Smartphone loyalty

In my most recent blog I discussed the fact women are very loyal towards their tight-brand. According to this article, with smartphone users this is not at all the case. 56 % of the smartphone users does not know which brand they will buy the next time. Mainly the Microsoft users aren’t loyal to their actual brand. Only 21% (one fifth!) is certain to buy a Microsoft smartphone the next time. As already discusses in former blog posts the apple users are the loyalist. 59% thinks they will buy an Apple the next time.  Yet companies have much to gain with retaining their customers in the smartphone branch. Because 37% of the respondents say they will buy a smartphone on their next purchase. It seems that the smartphone market has not at all reached his saturation point yet!

Bob Dossche

Het Nieuwsblad

Customer loyalty in the tight business.

Surprisingly for 50 percent of our group I guess, probably not for the other 2 persons. Tights and customer loyalty, a happy marriage!

Saturday evening, a regular TV-night with the ordinary decoction of ‘idol’; X-factor. A night not to remember normally but now this wasn’t the case thanks to the performance of Cheryl Cole (famous UK pop star) or at least Cheryl Cole’s tights. She wore Wolford’s Bondage tights with a zebra print on it. This fact was staggering enough to hit the cover of several Sunday newspapers and to cause a rush for hosiery like the Californian one in 1848. The interest in tights has been growing since al long time. They used to be just a subtle addition to a skirt or dress. Now they have become a theme in themselves. Tight sellers found out women remain very loyal to one brand when it comes to buying tights. Merchandising director Luisa De Paula phrases it like this: “The hosiery category has significantly grown through repeat purchase, driven by customer loyalty with brands such as Falke”. The marketing manager of Waldorf come to the same conclusion, in the beginning of every season customers come back to check out to new trends or just buy another pair of basic stocks. Women being very loyal over the brand of their ‘socks’, I didn’t expect.

I cannot confirm these facts in the article, but maybe Liesbet or Annelies could?

Bob Dossche

(Financial Times)

Customer service as the building stone to customer loyalty

The airline industry has suffered very hard from the worldwide economic crisis.

First of all, fuel prices were exorbitant. Secondly, people preferred less expensive conveyances to travel, and the number of people planning a city trip declined dramatically.

Due to this economic crisis and the sharp concurrence between numerous airline companies, the relationship between companies and its customers has become very important in the airline industry. There even exists a prestigious ‘Customer Cup’, a trophy for the company who improved his customer service the most.

The six most important accents the companies were judged on are gate interactions, the boarding experience, delays and delay management, onboard interactions, baggage handling and baggage resolution. This year, American Airline had the honour to receive the cup, just like last year.

It is obvious that airline companies have to attach importance to an impeccable customer service in order to survive, since this is the basic principle to make their customers use their services again.

(American Airlines)

Annelies Martens

Customer loyalty model

I have searched what our good friend Wikipedia has to say about customer loyalty. Wikipedia talks about 'a loyalty business model', the quality of a product or service leads to customer satisfaction, which leads to customer loyalty, which leads to profitability.

Customer satisfaction is first based on a recent experience of the product or service. This assessment depends on prior expectations of overall quality compared to the actual performance received. Customers are said to have a 'zone of tolerance' corresponding to a range of service quality between 'barely adequate' and 'exceptional'. In general, customer loyalty is determined by three factors: relationship strength, perceived alternatives and critical episodes.


Liesbet Gillis (Wikipedia)

Case study: Starbucks

For my final blog I have decided to study Starbucks and I will try to  link it with my previous blogs. 

Starbucks has a simple marketing strategy: make your customers addicted to your products.  They do this by handing out monthly benefits to their customers. Fortunately Starbucks avoids the trap discussed in 'data friend or foe' by  giving incentives to their customer to buy a lot of small amounts. Therefore only customers who really want their products will go along with this strategy.  To accomplish this strategy they use a ‘Starbucks credit card’. This means that you can buy whatever you want in ‘Starbucks dollars’ and when your credit drops below a certain point it reloads and you pay actual dollars.  

On top of that Starbucks also tries to create ‘the Starbucks experience’. This  is based on 5 principles . It basically means that they try to surprise their costumers, pay attention to details and most importantly motivate their employees. The why is simple, motivated employees work harder and  will give your customers a better experience. These principles reinforce the fresh image of Starbucks.  And image is what turns loyal customer in very loyal customers with the benefits discussed in 'Customers divided'.  I think this explains why the Starbucks star is shining so high in the sky.

Frederick Dobbelaere

The 5 principles 

Starbucks marketing 

Kinepolis loyalty card?

The Kinepolis Group, the well-known chain of movie theatres, is suffering from the competition with illegal downloading of movies. Although we students can get a student card, going to the movies is still a slice out of our income. And a night out at the movies isn't complete without sweets, popcorn and soft drinks off course! At the Forbes website I've read the following article.

Regal Entertainment Group, the largest theatre circuit in the United States has its own customer loyalty program, Regal Crown Club. The number one theatre loyalty program in the United States will reach its 10 year anniversary. In 2001 the Regal Crown Club began a way to reward Regal's frequent moviegoers. Through the Regal Crown Club, moviegoers accumulate credits at the box office and concession stand to earn free popcorn, soft drinks and movies.

Don't you think Kinepolis should create a loyalty program by giving credits every time you go at the movies and buy some popcorn?
I personally believe that this would raise the number of people going to the cinema.

Liesbet Gillis (Forbes)

Customer loyalty in actual practice

I have found an interesting case study by Kobie Marketing about the effect of a customer loyalty program on sales. The program was designed for a cellular phone company.

The pdf document describes what the loyalty program is about and how the researchers verified the effectiveness of it. The description of the method researchers used to examine the loyalty program is really elaborate. Therefore, I think this study has a high reliability.

The conclusions of the casestudy were remarkable: customers in the loyalty program spent an average of 35% more than customers in the control group (who were not in the loyalty program). What’s more, this program even generated an annual return on investment (ROI) of 252%. This comes down to an additonal profit of $2.52 for every $1 spent, after covering all costs.

The overall conclusion of the case study is that creating customer loyalty is a requirement, especially for companies operating in the mobile phone market.

(Case study)

Annelies Martens