In the UK today, 42% of marriages end in divorce. That’s 13 every hour. It’s a shocking statistic when you consider that these are relationships in which a huge amount of time, energy and money has been invested. For brands, the outlook is much worse.
In highly competitive markets like utilities and energy, 100,000 customers leave their current supplier each month. That’s 1,300 an hour. In telecommunications, it’s double that.
Quite simply, it’s easy for customers to go elsewhere because too many brands are just not paying enough attention to their customers’ needs. They don’t understand what their customers really want – and they don’t realise that consumers expect more than an annual birthday message in return for their loyalty. Like any relationship, customers want to feel genuinely valued and rewarded for what they put in.
Fortunately, brands can develop ‘happy ever after’ relationships – and it’s worth the investment. The right brand partnerships can give customers access to things they both need and desire, making the grass on the other side much less green.
4 Ways to Create your Happy Ever After
- Understand what your Customers Really Want and Own it
Understand what has deep emotional meaning for your customers. What do they wake up and go to sleep thinking about? Then own it. Companies like O2 Priority put this into practice. O2 Priority was founded on the simple insight that customers want to feel important; we all want to be a ‘priority’. O2 Priority works with its brand partners to give customers unique access and rewards linked to the things they love, things it couldn’t offer them on its own. It understands its customers’ passions - music, sport, fashion, film, eating out, shopping - and then works with partners to give customers experiences and rewards which fulfil these passions. Importantly, they use targeting and technology to deliver them when it matters most in their lives.
- Be Truly Unique
Many brands get caught in the trap of thinking that loyalty can be won by offering deals or offers readily available in the market. It cannot. This might be a service, but it is not the reason customers stay with their bank or mobile provider. The key to success is distinction and exclusivity for your customers. Orange Wednesdays Cinemas offers a unique value deal that provides a great reason consumers favour this cinema. Every Wednesday, tickets are 2 for the price of 1.
- Create a Big, Stand-out Idea
Create the big idea and then bring this big idea to life through. Western Union did this by realizing their customers live and work away from their families, often sending money back home. Based on the insight that their customers are proud to be where are they are now, as well as where they have come from, the idea of Dual Belonging was created: “When your heart belongs in more than one place, when you’re as proud of your heritage as you are of your future, when you impact cultures and economies as much as they impact you, when you make a difference in multiple places at once. Be proud of your dual belonging. We are.”
This initiative connects their 200 million customers with their homeland and the people they love through exclusive products, services, experiences and rewards. Whether it’s the chance to call home for free, tickets to watch their team play in the UEFA Europa League, to print family photos or get a gift for Diwali, we bring them things that matter. In this way Western Union deliver on a big emotional promise and become much more than a money transfer service.
- Find your Perfect Moment
The growth and dependence on technology, such as mobiles, mean customers demand contact that is relevant and appropriate to them. For example, Aviva Drive uses the power of the mobile to reward drivers not only for the way they drive their cars over a 200 mile test tracked via GPRS, but to also reward them with exclusive benefits linked to their car and journey.
In an increasingly overcrowded, demanding and disloyal marketplace, the right brand partnerships can help you attract and keep your customers. To achieve those happy ever afters, first you need to understand what your customers really need and desire. Unearth their emotional heartland, then bring them something relevant and unique that they can’t get anywhere else.
If brands today are going to stand out in all the noise, they have to be brave and bold. Being a game-changer, or turning failing fortunes around, means creating a big, new idea you can deliver personally and meaningfully in the right place and right time.
Brand partnerships are all about bringing brands together to complement each other, and act as catalysts for each other. Brands can harness and leverage their mutually beneficial strengths, working together for their customers and enabling each other to think and be bigger and achieve more.
About the Author: Tamara Gillan is the CEO of Cherry London, which she founded in 2009 after heading up e-Marketing at Orange and setting up an integrated agency. Tamara is the driving force behind Cherry London’s unique and highly-effective marketing programmes, which have attracted leading brands such as O2, Aviva, Premier League, Western Union, Pernod Ricard, Unilever, Simple, and Small Luxury Hotels of the World.