Things Remembered provides
personalized gifts for special occasions.
It has catalogs, physical stores, and an online store. It provides personalization through
embroidery and engraving of initials, words, and designs specified by the
customer. Although successful, the
company noted the challenge of its positions:
The strength of business such as Things Remembered can also become a
challenge. Customers see the Things
Remembered brand as being all about occasions.
That is good, because the brand is about occasions. However, many customers begin to limit the
occasions and think that it is just about anniversaries, graduations, Christmas
and weddings.
Earlier
in the decade, Things Remembered was struggling because its repeat purchase
rate was lower than other retailer’s rates.
Its goal was to create a marketing program that would get customers to
buy at Things Remembered (a) for a wider set of occasions, and (b) more
frequently. The solution was a loyalty
program called “Rewards Club.” The key
features of their original Rewards Club were as follows:
·
Onetime $5 membership fee
·
Earn $10 rebate for every $100 purchased
·
Automatic tracking and distribution of reward
certificates
·
Certificates good for 90 days
·
$50 limit in rebates earned in a given month
·
One transaction every 18 months required to
maintain membership
To help encourage internal buy-in
program, Things Remembered gave store associates incentives to enroll customers
as members. Initial results were
positive, with enrollments at targeted levels.
However, one concern is that they enrolled more low spenders (spend less
than $50) than high spenders (spend more than $100).
Discussion Questions
1.
Define
loyalty as you understand it from the text.
Do you think the original Rewards Club at Things Remembered helps create
loyalty? Explain.
2.
Beyond earning $$ for purchases, can you think
of other aspects that could be added to the company’s program that would
enhance loyalty?
3.
The marketing program was designed to achieve
two goals, namely, increasing the number of occasions for which consumers
purchased from Things Remembered, and increase the frequency with which they
purchased from Things Remembered. Which
goal is best achieved by the original Reward Club? Explain?
4.
Design a marketing program from the ground up to
achieve the goal of increasing the number of occasions for which consumers
think of and purchase from Thins Remembered.
Note: It may or may not involve a
rewards program.
5.
What explains the fact that lower spenders are
more likely to enroll? Is this a good or
bad thing? Explain.
