Posts Tagged ‘points’

Loyalty: More Than Just Points

by on Tuesday, August 3rd, 2010

In a recent post, Bill Hanifin observes a trend in loyalty marketing to develop programs that keep score “as much by social behaviors as by transactional.” What Bill is saying, I believe, is that marketers can and should look beyond points-based programs that are oriented solely toward attracting one more customer, one more sale and one more item in the basket.

Nurses at Veterans Hospital, 1951

Social behaviors can include writing a review, posting a video or playing an online game. All of these behaviors are evidence of increased customer engagement with the brand, all can result directly in increased sales and profitability, and all can be measured and evaluated. Some of these behaviors, especially recommendations and user-generated content, can leverage social media channels to result in astonishing ROI. For example, who could even guess at the value of the Old Spice social media campaign?

Marketers should not lose sight, however, of the benefits of old-fashioned “surprise and delight”. I recently had several of these experiences, all in unusual contexts. As readers are aware, my house caught fire last week and was saved by the alertness of our central station alarm company and the skill and bravery of our volunteer firefighters. As I mentioned in a post about the fire, the firefighters used tarps to cover furniture that was directly below the fire (and the water). That makes me “loyal”: our vollies are getting as big a check as I can afford this year – more than if they had just focused on the fire and ignored the contents, which the insurance adjuster fully expected.

My exciting couple of weeks also included a serious automobile accident, courtesy of a very drunk driver. I spent a few days in the hospital, where the doctors and staff did everything possible to make my stay easier. I’m not naming the hospital because I don’t want to get anyone in trouble, but I know I was bumped up in line for several procedures, had more visitors (and at later hours) than the rules allowed and generally was made to feel as much like a guest as a patient. And I’ll be happy to recommend the hospital in a private conversation.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • The most effective loyalty programs track behavior as well as transactions.
  • You don’t need a loyalty program to increase consumer loyalty.
  • Don’t forget to surprise and delight.

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Fun and Games at Zavee

by on Tuesday, June 22nd, 2010

We came up with a fun idea to attract new Zavee shoppers: a Sweepstakes! Details are available on the Zavee website, but our contest is a random drawing for cash prizes, with a twist. All Zavee shoppers are automatically eligible to win. The twist is that shoppers get an additional chance to win for every new Zavee shopper they refer. The more referrals, the more chances to win. Shoppers can invite their friends right from the Zavee site, which is easy for them and makes tracking referrals easy for us. The contest opened yesterday – the first day of summer – and runs through July 31.

Farmville Badge

via Rusty Boxcars

Adding an element of game play is one of the latest trends in marketing. At first blush, game play might not seem likely to resonate with adult consumers, but we all engage in competition in one form or another from a very early age. The viability of game play can be seen in the popularity of virtual games such as Farmville, which has almost 65 million monthly active users on Facebook. The location-based social network Foursquare also has a significant gaming element, with users earning points and “points” for specific activity.

Why should game play increase marketing effectiveness? The rationale is that encouraging the audience to participate and be rewarded helps a message earn attention in an increasingly noise-filled environment. Game play also is consistent with consumers’ increased expectation of control over the marketing messages they encounter. One result of meeting these expectations is that consumers not only pay more attention to messages presented as games, they have better recall of messages presented in games.

For small businesses, introducing game play into marketing programs can help level the playing field with competitors that have larger budgets. And it doesn’t require a lot of cost or complexity. The key is to figure out how to get the consumer involved in the message. We took a simple contest model and tweaked it by rewarding referrals. Social media platforms make game play even easier to implement. We plan to run a video contest on YouTube later this year, and the cost to us, apart from prizes, should be minimal.

The Zavee takeaway:

  • Marketing messages that have an element of game play increase awareness, attention and effectiveness.
  • The key to game play is user involvement, not expensive technology.
  • Small businesses can and should add game play to their marketing.

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