MEET MARKET
PERHAPS YOU COLLECT OLD CARS. Or breed ferrets. Or are searching desperately for your perfect mate. No matter what your hobby or goal is, chances are you’ve looked online to bond with people who share your interests.
Marketers are, of course, doing the very same thing, turning to the Web to build and foster customer relationships in ways they couldn’t with traditional media.
Data storage marketer Imation Corp. took its loyalty initiatives to the Web with the Rewards@Imation Program (RIP), and finally found a way to leverage the sort of customer data it had been collecting for years through rebate promotions. And the Pittsburgh Penguins are scoring points with fans — and selling tickets — through their content-heavy site.
Shooting for brand loyalty and recognition is the way to go when you want to build relationships online, notes New York-based multichannel marketing consultant Jack Aaronson. “The smart companies are realizing that content is more effective than pure promotion.”
“The real power of online marketing is to establish a dialogue with customers and keep them coming back,” agrees Al DiGuido, CEO of Bigfoot Interactive, New York.
Pointing the Way
For years, Oakdale, MN-based Imation has done standard mail-in rebate offers, but had not done anything with the marketing data collected through those promotions. The company has a 45% share of the diskette market, notes market development manager Daneen Kiger. Seventy-five percent of Imation’s data storage customer base is business-to-business while the remainder is consumer.
Imation knew it needed to create a program that would build brand loyalty with its user base, so at the end of June 2001, using FastForward’s Epic software suite, it launched RIP. Labels bearing a special RIP code are attached to each of the 25 to 30 products now featured in the program. Consumers go to the RIP Web page (www.rip.imation.com), where they enter the product and UPC codes to earn points, redeemable for things like free CDs, DVDs and low-end computer peripherals. RIP members also are eligible for free software as an added incentive to join the program.
Many customers accrue enough points for a prize quickly, notes Kiger. For example, someone who buys a 100-CD spindle would get 7,500 points, enough for a CD. Customers can also earn points by purchasing products on the site.
Because products are packaged at facilities across the world, the program was rolled out slowly, both so the new packaging could be coordinated and existing inventory at retailers could sell out. Imation is adding CDs and hardware such as the RipGO! mini CD-R burner/digital audio player and CD-R and CD-RW drives to the promotion.
When users register, they’re asked for information about how and where they use Imation’s products, as well as where they make their data storage purchases. So far, 16,000 members have signed up, at a rate of 150 to 200 new members per day.
In the second phase of the program e-mail blasts will be sent to customers who opted in to receive e-mails from Imation or its channel partners.
The first e-mail campaign to the complete opt-in database — a product promotion — is slated to drop this month. Future e-mail campaigns will promote channel partner offers, new product information and site updates such as added rewards prizes. In the spring Imation will begin doing e-mail surveys, with points offered as an incentive to respond.
“We will also be able to narrow the database by what they have purchased in the past and how they are using our products,” says Kiger.
To avoid channel conflict, Imation will not share information on its customers with competing retailers, stresses Kiger. For example, if someone tells Imation it has only purchased from OfficeMax in the past, the company will not share that information with Best Buy.
Kiger estimates that “several hundred thousand” e-mail addresses had been collected through the old rebate programs. Imation still runs channel partner-specific mail-in rebate (MIR) programs. “We will probably always use MIR to drive promotional activity and in-store traffic at retail,” says Kiger. But “in 2002, we trimmed promotional spending substantially when we introduced our RIP promotion. This is a value-added program that benefits both us and our customer base.”
Next month, when Imation is confident of store-shelf penetration of products with the RIP packaging, an e-mail blast will be sent to e-mail addresses collected through the old rebate program to tell them about RIP. Imation is just beginning to consider creating a B-to-B version of RIP, which is being promoted through print ads in Spin, Vibe, Rolling Stone, Twice, and Entertainment Weekly.
Melting the Ice
In early January, prompted by the fact a game wouldn’t be broadcast on television (it was pre-empted because of the extended NFL season), the Pittsburgh Penguins offered its first enhanced streaming radio feed online with video highlights. About 500 registered users sent in queries for a halftime question-and-answer session with the management of the National Hockey League franchise.
This, says Michael Lee, the Penguins’ vice president of properties, falls in perfectly with the team’s Web strategy to give its fans added value — and get information — in return.
The Penguins have about 40,000 to 50,000 names in its database, with e-mail addresses appended to about 95% of the file. Twenty-four thousand fans have registered to receive PeNS, the Penguins e-News Service, a free opt-in e-mail newsletter typically sent on Mondays. The timing allows the team to update fans about the previous weekend’s game and ticketing information for the next seven days.
The Penguins began using the Contact e-mail delivery module of FastForward’s Epic system in December 2000 (DIRECT, Sept. 15, 2001). Sergio Radovcic, CEO of Pittsburgh-based FastForward Inc., notes that e-mail was the ideal vehicle for the Penguins because campaigns can be created and executed very quickly. After all, who wants a ticket after the game? “Their inventory is obsolete as soon as the whistle blows.”
Indeed, the team has used e-mail to alert corporate clients to luxury suites still available the day before a game. But this season, the Penguins haven’t had to run many promotions to sell last-minute empty seats (not so much because of a winning season, notes Lee, but because of fan interest in the return of popular player Mario Lemieux). While there is the desire to always fill the 17,148-seat arena to capacity, Lee notes that one has to be wary of angering the “full-fare passengers” — the 10,500 full or partial season ticket holders — with deep discounting.
If there are 1,000 to 2,000 seats left the day or so prior to a game, the chances of a near-sellout are good. If it is more of a soft game — perhaps on Monday or Tuesday, or against an opposing team that isn’t much of a draw — the Penguins look to partnerships to “sponsor” their e-mail blasts. For example, an e-mail might go to listeners of radio station 102.5, offering $10.25 tickets.
Some promotions use the sponsors’ file to find attendees. Two-for-one offers on the Mellon Arena’s best seats have been sent to Pittsburgh-based Mellon Bank employees via Mellon’s intranet. One thousand last-minute tickets have been moved this way.
“Mellon Bank is also a very large corporate partner of ours. It’s an added-value perk of their relationship with us that is win-win,” says Lee. “They add to the value of working at Mellon Bank while we sell tickets that might not otherwise be sold.”
The Penguins see other opportunities here; e-mail blasts offering coupons for discounted items at the arena store have been successful, as have pre-sales on Web site and e-newsletter exclusive items. And e-mails offering fans the first shot at other area events, like a recent Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young concert, have worked well.
Standalone spots for Pittsburgh Penguins.com run on TV and radio during the game. Not surprisingly, Web visits spike immediately following a game, as well as during lunchtime the next day.
No segmentation has been done with the Penguins’ e-mail file yet, but the team is looking at that potential for next season. Lee notes that for future promotions, the team needs to take into account not only the demographics but the psychographics of the fans. “There are different levels of fans, so we need to take into account to what extent is this fan a fan,” he says.
