Print, Electronics, and Local Retailers

Jay Upell discusses the local retailer strategy for Powerpass, a customer loyalty card targeted for use by small retailers. Jay notes how the customer base's habits determine in large part how the service should be delivered.

Like this? Let us know with a $5 donation, so we can do more

Filed under: Ann Arbor, MI | Finding Gaps | Jay Upell | PowerPass

In this 8 minute podcast (download iPod compatible, 42MB), Jay Upell of PowerPass and I discuss how retailers use PowerPass. There are two components. First, retailers can target their promotions better toward people who use the card. Blind promotions tend to get response rates on the order of one to two percent. Targeted promotions, such as the Powerpass birthday program get on the order of fifteen to twenty percent, a factor of 10 improvement.

An interesting piece of information that falls out of this interview is the primacy of regular mail over email in promotions. Powerpass's retail customers typically have ten times more mailable addresses than email addresses. A further limiting factor on email is the prevalence of SPAM.

Finally, we get to how sophisticated the retailer has to be to participate in the program. Training is required, and there are prebuilt reports for things like sales after promotions. Powerpass will also work with retailers to build custom reports.

Additional Links

There's a fine line between legitimate email and spam such that many commercial messages are quickly caught in spam filters.

2 Comments

Brianne Fuller on November 17, 2007 11:55 AM

Having watched Bob Holland's interview about the progression of Powerpass, I found this to be a great complimentary interview. In this interview, I found the marketing strategy (marketing the businesses to the customer, not the Powerpass to the businesses) very interesting. I of course realized that with the usage of a loyalty card, that relationship marketing would be the obvious strategy. With the internet boom, I just assumed that targeting their Powerpass customers through e-mails would be the most beneficial and affordable way (ie. no postage). I was surprised, though, to learn that the most effective tool was actually mailers to known customers, such as Birthday postcards, coupons, etc. In fact, the main customer demographic (age 55 and older) didn't even have the technology to access the Internet, let alone have e-mail. Watching this interview just proves that market research is an absolute neccessity. You have to know your customers inside and out; their demographics, their wants and needs, their buying patterns, and so on. Perhaps, down the road, e-mail will take over as the most effective form of one-to-one marketing for Powerpass. In fact, it will probably be a gradual turnover that they will monitor carefully, adjusting their promotions and mailing types as their main demographics change. Best Wishes, Brianne Fuller

Anonymous on March 30, 2008 10:51 AM

I have to agree with Brianne above. I found this interview to be very interesting. I enjoyed it because it takes a different look at an old marketing standard, the mailer. I was always taught that the mailer or flyer is a great way to reach a large audience for a small amount of money. It was never a specialized or targeted marketing tool, it was used more or less to get the information to as many people as possible and hope for a return. Now they are saying that in order to see the best return companies must target their consumers better, they need to research their clients before sending the mailings. I currently work in a retail position and our company is pushing more and more to obtain customers emails because of the convenience and lowered cost to the organization. But as they were saying in the interview with the increases amount of spam, coming and the general privacy concerns customers do not want to give out their email. I would like to see a follow up interview in a few months or even a year that talks about how organizations are combating this email problem. Lena Heyn Emu Student E00243434

Search

Print, Electronics, and Local Retailers

Additional Links

0 TrackBacks

2 Comments

Leave a comment

From Our Readers

Subscribe by Email

Financing Innovation

Early Stage Innovation

Network Businesses

From the EMU Google Partnership

From our Bullpen

From the New Enterprise Forum

Links