10 Top benefits of the cashback promotion for the retailer
In challenging times, when the cost of living is rising, and consumers' spending on non-essential items is dropping, retailers may be feeling the strain. Some may be quick to slash their prices in an attempt to drive their sales. But this strategy is not sustainable.
The good news is there is an alternative: the cashback.
This promotional mechanic provides consumers with a compelling opportunity to save money by claiming their cashback post-purchase. As well as driving sales in this way, it is a strategy that offers many further advantages for the retailer. Below, Opia’s Business Development Manager, Sylvain Mourey, outlines ten of them.
1. An effective response to the demand for lower prices
In a context of high inflation and a crisis in purchasing power, the cashback mechanic is an effective response, beyond traditional discounts, to consumers struggling with these difficulties and thus demanding ever-more lower prices.
2. Enabling strong commercial creativity
Cashback promotions are about much more than offering consumers a saving. They can be tailor-made depending on the product or service, the brand or the category. These promotions can bundle hardware and accessories, include add-ons, such as warranty extensions, insurance or delivery, or offer savings in the form of tax back. With this opportunity for creativity, retailers can deliver more compelling offers to their target market.
3. Creating market differentiation
Offering a creative cashback promotion, integrating one or more of the variables described above, provides the retailer with differentiation in the market. Marketing their own offers, which by nature are exclusive, can produce a competitive edge that enhances the promotion's success.
4. Better cost-efficiency from targeting the most engaged customer
The cashback mechanic is a much more cost-effective strategy when compared to traditional discounting. It targets the customers most interested in the promotion, with only those most engaged making claims, and avoids the windfall effect resulting from any immediate discounts.
5. Increasing frequency of purchases
A cashback promotion can be designed to encourage the frequency of consumer purchases, for example, by offering reimbursements in the form of a retailer's gift card.
6. Strengthening brand/retailer relationships
Having this effective tool as part of the retailer’s strategy is beneficial for the brand too. Partnering on a cashback promotion to achieve a mutual goal of driving sales, the retailer can strengthen their relationship with the brand, increasing the chance of the brand investing with them in the future and favouring them when rolling out their own campaigns.
7. Maximising ROI
By selling the product or service at a higher price, retailers can enjoy a better return on investment (ROI), seeing improvements in elements such as turnover, ASP (average selling price), average basket value, mass margin and market share.
8. Elevating brand strategy
By employing a cashback mechanic in place of traditional discounting, retailers can support brands in protecting their commercial strategy and facilitating their channel management. With heavy discounting potentially damaging brand equity, mechanics, such as the cashback, can be used creatively to add value instead. Retailers will then enjoy the knock-on benefits from this approach.
9. Compliance with the Omnibus Directive
The principle of cashback promotions supports compliance with the Omnibus Directive, which has undergone recent changes to protect consumers from artificial pricing practices (e.g. the base price to which a discount is being applied needs to have been available for at least 30 days before). With cashback, the base price remains protected without the retailer's competitiveness being impacted, even in a super competitive market. The advertising of price reductions after a cashback promotion can then be based on a base price that has been maintained and therefore indicative of a more attractive discount.
10. Encompassing sustainability
With environmental concerns being high on the agenda, cashback promotions can be designed to include an element of sustainability. For example, recycling consumers' used goods received via a trade-in promotion, or green initiatives, such as tree planting, could be included as incentives, either alongside cashback or as an alternative.
Retailers don't need to resort to discounting their products or services when faced with challenging times. On the contrary, mechanics, such as the cashback, are proven to drive an equal, if not better, increase in sales while offering many more benefits alongside.
Please visit our sales promotions pages to learn more about Opia’s solutions or get in touch with our team to discuss your unique requirements.
How can sales promotions help convert those “just looking”?
Driving sales is a common goal shared by almost every business, especially when consumer spending is down. Increasing conversions from those who claim to be "just looking" is one excellent way to fulfil that objective, but can sales promotions help to do that, and if so, how?
Using our extensive experience in delivering successful sales promotions for leading global brands, we share how you can use sales promotions to change a "just looking" visitor to a loyal and valuable customer.
Is there really such a premise as “just looking”?
This question is one that has to be addressed first. Whether a consumer is browsing online or has walked into a store, "just looking" is typically a phrase uttered or a mentality adopted to ward off sales attendants or chatbots.
However, there must be interest even to start looking at a product or service. The consumer may just have one or several reasons why they do not intend to purchase immediately. If they had zero interest, they wouldn't be looking at all.
When creating effective sales promotions, we need to understand this interest and the buyer barriers currently preventing the sale. By designing a compelling campaign with an attractive offer or an intelligent strategy for overcoming these purchase barriers, sales promotions can increase conversions.
Let’s take a look at some examples of how.
Overcoming the price barrier
With day-to-day costs spiralling, many consumers right now are thinking carefully about every purchase, reducing the opportunities for ad-hoc, spontaneous sales. However, if you can provide the consumer with outstanding value in your offer, it can remove this price barrier.
Cashback promotions are an excellent mechanic to use in this scenario. They highlight the customers' savings rather than the reduced price point and are proven to motivate purchases. Add a time-limited offer to generate a sense of urgency and prevent consumers from delaying the sale.
Cashback promotions offer valuable benefits for the brand or retailer too. They deliver better cost-efficiency with only the most engaged customers making claims. Meanwhile, businesses can protect their base price, taking care of long-term profitability.
Tackling concerns around quality or reputation
Consumers "just looking" may have buyer hesitation because they are unsure about the quality or reputation of the product. It may be a new or unfamiliar product on the market or perhaps one that has suffered previous concerns around its quality.
These concerns are commonly found when a consumer is considering a larger purchase, such as a slow-moving goods item. With this uncertainty, the consumer needs reassurance.
This reassurance can be provided through a Buy and Try promotion.
Buy and Try promotions boost buyer confidence by offering a satisfaction guarantee, usually in the form of a risk-free, no-obligation trial. The consumer has a designated timeframe to try the product, and if they are not happy, they can return it for a full refund. It removes the customer's perceived risk, driving an uplift in sales.
Reassurance around a new or unfamiliar product can also come from friends and family via referrals. Equally, it can come from consumer feedback provided online.
Referrals are powerful tools. Customer research has found that 92% of customers trust referrals from people they know, while anonymous reviewers have a 70% trust rate. We help brands and retailers design and deliver referral and rewards programs that offer powerful incentives while making it easy for their customers to refer their friends and family. Referrals not only drive sales in the short term but also support lifetime value by strengthening brand loyalty.
Bringing forward sales
Consumers may be “just looking” with the intention of buying in the future, but not right now. Perhaps they are looking at upgrading their phone or TV but are not ready to make the purchase at this point.
Trade-in promotions are an effective sales strategy for bringing forward these sales and shortening the refresh cycle. Offering the consumer a time-limited reward for trading in their old device for a newer model drives a 'buy-now' mentality that triggers product upgrades.
Trade-in promotions can also target competitor brands to increase market share.
Providing a compelling reason to buy
Perhaps the customer has no barriers, such as the ones described above, to buying the product when they are "just looking", but equally, they have no incentive to buy there and then. A Gift with Purchase promotion can convince them.
When creating our Gift with Purchase promotions, we pair the targeted product with an intelligently sourced, highly sought-after gift that provides excellent perceived value to the customer. We also carefully analyse customer behaviour to ensure the right gift is offered at the optimal time. With these elements considered, Gift with Purchase promotions can be an excellent strategy for increasing conversions and driving a sales uplift.
Instant win promotions are another promotional mechanic that can be used as an incentive to buy. These promotions add excitement to the purchasing process, engaging the customers, not only encouraging them to buy but also to share the promotion with others.
When customers are "just looking", there is still interest in the product. To convert this interest into a sale, brands and retailers must understand why the consumer is not planning to buy now and provide compelling reasons to get around these delays. With our creative yet data-driven approach to designing sales promotions, we can help your brand do that.
Rewards build staff loyalty to battle the great resignation
Retaining staff is not easy. The ‘Great Resignation’ of the last year has seen as many as one in five people change jobs or expect to, according to varying reports, while the talent shortage means that it’s more costly and difficult to hire new people into the business.
This was sparked by the Covid pandemic, but the phenomenon has continued and, if anything, the cost-of-living crisis seems to have brought this into stark relief.
The looming financial uncertainty may bring about some changes to this status-quo but, right now, employers across many different industries are struggling to retain their workforce in an otherwise booming jobs market.
When it comes to retaining staff, analysis shows that there’s the obvious desire for a good salary and benefits among UK employees, with over a third (35%) saying they are looking for a higher salary and one in five (19%) seeking benefits like healthcare, childcare and holiday allowances. Outside of benefits though, employees are looking for a good work life balance (31%) and to enjoy their work.
Employees may need their wages to stretch further, but businesses cannot necessarily afford to grant pay rises. It’s not always possible – or good business sense – to throw money and promotions around. For managers or HR teams, the challenge is how to reward and recognise your staff in ways they appreciate and show you value them.
This is one of the most important steps a business can take. Employees who feel valued and appreciated will be more engaged and loyal to their employers.
The reward structure has to meet the needs of staff and motivate them and it can take many forms, but typically works as part of a flexible benefits package that enables staff to access a range of services and discounts. Other rewards can be purchased as gift cards, vouchers and e-vouchers. Most of these are done in conjunction with a dedicated employee reward provider. Anything that contributes directly to covering regular costs for an employee will be a popular policy, especially those already wondering how they can maintain their lifestyle with inflation going up.
According to the latest analysis by the Gift Card and Voucher Association (GCVA) and KPMG UK, incentive and motivation schemes to foster loyalty are becoming more attractive to employees. 47% said that an incentive, such as a gift card, would have more impact on their loyalty and productivity than before the cost of living crisis hit. With 20% of people saying this increase in impact would be significant.
The most popular rewards are supermarket discounts, travel and cinema. In fact, discounted cinema tickets are a great flexible benefit. They’re popular: there are an average 150 million cinema tickets sold in the UK each year, accessible all over the country. They’re meaningful: employees feel like they’re getting a night out as a perk. They’re suited to all demographics: cinema-goers are a diverse bunch, across all ages, genders and background. But there’s another reason why this kind of reward is so suited to work.
Following the pandemic, hybrid working or the return to the office, people need to find ways to bring back meaningful social interaction in the office or virtually. Employers can help to bring back the water cooler moments of employees chatting. Far from distracting people from work, most employers instinctively understand the benefit from office camaraderie and the communities that spring up around shared interests, experience and chit-chat.
Giving staff benefits, and advocating for them to be used, can help to drive these relationships and that is a major part of fostering staff loyalty. The team that chats together, stays together.
Over half (51%) of the UK workforce don’t feel a sense of belonging in the workplace and almost a quarter (24%) say they don’t even have one friend at work. Employees who feel socially isolated or lonely feel less attached to their work, and their sense of belonging and dedication to the organisation suffers, especially when it comes to talent retention.
Do employee reward programmes really add any benefit to retaining staff? The short answer is: yes, they do. And in today’s economic climate, employers need all the help they can get in keeping their staff loyal and motivated.
Price discounting doesn’t grow market share
Premium brands live in a very competitive world, where their name alone is often no longer enough to guarantee sales. When people need to upgrade goods – whether that’s consumer electronics like a TV, phone or laptop, appliances such as washing machine or oven, or even furniture – then they’re going to spend a significant sum. At a time when every consumer is feeling the pinch of austerity in their pocket, the want their cash to work as hard as possible. Achieving this can involve more than just a simple specs versus price comparison between item A and item B. In fact, premium brands that rely on price alone may be the ones that fare least well.
Discounting is not the answer
Consider discounting. Customers are a savvy lot. They understand that discounting is done for a reason, and often approach discounts with a healthy scepticism. Is the item about to disappear from a product line and what will that mean for support? Does it underperform so the seller wants to offload? Is there better value for money to be had elsewhere?
The greater the discount, the more a customer raises their metaphorical eyebrow. Indeed, heavy price discounting is a turn-off for consumers and has long-term negative impact on brands as consumers hold off on purchase believing that prices will be discounted further.
The flip side of that is discounting does premium brands no favours in terms of customer perception. If all a brand does if offer money off products, it is a one trick pony. When set alongside brands with interesting offers and promotions, discounters can come to be perceived as box-shifters – interested less in pleasing customers than in offloading inventory.
Incentives are the value-add
Instead of discounting, sellers can offer incentives. There are many different types. Gifts given with a purchase, trade-in of older or unwanted products, and rewards in terms of vouchers are just some ways to incentivise a purchase.
Getting the approach to incentives right is a careful mix of art and science. It isn’t the job of premium retailers to have the expertise to do this in house. Trusted advisors – and Opia is one of the experts with years of experience – are there to help, and a brand will expect their advisor to have the skills to roll out complex logistical programmes, give good advice on appropriate incentives, and source these at the best price.
To take a pretty basic example, when there’s a big sporting tournament or a mega movie launch about to happen, we might help a TV seller run a promotion alongside free replica team kit, or discounted cinema or event tickets, or access to an appropriate streaming service. Of course it gets more complex than that, and a detailed understanding of the customer base is needed to find the right incentives at the right time.
Maximising profit through partnership
Still, the ability to find great incentives for brands is only part of the story. Brands need to focus on profitability, and they quite rightly want to stand at arm’s length from managing incentives. They want to minimise the cost involved in fulfilment, and be protected from any financial losses. They need an “as a service” provider.
This means that the brand’s partner needs to take on areas like the developing and managing the fulfilment platform – both back end and any customer facing web site and use of social platforms, TV or print advertising and so on. They also need to handle the customer service side of things dealing with redemption of vouchers, customer queries and the like.
With every incentives-based promotion there is a measure of risk. Will so many free streaming offers be taken up that the brand ends up out of pocket? Is the sports kit of good quality or will customers demand replacements or compensation for poorly sourced garments in their droves? A reputable and competent partner company will take the risk away from a brand. They’ll have the knowledge to negotiate a pricing structure with a brand that ensures even where brands run more risky campaigns, they won’t be left out of pocket. That’s what we do – and we’ve run thousands of successful campaigns.
Achieving success in tough times
Mentioned at the outset, at a time when every consumer is feeling the pinch of austerity in their pocket, they want their cash to work as hard as possible. Incentives can really achieve that for a customer, and they can also achieve it for a brand.
As consumers’ disposable income falls, brands need to work harder. Pulling back isn’t the answer. Customers have to be won – and they have to be won for every purchase. They’ll spend where they see that they’ll get best value. So for brands, one incentive based sales campaign might be part of the long term strategy, and another might be set up, managed and closed over a short period to take advantage of an unexpected opportunity.
Whatever the campaign, a tried and tested “as a service” provider is a premium brand’s best friend.
How to create a difference between you and your competitors
With the GfK Consumer Confidence indicator reporting a new record low in August 2022 and a sense of exasperation about the UK’s economy and the surging cost of living, brands and retailers are feeling the pinch. Smartphone OEMs have already reportedly cut their orders for 2022 in panic, seeing lowered consumer spending in this product category.
Never has it been more important to stand out as a brand, creating a difference between you and your competitors to drive sales and increase market share. But how?
Below, we share our top four strategies.
Ensure the offer is compelling during the consumer research phase
In these tough times, customers will be seeking out a good deal for their next product. Even if there is buyer hesitation, it's likely that consumers will still be researching what's available on the market. This process often starts with asking friends and family, and using referral incentives is a great way to build brand awareness at this point.
However, if the features of two or more products appear equal, you need a strategy to gain the market edge and convince the customer of better-perceived value.
Of course, the price will play a key factor, and using cashback deals, which highlight the savings while protecting your profitability, is a much more beneficial approach than traditional discounting.
However, you can also leverage the psychology of receiving a better deal by using a Gift with Purchase promotion. At Opia, we closely analyse customer behaviour to source gifts highly regarded by the target market and relevant to the promotional product. And with our strong supplier partnerships, we can offer gifts of high-perceived value at a low cost to your business.
Buy and Try promotions are another way of removing buyer hesitation, gaining the competitive edge by creating trust in a new or unfamiliar product, or even one that has experienced previous concerns with reliability.
Leverage strategic methods for brand building
Although tactical promotional strategies provide excellent solutions for short-term goals, it is also essential to consider the long term to create a difference between you and your competitors.
Our strategic promotions can help you strengthen your brand by driving better customer loyalty, increased market share and optimised long-term value. For example, we can create and deliver 5-year warranties or reliability guarantee promotions on slow-moving goods to build trust with your customers.
Enhanced Trade-In promotions are also a strategic method that supports brand loyalty, incentivising the customer to upgrade their product with you within a designated time. These promotions can be used to target competitors and encourage brand switchover too.
Create a good customer experience
A good customer experience can make the difference between you and your competitors; another way to help build brand loyalty and gain more market share.
At Opia, we help our clients provide a first-rate customer experience through the promotions we manage for them. For example, we make it easy for customers to redeem offers with our easy-to-use, market-leading platform, dedicated customer service team and quick distribution of cashback rewards. When delivering Trade-In promotions, we also manage the product pick-up and recycling or reusing process.
Recognising that we act on behalf of our clients' brands and affect their reputation, we are proactive in our approach and continually explore ways to optimise the customer journey.
Take a bold and market disruptive approach
To create a difference between you and your competitors, you need to ensure your offering is just that – different.
With nearly two decades of experience delivering highly responsive, disruptive promotions, we can support each of our clients in developing creative strategies to reach their unique goals.
We take time to ask questions, analyse data on their target market and design campaigns that are innovative and exciting for their customers. With consumers so much more careful with their purchases, providing something imaginative and compelling is vital.
Furthermore, there’s no need to worry about your profitability when running successful sales promotions. We also offer promotional risk management, where we shoulder the risk of over-redemption so you can be bold with your campaigns.
It is undoubtedly a challenging time for brands and retailers currently, but Opia is here as your strategic promotional partner to help. With our extensive experience, market disruptive approach and range of proven promotional mechanics, we can help you implement the strategies needed to gain the edge over your competitors.
Consumer confidence, Covid concerns and a cost crisis: Who picks up the strain of this triple whammy?
Almost everyone now thinks long and hard about the products they buy. Consumer confidence, already knocked by two years of a global pandemic, has been further hit by spiking inflation and rising costs. Brands and retailers, who can be badly affected by this fall in confidence, must create a strategy to pull customers towards their products. So, what should they do?
One solution might be to cut prices: make your products cheaper and more people should buy them. It’s a strategy that sounds simple enough – but companies that are thinking of relying on price reductions to build consumer confidence should tread very carefully.
Research suggests a drop in the price per unit isn’t necessarily going to peak potential customers’ interest. Consultant Bain & Company says consumers often don’t realize the magnitude of the price cut – or they don’t even notice the reduction at all.
Worse still, while a cut in the ticket price might not be noticed by consumers, it will definitely be seen by your competitors. Per-unit reductions could lead to a price war, with a consequential impact on revenues and profitability.
In fact, the potential damage of price reductions in the longer term should be of even more concern. Your business has worked hard to build the perception of its brand. If your company gets associated with price cuts now, it could lead to a downwards spiral in terms of its reputation in the market.
Constant price cutting can damage brand equity and erode profit margins. Research suggests customers begin to develop low expectations about brands and retailers that employ such strategies. Rather than trusting your business, they can start to become disengaged.
So, while times are tough now, they could be even tougher in the future. Make the wrong choices about product pricing when consumer confidence is low and customers are unlikely to return. To keep people interested in its products, your business needs to employ a much more subtle range of tactics. Here’s six techniques that we believe can help keep your customers happy.
Cashback promotions
Rather than relying on reduced prices, cashback promotions highlight savings, which is something that’s proven to motivate purchases and deliver a substantial increase in product sales over the longer term. By working with a specialist like Opia, you can create a promotion that works for your business and its customers, and then track and trace payments and the success of this approach.
Dell created a cashback promotion across a range of desktops, laptops and notebooks. Customers could claim their prize online as soon as their products were dispatched. The campaign was so successful that Dell and Opia used this format repeatedly to drive sales at other times, such as Back to School or pre-Black Friday.
Trade-in promotions
Trade-ins offer a different approach, combining the attractiveness of a newer product with an incentive to return old devices. Customers are compelled to upgrade their old equipment via a conditional, time-limited reward in cash or as a gift.
If your brand is planning to launch a product with the aim of increasing market share, then a trade-in of a competitor’s brand for your new model could be a route to competitive advantage – and one that supports sustainability agendas. To ensure efficient and ethical disposal of old products, Opia works with a network of accredited recyclers.
Buy and try promotions
When consumer confidence is low, you need to find ways to reassure potential buyers that the risk of purchasing is reduced. Buy and try promotions remove some of the barriers associated to buying something new by giving consumers a risk-free, no-obligation trial period.
This tactic is a great way to help wary customers try an innovative or higher value item that they might not previously have considered. And in the unlikely event of a customer deciding to return the product at the end of the trial, Opia can manage returns, refunds and recycling of used goods.
Referral and rewards programmes
When you’re not sure what to buy, who can you trust? Research suggests most people turn to those they know – 92% of consumers trust word-of-mouth opinions or recommendations from friends and family above all other forms of advertising. So, if you want to get in front of new customers, you need to win the trust of their inner circle.
That’s where referral and rewards programmes can help. Building these kinds of sales promotions is an effective strategy for increasing sales, with research showing referred customers have a 37% higher customer retention rate. Opia makes it easy for customers to refer friends using a range of digital channels, such as email, social networks, instant messaging or chat.
Gift with purchase
Sometimes it takes that little added extra to convince people to buy – and added gifts can boost the attractiveness of your products. Opia carries out extensive market research and sources gifts that are highly regarded by your target audience and offer a low cost to your business. And we ensure your free gifts are delivered quickly and efficiently.
Samsung wanted to drive sales on their flagship S Series phones. Using a post-Christmas ‘get active over winter’ message, the tech giant aimed to promote its Galaxy Watch Active as a free gift. Opia handled all elements of the successful campaign from promotion to design and onto claim management, validation, fulfilment and customer support.
Instant win
One way great to create buzz around your product is to start a competition. You’ll need to engage customers with high-value rewards that create a compelling reason for purchase. Opia uses an innovative instant-win promotion mechanism, alongside a time-limited sales campaign, to ensure the incentive to buy products is higher than ever before.
Competitions can generate big intertest on social media channels. But with various rules and regulations in each jurisdiction, you’ll need to ensure your company works with an expert on each competition. Once again, Opia excels here and provides end-to-end campaign management.
Conclusion: Great rewards for everyone
Customers might be feeling the pinch but that doesn’t mean your sales have to suffer. Use the right promotional tactics at the right time and your company can keep generating revenue. Rather than someone having to take the strain for wider macro-economic conditions, both your business and its customers can get just what they want.
Opia Launches New Cost-Effective Solution to Deliver Digital Rebate Promotions
Opia, a global leader in strategic and tactical sales promotions, has launched a digital platform for rebate promotions, giving brands and retailers a modern and dynamic way to rapidly deploy high quality cash-rebate promotions at low cost.
The new solution is centered around a standardized redemption website which can be fully branded for the business operating it, and which gives them a completely streamlined approach to rebate promotions, allowing them to create new promotions quickly and easily.
As a market leader in sales promotions, Opia identified a gap for a platform that empowers brands to either reduce, or even stop, their reliance on mail-in promotions which are typically slow and cumbersome to administer, or existing digital platforms that are outdated and potentially eroding the brand experience.
The new Opia digital solution has also been designed for retailers who often rely on instore-cash rebates or price discounting to increase sales in competitive markets. Opia’s end-to-end digital solution allows retailers to quickly and easily set up and manage multiple types of rebate promotions, which ultimately deliver a better ROI for the retailer and a better brand experience to their customers.
Laurent Kretzschmar, Commercial and Product Director at Opia says that this new launch is set to be game changing for the rebate promotions market: “We are in the business of helping brands and retailers devise and set up highly effective and impactful sales promotions. But we also know that some businesses want to run effective promotions that they can self-administer – which is why we have created and launched this end-to-end digital solution for rebate promotions. We are offering our expertise but with a lighter touch.
“Our product design team have created the perfect redemption website, one that is easily set up and branded for any brand or retailer. And the digital format means it is cost effective so clients can be bolder in the promotions they create which can deliver higher ROI, build loyalty and increase their brand advocacy.”
This redemption website can host many promotions: whether it is simple cashback variations, ‘buy more save more’ and tiered bundles, free or discounted add-ons, category bundles, tax back or many other types, brands and retailer can manage them from the Opia platform.
“Not only can it host multiple types of promotions,” says Laurent, “but setting them up can also be done extremely quickly helping businesses to become more competitive. The digital platform will allow them to respond instantly to market changes or to changes to the availability of inventory.”
The platform is fully integrated with Opia’s leading fraud detection protocols, and gives users intuitive dashboards for a richer level of insight into customer claims and real-time data on how redemptions are performing.
ENDS
B2B partnership: UCI embarks on a collaboration with marketing specialist Opia
UCI, one of the leading cinema operators in Germany, has started to collaborate with global marketing services provider Opia. This new partner will bolster UCI’s direct sales of electronic cinema vouchers to corporate customers.
Bochum: UCI’s parent company, ODEON Cinemas Group, has been partnering in the United Kingdom and Ireland with marketing services specialist Opia for over five years. This partnership will now be expanded to Germany.
As part of the collaboration, UCI is looking forward to Opia’s support with sales of electronic vouchers to corporate clients.
The UCI sales team will naturally continue to be available for sales of the familiar cinema vouchers and will furthermore advise corporate clients on B2B events and advertising opportunities.
Ramón Biarnés, Managing Director Southern Europe, which also includes UCI Germany, said,
“We’re delighted by the closer partnership with Opia and anticipate new impetus in the B2B business in Germany. Opia has already made an impression with its strategic ideas in the United Kingdom and Ireland. We will achieve our goals in the B2B sector together with the German sales team and Opia.”
First and foremost, Opia will specialise in winning new customers in the field of electronic vouchers. The company has a long history of successful provision of sales promotion services to leading brands and has experience in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer promotions.
Andy Stone, Head of Reward Sales with Opia, explains, “Everyone knows that cinema is a great attraction. A superb film can scare us, make us laugh or cry - or simply make us feel good. This is why incorporating the power of the cinema into your business-to-business or employee incentive programme is so effective. Everyone loves a good film!”
UCI cinema vouchers for corporate clients are used by businesses for a range of activities: to thank customers and as customer loyalty scheme rewards, as incentives and employee gifts. Corporate clients can find all the details of our B2B products and contact our sales team at uci-media.de.
Corporate clients can contact Opia directly on [email protected] for electronic voucher enquiries.
About UCI
In its 30-year-plus history, UCI’s numerous innovations have made it synonymous with pioneering spirit in the cinema industry. UCI operates 22 cinemas in Germany, with five IMAX cinemas and the first ScreenX cinema in Berlin’s flagship cinema, UCI Luxe Mercedes Platz. UCI is a member of the ODEON Cinemas Group, Europe’s biggest cinema operator, with 290 cinemas, 2,558 screens and more than 11,000 employees in nine cinema markets. The ODEON Cinemas Group is part of AMC Theatres®, the world’s biggest cinema chain, which operates more than 1,000 cinemas, with over 11,000 screens, in 15 countries.
Press Release: Sales Promotions Deliver Brand Loyalty and Not Just Sales
Sales Promotions can deliver sales, brand loyalty and help to shorten consumer renewal cycles says report from Opia
Effective use of sales promotions don’t just significantly influence the purchase of ‘slow-moving consumer goods’ such as consumer electronics or white and brown goods, they also deliver tangible customer engagement.
In the consumer electronics space in particular, highly engaging sales promotions drive earlier purchases of new models, shorten product refresh cycles, and even lead customers to buy a brand they may not have previously considered. These are among the key findings included in a new white paper from Opia, a global leader in strategic and tactical sales promotions.
In a sample of 500,000 claimed promotions designed and managed by Opia, 30% of people said that the promotion prompted them to purchase the product earlier than they had intended, while 27% were influenced to buy a product that they had not considered previously. A further 18% said they would not have purchased the product at all without the promotion.
Opia analysed data across more than 100 campaigns, such as Samsung, Dell, Google and LG, in order to determine customer perceptions and behaviours towards redemption-based promotions and how promotions can support product and category managers.
It presented the findings in the white paper, which reveals:
- Customers appreciate buying a product with a sales promotion: 78% were satisfied with their promotion (33% very satisfied, 45% satisfied) and only 6% considered themselves to be dissatisfied.
- Almost half (47%) of promotional claims lead to the customer signing up to the brand’s marketing preference, demonstrating an intention of brand loyalty.
- ‘Gift with purchase’ promotions (e.g. a pair of high-end wireless headphones with an advanced smartphone) drive significantly higher engagement and sign up to marketing communications (close to 50%)
- Consumer electronic brands attract even higher sign-up rates with 67% opting-in to future marketing communications.
Sales promotion experts at Opia believe that these positive results come from using in-depth knowledge of customer behaviour and market activity to design creative and intelligent sales promotion to the product manager’s objective: “What we know from experience,” says Laurent Kretzschmar, Commercial and Product Director at Opia, “is that sales promotions are often most effective when multi-layered, and tailored to a commercial need – and when they stretch beyond simply achieving sales volume.
“In a competitive market, real success requires more imagination and applied intelligence,” he adds.
If, for example, a brand is planning a new product launch then ‘buy and try’ or ‘free trials’ often works best with a strong ‘peace of mind’ message to new adopters; if it is a high value product then an expensive gift or generous cashback could be the most effective; and if the objective is to increase market share, then a trade-in of a competitor’s brand for your new model could be a route to competitive advantage (and one that can support corporate sustainability agendas).
“But whichever style of promotion you use,” says Laurent, “it shouldn’t be just about sales – it should be about protecting your margins and engendering customer engagement and brand loyalty for return business and future success. Whatever strategy we recommend we are always searching for consumer to sign-up to marketing preference after they have made their claim. It indicates strong brand engagement and that they want to be the first to know about new exciting products or exciting offers for these types of products in the future.”
Laurent agrees that sales promotions, like price discounts, have been described as the hard drugs of the retail sector, and are often misused: “They have a reputation for being a risky or expensive way of achieving sales volume,” he says. “They are often used to ease the pain in the short term but, as use increases, so does dependence and it becomes harder and harder to quit. But ‘quitting’ is not the solution,” he insists. “Instead, better understanding of how sales promotions work and the outputs you can expect are key to using them successfully.”
Laurent believes that some product manager’s thinking around sales promotions starts and ends with the many simplistic ‘cashback’ offers so frequently advertised, but even these are misunderstood:
“Cashbacks can be multi-layered and packaged as ‘Buy more save more’ campaigns based on purchase value thresholds designed using historical buying patterns. And alternatives such as ‘gift with purchase promotion’ for example, where a pair of high-end wireless headphones or smart speakers is given free in combination with the purchase or pre-order of a new smartphone model, performs extremely well,” he says. “They drive high engagement both from the visibility of the promotion and marketing message as well as from the potential future engagement of promotionally responsive customers who sign up to marketing communications – close to 50% – compared to cashback offers which result in 25%.
“The drawback with poorly designed cashback offers or complex trade-ins can be that while they appear to provide a differentiated marketing message, they are often seen by customers as unattractive and not different to small price discounts, failing to drive sales uplift as well as yielding long term engagement.”
Introducing Opia Cloud: The Innovative Platform That Makes Sales Promotions Easy
For product and category managers seeking to boost their sales and protect their margins, Opia offers a flexible, robust, and scalable solution that makes managing sales promotions easy to launch and more efficient to run. Opia’s newly released proprietary sales promotion software, Opia Cloud, brings together a full suite of digital capabilities to build the best and biggest promotions for its clients with minimal effort required on their part.
With over 15 years of experience as market leaders in designing and delivering highly responsive sales promotions for the world’s most successful companies, Opia knows what is needed to offer clients the most value from this software.
Adam Nicholson, Director of Technology, commented, "Our clients are always telling us that they love our flexibility and ability to create campaigns tailored to their needs. The truth is that Opia Cloud is the secret sauce which enables us to do that.”
From branded interfaces and claim processing all the way to reward payment and gift or trade-in logistics, Opia Cloud has the functionality to rapidly launch and run sales promotions that provide a seamless, on-brand customer engagement.
Opia Cloud creates omnichannel experiences using trusted customer interfaces over multiple touchpoints, such as mobile responsive microsites, apps and social media, voice assistants and smart devices.
Translating promotions and end-to-end customer notifications to run in multiple languages and localising the messaging to be market-relevant supports customer engagement worldwide. Furthermore, with a multilingual user-matched interface delivering 24/7 customer service, clients can have confidence in seamless promotion management wherever their customers interact.
Commenting on the thought behind the design, Adam continues, "The platform was designed from the ground up to be hyper-flexible, with an architecture of building blocks that can be re-assembled in various shapes and sizes to produce different end-solutions. And, as a result of re-using tried-and-tested platform features, we can guarantee a high-quality result every single time."
This approach is evident in Opia Cloud's choice of pre-defined and customisable mechanics, such as cashbacks, free gifts, trade-ins and referrals, proven in their success in delivering an optimum ROI. In addition, all promotions are set up with Opia’s recommended suppliers that make promotion management entirely hassle-free. From fast and convenient payment solutions, digital and physical gifts fulfilment and sustainable recycling of unwanted products, Opia Cloud guarantees an easy-to-use, high-quality experience for all users.
Opia Cloud gives brands complete visibility and control with an online dashboard providing real-time reporting of every metric of a promotion, from tracking claim and redemption volumes and status to monitoring retailer and reseller participation and performance. Capturing customer insights, marketing opt-ins and surveys, the cutting-edge technology behind this platform provides the analytics to drive optimum promotion results.
Trusted by the most demanding and complex brands, Opia Cloud encompasses the best in fraud prevention and data protection by design. Tailored to each client's unique requirements, there is the option for an entirely self-contained experience managed completely by Opia or a secure API integration with clients' internal systems.
Notorious for its market disruptive approach, Opia has once again leveraged deep insight and imagination to develop a platform that delivers exceptional results for every aspect of its clients’ sales promotions.
Contact us today to discuss how our sales promotion software and bespoke redemption solutions can help your business to drive sales, increase brand loyalty and surpass the competition.