FedEx Kinko’s Dips a Toe in Loyalty Marketing Waters

FedEx Kinko’s is running a continuity program awarding points for office services and printing in its 1,400 U.S. stores.

FedEx Kinko’s Rewards is a three-month campaign that lets members collect 10 points for every dollar spent on office supplies and printing in-store. Members redeem points online for merchandise that changes every two weeks, or a $10 FedEx Kinko’s gift coupon.

An instant-win game that runs at the same time will give away notebook computers, electronics and branded premiums as prizes.

The Rewards campaign is part of a broad promotion for FedEx Kinko’s signs and graphics business. Those services, offered by about 400 stores, get a strong in-store push through June. The online Rewards program dovetails with that, while extending FedEx Kinko’s reach to small-business owners throughout the chain’s 1,400 stores.

Rewards runs through June—too short to be a true loyalty program, but long enough to boost store traffic and FedEx Kinko’s small-business database.

“This lets us segment our customers better to make sure our offers and communications are in line with their business needs,” said Kristy Treleani, marketing specialist advisor at FedEx Kinko’s. The chain isn’t considering a long-term loyalty program, she added.

This is the first time that FedEx Kinko’s has done a continuity program, but it’s old hat for parent FedEx Corp. The retail division is borrowing the tactic as FedEx continues to integrate marketing for Kinko’s, which FedEx bought in 2004.

Shoppers register at FedExKinkos.com FedexKinkos.com, then enter codes from cash register receipts for qualifying purchases. (FedEx shipping and purchases made online at FedExKinkos.com don’t count.) Points are tallied online, and can be redeemed at the site at the end of the campaign.

FedEx Kinko’s is being intentionally coy about the rewards themselves, mentioning only its gift coupons for now, with bigger rewards to be posted on the site every two weeks. (Think iPod accessories, digital cameras and FedEx-branded merchandise.)

“It’s a teaser campaign. We want to get people to keep coming back to the site to see what the rewards will be,” Treleani said.

Members get double points when they buy signs or graphics, and earn 250 extra points for answering a survey about their business. Epsilon Data Management handles the rewards program.

For each receipt code that members enter, they get one game piece for the instant-win Scratch and Match game. Players “scratch off” three windows using their computer mouse to reveal pictures of FedEx Kinko’s services. If the pictures match, the player wins. Six grand-prize winners will get an HP Pavilion Notebook PC. Lesser prizes—over 1,000 of them—range from Blackberry Pearl PDAs, Nintendo Wii game systems and iPods to FedEx-branded coolers and die cast cars. EPrize handles the game.