GenDigital

Loyalty Marketing Programs Stimulate Brand Advocacy

With all of the excitement around social media and emerging marketing channels like mobile, the rather old fashion tactic of loyalty marketing seems to be increasingly falling under the radar for companies and brands. Based on audience feedback and our own proprietary analysis, it's our belief that brand marketers may be overlooking some of the value that can be derived from a loyalty marketing program including things like special discounts, preferred access and exclusive offers, among other facets.

Our underlying belief is that real engagement centers on contextually relevant contact and interaction, and loyalty marketing programs certainly have the opportunity to drive engagement and ultimately brand loyalty and advocacy.

Based on our January 2010 Insights Immersion, about one in six (16%) teens and college students are currently active in at least one brand loyalty program, inclusive of paid and unpaid loyalty programs. Perhaps more interesting though, about a third of the audience (34%) said they were at least somewhat interested in joining a loyalty program in the next year.

In a cluttered and ultra competitive marketplace, loyalty programs have the distinct opportunity to stand out to young people, both from a targeted communications perspective and from an action-based perspective. The notion of receiving an exclusive discount or receiving a gift with purchase based on something like earned points is a relevant purchase driver for an increasing number of teens and college students, especially as their tastes and purchasing habits continue to grow in sophistication.

Here's the best part in our minds. The overwhelming majority of respondents who were currently active in at least one loyalty marketing program said they were either somewhat pleased or very pleased with their experience to date.

For interested brand marketers, a key value of a loyalty marketing program is customer data. Ideally, the program will be sophisticated enough to collect more than just the basic demographic profiles of their members and ideally jump into some of the more deeper points like interests and preferences. Going beyond demographic data points will enable brand marketers to uncover some fresh insights from their customers that they can further leverage to enhance their strategy and tactics moving forward.

At the end of the day, nothing is stronger than a peer endorsement when it comes to purchase time. Happy and satisfied young people engaged with a loyalty marketing program are more than twice as likely to recommend a brand or service to their friends. It's authentic brand advocacy at its finest.

Q4 '09 College Top Ten List Highlights

The Q4 '09 wave of College Top Ten is out and available to download. You can view the report background and full table of contents here. Top Ten provides an authentic top of mind look of what's most popular among young people (college students in this case) with respect to pop culture topics including TV shows, musical artists, video game titles, web destinations, celebrities and other lifestyle-related areas.

A few brief highlights: in the realm of TV, for the third straight wave, The Office was the top pick among college males, while Grey's was once again the top show among females. Glee debuted as the third most popular TV show among females, while MTV's Jersey Shore came in 9th among males and 6th among females.

For the second straight wave Taylor Swift was the most popular musical artist among all students, while Breaking Benjamin, Lady Antebellum and Justin Bieber appeared for the first time. Twilight stars continue to dominate the celebrity rankings with Robert Pattinson leading the way along with Taylor Lautner and Kristen Stewart.

On the retail front, fast fashion is still where it's at as evidenced by the performance of Forever 21, but Urban Outfitters is picking up momentum as well as premium yoga wear retailer lululemon. Finally, we included a new measurement for the Q4 wave as college respondents provided their choices for the most socially responsible companies or brands. Leading the socially responsible pack was Ben & Jerry's followed by Burt's Bees and Coca-Cola.

To learn more about Top Ten, you can visit the Youth Trends site.

2010 Macro Trend: The Impact Of QR Codes

Here's a quick look at one of the 12 macro trends we've identified that will make an impact in 2010. The origins of Quick Response Codes, or QR codes for short, go all the way back to 1994. The concept of mobile tagging, which is already wildly popular in Asia, brings new life for the cousin of the old fashioned barcode. QR codes are incredibly more valuable than barcodes as they are able to digitally store information and present it on the user's mobile phone. The information can be as varied as a web address, product information or a promotional offer. The actual QR codes themselves can be featured in almost any type of physical media or advertising. Assuming the consumer has a mobile phone equipped with the necessary software and a digital camera, the device can download and decipher the code with just a few simple actions.

Here's a real world example: a student is walking around campus and sees an outdoor billboard for the new Twilight movie. On the ad, underneath the web address promoting the movie is a QR code. Using the QR reader on his/her mobile phone, the student is able to watch the trailer for the flick in seconds. Talk about future implications, this has the potential to be nothing short of colossal. Welcome to the future of outdoor interactive!

Remember The Music Component

More than seven in ten teens and college students say that music is an important element of their everyday lives. No real surprise there, hopefully...At the most basic level, the social and cultural value of music is unparalleled among young people. It's just one more element that has to be taken into careful consideration within the overall marketing mix. Be it a straightforward musical artist endorsement, title sponsorship of a tour or some sort of brand partnership, music is one of those elements where youth-focused brand marketers can gain a quick and measurable cultural edge.

The overall importance of a relevant music strategy should not be underestimated for those companies and brands targeting this audience segment in particular. While lots of folks think of just placement on popular TV shows or youth-targeted films, music can also be that instrument (pun intended) that bring together a brand's message through other forms of content and programming. With all of the changes occurring in the recorded music space over the past several years coupled with the fact that artists are constantly on the look out for greater exposure, there's never been a better time to explore all of the emerging channels and opportunities at hand.

Our advice for a relevant music strategy is pretty straightforward. It's not necessarily genre or artist-specific per se, rather we think it's about touching the every essence of what the brand is all about (or more to the point, what the program is attempting to accomplish) and begin by melding it with just one memorable and repeatable sound bite and/or riff and move forward from there. Music as a brand extension can be one of those powerful emotional connections that stick with consumers for an extended period of time. As companies and brands look to differentiate themselves from their competitive set, there are multiple music-related opportunities just waiting to be seized upon. For a start, there are several brands out in the marketplace right now with both value-added and revenue generating music programs including Red Bull, Mt Dew, Hollister Co and MAC Cosmetics.

Learn more about creating a relevant youth-focused music strategy with the latest Youth Trends Insights report.