With the state of the economy many businesses have realised the importance of giving their customers more in terms of offers and services, to ensure consumer loyalty and profit growth. Traditionally this has been the domain of businesses such as supermarkets and increasingly so in recent years as they have expanded into areas such as clothing, banking etc.

Not all businesses have the capacity to expand in this way but there are other ways to diversify and offer non-core products and services to encourage consumer loyalty. One option for businesses is to offer customers the opportunity to buy into a bespoke loyalty and reward programme which carries their branding but is operated by a third party such as The Rocket Marketing Group.

By a third party managing every aspect of the extra offering of non-core products and services through a loyalty and membership programme the business receives free added extras for the brand without having to commit additional resources.

These programmes can essentially offer non-core products and services at a discounted rate to customers who become members. The programmes can be fully branded with a company’s logo so that they feature under the umbrella of the one brand. The products the programmes offer can also be completely bespoke depending on what a business wants to offer customers. All of this means that a company’s customers don’t need to go anywhere else to complete their shopping experience. This has to help with consumer loyalty whilst providing an effective way for a business to gain profit growth through earning incremental revenue.

In the current economic climate businesses that offer the full service shopping experience at value prices are doing very well. A good example of this is the supermarkets that offer a wide variety of products and services at value prices and are reporting profit growth when many other sectors are experiencing a downturn.  Sainsbury’s profits have recently reported a total sales growth of 5.7 per cent in the preliminary results for the 52 weeks to 21 March 2009.

Justin King, Sainsbury’s chief executive, said: “Our business is growing because we have responded quickly and effectively to a rapidly changing environment. Total sales for the year were up 5.7 per cent and like-for-like sales excluding fuel were up 4.5 per cent..In addition we have continued to drive cost efficiencies offsetting over 75 per cent of cost inflation and delivered further profit growth.

Fixing fundamental parts of our operation through our ‘Making Sainsbury’s Great Again’ recovery programme has placed the business in a strong position. Although consumer confidence in the UK has declined during the year, our performance improved as a result of the strength of the Sainsbury’s brand and actions we have taken to adjust our offer to changing customer trends.”

So producing a white-label loyalty and membership programme can be an effective way to compete with the full shopping services and consumer loyalty of businesses such as supermarkets. The programmes can act as a way to simulate the success of supermarkets by adjusting a company’s offering in reaction to changing customer trends.

Contact Us if you would like your business to offer non-core products and services to your customers through a loyalty and membership programme, encouraging them to stay loyal to your brand.

The Rocket Marketing Group has had a bumper start to its New Year with record demand for its services. Rocket has seen a 50% increase in its first quarter trading, against last year.

The Rocket Marketing Group is the UK’s fastest growing developer of Reward, Incentive and Membership Programmes. During 2008 it launched a series of bespoke new national schemes including The JML VIP Savings Club, The Home & Garden Club and an enhanced The Midweek Dining Club.

Being a vertically integrated company and independent of outside suppliers, The Rocket Marketing Group can build bespoke client solutions, and white label a range of standard products, very efficiently.

“Despite the gloomy headlines we are finding that our Membership Schemes and Reward Programmes, which are inherently revenue generating for our clients, are just what brand owners need to augment their businesses during these harsh times” says Andy Huggins, Rocket Marketing Group’s MD. “We have invested wisely during 2008 and further developed our sophisticated in-house infrastructure, allowing us to implement a wide range of client schemes very cost-efficiently.”

Recently featured in Sales Promotion Magazine (in partnership with the Institute of Sales Promotion):

Rocket Marketing Group has just launched a loyalty club for consumer product brand JML, called The JML VIP Savings Club.

Consumers can get discounts and special offers on a range of family-oriented services, plus exclusive discounts on JML products. Rocket is planning to offer a white label version of the loyalty club to other brands.

Rocket is also looking for brands interested in setting up their own nationwide membership-based dining clubs. Rocket launched The Midweek Dining Club in 2006, and signed drinks giant Gonzales Byass to a two-year contract for its Tio Pepe brand to be sole sponsor.

In a timely move, Rocket Marketing Group announces the launch of their new loyalty club created for Halifax Bank of Scotland (HBOS) – The Home & Garden Club. This will provide exceptional offers and savings from well know high street retailers to HBOS customers at this key time when there is a marked trend to improve the current home and maximise its future potential.

For a very affordable fee of just £39.99, HBOS customers receive a 52 page directory of savings and discounts, a 3D Garden Designer CD (itself worth £9.99) plus an additional 6 great offers such as a free interior design consultation and a free garden design consultation. The programme is fully supported by Rocket’s in-house Membership Services team and a bespoke Home and Garden website.

Andy Huggins, Managing Director of Rocket said, “With HBOS’ information rich database, we are able to effectively target their very wide and varied customer base. We’re providing highly relevant and temping offers giving real value to HBOS customers at this particular time, over the run up to Christmas and beyond.”

The Home & Garden Club is a fully tailored scheme, designed to encourage customer loyalty and retention and to directly stimulate interest in just much how home-owners can improve and exploit their current properties for a low cost.

Rocket is a very experienced operator in the Loyalty and Affinity Programmes sector – a now burgeoning area within the UK sales promotions industry. They offer a fully vertically integrated service which provides clients with bespoke and cost-effective, solutions.