Promo - December 2008 - (Page 6)

www.promomagazine.com A Penton Media publication EDITORIAL PROMO Executive Editor Patricia Odell Senior Editor Amy Johannes Reporter Richard Tedesco B rian Q uinton / Editor-at- Large Editor’s note Editor-at-Large, Promo and Direct Brian Quinton DESIGN/PRODUCTION Art Director Jed Davis ADVERTISING Loyalty Tests Associate Publisher Bryan Benjamin bryan.benjamin@penton.com Dir. of Mktg. Services/Classiﬁed Alan Steen alan.steen@penton.com In tough times, it pays to have made brand friends Resource Sales Associate Cynthia Foristel cynthia.foristel@penton.com Resource Sales Associate Karen Putrimas karen.putrimas@penton.com Online Sales Development Director Rob Shore rob.shore@penton.com Production Manager Brenda Wiley Let the economy turn a little yellow at the edges—okay, a deep, rich shade of burnt umber—and everyone starts worrying about their brand marketing. More specifically, they’ve started worrying about the other guy’s brand marketing and how well positioned it might be to eat away at their customers’ loyalty. That’s because it’s always cheaper to keep a customer than to find a new one. And if you haven’t already put in the work to give your customers a reason to stick with you, you may be in for a rough time. In a down economy, shoppers are barraged with price plays to get them to switch brands. You can join in that game to try to break off a piece of the market share’s competition, if you wish. But if you’re forced to compete solely on price in order to retain the customers you already have, that’s a recipe for compulsory margin erosion. That’s the strait the big U.S. carmakers find themselves in. The 2008 Customer Loyalty Engagement Index from consulting firm BrandKeys found that of 14 major automakers, General Motors ranked dead last, while Ford finished out of the top 10 and Chrysler only barely made the No. 10 spot in a tie with Volvo. Only Chevrolet broke into the higher ranks, coming in at No. 5 after a tie by BMW and Mercedes for first place. Of course, customer loyalty is not U.S. automakers’ only problem—something that they are trying to stress on Capitol Hill at press time. But with such a low fund of goodwill among the American public, getting the financial bailout they want could actually work against the carmakers in terms of winning back their former fans in America. If the automakers had made an attempt to ask consumers what they wanted in a car and then done their best to retool for those products, instead of stamping out behemoth SUVs and underpowered compacts, they might be better positioned now to weather the consumer credit crunch. Some kind of a social community site—www.TellUsWhyWeSuck.com, or some URL to that effect—might have helped if launched in time. Switching from cars to coffee, Dunkin’ Donuts and McDonald’s are poaching java customers from Starbucks. They’ve got the value messages firmly in place, of course, and are ramping up the quality and convenience appeals. Most recently, Dunkin’ rolled out a TV campaign built on a blind taste test that found Americans preferred its coffee to that of Big Green. Starbucks’ response so far—the launch a Gold loyalty program with an annual fee—has gotten mixed reviews, since the card doesn’t carry all the values of its free Starbucks card program. But what may prove more valuable to the company in the end is the MyStarbucksIdea community Web site, where brand advocates are able to post their suggestions and praise or boo company policies. It remains to be seen whether Starbucks will react effectively to the input it gets from the site on the Gold card. I hope it does, because forging that kind of customer connection is a long-term strategy for winning friends—one that will still P pay out when economic indicators head north again. l 6 brenda.wiley@penton.com Classiﬁed Production Coordinator Lindsey Sutton lindsey.sutton@penton.com P E N TO N M A R K E T I N G M E D I A S T R AT E G I E S Senior Vice President, Penton Media Financial Services and Marketing Group Warren N. Bimblick Publisher Leslie Bacon Group Editorial Director Ray Schultz Group Copy Chief Charles Vietri Group Research Editor Richard H. Levey Audience Marketing Manager Seth Olson Show Director Angela Eastin READER INFO Editorial e-mailbox: promo.mag@penton.com Subscriber Service: (866)505-7173 (toll-free in the U.S.); (847)763-9504 (for calls originating outside the U.S.) Reprints: reprints@pentonreprints.com or (888)858-8851 List Rental: Marie.Briganti@walterkarl.infousa.com or (845)732-7054 EDITORIAL OFFICES 11 Riverbend Drive South Stamford, CT 06907-0225 Phone (203) 358-9900 Fax (203) 358-5834 ADVERTISING 249 West 17th Street New York, NY 10011-5300 Phone (212) 462-3580 Fax: (212) 683-4572 Chief Executive Oﬃcer Sharon Rowlands sharon.rowlands@penton.com Chief Financial Oﬃcer/Executive Vice President Jean Clifton jean.clifton@penton.com Chief Revenue Oﬃcer Darrell Denny darrell.denny@penton.com Vice President, General Counsel Elise Zealand elise.zealand@penton.com Reprints: Contact Penton Reprints (www.pentonreprints .com) to purchase quality custom reprints or e-prints of articles appearing in PROMO at (888) 858-8851 or reprints@pentonreprints.com. Instant reprints and permissions may be purchased directly from our Web site; look for the iCopyright tag appended to the end of each online article. Portions of our magazine subscriber lists are available to carefully screened companies that oﬀer products and services directly related to the industries we cover. Any subscriber who does not want to receive mailings from third-party companies should contact the subscriber service department at (800) 441-0294 (USA), or (913) 967-1707 (outside USA). ©2008 Penton Media. All Rights Reserved December 2008 / WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM / Promo http://www.promomagazine.com http://www.pentonreprints.com http://www.pentonreprints.com http://WWW.PROMOMAGAZINE.COM

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Promo - December 2008

Promo - December 2008 Contents Editor's Note Alternative Viewing UGC Refresher Course KFC Takes Wing Title Sharing the Holidays That Holiday Glow Wish List Commentary Ready to Eat Recession Busters Q&A: A Higher Mark Resource Center The Agency Center Gift Giving Index of Advertisers

Promo - December 2008

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