Week 6

So, picking back up from the brand loyalty saga I posted during Week 4?if you?ll allow me to indulge you?I?ll now bring you up to speed about my fight to be recognized for my unwavering brand loyalty to BRAND X shave gel.

As you may recall, I approached BRAND X with a proposition to make SOME meaningful effort to demonstrate their appreciation for my business over the years?something of which sorely lacking, and that I was unwilling to forego any longer. As I took the time out of my busy schedule to write to the company, I was ?compensated? promptly I might add, but with a whopping $2 coupon off my next purchase. Unfortunately, that was the first and last ?reward? I received from the company?my guess being that I wasn?t taken very seriously.

That brings me to today?more than one year later. I?ve since continued my loyalty to BRAND X solely because of my near-obsession with the product. Problem being was that I was getting the itch to voice my opinion again. Only this time, thanks to a few more IMC classes under my belt (i.e., public relations, audience behavior, brand management and direct marketing?which I?m taking now), I was a wee bit more academically equipped on the subject, which brought to light a much stronger sense of marketing savvy to defend my position. As you?ll read, I fought with the near-vigor and passion of a lawyer trying desperately to win a case for a client whose fate was likely already decided on by the jury.

Febraury 12, 2008

Hello CONTACT,

Hope you’re doing well!

Last January, you responded to a request I had concerning the lack of discounts/rewards available for your loyal customer base. After you sent the $2 off coupon (thank you again, by the way), I was under the impression that my name would be automatcially placed in your company?s marketing database as a customer that represents a relatively high Lifetime Value (LTV) and therefore, would be embraced by BRAND X?not the opposite.

I wonder why you chose to used a ?one-off? approach to address my concern, rather than a more effective one that would have kept me loyal for far longer than the now-seven years that I’ve done so. In my world, this means that priced at my local retailer (CVS) at a never-wavering $6.29, I?ve purchased a total of 63 units of BRAND X shaving gel (9 tubes per year) for seven years – equating to my current customer value of nearly $400.

Without a reason to jump ship from my loyalty to your product and company, factoring my estimated life expectancy of 87 years of age minus my current age of 31, means I could POTENTIALLY buy your product for the next 56 years, give or take. Less inflation, at $6.29 per purchase (minus tax), times nine purchases per year, my LTV COULD be in upwards of nearly $3,200!

That may not seem like a lot of money – say, compared to your company?s total bottom line – and profits for other product lines, but on a customer-to-customer basis, wouldn?t it be a lot cheaper for you to nurture a VALUABLE customer than spending the money it will take to solicit and secure a future prospect?

Surely there?s something you can do to reward my loyalty in a much more meaningful way?

Thank you kindly in advance for your feedback.

Best regards,

Jamie J. Pachomski

Dear Jamie,

Thank you for your continued support of BRAND X. When you shop on our website, we offer the opportunity to collect loyal subject points that you can redeem for free products. I have pasted the details on this program below and I do hope that this is in line with the loyalty rewards that you have in mind. We certainly value you as a dedicated and long-standing customer!

Kind regards,

BRAND X CONTACT, VP of Operations & Finance

So, what followed was a detailed summary of how I could collect ?loyal subject? points, as my contact so succinctly put it (trust me, if you knew the name of the company, it makes perfect sense). Excited at first that such a program existed, I did my due diligence to see how I could START to be rewarded for my ongoing loyalty. Of course, that lasted about two minutes after the question appeared in my mind: Why didn?t she tell me about this before if I was truly valued ?as a dedicated and long-standing customer?? To give the company the benefit of the doubt?whether this is true or not?let?s just say that such a program didn?t exist when I initiated all of this correspondence.

But, then came the rationalization. Was this ?loyalty? program they were just now telling me about truly meaningful? Did they finally say to themselves, ?Okay, let?s take this matter under consideration for a moment and figure out a way to make an extra special effort to demonstrate our appreciation to this customer?? Lastly, ?After all this time, don?t we owe SOMETHING to this valued customer?? Well, if you 1) are a complete idiot 2) crawl at an infant level in mathematics and 3) could care less about how profitable YOUR loyalty contributes to many companies? bottom line, then I suppose the answer to all of these questions would be a resounding ?Yes!? Fortunately or unfortunately, I can?t resound a ?Yes? to any of them.

After I read through the program details, I learned quickly that buying online might work to my advantage as the $6.29 retail price I had been paying for years was reduced to $5.39 per unit?a monstrous $.90! Not bad. Already, I?m saving, right? Well, there?s a catch. The distribution center for the product is located in the UK, so shipping presents a well, slight challenge. For one unit of my favorite shave gel at the reduced manufacturer?s price of $5.39, I have to add on an additional $6.95 for shipping, bringing my total purchase to $12.34?just under what it would cost for two units at my local retail outlet. Ah, but there?s more!

Because my contact mentioned there was a loyalty aspect of this program, I continued to entertain the matter. Here?s a bonus: If you spend more than $40 (which, in my case would be purchasing 8 units) the shipping would be FREE! Okay, so stay with my here. If I buy 8 units at $5.39, my total purchase would be $43.12 and no shipping. I?m thinking, ?I could fly with this.? But, here?s the kicker?the ?loyalty.? The ultimate reward for purchasing the product is measured by your typical earned point system. In my case, for each unit, I earn 100 points. To redeem my grand award (one FREE unit), I have to earn a total of 2,000 points.

Again, my specialty is communications, but if you?ll indulge me in the math for a moment. In other words, to earn my free product (a $5.39 value), I?ve got to buy 20 units at $5.39 per unit to accumulate my 2,000 points. In financial terms, I get one free unit of shave gel for every $107.80 I spend by shopping online, which by my calculations would cover my needs for about 26 months or so.

I do apologize for such a dissertation of information, but if you haven?t been able to tell, I?m quite passionate about this particular issue. As I?ve droned on about this, I turn the issue to you. What should I do next, if anything? Should I just spend the $107.80, get my free product, which would bring my total unit cost down to $5.13, and call it a day?

I guess my question to you is?is this how loyal customers should be rewarded? Are my expectations simply too high? Should I elevate my concern to the president of the company? Help me here…I?ve (obviously) thought way too much about this.

Please help!

Jamie