Someone recently told me about the concept of "friendship marketing" -- the idea of treating the marketing function as a nuanced sociological tool rather than blunt force advertising. At first glance, it seemed pretty obvious. But when you consider how many consumers distrust marketing and consider it anything but friendly, it's a compelling concept. Imagine consumers as friends; think share of friend, or friendshare (already coined by the Marriott Vacation Club), rather than share of mind or wallet.
In this age of diminishing attention spans, where consumers have the unprecedented ability to tune out marketing and even market around brands themselves, friendship marketing seems almost like the price of entry. As the once linear sales funnel ceases to exist and people increasingly takes cues from their personal and extended peer networks, a brand's inability to listen to or connect with consumers has potentially grievous consequences.
Perhaps the concept of friendship can be used as a metaphor to build a better loyalty marketing mousetrap.
First, a friendship assumes you are hands-on and acutely aware of what makes your friends tick. It means you understand the context of their lives and you are personally relevant to them. A friendship can only be built by listening. Friends have shared interests and appreciate the unique set of values their acquaintances bring to the table. People today are so busy, one could even say that meaningful friendships, along with time, are the scarcest commodities of all.
Next, we should consider this concept in relation to the fatigue many consumers are feeling about traditional loyalty programs. Many programs today fail on the soft benefits side of the value proposition, and the best customers do not associate participation with special privileges. Points and other types of reward programs -- unless they translate into something tangible like free air tickets or first class upgrades -- mostly engender loyalty to points and not necessarily to the host brand.
Soft benefits, in contrast, are friendlier treatments that recognize investment, tenure, time, and interests, as well as help forge stronger emotional connections, especially within passionate or high-involvement categories. These programs make consumers feel appreciated and exclusive, allow them to be the first to try or know, connect them with exclusive events in their community, or connect them with other likeminded people.
Perhaps the real reward is the process of sharing experiences. The publication Trendwatching recently described the emerging segment of "transumers" -- "customers driven by experiences instead of the 'fixed', by entertainment, by discovery, by fighting boredom, who increasingly live a live a transient lifestyle."
A more modern approach to loyalty marketing would overlay hard and soft benefits and combine them with enabling experiences. When emboldened by technology and supported by demographic and attitudinal information and transactional data, these "friendship" benefits would identify, and truly reward, a brand's best customers. It would gold plate best customers, recognize their voices, and communicate frequently through a channel of their choosing.
Imagine if best customers could receive applications or utilities that not only forge stronger connections to the brand, but also save time and make their lives easier! What do you find most scarce today? For me, it would be experiences that help me get organized and de-clutter my life. I want to be more eco-friendly but don't know how to get started; help me. Reward me with exclusive events that fuel my personal passion or hobby.
Imagine I'm the cruise customer who just finished the trip of a lifetime: Don't forget me and remarket to me nine months later. Instead, provide me with an exclusive platform where I can share my experiences with family and friends and recall my great trip over and over again from the friendly confines of my home computer (or television, or mobile device).
In a B2B context, consumers appreciate premium-level customer support and a dedicated AE at their fingertips. If you help them get things done, it takes the onus off of collecting points or applying for rewards and saves them time they can apply to rewarding experiences. The AmEx OPEN Forum is a great B2B example that provides exclusive content, expert tips, and how-tos for business owners, and the AmEx network serves as a matchmaking service allowing people to connect with other business owners in their industry, city, or state.
A few other examples:
Exclusive, premium connections
American Express's Platinum Card Membership Rewards: Exclusive access to a private collection of rewards from premium brands. One stop shop for the busy professional trying to figure out "rewards the way I want them;" an exhaustive array of personalized travel rewards, customized alerts, exclusive partnerships, and concierge services.
Recognizing my voice
The Nokia Nseries World 24h application adroitly puts experiential benefits ahead of product features by beautifully incorporating consumer experiences with a very tactile, passionate product that allows the sharing of gaming, video, and music interests, as well as photography.
Influencers VIP club
Windows Mobile's Mobius group and Sony's PlayStation Gamer Advisory Panel are great examples of groups that segment and invite their most valuable influencers within a particular ecosystem to take part as an exclusive product advisory committee, helping review next generation products while promoting (even leaking) key announcements via their personal communities.
Points, Web 2.0 style
Converse Japan takes a very Web 2.0 approach to loyalty, whereby points are provided based not on how many shoes purchased, but rather how vociferously people promote the brand in their personal communities. The points can be redeemed later for products.
To summarize, to build a comprehensive loyalty program:
- Leverage data to realize a more personalized value exchange
- Where possible, combine hard and soft benefits
- Consider a more experiential approach that allows members to share, brag, debate, and retell experiences with (or sponsored by) your brand.
Friendshare is not only a competition between Delta and American Airlines, but between all travel brands and every other product and service that nets a point, reward, or rebate. Points are OK, but I'd rather redeem them for a once in a lifetime experience I can share with my family. Something which I can capture photos of via my Nokia handset and then publish on my Flickr account. Something that will make my daughters think I'm the best dad in the world. Now, that's something tangible.
Robert Manning is VP of client services for Schematic. He can be reached at rmanning@schematic.com.
