PPB April 2015

Be The

Go-To Source

HIRD IN A FIVE

PART SERIES

The Power Shift

In nearly all industries, the power has shifted to the

buyer. Once upon a time, sellers had access to all the

resources and secrets that buyers needed. Technology,

especially the internet, has changed all of that. Today,

anyone can find anything and get anything from anyone

anytime. There are very few secrets.

Competition has also gotten tougher. It’s easier than

ever to enter markets, find buyers and cost-effectively

market to them. It no longer requires a huge advertising

budget, an expensive direct mail campaign or a large

direct-selling organization.

You face these new realities and so do your clients.

So what can you do to help them?

Loyalty Programs

Loyalty programs are structured marketing efforts that

reward and encourage customers to return to and prefer

a particular marketer. These promotions have been

around for decades. Trading stamps (remember the old

S&H Green Stamps?), most popular from the 1930s to

1960s, were one of the earliest forms of loyalty programs

and a large part of the early premium incentive industry.

They rewarded shoppers for purchases and could be

exchanged for premiums such as toys, personal items,

housewares, furniture and appliances. After a bit of a lag,

loyalty programs came roaring back and gained a major

boost in popularity in 1981 when American Airlines first

introduced its frequent flyer program, AAdvantage. Soon

nearly every other airline followed suit, offering their ver-

sions of the program, and hotel chains and car rental

companies finally joined in.

Today you’ll find loyalty programs at book sellers,

supermarket chains, restaurants, gas stations and even

banks. Amazon Prime is a program that charges a fee to

participate but offers free two-day shipping on most pur-

chases, plus free downloads of movies, e-books and

music. The average Amazon Prime customer spends nearly

three times more per year than non-loyalty member

customers.

From Punch Cards To Value Cards

To Key Fobs And More

For small local retail customers, you can create loyalty

programs using something as simple as a punch card,

where each purchase is tracked with a special stamp, hole

punch or initial code. Several of our industry card suppli-

ers can also help you with more sophisticated value card

programs.

Rewards for loyalty can take the form of discounts,

additional products or, of course, premiums and valuable

promotional products. Many successful programs offer

consumers the chance to save up points for a wide range

of choices. The My Coke Rewards program, for example,

offers everything from free product coupons to increasing

status and higher-value rewards such as custom photo

blankets and gift cards.

Promotional products can be highly effective in build-

ing customer loyalty while also building your clients’

brands at the same time. To create the most success for

your clients’ loyalty program, you must recommend the

right products.

Best Practices For Using Promotional Products

In A Loyalty Program

Customer retention requires making a connection,

rewarding customers and building lasting relationships

with them. In order to be successful you should recom-

mend practical products, understand your client’s cus-

tomer and target audience, and make the items personal.

Recommend practical products.

Bags, hats,

writing instruments, outerwear and t-shirts have a

proven track record of having a high-perceived

value and being useful, and are kept for a long

time.

Understand the target audience.

Make your

recommendations based on your customer’s

audience needs, wants and aspirations. Ask

about the demographics. Are your client’s cus-

tomers mostly male or female? High income, highly edu-

cated audiences will have different tastes and percep-

tions than a general audience. Make sure you tailor the

types of premiums and products based on what their

preferences are for maximum effectiveness.

Get personal.

Dale Carnegie said it best. The

most beautiful word to most people is their own

name. As promotional professionals, we can per-

sonalize many of our items. Offering personal-

ized items gives people something unique and highly

perceived. This creates a positive emotion that delivers

loyalty.

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PPB

• APRIL 2015

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