The Rocket Marketing Group have filed end of year results for 2009 showing an impressive 35% increase in turnover from £3.7m in 2008, to over £5m.

In a further year of terrific growth, Rocket’s pre-tax profits have also increased by 55%, proving that Rocket’s commitment to efficiency and business processes is reaping rewards.

Rocket has worked hard to expand on its success over the last three years, and has seen the results of new revenue partnerships with Living TV, Flying Brands and iSUBSCRiBE, as well as securing a further long-term deal with sit-up channels.  (more…)

With VAT set to rise to 20% in 2011, the retail sector will welcome the news that online sales jumped by 22% in May, compared to 2009 levels.

The online market has become a key sector for businesses, in part due to the financial limitations imposed by the recession. Companies have found marketing and selling their products online to be a very cost effective way of generating revenue and attracting customers, with the latest figures showing that shoppers spent £4.5bn online during May alone.

The research, conducted by the International Media Retail Group (IMRG) found that companies who utilised a range of sales channels had the most success. For example, retailers with both physical stores and online facilities saw year-on-year sales rise by 28%, compared with a rise of just 1% for online-only retailers. (more…)

The Wise Marketer recently reported the rise in coalition marketing as a sales promotion technique. Sales promotion has become more prominent in the last year in a blanket effort to get people  to spend their money less cautiously. It has become important to reward consumers for their loyalty so that they continue to spend money at a time when people are trying to cut back. Encouraging reluctant consumers to spend money continues to be the number one priority for brands at the moment and sales promotion is a proven way to do this. We are at the point where now it is an essential tool to remain competitive, particularly on price.

Sales promotion through consumer incentives and brand coalition is not a new or reactionary concept dreamt up as a recession solution. This has long been the bread and butter of companies such as The Rocket Marketing Group who put companies together in loyalty and membership programmes/ discount clubs and create rewards for staff or consumer incentives. The lure of big brands working together can be a powerful solution for potential rewards and an attractive consumer incentive whatever the state of the economy. All the current climate has done is to highlight the importance of sales promotion to consumers, making it now essential for all brands.

The ideas of brand coalition are the principles that loyalty and rewards programmes or discount clubs and consumer incentive rewards were built on. With loyalty and membership programmes/ discount clubs a member joins a club and then becomes eligible to redeem discounts at various retailers. The joint venture of big and small brands work to validate each other and produce a community of customer centric brands that members become loyal to because they can rely on them to understand their needs/ interests. These loyalty and membership programmes or discount clubs can be categorised to target certain markets such as entertainment, home & garden or white-labelled to match particular brands who want to sell the clubs as non-core products and earn incremental revenue.

The idea of high profile sales promotion has now become an integral part of the consumer shopping experience, so it likely to continue in some guise or other even as the economy improves.

Contact Us to discuss the possibilities of developing consumer incentives and brand coalition solutions through loyalty and membership programmes or discount club for your brand.

It seems like all people want at the moment is the cheapest deal, and that lowering prices and putting huge sale posters up is the only way to entice consumers into a shop/business. But with sale savvy shoppers and the help of internet comparison sites how far can this go? Have prices finally reached rock-bottom and how has this aggressive discounting damaged the perceived value of these items/services? Have we allowed the financial panic to reduce brands’ value? The possible recession solutions have raised so many questions for marketing professionals and as we start to see light through the economic gloom the answers are starting to become clearer.

In hindsight it seems short-sighted of businesses to look at aggressive or competitive discounting as the complete recession solution, for example will Pizza Express ever be able to return their prices to the level they were 2 years ago? Many people only visit Pizza Express if they have a 2 for 1 voucher because there’s always an abundance of vouchers online and you can basically download them whenever you like. A lot has changed from 2 years ago when the brand was known to belong in the upper level of high street chain restaurants, to now when you might think of it as a discount Pizza restaurant. It has not only changed our perceptions of the price but also with it the type of people who eat there – in many people’s view it’s not the experience it once was. By heading such an onslaught of discounts, this recession solution has effectively but gradually and probably unintentionally rebranded their business and the brand value has suffered.

Another example of this recession solution is Waitrose, who introduced their Essentials range, giving customers the opportunity to buy quality produce at a low price. This was in response to reports that supermarket shoppers were switching to own-brand goods to save money. Waitrose has always been known as a more exclusive supermarket and this is surely the primary reason people are brand loyal and choose to shop there; so if people are prepared to pay a premium for your products why change that? Waitrose positioning themselves using the same marketing techniques as less aspirational brands was always going to pose the risk of missing the target market. It’s still early days but isn’t it potentially damaging to long term profits if the brand were to be devalued any further or reach the point where their identity was forced to change as Pizza Express’ has?

These are just two questionable aggressive discounting decisions but they are definitely not alone. Is it therefore possible to give customers what they want whilst marketing your business out of the situation? Reducing the price does tap into the mood of the nation but there are ways to do this which make the discounts appear exclusive rather than the norm. Surely this is less damaging to perceived brand value?

Discount hunters often belong to externally managed loyalty and membership programmes or discount clubs that offer their members’ discounts on a variety of products and services. The discounts offered are seen by members of the discount club as a privilege and the brands’ value remains higher than the discount price.

A good example of this is Champneys Health Resorts which is a company offering premium pampering breaks. It’s important that they remain as an elite product because that’s what makes the product/services appealing, so to aggressively discount them would damage the perception of exclusivity. This doesn’t mean that the recession does not hit their business as it has other businesses but they have to approach discounts in a different way. Champneys have chosen to put a select few offers on their website but also offer a discount to members of The Rocket Marketing Group’s loyalty and membership programmes. The brand is still seen as luxury because the offers are presented in a way that makes customers feel like the discount is special.  The 15 % discount they offer The Rocket Marketing Group’s loyalty and membership programme club members is a great offer and has prompted a number of redemptions.

Businesses use loyalty and membership programmes to market their brands to consumers who are specifically looking for a special offer, enticing them to become brand loyal. The idea being, that the members of the loyalty and membership programme or discount club will become brand loyal to the businesses within the savings clubs by giving them what they want in a controlled way. These savings clubs are often offered to businesses as a free marketing option with the proviso that they offer club members a discount on their brand.

The Rocket Marketing Group operates a number of loyalty and membership programmes helping businesses create brand loyal consumers, driving both retention and revenue.

Contact Us for details of how a loyalty and membership programme (discount club) can work effectively for your specific businesses.

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

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.