Travel Industry Community And Content Loyalty

Copyright Purple Spinnaker – March 2009

Travel IndustryCommunity & Content Loyalty


Agenda

• Loyalty Programs Today• The future of loyalty• The Community and Content Loyalty

– Community– Content– Solution– Benefits

• Routes Forward


Loyalty Today – Points Mean Prizes

Financial Services• AMEX – Membership Rewards• Barclaycard – Nectar• MBNA – Worldpoints• Goldfish

Hotel Industry• Intercontinental - Priority Pass• Marriott – Rewards• Starwood – Preferred Guest

Airlines• Virgin- Flying Club• BA – Executive Club• Cathay Pacific – Marco Polo

Retail Industry• Tesco – Clubcard• Sainsbury's - Nectar


Loyalty program objectives:

• Enrol Customers into their program

• Activate customers to purchase a product/ service

• Retain the customers and create and affinity to the brand

• Maximise the share of the customers wallet

• Reactivate the customer on a regular basis


Loyalty Today – Affinity Programs

• Airmiles

• Asiamiles

• Nectar

• Upromise

• Baby Mint

• Branded Credit Cards– Manchester United– PADI Divers– National Trust– PGA


Loyalty Today - Communities

• Customer Review Communities– EBay– Amazon

• Customer Service Communities– Dell– Logitech– Linksys

• Product Communities– Littlest Pet Shop– Sony Play station– Nintendo

• Online Games– World Of Warcraft– RuneScape

• Information Communities– Ivillage – Lonely Planet– Virtual Tourist

• Dating Sites– Dating Direct– Match

• Social Networks- Facebook- Bebo- Myspace- Youtube- Twitter


Issues with current loyalty programs…

• Commodity Products

• Little or no value to the individual consumer

• Financial “me too” programs

• Create Long Term debit on balance sheet

• No “personal” service


Tools/Services Available….(1)

• Advertising and Interactive /agencies

• Customer Relationship Management Solutions

• Customer Analytics Engines

• One to One Personalisation/Email Engines

• Content/Knowledge Management


Tools available …..(2)

• Brand Programs– Tesco– Hotels– Airlines– Manchester United

• Affiliation Programs– Nectar– Airmiles– Upromise

• Loyalty Solution Providers– ICLP– Loyalty Logic– Alliance Data Systems– Teamcard– Maximiles

• Online Community Providers– Socialgo/Ning– Lithium– Boonex


Next Generation Loyalty needs…

• Compelling Events to engage the members

• Customer segmentation

• The ability to identify and satisfy soft needs

• The ability to deliver on the brand promise

• To create emotional loyalty


Travel Loyalty …

• Identify buying groups with critical mass– Leisure Traveller– Solo Traveller– Business Traveller

• Build a lifestyle themed service– Global Travel– Adventure Travel– Experience Travel

• Identify a need not currently met– Isolation on business trips– Community for fellow travellers to exchange info and keep in touch– Communication channel with friends at home/around the world– Lifestyle and cultural information easily available

• Searching• Booking• reviewing

• Propose a service which addresses those needs– Online travel community– Travel Tips and activity options to participate in when travelling


The Travel Industry

• Highly competitive market

• Like for like services

• Barriers to entry are lower than in previous years

• Still relevant:

“The future leaders of the travel industry will ultimately be those who can strengthen customer loyalty to grow revenues.”

Julian Sparks, Partner Accenture, Sept 2002


Community and Content Loyalty


Components of a travel loyalty solution

• Itinerary Database

• Travel Tip Database

• Activity Database

• Activity Booking Engine

• Internal Messaging

• People Matching Engine

• Round The World Trips, Sabbaticals and Adventure Travel

• Member Forum

• Points Bank

• Integration– Content Providers– Points based loyalty programs– Booking engines– External push of data

• Mobile Devices• Wireless• SMS

• Implementation– Workshops– Feasibility study– Application Dev Plan– Project Management


Why will travellers use it?

• Build a personal global network

• Enhance travel lifestyle

• Take advantage of the locations visited in the time available

• Participate in “your” sport, activity when travelling

• Exchange travel tips with peer group


• Identify Target Market Sections and Acquire new customers

• Activate Customers through a compelling event– Raise the Stakes and Revolutionise Lifestyle Brands and Customer Loyalty – Move customer loyalty away from financial programs to lifestyle and individual benefits– Community based Customer Loyalty Programme– Emotional Loyalty prohibits promiscuous customers

• Retain and recapture customers

• Cross-sell and Up-sell products– Customers have a reason to provide more detailed information about themselves– Improved segmentation and targeting of future marketing campaigns– Increased opportunity for affinity marketing campaigns with complimentary vendors

• Advocacy

• Brand Differentiation– Brand and Lifestyle association– Address the work and lifestyle balance issue of the business traveller

• Marketing Information– Customers have a reason to provide more detailed information about themselves– Improved segmentation and targeting of future marketing campaigns– Increased opportunity for affinity marketing campaigns with complimentary vendors

• New Revenue Stream that increases with the success of the service– Subscription based service - $ or Preferred guest points

• Drive customers to web– Total travel and lifestyle service will drive customers to use this as core to their travel plans

Community and Content


Benefits

• Raise the Stakes and Revolutionise Customer Loyalty Programmes– Move customer loyalty away from financial programs to lifestyle and individual benefits– Community based Customer Loyalty Programme– Emotional Loyalty prohibits promiscuous customers

• Brand Differentiation– Brand and Lifestyle association– Address the work and lifestyle balance issue

• Marketing Information– Customers have a reason to provide more detailed information about themselves– Improved segmentation and targeting of future marketing campaigns– Increased opportunity for affinity marketing campaigns with complimentary vendors

• New Revenue Stream that increases with the success of the service– Add on services for customers

• Drive customers to brand and service sites– Total travel and lifestyle service will drive customers to use this as core to their travel plans


Julie Walker

Purple Spinnaker

Contact: [email protected]

Tel: +44 (0) 7887 644 799

Travel IndustryCommunity & Content Loyalty