There’s A Reason There Are 4 P’s To Marketing…
It seems I might have to eat a little crow. My last post celebrated Domino’s Pizza Turn Around promotional campaign for its innovative use of TV, Web and social media to launch a new pizza recipe aimed at restoring the Domino’s reputation on taste. And while I still believe that the promotional effort is incredible, the pizza (at least for me) was not. Having 3 pieces of 2 different pizzas, I feel I can reasonably conclude more work still needs to be done for the brand to improve its taste issues. This reminded me of just how important it is to address ALL aspects of marketing–Promotion, Price, Place AND product. Or as a Ogilvy has recently evolved them the 4E’s of marketing (Experience, Everyplace, Exchange and Evangelism).
So why the discrepancy? How can all these people claim that there’s been an improvement in the pizza and yet so many comments on pizzaturnaround.com indicate otherwise?
My guess is that the Domino’s didn’t really want to rock the boat too much and alienate their core customers my making significant changes to the product (though as I understand it, you can still get the original pizza recipe), or the abilities of the corporate kitchen do not reflect the executional capabilities of the chain. Either way in my experience, the product didn’t match the promotion. This is a rare case where an agency out did the client–in other words the campaign (what the agency is responsible for) brought customers in the door but the product (what the client’s responsible for) probably isn’t good enough to create a meaningful following.
Dominos Pizza
A month and a half ago, Domino’s Pizza launched an incredibly novel but 
inherently risky marketing effort. Approaching 50 years of business, Domino’s scrapped its legacy pizza recipe and, based on focus groups and customer feedback, reengineered its pie. The new recipe boasts a new sauce, 100% mozzarella cheese and garlic and butter crust. All key areas to focus on when designing a new pizza at least accord to consumer research featured in a February 2009 American Express Market Brief.
Turning the brand over to the customer
Reviews of new pizza via Twitter
While it’s definitely not novel or incredibly risky to re-engineer a product based on market research and advertise that you “listened”, it is extraordinary to have the chutzpah to publicly admit (via paid media spots) that the product they’ve been selling for years falls extremely short of your target customers’ expectations. Yet Domino’s did this and more. In an age when most marketers are reluctant to admit that the brand belongs to the customer—not the company, Domino’s embraced social media and allowed for open and apparently unfiltered reviews of the new product.
The new marketing campaign announcing the new pizza, “Oh, Yes We Did” launched in mid-December with TV spots depicting the evolution of the recipe. Along with the TV spots, Domino’s launched a micro-site pizzaturnaround.com, to tell the complete story about the inspiration behind the new recipe and to capture customer feedback. The content on the site is honest and raw. No sugar-coating. And while much of the early participants tested the transparency of what Domino’s was sharing from customers (apparently everything), since then the conversation has shifted back to the product. If I had to guess I would estimate that between 40 and 50% of the feedback was positive toward the new recipe.
At first blush, you might be tempted to argue that the risks of the new campaign far outweighed any benefits that could be received. The chance for failure was far too great. Change a product and then open up a corporate forum for your customers to bash you? Are you nuts? Marketing experts across the country questioned the intelligence of the decision. An advertising executive quoted in The Washington Post felt the line Domino’s was walking was dangerous.
“Two bad things can happen: You drive away the people who liked the old pizza better, and you don’t really make the new pizza better, which makes your [new] customers say, ‘You lied to me.’ Domino’s has to make damn sure they’re not making it 5 percent better. It better be 50 percent better.” Claudia Caplan
Prioritize properly
This is true. However, I still believe this move is more intelligent than most pundits give it credit. Here’s why: For years Domino’s had positioned itself as the king of delivery, offering free pizza if it wasn’t on your doorstep in 30 minutes. With all the focus on delivery though, Domino’s lost site on taste. According to reports cited on CBS as well as a presentation from Domino’s to
Domino's tied for last place in taste prior to launching a new recipe
investors—the chain tied for 6th in taste in a customer loyalty engagement index. Who were they tied with you ask? Chuck E. Cheese. Ouch.
Differentiating your offering from substitutes can be extremely useful in establishing a competitive advantage, provided you prioritize these differentiators properly. But Domino’s (until recently) didn’t. Putting all its effort into the delivery component, it forgot about the pizza. But in the pizza business, delivery speed just isn’t as important as taste. I’d be willing to bet that most people would wait 10-15 minutes longer, if it meant getting a more enjoyable product in the end. It doesn’t matter how quickly you can get it to your customers, in a competitive market they just aren’t going to order your food if it tastes significantly worse.
Focus on the customer
Domino’s decision to focus on taste is a move to align the product experience around what matters to the customer. Only time will tell if the new recipe resonates with consumers. If you believe Domino’s recent taste test results, you’d contend that they’re already making strides. Once it improves its taste perceptions with consumers, say in the top 3, delivery speed could once again become a meaningful competitive advantage for the chain, but not until then.
Keys to good brainstorming
We’ve all participated in a brain-storming session that resulted in only a drizzle of novel thinking. So, why are some brainstorming sessions more successful than others?
My brother is a firefighter. He told me once that in order for there to be a fire you need heat, oxygen and fuel. I think the same is true for a successful brainstorm. It’s just that in a creative environment we define heat, oxygen and fuel differently.
Generate Heat
Everyone in the session needs to feel the heat a bit during the session. “Heat” is created from everyone feeling accountable for the results of the brain-storm. Two easy ways to generate some heat are competitive pressure (e.g. assigning teams to compete against each other), and peer-pressure (having representatives present their ideas to the group). When colleagues see that there is some sort of reward for the effort, or disincentive for not participating fully I’ve noticed that the intensity and focus for the session improves.
Pump Oxygen into the Room
The word oxygen comes from greek oxys (sharp) and genes (producer or former). When I speak of having “oxygen” in a brainstorm I mean making sure your “sharp producers” are in the room. These people will breathe life into a brainstorm. Sharp producers look at a problem from all angles. They aren’t afraid of being wrong. They are willing to build off other ideas and capable of connecting disparate thoughts. And perhaps best of all, they are comfortable with ambiguity.
Sharp producers create an atmosphere of “renewable energy” for the session, maintaining momentum and providing practical optimism when others in the group see obstacles or are jaded from previous failures. Sharp-producers aren’t compelled to blast down a singular path like a rocket, putting on blinders and focusing solely on one idea. Rather they float above the problem like a hot-air balloon–high enough to keep a wide perspective, but close enough to the ground to make out some of the details.
Fuel for Thought
For a good brainstorm you need an exercise to serve as fuel for the heat and oxygen you’ve generated. It needs to provide focus for the session and encourage new perspectives. Additionally, it needs to set general guidelines to drive the group toward delivering new ideas and solutions.
There are a number of good brainstorming exercises out there. Do a Google search and you’re sure to come across thousands. However, some are better than others. My recommendation is to look for exercises that:
- Keep sessions fun, engaging and moving
- Creates a goal for the session
- Encourages collaboration between all participants
- Re-focuses energy on what is possible–not just probable
- Maximizes the quantity of ideas being generated–not the quality (there’s plenty of opportunity to apply filters later)
My Top Reads of the Last Decade
A list of great books I read over the last ten years that will influence me in the decade to come
Books for strategy development
1. Blue Ocean Strategy: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make Competition Irrelevant
W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne
Stuck in a strategy slump? Kim and Mauborgne offer an incredibly simply and effective way to size up a market and create sustainable differentiation. I’ve successfully used their “strategy canvas” exercise with a team to determine where the competition plays and how we can chart a course to stand out in a crowded and confusing marketplace.
2. The Back of the Napkin: Solving Problems and Selling Ideas with Pictures
Dan Roam
I’ve used the approach for solving problems Roam outlines over-and-over again. His theory is basic—but all good theories are—visualizing the problem leads to better solutions. I keep a copy of his framework tacked up on my desk for constant reference.
3. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind
Al Ries and Jack Trout
A marketing classic. Still relevant 20-years after it was first published.
David A. Aaker
Aaker builds off the foundation from Reis and Trout.
5. Purple Cow: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable
Seth Godin
When I read this book, I had flashbacks to Blue Ocean Strategy. Fundamentally, they’re saying much of the same. Blue Ocean is more Business Strategy while Purple Cow has a tighter focus on marketing. These books complement one another like cake and ice-cream.
Interactive Marketing
6. Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability
Steve Krug
Intuitive Web design isn’t necessarily intuitive. Krug provides sensible recommendations on improving user-experience.
7.The Long Tail: Why the Future of Business is Selling Less of More
Chris Anderson
The concept of the “long tail” isn’t novel—firms like Netflix recognized it long before Anderson, but Anderson is so incredibly perceptive in his analysis of this trend you still walk away from the book with gobs of insight and a sharper perspective of online retailing.
Books to Build Better Teams
8. Gung-Ho! Turn On the People in Any Organization
Ken Blanchard and Sheldon Bowles
Spirit of the Squirrel. Way of the Beaver. Gift of the Goose. Blanchard and Bowles tell an impactful story and provide salient messages for managers. If you seek to build a strong team or strengthen an existing one and haven’t read this book, you’re putting yourself at a disadvantage.
Tom Rath
Know thyself. If you believe that a key element to building an efficient team is to first take inventory of your strengths and weaknesses, this is the book for you. A combination book and online assessment, I walked away with a solid understanding of the fundamental skills
Dr. Seuss
Just because it’s a children’s story, doesn’t mean there isn’t value in adults reading it. Someday I’d like to teach a management course and use children’s books as the required texts. The Emperor’s New Clothes and this story would certainly be on the syllabus. In Yertle the Turtle, Seuss offers a A timeless tale on the impact of ego-centric work environments.
Books That Inspired Me
11. With Malice Toward None: A Life of Abraham Lincoln
Stephen B. Oates
Despite it being a work of non-fiction, the book reads like a novel with a vivid depiction of Lincoln’s public life. If you want a real life example of a leader who kept it together in the face of tremendous obstacles—many of which go unmentioned in popular teaching, this is the book.
12. Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West
Stephen Ambrose
Undaunted Courage is to the American West as The Right Stuff was to the Space Program. Makes a cross-country trip with the kids to the Grand Canyon look like child’s play.
What My Daughter Taught Me About Marketing
My daughter loves to play with our plastic-ware. It’s in the only cabinet in the kitchen that isn’t baby-proofed and she takes full advantage. Lids, bowls, tubs, big, or small she doesn’t discriminate. It was during a recent cabinet raid, that I noticed our collection of plastic-ware expanded considerably. In fact, we have quite a few tubs of a particular size from buying a particular brand of luncheon meat. Here’s the rub: What I originally perceived as a value-add of buying this product is now actually going to stop me from buying it in the future. Short of adding another cabinet in the kitchen I just simply can’t store any more of this stuff. Throwing it away or even just recycling it seems wasteful.
Perhaps my household isn’t the ideal target for processed-meat-packaged-in-plastic-ware. Maybe their targets are folks who make a lot of lunches and give away tubs full of homemade soups and cookies with their excess containers. But I doubt it. Instead, I just think the company may have forgotten that it’s possible to give your customers too much “value”.
Shared Experiences Build Stronger Brands
Viral Email Campaign
Shared experiences fundamentally connect us. Although we often seek to express ourselves as individuals, we also still long to be a part of a community. Whether it be a hundred thousand fans attending a fierce rivalry between college football teams, or a few thru hikers on the Appalachian trail around a campfire–sharing an experience can create deep emotional connections. N.I.F.T.Y. marketers can create opportunities to build stronger brands using shared experiences as the impetus. A great example is the Nike+Human Race Event, held tonight all around the world. Billed as the “world’s largest one-day running event.” There are 24 official cities participating in the event. Additionally, anyone can turn their local route into a 10k simply by registering on the site and using the Nike + gear.
Target Dorm Parties Pretty N.I.F.T.Y.
It’s every marketer’s dream–a clearly identifiable and accessible target with a demonstrated history of spending 
money–taking over their store to hang out and maybe pick up a few items while they’re there.
Target Corp. created just such an opportunity in recent years by targeting college freshman headed away from home for their first time. The Minneapolis based retailer recently launched a series of very clever, very focused private store parties for freshmen. Here’s why I believe it’s N.I.F.T.Y. marketing idea.
Novel: Target invited freshmen just arriving on campus to an in-store after hours “dorm party”. It coordinated with approximately 35 colleges and universities nationwide according to an article in The Daily Iowan (though it appears that at least some of these parties were not
Students arrive at a Target Store in Iowa/The Daily Iowan
limited to just freshman). DJ’s helped create a unique atmosphere and students had a chance to win prizes that ranged from an X-Box to goldfish(ones with gills–not the ones in the packaged foods section). To be entered to win some of the prizes, students had to text their entries to the store. Because some universities do not allow freshmen to have cars on campus, Target arranged for round-trip bus transportation.
Inteligent & Flexible: Strategically for Target, the back-to-school/college programs are extremely important sources of revenue for the third quarter. However, Target’s approach with college freshman wasn’t just N.I.F.T.Y. because it helped reach a short term goal. It’s savvy because it establishes a relationship with young adults just at the infancy of their consumer potential. According to Leah Guimond, spokeswoman for Target (as quoted on Marketplace) the initiative is expected to have an ROI that pays dividends into the future. From Target’s point of view: “It’s way for us to build relationships with these students over the years as they evolve into different life stages of getting married and having babies and growing with us over the years”. Brand loyalty aside, there’s also a more immediate pay-off to the tactic as well. Boston College business professor, also quoted on Marketplace said that the parties help students find the closest campus Target so that when parents are in for a weekend and need to pick up a few items for their kids before heading back out-of-town, the students know just where to take them–extending the revenue stream for the retailer into Q4 and beyond.
Targeted: According to information for the National Retail Federation, college freshmen spend more money than upper classmen on dorm furnishings, electronics and school supplies–all things that Target provides at price points can afford. See the chart to the below.
While the information provided from NRF certainly justifies why retailers should target college freshmen, it doesn’t
College Student spending by Class Rank/National Retail Federation 2009
necessarily tell retailers when they should engage them. Obviously, the back-to-school season makes the most sense and that’s when most retailers typically make their move. Certainly, Target is no exception. However, Target is also reaching out to freshmen during the few days they’re on campus ahead of upper classmen. Traditionally freshmen arrive on campus 3-5 days ahead of the rest of the student body giving them a little extra time to get settled in and take care of some of the university’s pre-class requirements (remember convocation: “look to your left and then to your right–one of you will not be here in 4 years??”). Additionally, when the upper classmen arrive on campus, freshman are more easily distracted by trying to fit in–finding the right bars, the right fraternity houses etc. SoTarget’s smart to hit campuses early when freshmen are likely to be a little more attentive.
Yes!: One Target store, located near the University of Iowa campus indicated that the sales from the Dorm Party represented 14% of the receipts for the day. According to an August 19th conference call with analysts, Target’s August sales were trending slightly higher over recent months, though it was still early in the season. The company expects same store sales in Q3 to improve over last quarter partially as a result of driving traffic from aggressive back-to-school and college programs.
Updates on N.I.F.T.Y. Marketing Posts
Time for an update on some of the previous N.I.F.T.Y. marketing posts:
Responsibility Project
Liberty Mutual scored a big name production house to produce its most recent Web shorts. George Clooney’s Smoke House released the 15 minute film, “Tony”, about a father trying to find his son’s lost teddy bear, in time for Father’s Day. View the film here: http://www.responsibilityproject.com/films/landing/tony/.
Harrah’s Total Rewards
Accolades for Harrah’s ability to mine data for meaningful customer insights continue. Here’s a recent article from Computer Week: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jun/22/harrahs-thinks-it-can-gain-online-gambling/
Harrah’s also recently jumped into the online gambling industry, creating a subsidiary in Montreal to circumvent US online gambling laws. With its deep database of Total Rewards members across the globe, look for the company to make significant inroads quickly in this space. Read more here: http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2009/jun/22/harrahs-thinks-it-can-gain-online-gambling/
Marketing Responsibility: Liberty Mutual’s Responsibility Project
In June 2006, Liberty Mutual began a new campaign with the theme/slogan Responsibility. What’s your policy? You may recall some of the television spots depicting everyday Americans confronted with a decision to do the “right” thing or “look the other way.” According to press releases at the time, the campaign consisted of a 60-second branding spot with 4 additional 30-second television spots and 4 print ads focusing on specific insurance lines. The $38 million campaign developed by Hill Holiday was accompanied with an interactive component, namely banner ads that allowed users to interact with an ethical/moral dilemma and respond to a poll. The banners drove to a micro site–whatsyourpolicy.com, where visitors could take a poll, see how their response
WhatsYourPolicy.com Poll Content
netted out against other visitors and submit poll questions for potential inclusion on the site. The campaign was extremely well received by consumers–especially parents, teachers and religious leaders and quickly gave consumers something they could easily associate with the nation’s 6th largest insurer.
The success of the initial campaign, including whatsyourpolicy.com evolved to the insurer launching the ResponsibilityProject.com in 2008, a web initiative dedicated to, according to the “About “section of the site, exploring “what it means to do the right thing.” The site features responsibility web films and a professionally written blog on responsibility. To keep the site fresh, the goal is to launch a new web film every few weeks. As Liberty Mutual prepared the launch the site it also began negotiating with NBC to modify a future script of the TV drama Kingsto create additional relevance to the responsibility campaign. The entire plot of the episode was about personal responsibility and meant to loosely tie back to Liberty Mutual’s sponsorship. However, according to a March 30, 2009 article in The New York Times, the episode aired in February and Liberty Mutual did not end up committing to being the sole sponsor and did not have a modified script. Though Liberty Mutual seemed to baulk at solo sponsorship, its sponsorship did coincided with the insurance company’s launch of an advertising campaign around the Responsibility Project. The campaign follows a fictional family as they deal with a variety of very real, very common conundrums that many Americans are also dealing with in real life. The unbranded spots, drive viewers to ResponsibilityProject.com where visitors are invited to comment and leave their opinions.
Is it N.I.F.T.Y?
Novel: I can’t think of too many companies that have attempted to “own” a marketing dialogue on responsibility like Liberty Mutual. Sure, many companies incorporate it into their business processes, but very few claim out right claim that responsibility is their way of doing business. For example, one could argue that Ben & Jerry’s has a marketing dialogue on responsibility and certainly the company has demonstrated its commitment to the environmental and social issues. But that’s more or less traditional corporate social responsibility. And there’s nothing wrong with that. But that type of responsibility is practically expected in this day and age. In fact, according to a March 2002 article in the Journal of Financial Services Marketing, entitled “The Effect of Corporate Social Responsibility on the Branding of Financial Services,” 42% of North American consumers surveyed said they “punished companies for being socially irresponsible” (Michel Ogrizek Journal of Financial Services Marketing; Mar 2002; 6, 3). Traditional corporate responsibility makes good business sense. But, let’s contrast traditional corporate social responsibility with Liberty Mutual’s approach. Liberty Mutual has associated its brand with a public dialogue on the general subject of personal responsibility. This approach has essentially given Liberty Mutual an “advance” on the brand’s “responsibility equity”. In other words, because building brand equity around responsibility takes years–even decades–Liberty Mutual couldn’t come out beating its chest on how responsible it is. It would be too much of a stretch for consumers. But Liberty Mutual is able lead the discussion on personal responsibility. In so doing, it creates positive associations between the brand and the need for greater responsibility in day-to-day living. The tagline: Responsibility. What’s your policy? implies the company’s cut and dry approach to responsibility to its customers and begs the question: what else would you expect from your insurer?
Intelligence: Does the responsibility project relate to Liberty Mutual’s overall corporate or marketing strategy? This is difficult for me to prove. As an observer I can only speculate on the company’s branding strategy by reading what’s publicly available. I think it’s fair to say however, that the responsibility project dovetails well with the overall corporate re-branding begun in 2006 with the theme responsibility.
Multi-Faceted: Liberty Mutual has done a tremendous job of ensuring that the equity its building is accessible to its targets from a variety of angles. First there are the TV spots for the Responsibility Project itself and the ResponsibilityProject.com. Although well executed, they are essentially marketing turbines for generating greater salience with the Liberty Mutual’s core brand message of responsibility. This core brand message continues (as it should) to payoff the theme of responsibility in TV spots and interactive media. Additionally, the company’s willingness to explore alternatives to traditional media placements, specifically the Kings episode was particularly intriguing and hints at Liberty Mutual’s desire to explore all channels and approaches in order to make aggressive strides in its targets’ awareness of its corporate identity.
Targeted: I’m just going to have to take a leap of faith in Hill Holiday and Liberty Mutual’s understanding of their
Responsibilityproject.com Demographics
target audience. In everything I’ve read to prepare for this blog entry, nothing spoke to targeting—other than it resonated well with teachers, parents and religious. But I assume they have a more specific target audience (psychographic and demographic) in mind as they rolled this campaign out. Even so, it is interesting to look at the discrepancies between the demographics of visitors to libertymutual.com and the responsibility project site (as provided through Quantcast.com). Visitors to the responsibility project site tend to be older, female, mid to low income and less than 2 children in the household. Visitors to libertymutual.com tend to be more affluent, a higher level of education, middle age and middle income. While I can’t say that this is good or bad, assuming that the Liberty Mutual site is indicative of the core target for its insurance products—then the responsibility project is not doing much to attract a similar audience to its site. Again, this doesn’t necessarily mean the strategy is faulty since Liberty Mutual could be targeting an entirely new segment, not familiar with the brand. If this is the case, the strategy is working. If not, it appears that the responsibility project site isn’t attracting the same demographic that frequents the corporate site which could indicate a potential challenge to the approach.
Yes! Is responsibility enough to make someone want to work with Liberty Mutual? The verdict is still
LibertyMutual.com Demographics
out, and the public may never know how successful this campaign actually is. Traffic to the site according to Quantcast is 136K per month. It appears that a slight upward trend began about the time the new TV spots broke. However, if Quantcast statistics are even modestly reliable, the site doesn’t appear to be able to draw repeat traffic—perhaps a sign that this strategy isn’t working. (To be sure there are a number of short falls with the stats I provided—but it’s the site I am most familiar with so I’ve defaulted to those numbers.) On the plus side, I do feel Liberty Mutual now has something consumers can associate with the brand and connect with. Despite the less than stellar repeat traffic, Liberty Mutual did experience a 4.0% lift in auto premiums in the first quarter compared to Q1 2008, and an 8.0% increase in home owner policies over the same period—indicating that, Responsibility Project or not, they’ve done something right.
Harrah’s N.I.F.T.Y Mobile CRM Initiative
Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. is one of the largest casino operators in the world, running about 50 casinos in 5 countries-including casinos or resorts in 12 states in the US.
Harrah's has casinos in 12 states
I didn’t really know much about Harrah’s until a retail consulting company I was working for about 10 years ago, was scheduled to do a project for Harrah’s and I needed to learn more. Harrah’s again came to my attention when I was taking an information systems course in grad school at Xavier. One of our cases was on Harrah’s CRM program called Total Rewards. This program is a great example of customer relationship management and put into action what many are currently working toward–closed loop marketing–knowing your customer so well you can anticipate their needs, at any time, at every point of contact. Harrah’s closed-loop CRM is at the core of its business strategy. Case in point see the slide from a February 3, 2009 corporate presentation.
Recently, Harrah’s launched a mobile arm to its Total Rewards strategy. While Harrah’s CRM effort makes a great case study in N.I.F.T. Y marketing with or without the integration of the mobile component, the program is even stronger by incorporating it. Additionally, it demonstrates what an agile marketer Harrah’s truly is.
Capturing the right data
When most marketers think of CLM, their minds immediately gravitate toward data capture. While it is true that data capture is a big component of CLM, I think what most marketers tend to underestimate is making sure that you’re the right data. In other words, we try and capture everything under the sun about the customer in our haste to implement a program. We rush past the need to identify how we’ll use the data, in so doing fail to identify the key data points that are required to deliver on the program’s objectives. Ideally, we should be efficient in our data capture obtaining enough information to be able to meet the goal, but not so much that we can’t do it efficiently.
Harrah’s CLM program is a great example of company doing it right. This program has evolved beyond just the recording of information and now capable of predicting which games a guest is most likely to play, the types of rooms they stay in, and which promotional offers will be the most motivating to the specific target. As a result, Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc. became so efficient and deliberate in its data capture, organization, analysis and execution that it grew its share of Total Rewards customers’ discretionary gaming entertainment grow by 20% (Stanley, T., High Stakes Analytics, Optimize, February 2006).
Their new mobile initiative is fairly straightforward. Total Rewards guests staying at a Harrah’s property are invited to opt-in through on site promotional collateral. Once opted into the program, Harrah’s can begin texting offers to the customer. The offers come via SMS bypassing all the hassles associated with handset compatibility. The offers vary, but according to an article by Mobile Marketer Daily include free parking offers to entertainment tickets. Once the user receives an offer he can redeem the offer via an on-site self service SMS scanner from bCode–that authenticates the text message and provides the reward.
bCode Plane Scanner
You can learn more about the specifics of the marketing program from Harrah’s at mediamarketerdaily.com and about the bCode redemption kiosks at bCode.com.
Here’s why I think it’s N.I.F.T.Y.
Novel: Harrah’s mobile approach is novel in that it isn’t using the channel to push a marketing message or special at a target but simply rewarding its most loyal members. One of the examples used to describe the program, was an initiative to get rid of unsold seats for a show. When excess seats are available, a text message is sent to Total Rewards customers. The offers are based on location (meaning the customer is currently staying in the vicinity of the resort and time, therefore the customer is reached when and where it is relevant-when the member is at a casino property. The participant is already fully engaged in the brand experience (visiting a Harrah’s property) so, by adding a mobile Harrah’s is able to add a “real-time” reward dimension to their existing rewards platform.
Intelligent: What makes the mobile CRM program novel is also what makes it intelligent–not forcing the customer to open themselves up to a barrage of marketing messages, but instead preventing unused inventory from going to waste by giving something of value to its most important customers. Second, because the effort is happening in a sort of controlled environment, there’s immediate gratification–signing up, receiving the offer and redemption all happen within the same environment–the casino property. Most marketers utilizing mobile are at a significant disadvantage not knowing when the customer is in the right place and time to push an offer. Harrah’s structured its effort to utilize mobile while the member is at (or within a short distance) to the property, which also plays into the Targeted aspects of N.I.F.T.Y.
Multi-Faceted: Because the mobile campaign is an extension of the Total Rewards program, there are myriad of ways a customer can interact with the program and track their point balance, see and book offers. Because the program is so well positioned and clearly occupies a distinct purpose to the overall CRM initiative and because the program is so easy to participate in and redeem, I anticipate solid participation levels (Yes).
N.I.F.T.Y Marketing 