The use of licensed characters in promotions was a mainstay of the industry for many years, but then collapsed. Recently, however, we’ve seen a resurgence of interest.Yes, there are some relatively straightforward ‘slap it on the pack’ promotions out there: but the best licensed promotions today are those where agencies get creative with the equity on offer. If done well, the licensed property itself benefits hugely from the exposure, while the brand gets to borrow some reflected glory to create a campaign that would not otherwise have been possible.

Last year, the 2010 Licensing Awards featured a category for ‘Best Use of a Licensed Property in a Marketing Communication’, and the top ten nominations demonstrated the high levels of creativity licensed promotions now deliver, covering an extremely diverse range of goods and services with some truly excellent executions.

I defy you not to laugh as Postman Pat takes large lumps out of Greendale with Jess squashed against the windscreen of his van, and all because he didn’t go to Specsavers!

The Silver and Gold award-winning campaigns both featured Wallace & Gromit, for N-Power and Kingsmill respectively. Both campaigns massively over-achieved against business objectives, which the promoters put down to the creative use of the well-loved duo.

Using Wallace & Gromit is always going to be a fairly safe bet, for the brand-owner, at least. It can be a much bigger decision for the property owner, however: by associating with a commercial brand, they run the risk of being accused of cynicism by the public, while there is also a danger that the property may lose credibility if the creative isn’t at least as good as the show itself. Other entrants also showed how using a licence is one of the most potent ways of giving a marketing or promotional campaign a real point of difference.

Asda fresh produce linked with the pre-school TV show ‘Lazy Town’, with a message that had obvious benefits for both partners, while really well executed promotions partnering Pizza Hut with the film Terminator Salvation and Peppa Pig with Muller Little Stars showed that even the simplest promotional mechanics can rise above the pack by the creative use of a licence.

I believe that the licensing industry is becoming a place where the promoter and their agency can feel a little more at home. For the licensor, there is a growing understanding of the value of the additional exposure a promotional campaign with a major brand can bring, above and beyond any fee for the use of the Intellectual Property.

I also think that property owners are prepared to be more flexible with how their characters are used – indeed, if this were not the case, then the Specsavers/Postman Pat campaign would never have been made, Windy Miller would never have sat down with a bowl of Quaker Oats and Paddington would never have spread Marmite on his toast instead of Marmalade.

On the other side of the table, brand owners and agencies are much more open and willing to have discussions about the creative use of characters and properties with rights owners who understand the benefits to them, and who are not looking for exorbitant fees.

Licensed properties can be excellent partners for brands, offering a great way to access a promoter’s existing target market or even break into a new market with a readymade set of creative resources.

by Mindi Chahal

Source: promomarketing.info

Still, it can be helpful to take a step back and try to evaluate the results of your branding efforts from an objective standpoint. There are a number of ways to do it, but I’ve found one in particular that can be very revealing. I need to warn you in advance, though—it may sting a bit. It requires you to set aside your biases and evaluate your brand through the cold, hard lens of an independent investment analyst.

It’s true that the financial sector has received a lot of criticism of late, in many ways deserved. Think about it—it’s an analyst’s job to pass judgment on which corporations’ stock investors should buy, sell, or hold, yet no analyst can ever know more about individual companies than those who are immersed in their operations day after day and year after year. No one knows more about my company and its prospects, for example, than I do, yet even I can’t predict where we’ll be in six months or two years.

That said, analysts do tend to concentrate on broad industry sectors, providing them a unique perch from which to view the goings-on therein, and their training and experience enable them to recognize patterns within companies and across industries that highly focused management teams may miss. Plus, they don’t have a dog in the hunt; all they’re trying to do is pick the winners and losers based on the available information.

There are a handful of crucial questions an analyst might ask to determine whether a company represents a good investment. Imagine for a moment that you are that analyst, and it’s your job to critically examine your company (or in this case your brand) and subsequently make a buy, sell, or hold recommendation. Answer the seven questions below on a scale from one (awful) to 10 (excellent) as objectively as you can. As you do, keep in mind that it’s a rare brand that excels in every area, and if one does, an intensely competitive business landscape will ensure that its advantages won’t last.

1. Is the brand in a growing sector? This is a measure of your industry as much as it is of your brand. Is it growing? Are economic, demographic, or cultural trends working in its favor, or are you witnessing steadily shrinking demand? Is this industry going to be healthy and growing—or for that matter even around—in two, five, or 10 years?

2. Is the brand making consistent share gains? Regardless of the industry in which you operate, if your brand is healthy you should be taking market share from your rivals, and doing so in a sustainable way (i.e., not by giving away the store). (See my previous column “How to Discount (If You Insist).”)

3. Does the brand have a dominant competitive position? Your industry may be growing, your share may be growing, but has your brand achieved a position of dominance? This doesn’t have to mean global dominance; if you serve a well-defined geography, for example, it may be enough that you’re dominant within it, even if there are bigger competitors across town, across the country, or across the world. If they can’t horn in on your customers, they may not be relevant.

4. Is the brand clearly differentiated? When prospects compare you to the competition, do clear differences arise or are you basically cut from the same cloth? This factor affects all of the other factors, which is why it’s so critical. One of my favorite pieces of marketing advice is, “Don’t be better. Be different.” If the people with whom you do business can’t clearly articulate your brand’s point of differentiation, an analyst certainly won’t be able to.

5. Are there high barriers to entry for competitors? The airline industry has extremely high barriers to entry; it takes a lot of money—to say nothing of the regulatory hurdles—to get a new airline off the ground (pun intended). But it costs very little to launch a catering business or consulting firm. True, depending on the specialty, the expertise required to launch either of the latter two could be considered a barrier to entry, but an objective analyst would ask some pretty tough questions about how high that barrier really is.

6. Does the brand generate outstanding margins? There are two ways to answer this question: in absolute terms and relative to your industry competitors. Margins, of course, don’t grow in a vacuum; if you’re clearly differentiated and operating in a thriving industry with high barriers to entry, you’re more likely to be able to maintain healthy margins than if you’re slugging it out in a commoditized, shrinking sector.

7. Is the brand creating strong cash flow? There’s a lot of pressure on public companies to fund shareholder dividends. Just because your company isn’t public doesn’t mean you shouldn’t feel the same pressure. Your investors (that would be you—and any others who have staked their hard-earned capital on you) deserve a regular dividend. That is, unless you choose to reinvest most or all of your profits in growing your brand. But you should be in a position where the option is yours.

Seven questions. Simple to ask; a bit more difficult to answer objectively. If your brand scores well on all seven, congratulations—you’ve got yourself a great investment. If not, don’t despair, because at least you now have an idea of where you should focus your efforts.

But don’t hesitate to get moving. Even if you have no intention to ever take your company public, the better your brand performs as an investment, the better off you—and everybody connected with it—will be.

by Steve McKee

Source: businessweek.com

Ebooks present many benefits and advantages, and this article shows some of them.

It is very simple and easy to purchase and download ebooks through the Internet. It is exactly like purchasing any other product. The only difference is that after payment you will either be directed to a download page or receive the download link in an email. All you have to do is click on the link and the ebook will automatically download to your computer, to a folder of your own choice.

After download you don’t have to be connected to the Internet in order to read the ebook. You can stay offline. If you wish to have it printed, it is very easy. Just click on the print button in the ebook, to print it with your home printer.

So what are the benefits and advantages of ebooks?

1. Ebooks are delivered almost instantaneously. You can purchase, download and start reading them within minutes, without leaving your chair. You don’t have to go to a bookstore to buy them, neither wait for them for days, weeks and sometimes more to arrive in the mail.

2. No trees are required to manufacture paper for the pages of ebooks.

3. When you need certain information, you can get it immediately, by downloading an ebook.

4. Many ebooks are sold nowadays with bonuses, which you usually do not get with a printed book. This adds value to your purchase.

5. Ebooks take up less space. You practically don’t need any space to store them. You don’t need a library or a room for them. You can store hundreds and thousands of ebooks in your computer.

6. Ebooks are portable. You can carry a whole library of hundreds of books with you, on CD, in a laptop, notebook or any ebook reader, without worrying about their weight.

7. With today technology you can read ebooks anywhere, on the bus, train, airplane and while standing in line.

8. Ebooks are more safely stored and carried from one place to another, than ordinary books. They also withstand time more than books.

9. Ebooks can show links, for easy access to more information and related websites.

10. Ebooks are searchable. You can easily search for any information in an ebook, instead of turning page after page.

11. Ebooks can be interactive and contain audio, video and animations, which can enhance the message that the author is trying to convey.

12. As ebooks are delivered through the Internet, there are no packing and shipping expenses.

13. Ebooks can be printable, so that if you wish to read an ebook in the traditional way, you can very inexpensively print it with your home printer or at any printing shop.

14. Fonts in ebooks can be resized, making it easier to read for people with disabilities. With an additional software it is possible to turn some of the ebooks into audio books.

15. Ebooks are very easy to to sell and distribute.

16. It is very simple and easy to purchase and download an ebook. People living in big modernized cities, in a remote village in a far away country or on a small island, can equally access an ebook. It takes them the same amount of time to purchase and download an ebook, provided they have an Internet connection.

17. It is possible to purchase an ebook 24 hours a day, every day of the year, from the comfort of your own house or office. You can purchase and download an ebook, even if you are on a vacation, if you have a laptop and wireless Internet connection.

18. People are already spending a lot of time in front of their computers, so why not read and ebook, instead of doing something else?

Nowadays one can find ebooks about every possible subject, fiction and nonfiction, free and not free.

Considering non-fiction ebooks, such ebooks disseminate knowledge not pages, which means that it is not correct to evaluate the price of an ebook according to the number of its pages. The price should be determined by the information it contains, its usefulness and relevancy, and on how much it gives you in terms of practical knowledge, inspiration, motivation, tips and advice, and also by the uniqueness of the information it contains.

by Remez Sasson

Source: www.successconsciousness.com

Antonio Banderas‘ Puss from the Shrek movies, finally gets his own movie in PUSS IN BOOTS.  PUSS IN BOOTS is an origins story on how the charming kitty came to be before we meet him in Shrek 2.

Salma Hayek, Banderas’s Desperado and Once Upon A Time in Mexico leading lady, lends her voice as Puss In Boots co-star along with Zach Galifianakis (Due Date), Billy Bob Thornton, and Amy Sedaris.  Watch the teaser trailer with the lovable swachbuckler.

Way before Puss ever met Shrek, our suave and furry feline hero goes on a swashbuckling ride, as he teams with mastermind Humpty Dumpty and the street-savvy Kitty to steal the famed Goose that lays the Golden Eggs.

PUSS IN BOOTS is in theaters November 4, 2011.

DreamWorks Animation Presents “Puss In Boots”

Source: cinemovie.tv

Are brands missing an opportunity to engage with the youth market, asks Mindi Chahal

The UK’s young adult population – those aged in their late teens to mid 20s – are savvy consumers to whom online and social media are second nature, which is why so many brands are using digital media in an attempt to reach them.

However, exclusive polling conducted by market research agency ICM on behalf of Promotional Marketing magazine has shown that traditional media is still most likely to generate a response from the 18-24 year old market.

In fact, young adults are slightly more likely to buy a product or service after seeing a promotion advertised on TV than the general population (28% of respondents aged 18-24 compared with 27% of all consumers).

But it is posters and radio that really deliver more impact with this age group: 10% of 18-24 year olds responded to a promotion advertised on a poster, compared to the UK average of 6%, while 5% responded to a radio ad, compared with the average of 3%. It is certainly true that some digital channels have a disproportionate impact with young adults.

While the 7% who respond to promotions on social networking sites may not seem high, it is more than twice the UK average (3%). Similarly, the 3% of young adults who respond to material sent to their mobile phones is 50% higher than the national average of 2%.

But not all digital channels deliver the youth market: email, for example, only works on 18% of 18-24 year olds, compared with the average of 24%. The research also highlights a real difference in behaviour between 18-24 year olds and the next age group up, 25-34 year olds (see table).

The latter are a lot more likely to respond to promotions in general, but particularly those using direct mail, email, couponing websites and brand’s own websites. Nathan Bartlett, head of retail at ICM, comments: “The data seems to be reaffirming the belief that 18-24 year olds are a difficult group to target.

Their overall lack of responsibility (they usually have no mortgage and access to parent’s money) reduces their need to respond to promotions generally. We can hypothesise that it is only when their responsibilities increase and their lifestyles become less transient, moving towards the 25- 34 year old subgroup, that promotions become more relevant to them.”

The youth market is made up of “highly active consumers, particularly in areas like entertainment, snack foods, technology, fashion, travel, cosmetics and healthcare,” observes Luke Mitchell, managing partner of the youth and student marketing consultancy, Reach Students.

Many in this age range are students, of course. Mitchell points out that students represent approximately half the youth market, and adds: “Students are somewhat immune to recession. They have money at university and the majority now work part-time to supplement income. But in my experience, 18-25 year olds always find the money for what they want.”

Not everyone agrees that young adults are hard to reach. James Eder, co-founder and commercial director of studentbeans.com, argues: “They are usually clear on what they want and have fully-formed perceptions on different products, services, brands and outlets. Brands need to therefore push out messages that are relevant to the youth market and via mediums that they actually use.”

Nathan Bartlett also points out that while some young adults do react to some traditional media approach, the research results may be skewed because promotional activity through newer media channels may not always be recognised as such. “The channel itself could reduce the feeling that it is direct selling,” he says.

Engagement via social media is increasingly being used. Last month, research agency Conquest released a report into the social media habits of 16-24 year olds. It found that over a third of respondents said they have become a fan of at least one brand, product or company on Facebook.

Another major function of social media is the ability to share promotions, and brand information with friends. James Layfield, managing director at agency The Lounge Group, comments: “There is no one channel that’s right. It’s more sophisticated. There is a three screen generation who will sit with the TV on while on their laptop and mobile using all three at the same time. The youth market fully embraces social and geo-location functions like Facebook Places and BlackBerry Foursquare. Sharing is the way that you do everything.”

Layfield continues: “Our ethos is ‘only the market gets the market’.” The Conquest research found that 91% of 16-24 year olds check their Facebook accounts over six times a day, with 30% on the site for over an hour a time.

This represents a major opportunity to reach the youth market, argues James Eder at studentbeans.com: “Brands are looking to build loyalty among a sector with disposable income and who are forming their brand allegiances and purchasing choices for life. Today’s students are tomorrow’s ABC1 consumers.”

Hollywood’s shelf-help plan

Studios and retailers are partnering for product

Walmart designed themed areas to display DreamWorks Animation’s ‘How to Train Your Dragon’ products.

Hollywood is super-sizing its time-honored tradition of striking exclusive deals with retailers as more stores, from brick-and-motar outlets to e-tailers, line up to partner with studios for product.

As much as Hollywood needs these promotional partnerships, retailers need the excitement of exclusive merchandise from blockbuster movies to drive more traffic into their stores as they slowly recover from the recession.

A fevered pitch of dealmaking has swept up e-tailers (Amazon.com, Overstock.com, Groupon), traditional retailers (Target, Walmart, Toys R Us) and even brands not normally associated with tentpoles (Benjamin Moore paints) in the battle to nail down exclusive product pacts.

Deals typically cover DVDs and Blu-rays with new footage, CDs with extra music tracks, vidgames with new levels and character upgrades, unique-to-the-store toy designs, apparel and other merchandise offers, special trailers and digital downloads. In some cases, it also involves the construction of a separate boutique within a company’s stores.

Last week, Universal rolled out exclusive merchandise for its family film “Hop” at Walmart stores, with the retail giant agreeing to promote the pic throughout its 3,000 locations nationwide in return for being able to offer customers the chance to design their own Easter baskets with “Hop”-themed candy and other products.

The deals are essentially an extension of the kinds of pacts marketers already have been making with Hollywood on summer tentpoles. Only in those cases, the brands were using the perks of a film tie-in to sell their own products: burgers, soda, cereal, cars.

In the new crop of deals, the incentives are being used to sell Hollywood’s product.

Retail essentially got smart and said that if the same DVD for a movie, for example, is being sold everywhere and gets discounted by one store to increase sales, others will follow, limiting the amount of profits they can earn from each disc.

As a result, stores started asking studios for some exclusive DVD extras. In return, the retailers would provide the products with more favorable shelf space and back it with promotions across all forms of media.

It’s hard for Hollywood to say no to that kind of exposure not only at a time when earnings from homevid and music continue to take a hit, but also when consumer products are becoming a major moneymaker for studios.

Warner Bros., for instance, will provide exclusive toys and action figures to Toys R Us around the release of “Green Lantern.”

“That’s part of what we have to do today,” said prexy of Warner Bros.consumer products Brad Globe last month in discussing plans around the pic. “Retail now really requires these (merchandise) events. You want to get the consumers’ attention when they walk into the store.” There are no signs that this kind of dealmaking will end anytime soon.

In fact, executives at studios, particularly within consumer products divisions, stress that as long as these exclusive relationships continue to pay off for retailers, demand will only increase.

At department stores with exclusive deals for star-designed clothing and accessories, business is booming. For example, JCPenney has said that 50% of its sales come from exclusive merchandise. At Macy’s the number increased from 40% to 42% between 2009 and 2008. At Kohl’s it was at 48% last year, up from 44% in ’09.

Walmart and Target keep such sales figures closer to the vest, but Target has successfully moved millions of albums for music acts — adding tracks to albums from artists like Lady Gaga, Ricky Martin, Keith Urban, Taylor Swift, Enrique Iglesias, the Black Eyed Peas, Prince and Pearl Jam, and offering songs for digital download — with Taylor Swift selling more than 1 million units of “Speak Now” last year.

Walmart, Target and Best Buy have been more aggressive than most in securing special versions of DVDs, Blu-rays, CDs and games. Those releases often include extras, like additional discs of footage or music, collectible character cards or toys, or include special packaging.

Even Groupon agreed to push discounted ticket sales for Lionsgate’s “The Lincoln Lawyer,” in return for a trailer and interview with star Matthew McConaughey.

But others have gotten more creative. Best Buy released a Minion translator cellphone app last year around “Despicable Me” as part of its promotion of the Universal and Illumination Entertainment toon.

Cellphone makers and sellers are also using entertainment as a carrot to move more handsets, with Samsung having paired up with T-Mobile last year to pre-install Fox’s “Avatar” on the new Vibrant phone upon its release; this year, it’s offering “Inception” on its new Galaxy S 4G phone. Samsung made similar moves with Paramount pics, including the “Mission: Impossible” franchise.

Walmart was among the first to build an in-store boutique for a film. Last year, the company designed themed areas for DreamWorks Animation’s “How to Train Your Dragon” around large Viking ships inside more than 2,500 of its stores that offered up more than 100 exclusive products.

As part of the pact, Walmart spent tens of millions of dollars on media, with TV, in-theater, print and online ads promoting the film’s bow, and providing DreamWorks with some serious marketing muscle. One 30-second ad, for example, was shown on more than 13,000 screens in 4,600 theaters.

“Our partnership with DreamWorks Animation has changed the way retailers can work with the movie industry,” said Gary Severson, senior VP of entertainment of Walmart U.S. at the time.

By Marc Graser

Time to brush up on your floor play?

Retailers could be throwing money away on their brand communications because a third of customers are turned off by the in-store experience, according to exclusive research. And this is being exacerbated by online channels raising shoppers’ expectations. By Lucy Handley

Today’s retailers are under exceptional strain. Rising commodity prices, a post-recession environment and competing with widespread discounting means shops are now under more pressure than ever to get people clicking online and visiting their physical stores. And increasingly, good service forms the basis to achieving that goal.

Research among 3,000 consumers exclusive to Marketing Week reveals that it is crucial consumers’ actual shopping experience matches what a brand has promised in its communications. Half of those polled by agency Live & Breathe say they look forward to visiting a high street store because of the image they have of a brand, only to be disappointed by poor product availability when they arrive.

For Owen Catto, managing partner at Live & Breathe, retailers must match the investment they make in brand communications with what they put into enhancing a store environment.

“Don’t spend all your money on external communications and then let the retail space not work hard enough,” he warns. “The value that the brand extols in its communications is what people buy into. But when they get to the store, they find a disconnection between those values and the retail reality.”

Women have more of an issue with this than men, with 50% saying that the quality of goods is disappointing, compared to 38% of men who have the same concern.

Service is also a big issue for people: 38% say that shop staff don’t live up to a store’s image.

Brand perceptions that are negative to start with can also hinder in-store footfall. As many as 35% of people say they avoid going into a particular store because they don’t want to be seen as one of its
customers. This is fairly evenly split between men and women with just over a fifth saying they avoid certain shops occasionally and 4% of women and 6% of men claiming they do it frequently.

But Catto suggests that retail brands can develop their store environment to help change such perceptions. For example, retailers could better manage the flow of customers through a shop to minimise queues. Nearly 90% of those polled say they have given up buying something because of a long queue, and 45% say they like shopping online because there are no crowds.

“I like the idea that online retail is making bricks and mortar stores up their game, and that should lead to better shopping experiences,” says Catto. He adds that new store layouts are already reflecting this. Arcadia Group, for example, has been rolling out a new store format since it integrated fully with department store Bhs in 2009. Revamped stores feature a variety of Arcadia’s other brands, as part of a ’house of brands’ push by the retailer.

An area where clothing brands have an opportunity to make their service stand out is in giving fashion advice. Many people (37%) will ask those they are shopping with for an opinion on how something looks, but 12% say they ask a sales assistant.

Catto dubs this “the John Lewis effect”. “If you can make yourself known for having really good customer service and staff, it is a reason for people to come to you first; and they will buy from you because you engender trust,” he says.

Retailers should also be aware that shoppers could be abusing retailers’ goodwill by returning items they have already worn. As many as 18% of people admit having done this. This is more prevalent among men, with 23% saying they occasionally or frequently get refunds for used goods, versus 13% of women.

“People are becoming more clever and will take more and more from the retail experience without actually purchasing,” says Catto. Retailers can help prevent this behaviour by building a better relationship with customers, he suggests: “It is a quid pro quo relationship. If you can demonstrate that you give reasonable value, good service and a nice retail environment, customers will be less likely to try to get one over on the retailer.”

While investing in staff is one way to back up marketing claims, many retailers are experimenting with technology to enhance the shopping experience, says Catto. New Look in Birmingham, for instance, has cameras connected to mirrors in its changing rooms so people can view outfits from several angles.

But in spite of people’s familiarity with technology and the rise of social media, they are less than keen to text a picture of themselves in an outfit to a friend – only 3% say they do so at the moment. If shoppers do this, the most likely platform is Facebook, with 34% uploading their pictures versus 24% who send texts.

Shoppers are, however, willing to use their handheld technology in other ways. A quarter of survey respondents say they use mobile internet to see if they can find the item cheaper elsewhere and 22% will trawl other shops for the same reason. Men are more likely to do this than women, with 28% comparing prices online versus 22% of women.

This has prompted retailers such as Best Buy to launch apps to help secure shoppers’ loyalty. Best Buy is trialling an app called Shopkick, which gives smartphone users ’kickbucks’ when they enter a store which they can cash in as discounts.

Working out how to respond to shoppers using their mobiles for price comparison is a key challenge for retailers, claims Catto. He suggests that they could embrace the changes in the retail space by presenting a store as a ’showroom’ to cement online purchases.

Many brands have introduced a click-and-collect service online; a method that has proved popular with customers. The survey shows that 30% of people don’t like waiting at home for deliveries when they have bought something online. But click and collect gets people into stores.

Promotional incentive- what exactly does that term mean?  If you look in Wikipedia, you won’t find anything.  I guess that means that the definition is still up for grabs and that the definition is whatever you want it to be.  For us, promotional incentives are simple.  They are not personalized pens or “gimme” hats.  Promotional incentives are what marketers give you to build and maintain brand loyalty.

Prime promotional incentive programs include free bread from Sara Lee, Coca Cola bottles with the chance to win money and prizes and free Beyonce ringtones when consumers purchased Loreal cosmetics.  Consumers love to get something for nothing and that is why non monetary rewards and promotional incentives are proving to build brands and customer loyalty.

Millions of people downloaded free music from iTunes in 2004 when Pepsi gave away 100 million songs.  This noted music download promotion was announced at Super bowl XXXVlll.  What better stage to introduce a promotional strategy of this magnitude?  This was the introduction into theera of monetized digital content.

This customer reward program was successful for Pepsi, for iTunes and for the consumer.  All parties involved received what they wanted.  The consumers received free music.  Pepsi received increased brand recognition and loyalty.  iTunes, who was only a year old at the time, received brand exposure which millions of dollars of advertising could not have accomplished.

Promotional incentives are not a new phenomenon, but they are here to stay and digital music incentives are the rage.  According to Risk Analyst Steve Dersch, “The DIGITAL part makes it portable, easy to distribute, and harder to abuse.”  Because of the safeguards from abuse, the price of promotional music downloads can be as low as $.04- $.06 at scale instead of the expected $.86- $1.

Brands are built through customer loyalty.  Customer loyalty programs including promotional incentives and music download promotions, provide customers with a reason to be loyal to a brand.

For more details and information you can logon to http://www.promotionalcurrency.com/

Source picture: http://www.toddsmods.com/blog/archives/2005_01.html

There is no doubt that loyalty programmes are on the rise today. In the US alone, there are 1.8 billion individual memberships in loyalty programmes (source: Colloquy.com), everything from airlines to convenience stores to cinemas. In light of this huge number, the general perception is that consumers are happy to join loyalty programmes – eager to enjoy the added rewards that come with loyalty programmes. The reality, however, is that they are not. Confirming this expectation gap, a recent survey by the Chief Marketing Officer Council found that some 32% of consumers surveyed felt that participation in loyalty programmes holds “little to no value.” Ouch.

What has emerged as a result of this disconnect is a new direction in loyalty programmes: instant reward redemptions. In the past, instant rewards have been limited to cash or discounts at the register; maybe a free item of very low value. Technology, thankfully, has given rise to this new breed of instantly redeemable rewards – the digital, downloadable kind. These instant rewards promise to finally eliminate some of the traditional problems associated with loyalty programmes, like engagement and delivering value.

Problems with traditional programmes

According The Journal of Retailing, “the rewards associated with loyalty programmes provide a means to establish reciprocity between the customer and the company.” But the problems that have plagued this interaction, or reciprocity, throughout the years and usually stem from the delay between collection and redemption by loyalty programme members. Whether a programme’s threshold for redemption is too high, or the redemption process is too cumbersome (which often the case, ask any FFP member), traditional loyalty programmes suffer from inefficiency. And here’s where instant redemption provides instant relief, specifically in two areas:

Low-threshold consumers

In the past, a big problem has been the loss of “low-threshold” consumers. For these consumers, who maintain a low accumulation of points (or programme currency equivalent), the traditional loyalty programme concept fails: if the point threshold is too high, the programme has become irrelevant because the consumer feels the reward is not obtainable (source: Harvard Business Review). In such cases, the loyalty programme is actually hurting the brand. It suffers because the consumer disengages from the brand before they have received an added “reward” for membership.
Instant reward redemptions provide companies a very affordable alternative to offer these low-threshold consumers an easy way to burn low point accumulations. Loyalty programme managers also benefit, as studies have shown that these “light buyers” represent a large increase in spending and purchase frequency post-redemption (source: Journal of Marketing). In other words, they are not a segment to be ignored.

Delayed Redemption

Another area of concern with loyalty programmes is cumbersome redemption processes. Regardless of the delivery method, timing is of the essence in loyalty programmes. In fact, the timing is (almost) everything. The longer the delay in collecting a reward, the less powerful the loyalty creation (Sloan Management Review). Here, instant rewards reduce the delay between collection and redemption and, therefore, a larger chance for loyalty engagement success.

Digital Content: The ultimate instant reward redemption

Digital content, offering loyalty members downloadable content (such as the latest selection in music, movies, software, books, games, magazines), is emerging as the premiere medium for the delivery of instant reward redemption. The sheer selection of digital content that is available, along with its monetisation potential, makes it an excellent vehicle for instant reward redemption programmes. Consumers want instant rewards, and digital content is the next logical step. Research from Mintel confirms this fact: 47% of consumers surveyed said their choice of loyalty programme would be influenced by instant redemption options, such as cash or discounts. Jackpot.

So with this information acquired from recent surveys and obvious positive consumer sentiment, the next question seems to be: is digital content a good substitution for cash or discounts?

In a word, yes. According to Mintel’s study, 61% of respondents said that lower overall cost for merchandise they would have purchased anyway is an important attribute of a loyalty or reward programme. It is feasible to assume then, that relevant content – content that the consumer is likely to purchase regardless – is a good substitute for cash or discounts. And considering that 65% of internet users have paid for intangible digital content, there is a huge market for relevant and engaging digital content waiting to be developed (source: Pew Internet). In the UK, a recent YouGov survey showed that among those aged 18-34 years old who had engaged in digital activities, 22% spent more than £5 on digital books, the digital content category receiving the highest spend (source KPMG).

Digital content presents a win-win strategy

Digital content gives businesses the chance to burn points off their balance sheet, while offering the entire spectrum of loyalty programme participants the opportunity to redeem points for merchandise in which they are interested or already purchasing on a regular basis.

In essence, instant digital rewards have bridged the gap between reality and perception. By making rewards instantly redeemable, businesses can give their customers the value that they seek: relevant rewards instantly and anywhere, loaded onto the devices they use in their everyday lives. Instant digital rewards, it seems, have created a new trend in loyalty programmes: programmes that work – for everyone.

Source: www.utalkmarketing.com

As the primary controller of the family finances, mums make around 97% of the weekly purchasing decisions for their families. With an estimated 19 million mums in the UK it is clearly in the interest of brands to ensure their marketing strategies, products and services are meeting their needs and expectations.

To find out what mums really want from brands, we must be willing to connect with them in their natural environment, in the course of their day-to-day lives and routines. This could be out shopping; with friends; at home; at playgroup etc. The language, tone, and line of questioning we use should also follow the same natural pathway. This reduces the interference with mums’ regular behaviour and allows real, true insight to flow freely, unhindered.

An example of this is the recent work we completed for a major baby food manufacturer. We were asked to review a new line of organic baby food products, which were in development. Giving mums the freedom to trial and think about the products in their own home environment, as part of their daily routine, allowed them to develop really insightful feedback, purely based on their needs and requirements as a mum. The feedback has been used as a significant resource in product development and marketing.

All too often we see research with mums being conducted at arms length, through form filling, over the internet or in hostile, formal surroundings. Engaging mums in this way will not provide a true picture of what really matters to them, and certainly can’t be converted into any meaningful consumer-led marketing strategy.

It is often the piece of the jigsaw we see missing from seemingly well thought out marketing programmes.

It’s important to recognise the key channels of influence and true ‘touchpoints’ for mums too. Some 84% are regular internet users, and with new online channels dedicated to this group popping up on a daily basis, there is a strong belief among marketers that this is now the main source of information and influence.

We work with thousands of mums on a daily basis and they tell us that the internet is important but that their own friends and family are a far greater influence. MumPanel statistics that show 67 per cent of the MumPanel network still ask their own mum for help, advice and guidance.

On top of that, mums still regularly attend coffee mornings and child support groups and rely on their own local offline networks for advice and support. They’re also fantastic networkers at the playground gates. So we should not forget the importance of the good old mum network out and about and the increasing influence of the grandparent generation.

The value of tapping into the conversations that take place within these networks and starting the engagement process within the natural circle of mums is significant. This is where we find truly unhindered insight and where we can start to engage with mums most effectively.

An additional benefit of tapping into these mum networks is that we can connect with many mums who are normally hard to reach. These are usually friends of friends who would not ordinarily join a mum panel or participate in market research. Without these mums you can end up with a large number of career mum panelists, as well as higher proportion of more outspoken mums. While these are valid consumers, they do not always offer the profile required for every brand in the UK.

Translating mum insight into meaningful marketing strategy can, however, cause considerable difficulty. Results, whether they are quantitative statistics or qualitative opinions, are only as good as your analysis or interpretation of them. Data can easily be misinterpreted and achieve a completely devastating outcome.

Getting this part of the process right is the real challenge. A good marketing strategy should retain customer centricity, while generating impressive sales or services. To ensure data is transferred into meaningful strategy, we advocate that sense checking continues throughout the development process, from new product development to marketing communications, where the customer or audience is involved from end to end and not just at the start and end.

And you’ve got to know your audience. Having full understanding of, and empathy for, our audience gets us an awful lot closer to the customer-centric strategy that delivers true consumer engagement and satisfaction – not to mention increased brand loyalty and a much improved bottom line.

By Lynne Barcoe at MumPanel