Today’s consumers are much savvier
at finding out what is available to them at the lowest price and I am
specifically referring to the retail market in South Africa. Research in the
marketplace concludes that the best rewards programme for any company is to offer
cash-based rewards due to consumers usually become frustrated with points-based
programmes. For example, if you have accumulated points at the start of the
programme, the value continues to drop – and who wants to be part of such a
programme? The use of points and miles-based rewards programmes are not
effective in acquiring or retaining members as it often takes a long time to
earn and redeem the rewards.
It doesn’t matter where you go
these days or where you shop, you are confronted by staff at the point of sale
stops asking you to join their rewards or loyalty programmes. For example,
currently in my wallet, I have the following loyalty programme cards at my
disposal, e.g. ABSA’s “Rewards Card”, Exclusive Books’ “Fanatics Card”,
Boardmans’ “Thank you Card”, Kauai’s “LiveLife Card”, Clicks ClubCard, Dis-Chem’s
“Healthy Living Card”, CTFM’s “Accrue Card”, SterKinekor’s “MovieClub Card” and
PicknPay’s “Smart Shopper Card”. Let me
confess, I LOVE ‘immediate gratification’ offers and I love spending at the
above mentioned companies as they reward me each time. I have done what they
have asked me to do and then they compensated me for doing just that. This kind
of reward is based on the age-old marketing, value-add concept of “action and
reaction”, which always seems to be a WINNER!
We as marketers are confronted each
day with the challenge to acquire new customers and what are we going to do to
retain them? So you may ask: ‘why is it so difficult to earn a customer’s
loyalty?’ The answer to this my friend, is that attention spans are shorter, as
the old saying goes ‘time is money and money is few’, patience is running
thinner and the competition is visible today more than ever. You need to go in
with the right engagement strategy when starting a loyalty programme for your
company. The wrong approach is to only focus on acquiring a database full of
potentially wrong candidates. The winning solution is to acquire the right consumers
from day one as your chances of building solid relationships are much greater
by demonstrating value is the key to the long-term success of your programme.
Therefore, you need to determine
what resonates with your members and a good programme will offer VALUE, whether
it’s in the form of cash-back, merchandise or airline points/miles. The whole
concept of a loyalty programme is to change your consumers’ behaviour but
remember, if they never receive the rewards, they will lose enthusiasm for the
whole programme, and you have failed miserably…
No comments:
Post a Comment