Government interview with Chris Cobb reveals necessary suggestions for malls and shops
Editor’s observe:
Making a buyer loyalty resolution for retail can take many kinds. Options have to be tailor-made to satisfy the channel and enterprise mannequin of the person retailer. For that purpose, there actually isn’t a single resolution for “retail loyalty”, removed from it, and in our view, one of the difficult fashions is for purchasing malls.
It takes specialization and focus to serve the multi-tenant marketplaces identified to shoppers as “malls or purchasing facilities” and Coniq is acknowledged by the trade because the pioneer and chief in serving to progress minded purchasing malls, shops, and retail manufacturers create enterprise worth from information, empowering shoppers to enhance foot visitors, buyer satisfaction and gross sales. Coniq was based in 2011 by Ben Chesser and has constructed a consumer roster composed of a who’s who of probably the most prestigious retail locations globally.
Coniq’s loyalty/CRM platform and options revolve round client information seize, using the newest in expertise to grasp who’s on property, the place and once they’re purchasing, what they’re spending, and their purchasing preferences. These insights are then used for message personalization inside CRM and loyalty packages, together with free, paid/subscription, and tiered loyalty. The corporate has registered some spectacular wins in North America recently, Mall of America and Tanger amongst them. Smart Marketer caught up with Chris Cobb, Coniq VP, Gross sales & Loyalty Technique to study extra concerning the firm, its options and enlargement plans.
Smart Marketer (WM): Chris, thanks for taking time to speak with Smart Marketer. Are you able to begin by telling us a bit about your self and the way you discovered your manner into the loyalty enterprise?
Chris Cobb (CC): Thanks for having me, as I’m all the time excited to speak loyalty and buyer information. To not age myself, however for over 30 years, I’ve been supporting retail manufacturers to assist them drive retailer visitors, gross sales, purchasing frequency, model engagement, and total buyer loyalty. For practically twenty years, I had the chance to work for the most important print promoting company within the US, the place we might marry retailers’ buyer loyalty information with syndicated demographic, buy energy and life-style information to drive promoting price range effectivity and ROI for his or her focused print advert campaigns.
I then transitioned into the loyalty expertise options area, the place for 10 years I used to be working with retail manufacturers on designing, constructing, and optimizing new or revamped loyalty packages. Throughout that point, I had a powerful concentrate on paid and subscription loyalty fashions. Now at Coniq, I’ve the chance to work with probably the most iconic purchasing, eating, and leisure locations to assist them drive elevated visitors and better ranges of loyalty to their malls and shops, whereas concurrently growing the success of the retail manufacturers at their properties.
WM: That’s really a tall order, serving to manufacturers and malls achieve reaching their targets in live performance with each other. What have you ever taken out of your time within the trade that influences your method to serving retailers within the mall setting?
CC: From my early experiences in print promoting, I used to be capable of observe the lifecycle of assorted advertising and marketing methods. With the ability to play an element within the entrance finish improvement of advert campaigns after which seeing the outflow of outcomes regularly jogged my memory of the ability of buyer information. If you happen to’re going to satisfy buyer expectations in the present day, you’ve received to handle information neatly and effectively, whereas constructing belief with prospects that you simply’ll defend that information as the valuable asset that it’s.
WM: You talked about Paid and Subscription Loyalty. These are phrases which have been attracting plenty of consideration and funding from retailers of late. What’s your view on this loyalty mannequin and the way does Coniq outline these phrases in its go to market technique?
CC: Relying on who you communicate with, you would possibly hear the phrases paid, subscription, membership, or premium loyalty used to explain what is basically the identical factor. In terms of how retail manufacturers outline paid packages nonetheless, you might get many various solutions based mostly on their desired KPI’s for his or her program.
For instance, Amazon Prime expects extraordinarily excessive utilization of member advantages, as the common Prime member spends practically 3X greater than the non-Prime member, so the membership income is poured again into funding this system advantages. The Finest Purchase Complete program alternatively is stuffed with service and tech assist associated advantages (like piece of thoughts insurance coverage) so there’s the chance for that program to generate backside line income ought to service and assist not be crucial for these paying members.
Coniq’s expertise in paid loyalty has been targeted on offering a extremely elevated, extra helpful buyer expertise, with distinctive one-of-a-kind rewards, to mall and outlet customers. This contains each transactional, in addition to experiential, advantages which might be distinctive solely to members. These packages are designed to deliver loyal prospects again to the purchasing heart extra regularly, lengthen their dwell time, have them go to extra retail manufacturers, and enhance total spend whereas there.
WM: What are among the greatest examples of paid or subscription loyalty that you simply see available in the market in the present day?
CC: There are such a lot of high-quality paid loyalty packages available in the market in the present day, and I’ll point out a couple of specifically that I consider ship unimaginable client worth and have made me extra loyal to their model.
The Panera Sip Membership is a straightforward program however delivers nice worth. Prospects pay $11.99/mo. or $119.99/yr and get countless free espresso, tea, lemonade, and fountain drinks in addition to unique affords loaded onto their account. For the patron, it’s extremely simple for them to see the worth – a member simply must take pleasure in one drink per week to get the membership to pay for itself. Anybody can try this math rapidly and resolve if becoming a member of is correct for them.
REI, a frontrunner in out of doors attire, footwear, gear, and companies, has a singular coop mannequin and affords a lifetime loyalty membership for a single price of $30. As soon as a member, you get a present card to make use of on your subsequent buy together with free transport on all orders, reductions on merchandise, even campsites reservations, 20-30% off bike and snow store companies and leases, free bike tire restore and ski waxing. Additionally, a really cool factor is that REI donates a portion of all membership charges to its nature preservation fund, a trigger that makes a powerful reference to many REI prospects.
WM: Any others you can point out?
CC: Whereas I’m a bit biased on this one, I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out Mall of America’s MOA Insiders program, which incorporates each free and paid tiers. Sure, Coniq helps this program, and it’s actually modern. The free tier permits members to entry reductions and offers at Mall of America retail, meals and beverage and leisure tenants, whereas additionally incomes factors on purchases that can be utilized to unlock much more affords and experiences.
When upgrading to the paid tier ($35/yr), not solely do you get entry to numerous larger worth offers, reductions, and experiences in addition to incomes 5 factors for each $1 spent on the mall, however members additionally get unique perks like a go to Nickelodeon Universe amusement park and Climb Zone ($57.99 worth), member solely parking, free stroller rental, and early entry to the various occasions all the time taking place on the Mall of America. For many households visiting MOA, the annual membership greater than pays for itself throughout the first hour of arriving at this must-visit purchasing, eating, and leisure vacation spot.
WM: What sort of outcomes are you seeing from this and different paid loyalty packages you’ve got labored on to assist shoppers obtain their targets?
CC: In practically all of the paid loyalty packages that I’ve labored with manufacturers on, the outcomes they’ve pushed for these manufacturers share many similarities. It’s typical to see members of the paid program enhance their annual buy frequency with that model by 20-35% and their annual spend enhance within the 30-45% vary. Not surprisingly, these are usually the most important model advocates, so when the model introduces a “VIP sort program,” they turn out to be early adopters and energy customers.
WM: Utilizing tiers provides a layer of sophistication to a loyalty program and permits for extra individualized therapy of members. How do you mix using tiers with the paid loyalty mannequin?
CC: Coniq and our shoppers perceive it’s necessary to have interaction, reward, and worth ALL prospects ultimately and we’re life like {that a} paid membership could not make sense for each shopper. For instance, there’s all the time going to be a share of low frequency prospects who could solely go to yearly, and there’s little probability of accelerating that frequency, maybe as a result of vital distance to the purchasing vacation spot. For these shoppers, the free loyalty tier would possibly make sense as they will nonetheless acquire some worth throughout that go to by being a member, and the advantages can nonetheless drive larger dwell time and spend.
With most present free loyalty packages that you simply see from retail manufacturers, if they’ve tiers, they’re typically based mostly on spend ranges, with a really small share of shoppers attaining that prime “Platinum” degree. I believe it’s necessary to acknowledge and reward your most loyal customers based mostly on their dedication to your model, whether or not or not that’s spend-based, engagement-based or being a model ambassador. Nevertheless, many paid packages enable the patron to achieve quick entry to these unique “Platinum” advantages that may in any other case take them 8-12 months to realize. You’ll be able to nonetheless work tiers into the paid degree based mostly on spend, giving an accelerated degree of factors earnings and extra rewards, perks, and experiences to these most energetic members.
WM: What’s the function of expertise in making tiers work for a loyalty program? Is tiering about expertise, communications, or the worth proposition?
CC: Maintaining with the newest expertise is vital for any profitable loyalty program, no matter whether or not it’s a tiered program or not. For Coniq, all of it begins with expertise, which permits us to assist make a private reference to shoppers, capturing insights, purchasing/model preferences, and buy information. Accumulating, organizing, and leveraging this information permits for extra pertinent, compelling, and customised advertising and marketing and communications with customers, driving them to larger ranges of engagement with the department stores and retail manufacturers. With the personalization of messages, affords, and offers, prospects can then maximize the perks, advantages, and total worth of being a loyalty member.
WM: What can you share about your current bulletins with Mall of America and Tanger?
CC: Mall of America launched MoA Insiders in Feb. 2023 and within the first 3 months, we labored collectively to onboard over 300 retail tenants for transaction monitoring and had 35,000 customers be part of the free or paid program. And as I had talked about for many loyalty packages that I’ve labored on that had a paid element; the outcomes have been extremely sturdy. MOA’s paid program members generated a 208% enhance in transactions per go to in comparison with free loyalty program members. Not a shock, given the extremely cool advantages and wealthy rewards that Mall of America has included of their paid tier.
The TangerClub loyalty providing is powered by Coniq, and we allow Tanger to enhance its potential to assist retail companions with extra entry to buyer preferences, patterns, and spend to drive buyer engagement. Tanger’s new TangerClub rewards visitors each time they store, play, and dine at any of Tanger’s upscale, open-air purchasing facilities within the U.S. and Canada. This system’s advantages can be found via a tiered program construction, with more and more differentiated affords and advantages at every degree.
I personally love how Tanger has labored with us to construction their tiered reward program, delivering worth to incorporate ALL their customers. And for individuals who select to hitch the Gold tier, based mostly on the elevated worth and quantity of retail offers accessible to these members, the subscription rapidly pays for itself after only a few purchases.
WM: Thanks for spending time with us in the present day. We have an interest to see how paid and subscription loyalty proceed to evolve.
CC: Thanks once more for having me. Years in the past, I believe many felt that subscription loyalty was a development, however it’s turn out to be a core mannequin that may be utilized by many manufacturers to attach with their key buyer teams that present a powerful affinity for his or her model and are on the lookout for an elevated purchasing expertise. In fact, it’s essential to have the information to assist that conclusion and that’s what I’ve been targeted on and been keen about all through my profession.
WM: Thanks!