Foursquare is partnering with PepsiCo and Safeway to launch a pilot program which could serve as the future of the company’s business model–and as an answer to competitors Facebook Places and Gowalla. Today, the New York-based geo-location service will introduce a rewards platform built on top of Safeway’s existing loyalty program. The platform enables users… Read More
Over the last couple years, services such as Groupon have sprouted up offering deep discounts to consumers. Such services boast the ability to get thousands of new customers through the door with one daily ad. What operator doesn’t like the sound of an instant expansion to their customer base? But before considering a service like… Read More
As one of the earliest practitioners of one-to-one marketing (as a consultant for Don Peppers and Martha Rogers) I’ve been able to observe the good, bad and ugly about loyalty programs for nearly a generation. While there’s been incremental shifts away from bad & ugly, most companies still haven’t even come close to good. Yes,… Read More
YouTube’s Promoted Videos program hit a major milestone this month, hitting half a billion views. This figure certainly lends more credence to recent conjectures that the video-sharing site might, in fact, be starting to generate significant revenue (if not profits) for Google. The Promoted Videos program launched two years ago, and, according to the YouTube… Read More
With 500 million members and growing, Facebook offers brands and marketers direct contact to the largest pool of online users on the web. After all, social media is fast becoming more popular than e-mail on mobile devices and more convenient for news consumption than the daily paper. In recent weeks and months, Facebook has introduced… Read More
In studying customer reward programs, Michael McCall, a consumer psychologist at Ithaca College, has found that they are not always so rewarding — for the customer or the business. McCall discussed with DMNews his June 2010 paper, “Building Customer Loyalty: Ten Principles for Designing an Effective Customer Reward Program,” which he co-wrote with Michigan State… Read More
According to a recent customer satisfaction study reported in this month’s the Harvard Business Review; the answer is probably “yes.” The idea that companies must “delight” their customers or “exceed customer expectations” has become so entrenched in business lore that it is rarely questioned. According to conventional wisdom, customers are more loyal to companies that… Read More
Companies can build a stronger bond with the consumer and drive customer loyalty by using social networking, an expert has suggested. Recent research commissioned by Siemens Enterprise Communications revealed 70 per cent of consumers would like to be able to use social media to interact with retailers. See the article about creating customer bonds… Read More
According to a survey conducted by “The Corporate Executive Board”, companies should not artificially raise expectations in their efforts to over-satisfy customers. The research suggests, and CEB advises, instead that reducing the level of effort a customer exerts in the service channel is a more effective path to customer loyalty. In fact, 96 percent of… Read More
Why should my opinion count and why should you listen to me as a consumer? The reason being, I shop for a family of four (which was 6 at one point in time), we are on a strict budget as many families throughout the country. Through the years it’s been coupons, discounts and only buying… Read More