Following on from our last blog post about the four loyalty personalities – Loyalists, Passive Loyalist, Neutral/Unengaged, Conditioned Switchers – we thought we’d take a closer look at the findings from the qualitative phase of ‘Loyal Losers Part Two’ (LL2) relating to consumers’ attitudes towards existing customer and retention adverts.
How do consumers really feel about new customer and loyalty promotions?
43 consumers who took part in our online survey and represented the four loyalty personalities were chosen to take part in an online community to explore their attitudes to four current customer or retention TV adverts for well-known brands (02, Sky, EDF and Lloyds Banks).
Interestingly, regardless of their loyalty personality the consumers in our study were generally wise to new customer promotions. They knew them to have a short shelf life and strongly disliked such ads.
“I do think it is strange how many companies offer new customers better deals than existing ones.” Male, 55-64, Neutral/ Unengaged
“It should be easier to keep an existing customer than find a new one since existing customers won’t have the fear of the unknown, but some industries are notorious for offering better deals to newcomers – which is annoying – I can’t get the good deal because I’m already a customer. [It] makes me feel that they are insincere when they talk about their customers mattering to them.” Female, 45-54, Loyalist
In contrast, consumers appreciated adverts concerned with rewarding existing customers.
“I do like retention adverts, as I do want to feel that my custom is still wanted once I’ve bought [something]. I don’t think it is a fad. I think it’s an essential [part] of keeping customers. I would like more offers to be made available to current customers and ads to convey these.” Female, 45-54, Lazy loyalist/ Time-poor/ passive
While the brands we reviewed in LL2 are clearly trying to adopt a retention approach, which is to be applauded given the relatively low number of brands doing this, these deals weren’t always obvious or clear to those in our study.
Get in touch to understand how the findings could impact your brand.
Loyal Losers Part Two (LL2) featured in Marketing Week on 4th December 2014.