The need for a greater customer intimacy is getting amplified by the changing trends in consumer behaviour
With the Indian economy’s appetite for growth refusing to die down and the Great Indian Middle Class story coming true with each passing day, marketers are rushing to get a share of the growing customer pie, and acquisition-based strategies led by one-to-many communication strategies have largely remained in favour. However, many of the marketers were blindsided by the recent recession and only after peeling off layers of misplaced optimism, they found maturing markets, commoditisation of products and fleeting new customers. Coupled with this are the rapidly evolving patterns in consumer dynamism as two main trends that are increasing visible are 1) social networking giving rise to a new found willingness to share more personal information in exchange for personalised services and 2) recession fueling ‘conscious’ against ‘conspicuous’ consumerism. Therefore, the need to invest in knowing and keeping your existing customers in a tearing hurry has never been felt more whether you are dealing with consumers or businesses. The recessionary times, growing media fragmentation and the changing trends in consumer behaviour have forced marketers to find answers to – Who are my customers? Where are they? What are their preferences? How loyal are they to my product/services?
A loyalty program is a long term strategy to identify, retain and grow profitable customers. These strategies, when designed and implemented correctly, provide you with invaluable information about your best customers, what they value in the relationship, their preferences and what it would take to gain their trust. This becomes the quintessential foundation to create products & services that continue to be relevant to customers and thus increase repeat purchases, grow profits from existing customers, and most importantly retain your best customers for a long time.
With the Indian economy’s appetite for growth refusing to die down and the Great Indian Middle Class story coming true with each passing day, marketers are rushing to get a share of the growing customer pie, and acquisition-based strategies led by one-to-many communication strategies have largely remained in favour. However, many of the marketers were blindsided by the recent recession and only after peeling off layers of misplaced optimism, they found maturing markets, commoditisation of products and fleeting new customers. Coupled with this are the rapidly evolving patterns in consumer dynamism as two main trends that are increasing visible are 1) social networking giving rise to a new found willingness to share more personal information in exchange for personalised services and 2) recession fueling ‘conscious’ against ‘conspicuous’ consumerism. Therefore, the need to invest in knowing and keeping your existing customers in a tearing hurry has never been felt more whether you are dealing with consumers or businesses. The recessionary times, growing media fragmentation and the changing trends in consumer behaviour have forced marketers to find answers to – Who are my customers? Where are they? What are their preferences? How loyal are they to my product/services?
A loyalty program is a long term strategy to identify, retain and grow profitable customers. These strategies, when designed and implemented correctly, provide you with invaluable information about your best customers, what they value in the relationship, their preferences and what it would take to gain their trust. This becomes the quintessential foundation to create products & services that continue to be relevant to customers and thus increase repeat purchases, grow profits from existing customers, and most importantly retain your best customers for a long time.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2010.
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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