Back in January a government minister said she could see a few “green shoots” of recovery for the economy. This sparked massive debate both in and out of parliament as some people thought it was far too soon to be making such claims. This month has seen yet more signs of economic improvement therefore reigniting the debate.

The statistics seem to show slight improvements in certain areas such as the recent rise in manufacturing output and house prices, but then unemployment figures still seem to be going up. It is a confusing picture hence the debate.

All the confusion has led experts and studies to show that people are still feeling quite negative about the economy but there are some signs of improvement such as the Nationwide’s monthly consumer confidence index for May that showed a rise in consumer confidence.

Martin Gahbauer, Nationwide’s chief economist, said: “The more modest change in overall consumer confidence this month is no surprise and, as we continue to see contrasting news about the state of the economy, it is likely that confidence will remain fragile. While some reports suggest tentative signs of a slowing in the pace of economic decline, it is important to remember that a number of sectors are continuing to contract and any recovery is likely to be sluggish. What is clear from our findings is that while consumers remain pessimistic about the present situation, they appear to be much more confident about the future than they were at the beginning of the year.”

It is a confusing time economically and it can be hard to know what information is reliable, as much of it is speculation or figures which can be interpreted in a number of different ways.

What’s clear is that even during times of consolidation, businesses need to continue to market their brand and encourage customers to become brand loyal because economic recovery is inevitable sooner or later. This may mean that finding alternative or free marketing solutions to match public spending habits and cultural changes that happen during a recession. Now is a good time to foster relationships with new brand loyal customers so that when the green shoots of recovery bloom, there is a customer base to benefit from.

The Rocket Marketing Group operates a number of loyalty and membership programmes which give businesses a free marketing solution. All the partner business has to do is offer an exclusive discount to the loyalty and membership programme member. Loyalty and membership programmes tap into the current consumer trend of discount shopping. People can become less brand loyal unless the brand offers value as well. Our loyalty and membership programmes collectively have an active membership base of over 100,000 all actively seeking discounts and brands to shop from. The loyalty and membership programmes may be a free marketing solution that helps make sure that businesses do enjoy the green shoots of recovery when they appear.

Contact Us if you would like to discuss a loyalty and membership programme as a free marketing solution for fostering new brand loyal customers for your business.

When will consumers start enjoying the shopping experience again? The British Retail Consortium has recently reported that consumer spending increased 6.3 per cent from April 2008. With sales figures up on this time last year, can we see this as an indicator that the general guilt of spending any money unnecessarily has subsided? And is there anything businesses can do to make the public love shopping again?

Stephen Robertson, Director General, British Retail Consortium, said: “The best sales growth for three years is good news but let’s be cautious. A sunny Easter that fell in April this year is the key reason why overall sales are up compared with last year when Easter was in March and miserable. Sales of garden goods, outdoor leisure, clothing and food did well but other non-food sectors missed out on the seasonal boost and the total spent on food rose less than food inflation, indicating the amount sold dropped.

Following a tough winter, there’s some pent up demand but there’s no reason to think customers suddenly feel flush or eager to spend. With unemployment set to grow through the rest of the year, mounting jobs worries will hold back spending for some time. It would be great if the historically weak performance of the last twelve months was behind us but we shouldn’t celebrate yet.”

Businesses have done a lot to try and entice the public back into spending and it is working to some extent but there are limitations to the success consecutive sale periods can have. It can damage overall consumer loyalty, devalue the brand and the rewards can rarely match what a loyalty and membership programme can offer?

When the objective is to make consumers feel rewarded for buying and/or remaining loyal to a specific brand, a loyalty and membership programme can do this extremely effectively. The other advantage is that marketing a brand in this way incurs no cost for participating businesses; all they have to do is offer an exclusive discount for members. A business’ customers who are members of the loyalty or membership programme receive extra free rewards which give added value to the exclusive discounts they receive from the business.

The Rocket Marketing Group operates a number of loyalty and reward programmes and the largest of these is The Big Savings Club. The Big Savings Club features businesses offering exclusive discounts, from a variety of sectors including Shopping, Entertainment, Travel, Health, Fashion, Kids and Motoring. When a customer joins this club they are given seven free rewards which they can redeem along with the discounts offered by the featured businesses.

Rocket feel that consumers should really start to love shopping again when they receive the exclusive discounts and free rewards contained in The Big Savings Club. The rewards include a Free European Flight, Sail to France for Free, Free UK Hotel Accommodation, Worldwide Accommodation for a week for just £200, 2 for 1 Golf, City Cruise and £400 off a Holiday to Florida.

Contact Us if you would like to discuss how a Rocket Marketing Group loyalty and membership programme and free rewards can make consumers love shopping at your business.

Offers correct at time of publication and subject to terms and conditions.

With the recent announcement that the UK is heading towards a period of deflation, the worry is that consumer confidence will dip further. The fear of businesses is that the public become even more reluctant to make non-essential purchases, especially when the costs of goods are continuing to fall.

According to the Office for National Statistics, the Consumer Price Index was 3.2 per cent in February 2009, up from 3.0 per cent in January 2009. Retail Prices Index (RPI) inflation slowed to 0.0 per cent in February, down from 0.1 per cent in January.

In an already beleaguered market it’s hard to believe that things can get any worse, as surely people have already changed their spending habits as much as they are willing to or can do? But then in a bid to learn from history we have to look at the unfortunately lengthy deflationary period Japan suffered during the 90s and brace ourselves for what could be a long period of deflated consumer confidence. Ultimately though, only time will show us how it will all pan out, so all businesses can do is optimise every selling opportunity.

The Rocket Marketing Group offers a range of reward programmes developed to help businesses drive repeat business, promote brand loyalty and improve consumer confidence, which are important elements for optimising every selling opportunity in hard times. It is completely free for businesses to be featured in one of the reward programme brochures, websites and seasonal newsletters, when they offer an exclusive discount for club members. Membership numbers for The Rocket Marketing Group’s reward programmes have soared in recent years to an ever growing total of 300,000 people, so there is a large base of customers for businesses to engage with.

We have now re-released a newly designed and fully functional Big Savings Club website.

As part of our commitment to continuously improving our products and services, this new site is a major step forward both in terms of design and functionality. The new site allows the customer much greater interaction with the offers, together with real time integration to SAP and our in house Membership Services team.

The new site has taken several weeks to develop, and will be used as our technical template going forward. Over the next few weeks you will see new releases of all our club sites.