At these companies, a customer loyalty revolution is underway
Gone are the points collected on loyalty cards, e-mailing campaigns, promotions and sponsorship codes… In this features, we talk about the latest trends in keeping your customers loyal! The major corporations have seen the light: to win over and retain customers, businesses must constantly reinvent themselves. What are companies’ aspirations when it comes to customer loyalty today? To have a strong community around their brand -- and to do so, they are building bonds with and between their customers, then giving meaning to this relationship. Welcome to neo-loyalty! No longer is name of the game conversion at all costs. This approach is customer-centric in the tools it uses, resulting in real benefits for the consumer. The new tools are: ultra-personalisation, storytelling, social media content, unique experiences, privileges with meaning, gamification, and more.
Beyond Amazon Prime, an indisputable example of the new loyalty strategy, let us look at how three major international groups are revolutionising the market in their own ways: Starbucks, Nike and Sephora.
Artificial Intelligence: Starbucks and ultra-personalisation
Since its very inception, Starbucks has always been about personalising its coffees, from the customer names written by hand on the cups to the multiplicity of options available for a taste experience that hits the spot every time. With Deep Brew technology, the brand is taking it up yet another notch, to tailor its products even more closely to its customers’ preferences.
Based on Artificial Intelligence, this mobile application generates recommendations based on the customer’s profile, previous orders, inventory status, and popular selections, as well as the time of day and weather outside. The wait staff or the My Starbucks Barista application can then suggest THE perfect coffee specifically for this customer. A proven loyalty-building strategy: ultra-personalisation!
Gamification: Nike and its Nike+ Run Club application
Inspired by video games, gamification serves the cause of customer loyalty by building a community around the brand and a personalised reward system.
In addition to offering one of the largest communities of runners, a coach just right for each member, monitored sessions and targets, and personalised playlists to stay motivated while running... The Nike+ Run Club, "your ideal running partner", is gamifying its application by creating competitions and challenges between the club's athletes as well as badges for each record set or kilometre travelled. This fun and original aspect brings a unique dimension to the consumer relationship, an essential value for a quality customer loyalty strategy.
The unique experience: Séphora and its VIP loyalty programmes
An aficionado of loyalty marketing the Séphora brand has always been fond of personalised privileges, as demonstrated by its Beauty Insider programme. With the members of its Very Important Beauty Insider club, or ambassadors, the brand banks on the unique experience: an emotion-filled and memorable reward. For an idea of some of the benefits offered, just read on: a free tour of Francis Ford Coppola’s winery with a wine tasting, a signed copy of Rihanna’s book, as well as a selection of Fenty beauty products - the brand created by the artist -, a VIP invitation to a concert featuring Beyoncé and Jay-Z. For this exceptional concert at Stade de France, the brand's ambassadors took in the show from a box decked out in the brand's colours and were even able to climb atop the arena roof… a unique and thrilling experience!
These loyalty-building strategies, in addition to being innovative and original, help you, thanks to the data collected, know your customers like the back of your hand. Controversial today, data management remains the undeniable lifeblood of most brands in their loyalty strategy.
How about you: which tack will you take to customer loyalty-building? Like Séphora, choose the arena at Stade de France! Contact our teams to build your differentiating loyalty strategy.
