Taking a Break from Your Vacation

Summertime, and the living is not quite so easy. And as we all know, it's the economy that's the drag.

Can you take a small break from basking in the sun and sipping lemonade and eyeballing your blackberry? Ok. Let's devote a few minutes to jump-starting your business!

Let's focus on some ideas that are going to help you succeed while your competitors are floundering. Here are three summer marketing ideas to get your brain humming:

Reassurance

1. Focus on the Recession: That's right. Your customers know there's a recession. You can't hide it from them. That's why Hyundai's Assurance program was such a hit. You can see the program's details here. If you buy a Hyundai and your life alters in a significant way in the next 12 months, such as losing your job, you can walk away from your lease or loan. That's comfort for the consumer, and helped Hyundai increase sales.

Since everyone is feeling the pinch of the recession, offering your customers a good economic deal makes a lot of sense right now. Emphasize "value packs" or "free shipping" or your "money-back guarantee." Telling your customers you're increasing services or lowering prices because of the recession will position you as a company that cares about its customers.

Make sure you don't stop advertising. Study after study has confirmed that companies that maintain their advertising budgets during recessions do better than their competitors when the recession ends.

TOP This

2. Spruce Up Your Loyalty Program: Supermarket loyalty programs have languished in copycat land for far too long. Top Food & Drug owned by Haggen, Inc. of Bellingham, WA, has a new twist on loyalty that might shake things up. According to Supermarket News, the Top Connection program relies on RFID readers mounted on top of payment terminals and RFID-enabled key tags containing unique customer identifiers. When a shopper buys an item that goes on sale within seven days, the customer's account is automatically refunded the difference.  In addition, customers get customized email offers, can access their shopping history online,  create shopping lists based on purchases, and download recipes.

Safeway in Hawaii is rolling out another program based on customer shopping habits.  It's "Just for U" program gives special offers to people who sign up with their email address and loyalty card. The offers are customized for each customer and are not available in-store.

Both these programs are using something most supermarket companies ignore: the data that is collected when customers use their loyalty cards. The more supermarkets use this data to reward their customers, the more loyalty these "loyalty cards will generate revenue and profits.

You don't necessarily need a loyalty card to offer these types of personalized specials. Many businesses keep track of purchases by customers. Try offering customers deals on items they have already bought. Office supply companies like Quill do this all the time.

Take a Good Idea and Extend it

3. Expand on a successful program: Many supermarkets are offering reduced fuel prices to their customers who use loyalty cards. For instance, the Price Chopper chain where we live gives us 10 cents a gallon off for every $50 we spend in the supermarket. The program is a big hit. Here's an idea from the Giant Eagle chain to make a fuel program even more valuable for consumers. It's called "foodperks!" which compliments their "fuelperks!" program. This new program gives shoppers a percentage off their food bill when they use their loyalty card at GetGo stations.  For every 10 gallons, shoppers get to take 1 percent off their food bill, up to a total of 20% food savings. The program even works when shoppers fill up their tanks at lower prices because of fuel savings from grocery shopping.

By tying food and fuel together (both necessities for most consumers), Giant Eagle both helps its customers save money and keep their supermarkets at the top of the consumer mind.

Try to be innovative and combine with other businesses to offer benefits to consumers. Canada's Sociatabank  and movie theater chain Cineplex combined for a SCENE program which now has over two million members in Canada. The program lets consumers earn points every time they see a movie and use the points to see movies for free. Other businesses, such as concert promoters and satellite radio stations, have joined SCENE because of the buying power of its customer base.

The lesson is clear. The more you offer your customers, the more your business moves to the forefront of your customers' mind.

Raphel Marketing is a full service marketing and advertising firm. We specialize in direct mail programs, website construction, and marketing consulting. Please call us at 802-751-8802 for a free initial consultation.