Harkening back to my first job out of college at a Los Angeles ad shop, I remembered that there was a certain pride centered on the fact that our major automotive client had earned and held strong its No. 1 brand loyalty position. I quickly learned that this achievement was akin to finding the Holy Grail – at least in the world of advertising.
Suffice it to say that the client managed to maintain its No. 1 status for a very long time.
But the more things change, the more they remain the same. Savvy marketers today know that building brand loyalty requires more than your father’s advertising campaign – unless of course your Dad is accessing that campaign on his smartphone.
A recent whitepaper, From Armed to Charmed: Preparing for and Profiting from the New Enabled Point of Sale, by Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide, discusses how consumers look at mobile devices – as a place to access information about and engage with brands.
The whitepaper explains that instead of adopting a more adversarial, defensive approach, brands and retailers should turn customers from “armed to charmed” by understanding and addressing unmet shopper needs. This is when brands and retailers can earn customers’ trust, which is the basis for maximizing lifetime customer value.
The whitepaper advises marketers to “remember that even though customers now know more than ever, they still want a brand that stands for far more than they want simple price-offs or other tactical promotions ; loyalty is, after all, a shopper’s biggest gift to the brand.” As one of the authors of the whitepaper, Martin Lange, further explains in a blog post, “shoppers are after more than just deals and discounts: the research showed that better customer service and loyalty points were the top two reasons that respondents had for checking into a retail store.”
Many would say that a lot of brands diverted their attention from loyalty programs in recent years – focusing solely on basic customer satisfaction. Thankfully, more and more marketers now are turning their attention back to building brand loyalty as new technologies make it easier to do so.
According to a recent USA Today article by Fred Meier, a shopping analysis by Kelley Blue Book (KBB.com) revealed that in the second quarter Hyundai ousted traditional top dogs Honda and Toyota for No. 1 in brand loyalty. The article went on to say that this was the first time Hyundai held this position for a full quarter since KBB began tracking brand loyalty.
How did Hyundai rise to the top?
Jon Budd, Hyundai's senior group manager for customer relationship and interactive marketing, said in a recent Automotive News article, that connecting to mobile customers is critical to Hyundai. The article explained that Hyundai recently launched its own mobile channel on YouTube, providing mobile-friendly video content to auto shoppers.
According to the Mobile Marketing Association, Hyundai used this mobile channel to encourage potential customers of the new Hyundai Accent Era to participate in a test drive in a cost efficient way. The prizes of the competition included one Hyundai Accent Era and 10 tickets for the World Cup. Every 50th entrant won a soccer ball.
The campaign was announced through a variety of Above the Line advertising channels, including TV. The people who participated in the test drive received a unique short code to enter the competition via their mobile phone. The response rate for this text message marketing campaign was significant -- 15,000 potential customers participated in the test drive and SMS text campaign.
For Hyundai and other marketers, high impact text and social media marketing – using platforms like Trumpia’s Multi-Channel Marketing System -- has made it much easier to cross the finish line when it comes to building loyalty programs that just keep on giving.
And in an age where some major brands have faltered, marketing programs that leverage SMS and MMS messaging can take companies from zero to 60 when it come to not only winning – but keeping -- the trust of consumers.
