Join the club: What small businesses can learn from luxury brands about building loyalty
Holiday shopping can be exhausting and sometimes it can be delightful. It is entirely possible to have more than one feeling about an experience.
This month I’m focusing on the nuance of marketing strategy when it goes right and when it goes wrong and what small business marketers can look to do to borrow from the big brands.
Last year, I was with my family in New York for Thanksgiving. You can imagine the crush of people visiting the stores in Soho. When I say the stores were packed, I mean they were packed.
As a mom of two teens and as a marketing professional who enjoys seeing all the bold promotions, we threaded our way in and out of the stores on Black Friday. It was very fun up to a point until exhaustion set in.
My daughter particularly was interested in visiting the new Aritzia flagship store. A purchase was made, and I assumed we would exit and move on to the next store. The salesperson handed us each a token and encouraged us to head to their coffee bar for a complimentary treat. Refreshments? The store smartly maintains a coffee bar where post-purchase customers are invited to order a drink. Baristas were making lovely coffees, teas and juice sodas. They also had substantial, comfortable seating. We tumbled onto sofas, slightly exhausted but quickly restored following our drinks.
The flagship Aritzia store offered just one experience of many I’ve recently had where a brand creates a moment of calm, refreshment, and consideration for their customer. In turn, and not surprisingly, the customer becomes a bigger fan than they would have been had they simply made the purchase and gone on with their day.
It costs money to run a coffee bar in a busy store. But what’s the impact on sales? And what’s the impact on how the brand is perceived? Was my brand loyalty increased for the price of a cup of coffee?
Possibly.
I have seen examples everywhere I’ve gone where brands offer a drink, a snack and even full-blown meals to customers to create a sense of connection. It often works and leads to strong emotional consumer ties to a brand or product. I recently bought a car from a dealer that offers daily coffee service, breakfast and even lunch to customers. It’s an interesting tactic but I think they do this to make their showroom look busy. It is filled, daily, with people idling with refreshments. And employing the concept of social proof, people looking into these busy scenes automatically are curious to see what’s happening and maybe even join in the mix.
Unfortunately, my new car had a catastrophic defect and the dealer was obliged to buy the car back about two weeks after I bought it. I was glad to get rid of the car, but I found myself thinking about the odd camaraderie of the cafe, which caught me by surprise. There was some sense of community being offered by the brand, and that was an added benefit of the car marketing proposition. Buy this brand, join a community of like-minded people.
Disappointed by what should have been a great purchasing experience, I found myself again shopping for a car. The new dealership where I ended up buying an entirely different brand offers free holiday gift wrapping with suggested donations to a local nonprofit, tickets to movie premieres and even gelato for customers waiting for their car to be serviced. It’s another hospitality approach and it is effective.
When we make a purchase, we often are buying into the perceived essence of a brand. That emotional connection can be powerful. It taps into a very human desire to feel connected and cared for. The luxury brands do this very well. So do airlines and hotels.
Small businesses can learn from these large marketing tactics and apply them at a manageable scale. I recently gave a marketing workshop at a local library for patrons. The library built an entertaining kitchen into the session room. All attendees were invited to enjoy coffee, tea or water, plus cookies. What a nice way to care for people attending! One participant had two school-aged kids with her and they enjoyed the snack and offered no protest that their mom was focusing on a workshop for an hour.
The fourth quarter is a fantastic time to discover what forms of kindness and hospitality can be worked into your marketing schemes. Beyond the obvious holiday parties, consider what small actions you can take to encourage people to become your clients or customers. It’s astonishing to discover what even a modest amount of hospitality can do to light up a business connection and engage a stakeholder.
• Rebecca Hoffman is the founder and principal of Good Egg Concepts, a strategic communication and brand marketing consulting practice serving clients around the Chicago region and nationally.