They Do: Bridal registries work on retaining loyalty long after the honeymoon

At most weddings today, it’s not just the parents of the happy couple wishing for a lifelong relationship. More and more, retailers and marketers like Macy’s West, Target and Della Weddings are tagging along with targeted offers, coupons and occasion reminders, hoping to stick around with the married couple until death do them part.

One-to-one is rapidly becoming an essential component of the bridal registry business. Brides and grooms who register with Target, for instance, currently receive congratulatory letters after they’ve tied the knot. The messages accompany swipe cards couples can use to accumulate and spend credit for returned merchandise.

More ambitiously, Macy’s West launched a “clientele” marketing database last spring to keep in touch with couples throughout their married lives. With this system, couples who sign up for the retailer’s bridal registry now receive targeted offers from Macy’s personal shopping and interior design divisions.

“It’s a personal follow up to the bride,” says Renee Post, creative director for Macy’s West’s special services. “Many are starting a new life and moving into new homes and apartments. We’re always trying to keep in mind that, for our customers, it’s not just a registry, but an ongoing relationship with Macy’s.”

LIFETIME SENTENCE

As an online wedding site, Della Weddings also hopes for a “happily ever after.” The site manages Internet-based bridal registries for retail partners like Dillard’s and Crate & Barrel. Eventually, parent Della.com – which also has kid and all-occasion registries – intends to “follow” these bridal couples as they buy homes and have kids, birthdays and anniversaries. “Our goal is to be the lifetime gift solution for people,” says Blythe Lang, relationship marketing manager for Della.com.

That’s a big change for the bridal registry business. Even though brides are big business – an engaged woman generally spends $10,000 before her wedding, according to Leslie Clark, Macy’s West’s director of bridal services – registries traditionally have operated as the opposite of targeted marketing. Even today, few use special promotions or loyalty programs to seek out customers. Instead, it’s been up to bridal couples to do the seeking, usually based on the retailer’s geographical convenience. For years, the biggest advance in the whole enterprise was the introduction of the scanner gun, so the spouses-to-be wouldn’t have to bother writing the SKU numbers of their preferred products.

Post-wedding, the marketing honeymoon ended fast. So-called “bridal completion programs” have typically consisted of discount coupons for luggage or hotels, or of discounts on still-available unpurchased registry items. Few retailers segment these offers, even though they know, in detail, whether the couple keeps a formal home or informal apartment, or whether they’re interested in high-tech goodies or gourmet cookware.

That’s a waste, say target marketers. “The bridal registry is one of those rare instances in which the customer voluntarily jumps up and says, `Here I am, and I am entering a very important stage in my life, an event connected to other key life events,'” says Rick Barlow, CEO of Cincinnati-based Frequency Marketing, a relationship/ loyalty marketing agency. “If you have [a registry] and don’t use it to create a profile of your customer – one that you can at least use as the backdrop for a relationship strategy that goes beyond the wedding – then you are wasting a wonderful resource.”

Della Weddings, for one, is out to exploit the information gap left by traditional retail-store bridal registries. Launched in June 1999, the Web site now handles 300,000 bridal registries. Granted, most of those brides did not register online, but rather at Della Weddings’ retail partners, like Banana Republic and Williams-Sonoma. Once Della Weddings receives the registry – along with daily or weekly retail updates on registry purchases – it welcomes the couple by e-mail or information packet, inviting them to manage their registries online.

Because Della Weddings receives a percentage of each product sale made online, the Web site gives brides plenty of incentives to stick to the computer. Couples and guests (via password) can click through retail store offerings, update the registry and see which products have been purchased and what’s left. They can create customized Web pages featuring photographs, wedding plans, hotel suggestions and directions. They can also set up “occasion reminders” for, say, the bride’s nephew’s upcoming birthday. Finally, they can roll their bridal registries into Christmas and anniversary wish lists, so that Uncle Jack can still buy that place setting if he chooses.

KEEPING TRACK

Through automated order-tracking and e-mail, Della Weddings notifies couples of, for example, a new soup tureen that’s been produced in their china pattern. Or it can suggest additional items in the $100 price range after all the registered items have been purchased. While the company won’t share its results, so far, according to Lang, about 15% to 35% of registrants click through the e-mail cross-selling messages.

By “adding value” to the wedding experience, says Lang, Della hopes to keep couples around for its other gift registries. “We start with brides because bridal registries are ingrained behavior,” she says. “If the bride has a good experience with that, she’ll come back to us for baby clothes. It’s a great time to get involved with a couple – when they’re starting a whole new life.”

That’s also the goal behind Macy’s West’s “clientele” system, in which bridal registry information is shared via PC network with personal shopping and interior design departments in 30 larger Macy’s West stores. Registered brides receive targeted e-mail birthday reminders, discount offers and invitations to events, like crystal signings. More critically, they receive calls and letters introducing them to Macy’s personal services. If they opt to use a personal shopper, they then fill out a detailed Macy’s By Appointment profile, which feeds the database for further targeted offers.

Macy’s West won’t say how many names are currently in the system, but, says Post, “I can tell you it’s very successful.” The system, moreover, is bound to grow. Macy’s West partnered in February with The Wedding Channel, which means Macy’s brides can now manage their registries online. Because the Web site contains the bride’s personal wedding calendar, “It will trigger e-mail to remind you, `Now’s the time you need to look for a bridesmaid’s gown,'” says Clark, who directs bridal services.

Like Della Weddings, Macy’s West intends to maintain its bridal relationships long past the honeymoon. “We keep the client going in the system,” says Clark. “This customer base is valuable for the future. They’ll be buying homes, furniture, interior design. It’s the beginning of the lifetime spending cycle, which is so huge for this group.”

Not every retailer, though, has proven ready for those one-to-one commitments. JCPenney, for instance, may be headed for splitsville with its “Spousivity” program, launched last November. Relatively few couples, reportedly, proved willing to pay $69.96 for a personal wedding planner, e-mail reminder program, and an assortment of discount coupon offers. “The whole program is under review,” says spokesperson Tim Lyons.

As an online wedding site, TheKnot.com also has no plans to keep in long-term touch with its brides. “We’re not marketing as an all-occasion registry,” says spokesperson Jessica Kleiman. In fact, the site earns most of its revenues ($2.6 million from January-September 1999) through banner ads, not gift sales. “We’re really about focusing on the bride and groom,” says Kleiman. Currently, the site maintains customized wedding pages, a bridal registry, fashion site, online wedding-planning tools and weekly/biweekly newsletters on gifts and fashions. So far, about half a million brides have registered with the four-year-old site.

GETTING PERSONAL

Kleiman points out, though, that TheKnot.com intends to get more personal with its bridal registrants. This month, the system will add more detail – such as ethnicity – to the customer profiles. That means couples planning a Jewish wedding, for instance, may receive a notice that it’s “time to order your chuppah,” says Kleiman.

Moreover, she says, the company intends to soon “build in some interesting opportunities for newlyweds.” While Kleiman wouldn’t release any details, she notes, “We certainly realize the power of having these people rely on our site for nine to 14 months, and not want them to leave it.”

Meanwhile, retailers like Manhattan-based Michael C. Fina continue to emphasize the person-to-person touch over target-marketing possibilities. At Fina, nine full-time bridal experts consult regularly with the company’s registered bridal couples, calling by phone to recommend certain products or to notify them if their gift choices are running low. “We spend three to four hours with each couple on their first visit, whether in-store or over the phone,” says Hilary Donahue, vice president of the fine tabletop retailer. “You don’t get that much attention from a car dealer.”

She admits, though, that the company hasn’t been quite as earnest in its post-wedding follow-through. After the honeymoon’s over, most couples receive three or four loosely targeted special offers, such as a Lenox mailing to Lenox customers, as well as two or three catalogs.

But soon, she says, the company’s upcoming Web site should keep the customer lovefest going stronger. Like Della.com, the Michael C. Fina site, due this year, will allow brides to update their registries, create customized Web pages and stay in touch with the company’s bridal consultants.

“We believe the Internet is perfect for one-on-one direct marketing,” says Donahue. “Down the line we should be able to use the Internet to give the same kind of ease and personal attention you get from a consultant. But,” she adds, “we’re not there yet.”