 countries all talking about the evolution of commerce at the intersection of payments and financial services? And it’s in Vegas.

5. World Business Forum – For the past five years, I’ve taken a group of executives from my company to this conference in New York. I don’t know of any other event where luminaries like Ben Bernanke, Malcolm Gladwell, Robert Redford and Simon Sinek share the stage with leading academics, economists and CEO’s. While the content is not specific to marketing, this conference is great for providing a broader perspective on the key economic and cultural issues that affect business.

While I try to keep these five conferences on my schedule each year, there is no shortage of events that provide new material for marketers interested in all things “loyalty.” I would recognize the following conferences or forums because they provide great platforms for our industry on how to effectively build better loyalty marketing approaches.

DMA Loyalty Marketing Fundamentals – These two-day workshops, held in various U.S. cities throughout the year, provide ideal training for those new to the loyalty marketing field. In two information-packed days, participants learn the fundamentals of designing and building a strategy that cultivates loyal customers, reduces attrition and improves profitability. COLLOQUY has partnered with the DMA on these workshops since 1999 and hundreds of marketers have benefitted from this training.

GSummit – Gamification has become a huge component of digital marketing, loyalty marketing and even human resources. The GSummit is less about gamification and more about conquering the user engagement crisis. Over four days, attendees will have the chance to hear more than 50 speakers (including a keynote from Neil deGrasse Tyson), attend hands-on workshops and earn a certification.

Card Forum – One of the few conferences in the financial services sector that includes a focus on loyalty marketing. All of the major banks and credit card issuers attend and they’re starting to attract more retailers.

The CMA Loyalty Conference – This half-day event held each February does a great job of showcasing the leading loyalty programs and initiatives in Canada. Disclaimer: I’m on the CMA Board of Directors.

Loyalty World – The event coordinator Terrapinn hosts more than a dozen Loyalty World conferences in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia and South America. Its format is “pay to speak” so the content is often self-promotional, but over the years I’ve heard some excellent presentations.

Loyalty Expo – This annual event, hosted by Loyalty360, just completed its seventh conference, and it’s one of the largest loyalty conferences in terms of number of attendees. In addition to speakers, it features a trade show and expo where loyalty providers can show their wares.

NRF Big Show – The National Retail Federation’s annual conference does not focus on marketing – store operations, merchandising and technology all play a large role. With a huge trade show, there’s no better event to get insight on the trends and topics

April 9: Loyalty Links & Likes

1.  Build Customer Loyalty With Rewards and Other Tactics That Motivate – Marketing Profs

As the economy bounces back from the recession, private labels are holding on to their share of the market. Brands need to creatively find ways to drive loyalty in an already-crowded marketplace.

2.  Evolving to Customer Experience Marketing – Business 2 Community

 

Brands that help their customers find solutions by consistently delivering relevant products and services designed to offer utility will thrive in the new marketing landscape.

3.  Building Customer Loyalty in the Digital Age – iMedia Connection

Consumers interact with marketing messages the same way they interact with other people — through emotion. Here’s how to tap into basic human triggers.

4.  Tax Preparers Look to Loyalty for Many Returns – COLLOQUY

As certain as taxes may be in life, few people consider filing them an engaging experience. Several firms, including H&R Block and TurboTax, are using loyalty initiatives to fix that.

5.  Analysis: The Many Ways of Tackling Customer Engagement – CMO Australia

CMO reflects on the many approaches to customer engagement and centricity being displayed by brands and organisations and why there’s still a long way to go.