Founder/CEO of Sparkfly. Our offer management platform helps QSRs maximize acquisition & loyalty by connecting customer behavior with sales.
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It's unlikely that the goal of your marketing plan is to dull customer enthusiasm for your brand. Yet, in an increasingly competitive marketplace driven by consumer expectations, brands are feeling the pressure to conform. Conformity, by its very nature, does not generate inspiration or innovation.
The pandemic knocked the world out of its stride and then accelerated the digital transformation race. Brands that weren't already in trial runs with digital transformation had to scramble just to get on the track. But what if trying to catch up isn't the right thing to do?
Historically, brands chased customer loyalty programs as shiny objects. With so many brands now having taken hold, the novelty is wearing off. Now is the time to study the lessons learned by other brands and set a strategy that gives you control over your own destiny. To do so, build an infrastructure that helps you optimize all opportunities to engage customers and effectively drive sales — ultimately putting you several steps ahead of the competition.
Avoiding FOMO-Driven Planning
What I've heard recently, from quick service restaurant (QSR) brands, in particular, is that in the midst of higher consumer demand and expectations, they're feeling the pain of their technology decisions. Not only are some of these prepackaged marketing technology solutions not delivering on their promises, but they're also not allowing room for easy adjustment. In short, these solutions are more about what works best for the partner and not what's needed or desired by the brand.
How did we get here? In part, it's the result of a bit of short-sightedness, cobbling together components that don't integrate data seamlessly, leaving brands with only part of the picture of their customer journey. Another part of why brands are in this state is fueled by a fear of missing out. Again, it's clear that when done correctly, loyalty programs have significant benefits for customer acquisition and retention. But those benefits won't be realized if your brand has rushed to act and is now constricted by the limits of your technology.
No brand wants to be in a box — you want to be thinking and thriving outside it. So how can you keep from growing stagnant or in danger of falling further behind? Here are a few tips:
• Don't accept that costly after-market customization is the price of doing business your own way. Take the time to find a solution that is personalized to meet your needs without overwhelming you with a multitude of things you won’t use.
• Find a consultant or technology partner with the experience and knowledge about where the gaps are in the space. Then work with them to figure out how you can fill that space while remaining true to your brand and efficient with your resources.
• Adopt an ecosystem that is robust, flexible and comes with a documented API that can be easily integrated and shared with multiple partners. Avoid an option with a predefined partner subset that may not be relevant to where your brand is six-, 12- or 18-plus months from now.
Embracing Originality
As brands think about how to incorporate this new power — this integrated, data-driven enablement — into their customer loyalty campaigns, they need to consider two aspects: campaign management and campaign strategy.
Campaign management focuses on dashboards, analyzing the available information and tying everything together. For example, your offers and promotions platform need to seamlessly integrate with your email marketing, your SMS, etc.
Then there's campaign strategy, which focuses on optimizing a centralized view of how all of these programs are running so you can make informed, holistic decisions. It's not a matter of "set it and forget it," however. Technology is the tool, and strategy sets a plan for efficient use of the tool, but they should be playing a supporting role in your campaigns.
Which leads us to creativity. If you have the right technology and strategy, you've freed up your marketing team to work their magic. Domino's offers a straightforward points-based program, but their AnyWare network supports customers who want to order from their car, TV, smartwatch, digital assistants or social media and messaging apps to earn those points. Capitalizing on an expanding trend, Starbucks has added gamification to its loyalty program. And by leveraging influencers, social media and the power of partner brands, Chipotle has continued to find new ways to make itself relevant to customers (and keep them excited about the brand).
Maintaining that excitement is critical for both external and internal audiences. Instead of pandemic pivots pushing people down into places where they feel safe, what I'm seeing are marketing professionals with a greater appetite for testing, learning and moving more quickly. There's a desire to get creative and break away not only from what they've done in the past but from what other brands are doing. They just need the right foundation to provide them with that freedom.
Our digital and mobile worlds are evolving more and more quickly. It takes patience and bravery to make the financial and time commitment needed to build the right solution rather than taking the most expedient route. The gap between where your organization is today and having an agile, innovative marketing technology stack isn't as wide as it may seem. You just need to recognize the need to reflect and regroup on having the right infrastructure in place to support your brand's sustainability in the new digital normal.
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