NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A growing interest in electronically connecting with consumers is driving interest in areas of mobile marketing and loyalty on the first day of the three-day NACStech conference in Nashville, Tenn. Initial sessions addressed the potential of communicating via customers' mobile phones, loyalty capability and electronic coupons.
"It's another layer of communication between us and our customers," said Kevin Brumley, president and CEO, Sac-N-Pac Stores Inc., San Marcos, Texas, whose chain recently initiated a social-marketing strategy. Speaking to approximately 200 attendees at a session focusing on mobile marketing, loyalty programs and social media, he said, "It's a communication that's going to happen with our without us."
The chain's efforts began modestly, but over time, Brumley felt a successful social-marketing strategy had to have its own resources. His information technology (IT) people were focused on day-to-day concerns, trying to keep the chain's technical engine running.
His 45-store chain would eventually bring on staff, creating goals that included the following:
- Providing customers a consistent experience.
- Creating a strategy that would cross all operational areas.
- Drive action--so that the customer interaction would lead to increased sales.
Though many results were qualitative, he said they found areas were the chain could measure success, including the following:
- The number of times the chain engaged customers.
- Increased participation in its loyalty program.
- Increased database of customers.
- Driving people to the chain's website.
The company initiated a points-based loyalty program a few years back and today uses social media to augment that effort. Using Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare and YouTube, it has initiated efforts such as having people take a photo of its company vehicle--heavily done up in the chain's color scheme--as it drove around town and post those photos on the chain's Facebook page.
Similarly, the chain would donate to a particular charity if people "liked" their Facebook page, donating a dollar per "like" and an additional 50 cents for "sharing" the comment with friends. In that drive, 1,159 people liked the promotion's photo while 816 shared it.
Pressure to engage customers is coming from multiple directions, other session speakers said. Houston-based Shell has already "crossed the line," according to Anton Bakker, president of Outsite Networks, Norfolk, Va., who moderated the panel. He said that the oil company has moved its rewards program beyond ties to partner grocers to cross-discount fuel with c-store items. "It will happen everywhere."
Bakker said mobile communication will become integrated with payment, loyalty and social marketing, with "the power shifting to the consumer."
C-store operators are trying to differentiate themselves, reaching out to customers in an effort to stand out, according to Axel Kirstetter, vice president of product strategy for KSS Fuels, Florham Park, N.J. "They're injecting themselves more in loyalty and marketing activities."
That increased activity benefits solutions providers like KSS, because retailers are becoming more sophisticated with their operations and more interested in looking at options. He also noticed a shift in thinking regarding business-intelligence solutions, with dollars moving from capital spending to operational, giving way to software-as-a-service (SaaS) business models.
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