#380: Understanding Loyalty in Europe - Getting to know Samsung Members

Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. I’m Paula Thomas, the Founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty. Today’s episode is hosted by Charlie Hills, Managing Director of Mando-Connect, a UK based agency that uses smart data to create brilliant partnerships and rewards that really work.

If you work in loyalty marketing, make sure to join Let’s talk Loyalty every Tuesday, every Wednesday, and every Thursday to learn the latest ideas from loyalty experts around the world.

Did you know that Mastercard is one of the world’s largest loyalty service providers working with leading global brands across financial services, travel, retail, dining, fuel, and consumer goods. Mastercard designs loyalty strategies that build and sustain authentic personal relationships. Their loyalty platforms, PowerPoints, cashback and offers programs to deliver Mastercards priceless benefits and incentives in real time to your consumers.

Visit go.mastercardservices.com/ltl to learn how Mastercard can help you build stronger relationships through smarter engagement. 

Charlie: Hello and welcome to episode 380 of Let’s Talk Loyalty. I’m Charlie Hills, the Managing Director and Head of Strategy for Mando-Connect, WPP’s loyalty specialist partnerships and rewards agency.

We have created a new white paper in partnership with Yugo that explores loyalty membership appeal, and impact across 24 European markets. And I’m delighted to be hosting a series of six podcasts with some of the experts featured in the paper to help listeners better understand loyalty across Europe. 

Today, I am delighted to welcome Laura Moore and Cathryn Lodwidge from Samsung members. Laura is the European Head of Customer Data-driven Marketing, Retention and Loyalty. And Cathryn is the European Cross-Channel Retention Lead at Samsung Electronics. They are both very passionate about developing and delivering global loyalty solutions that delight customers across multiple markets and under their stewardship, Samsung members has gone from strength to strength.

They provided the deep dive case study into the program in the white paper and also presented at the Loyalty Summit in Zurich. Today, we’ll be learning about their favorite loyalty programs, more about Samsung members, how it varies across the 34 European markets it operates in, and what the future holds for the program.

I hope you enjoy our conversation today.

So hello and welcome to the podcast today, Laura and Cat. Really excited to have you both here with us today. 

Laura: Thank you Charlie. Very excited to be here. 

Cathryn: Hello. Yes. Very excited to be here too. 

Charlie: Hey, it’s, it’s really cool to kind of be talking about such a brilliant program, that’s achieved so much and got such high profile.

So thank you ever so much for joining us today. In terms of where we thought we’d start, we better start with Paula’s favorite question. So, Laura, I’m gonna ask you first, what is your favorite loyalty program? 

Laura: It is such a good question. I do have quite a few that I’ve realized I’m part of, but my current favorite program is H&M and I think that’s because I really love the clear benefits that I receive. I think it’s very easy to use. The app is, is really innovative in terms of how it works with your benefits and the shopping experience. I like that I can also receive instant bonus vouchers with purchase, so you can kind of get that immediate benefit from being part of the program. But there’s also that, that integration with partner offers that are relevant, to me in the area.

So I think H&M as a, as a program, it is really, really innovative, in terms of sort of helping me buy more, but also have just a, a better affinity with the, with the brand and the benefits that, that I can get from it. 

Charlie: That’s really nice. It’s a great program, isn’t it? I think it really blends those functional benefits with those emotional ones.

It, it’s created quite a community, which is extraordinary when you think how big it is and how many markets are in and, and how many members it’s got. It’s a big program doing a really good job. What about you, Cat, which is your favorite program? 

Cathryn: So, I’m probably gonna answer this from a consumer perspective, because I think, loyalty programs obviously are as good as, the engagement you get from consumers.

So I think for me, you know, I am a mom of two girls. And I really like the Tesco Clubcard, and I know that’s a bit of a, a stock answer in the loyalty world, but from my perspective, you know, that’s where, we do our regular shopping. And then off the back of that, you know, you kind of beeping your Clubcard through the till, which gets you discounted rates on some of the food and the deals and the stuff they’ve got going on in store, which is always great.

But the thing that I like is that you get this added bonus of the partner offers at the end. And I know that they’ve just, they’re starting to make changes to that in the, in the next few months. But you know, over half term and school holidays, it’s always great when you can kind of get three you know, theme park tickets or discounts to cinemas or meals out, you know, it’s always just a nice little perk, just that you can then go and redeem that for, for free or discounted.

It’s, it’s quite nice to kind of have that in the back pocket. But obviously there are loads of others that I admire from a professional perspective. You know, you know, there, there’re got some great ones. I think Sky have got a really good one and I really like the fact that it’s tiered based on tenure. I think that’s a, a really, really nice touch. 

Charlie: Yeah, there’s some brilliant programs in the market and I think Tesco’s, you know, was called out in the white paper as one of the best programs in Great Britain, and it’s certainly one of the programs that everybody across Europe keeps a really close eye on.

I felt like they’re always innovating, you know, they’ve led the way in partner rewards. They with the launch of Tesco Clubcard, plus they’ve really pioneered that subscription model as well following, you know, the precedent that Amazon say. It’s a really, really interesting program. 

It’s also one of my personal favorites. We use it a lot. I’m a huge fan of their partnership with hotels.com, actually for cheeky family, mini breaks. So I think they’ve done a really good job of tapping into the things that people really care about, and offering them some really great value in that space. 

What about your loyalty background? How did you get into loyalty Cat? Where did you, where did you start, and what’s been your experience so far? 

Cathryn: Well, I’ve kind of dipped in and out over the year, so I think, I first started in, I was working at British Gas, and we launched the Nectar partnership. And this is probably going back I don’t know, sort of 15 years ago or so. 

And that’s where I kind of really started. So working really closely with the Nectar team, and working on, you know, kind of their communications team and integrating British Gas as part of the Nectar communications. Then obviously Nectar as part of British Gas Communications and, you know, getting our customers to you know, sign up with their Nectar card to the British Gas schemes. They can kind of earn and burn some of the points in at British Gas, which was, a really great thing to be part of.

And then, you know, kind of my, kind of career took a, a different turn, went into to a different role. But then I came back and  we launched British Gas’, loyalty program with British Gas Rewards, which we have talked previously about on this podcast. And that was brilliant because that was about, kind of actually rewarding.

British Gas customers, for their, their, their value to British Gas, and then giving them lots of different partner offers and great experiences with some of the gamification that we’ve done. And then I have found myself here at, at, at Samsung, one of the world’s biggest brands, kind of looking after, a fantastic program. So yeah, that’s, that’s kind of how I’ve, I’ve landed here. 

Charlie: That’s really nice. That’s a really nice mix of sort of coalition programs, solace programs, and then transferring that insight from one sector to another. What are the big things that you learned that translated from British Gas to Samsung? That’s quite a jump of brands.

Cathryn: It’s a bit of a jump. I think when it boils down to it, customers actually want the same thing from a brand. You know, they want to be recognized, and they want to be rewarded. So I think when you kind of boil down the customer insight, they’re actually pretty similar across the sectors.

It’s just obviously how you surface them across the brands will be completely different. So how Samsung interacts with their customers is completely different to how British Gas do. So that, that’s been kind of big similarities and obviously polar opposites in terms of, the, the, the way that we communicate and interact with customers is, is different.

Charlie: Yeah. I think that’s one of those big things in loyalty marketing that actually there are so many transferable learnings from vertical to to vertical and from one type of program to another. I know there’s been a lot of podcasts from different sectors. And every time I listen to them, I’m always really interested about what applies and transfers.

What about you, Laura? You’ve been at Samsung for a while now. How are you finding loyalty marketing and, and what do you particularly like about it? 

Laura: Yes, I have, I’ve been at Samsung nearly nine years tonight, and yeah. I love the fact that, you know, it’s about putting the customer first. You know, trying to think with the customer perspective.

How are we going to drive a customer benefit that will then help them to stay with the brand? My career started in, luxury, re luxury market and I think, you know, the luxury industry is particularly good at thinking about the customer experience. So I was lucky enough to start in, rolls-Royce motor cars and then work with BMW in their, in terms of, CRM and loyalty marketing.

So from there, there was a lot of kind of principles in terms of how to reward customers, how to maximize the lifetime value of the customer, and drive that engagement through, you know, one-to-one relationships, whether that would be with the, their dealership or in the car industry, or also with private events right through to the digital experience that we can give them. 

And then that transferred into Vertu, which was the luxury mobile phone company owned by Nokia. Again, sort of doing CRM there, but there, and loyalty. But there it was much more in the concept of kind of the, the benefits that you receive as being a member of this virtue experience.

So really helping to give customers a sense of like identity to being part of a community. They had access to Vertu Life, Vertu concierge, they could access private members clubs with their, you just showing their phone, to get into it. So those principles are kind of how do you really tap into customers, you know, want to be part of something to drive that emotional engagement is, is what I really like about loyalty.

And then working at Samsung, I think it’s been an opportunity to try and do that on a huge scale. Obviously it’s quite very different going from a small base of customers luxury world, to then looking at mass customer experience. But you think through the, the new program that we’ve brought out, it’s an opportunity for us to, to do that, you know, look at the different segments of customers that we have, whether that’s within mobile versus TV. And, and reward them across their ownership experience and engage with them across that ownership experience. 

Charlie: Yeah, I think that’s one of the most interesting challenges. When I heard, the pair of you present at The Loyalty Summit in Zurich, I think that was a really interesting part of your presentation, in terms of how you actually activate that across the whole sort of product ownership cycle and the whole product ownership experience and portfolio.

Our listeners might not be familiar with Samsung members. Do you want to tell us a little bit about the program? I feel like I know it really well having seen the presentation, but I’m, I’m sure they’d love to hear more. What is the, what is the program about? What is it set out to do and, and how is it put together?

Laura: Absolutely. So Samsung members is a place where we’re empowering our customers to get more out of their products. It’s helping them to feel rewarded. They get inspiration on all their products. There’s also access to support and a Samsung community there. it was launched in 2015 and it’s really evolved to being the heart of the Samsung experience.

So you access your phone, you go there, you understand what rewards you get. You understand what content is relevant to you. So lots of hints and hacks and tips to get the most out of your device that’s relevant to your passions. Whether that is photography or entertainment. So, so ultimately it, it’s both an app but also a web experience in some markets that customers can access so that they can really have better use of their device. 

It’s now live in 34 markets and we’ve got over 60 million members within Europe. So we’re really proud of, of how the program has, has sort of grown to become a really key platform to drive customer engagement, throughout their post-purchase experience. 

We have a term in Samsung called PPX, which stands for post-purchase experience. So basically it, it’s really integrated within our CRM program. When a customer signs up to, Samsung, they will opt into our emails. They will then receive like lifecycle communications throughout their experience, and that will then Samsung members is the hub where they can also go to get that personalized content as well as the rewards and support tailored to them.

Charlie: It’s a really rich program, and I think what really stood out for me is your activation around the passions and actually how you bring that to life for your members. Cat, I think that was something you talked about a lot, at the conference as well, in terms of how you bring those passions to life for members and the kind of rewarding experiences that you offered.

Do you want to tell our listeners about a few of the things you’ve done across the different markets? 

Cathryn: Yes. So, I guess as a, as a bit of a context. Laura and I work in the European division. So we come up with, kind of the strategies and the frameworks that we can then work with the, the markets in Europe to then activate.

And, you know, depending on how the, I guess what the challenge is and the market is like in, in each of those markets, you know, they will then activate them in, in their own kind of way, in their own localized way to make sure that they’re kind of, engaging, with their, with their members. So, you know, we launched a couple of  different initiatives to drive engagement with our existing base.

And so one of them was called, I guess it was like an instant gratification, mechanic for customers so that we’re able to instantly reward our members. And we kind of had a look at, you know, research from Gen Z and millennials, and with our existing consumer base to kind of understand actually what, what customers really wanted. And obviously instant gratification was something that was quite high. 

So we enabled a program called Tap and Lock, which was just a, a gamified experience where customers can go in and kind of matching, matching pairs, and then obviously win something off the back of it. And that was just a really nice way just to reward customers and, and do something that was, that was nice for customers to go and redeem.

And that was something that was devised as a weekly mechanic so customers could come in, each week and, and reveal their, their reward. And that was activated locally via the markets. So the markets would then obviously source those, those rewards, and, and, and activate that across the markets. 

We also looked at, different ways to engage customers. So not just through rewards, but through, you know, I guess peer to peer conversation. So within members, we’ve actually got this community where, you know, there are forums, there are contests. and there are areas where you can kind of interact with other Samsung customers and super fans. And one of the things that we looked to activate was, contests where customers were asked to kind of upload a, a photo, and then you know, at the end of the month, they would then be ranked and liked and voted for by fellow members.

And at the end of the month, the one with the most votes would then get picked and would win a, a, a passion bundle, which would basically be, something that would be relevant to those customers and to that contest. So for example, if we had a passion bundle for music, it might be a music subscription with some Samsung buds so that they can enjoy that. Or it could be a lack of photography one. So we know that within Poland, they’ve had the prize of,the, the latest S series. And also they’ve had, a partnership with National Geographic, where the winning photo would then be published in the, the, the Polish version of National Geographic, which was quite a, a big prize for, for them.

And obviously for, for our members in Poland, because obviously you know, who doesn’t want their photo to be in publish in somewhere as great as National Geographic. So we’ve done some really great things in terms of engagement with, with, with consumers. And you know, we’ve also got, a lot of things in terms of, you know, bite size lessons to help customers get the most out of their devices, which is another engaging way.

So instead of just almost like flat content that would just be like, you know, click here to activate this. It was, you know, something that was kind of clickable and interactive and, and, and a lesson for customers to kind of go through and understand how to, you know, take a photo, in darker conditions or how to kind of take moving, action images that would be really show and pristine. And we’ve got lots of, of, of content that has been produced there for, for markets to activate as well. 

Charlie: Yeah, I think hands-free selfies that you talked about at the conference was a huge hit. You could see everybody getting out their devices and going, oh, that’s how you do it. That’s brilliant.

And I think that kind of practical inspiration really sings out from the program. And I know that, and, and the masterclass as well was something you sort of called out in the white paper. 

Cat, do you want to talk to our listeners about the white paper that you’ve contributed to, and, you know, why did you feel that that was a good opportunity for, for Samsung members to be part of this sort of first pan-European research?

Cathryn: Well, you know, I think between Laura and I, you know, we’ve been working on Samsung members for a couple of years, well, I guess me a couple of years, Laura, kinda a bit longer. And I think from our perspective, you know, what, what really appealed to us was the fact that you were doing a European white paper, and we’ve already spoken to you about the, you know, informally about the, the British white paper that you’ve done before.

And the European one felt like it spoke to us quite a lot because obviously we operate across Europe. We’ve been doing a lot, we’ve had a lot of focus on, on members in the past few years, where we’ve been, you know, operating with the, the local markets. And kind of implementing all of these really great engagement mechanics that, that, that markets can go and activate.

And we felt that actually it’d be great to kind of understand some of the research that you are doing into those markets across Europe and see how they ladder up to some of our insights and what we’ve been doing, within Samsung. And it was just great to kind of understand and kind of you know, see what other brands were experiencing and be part of a, a wider narrative for, for Europe.

So for us, we were, we were really keen, it was almost a bit of a no-brainer to, to be part of this. 

Charlie: Yeah. I think that’s the feedback that we’ve had from a lot of brands actually on the paper. And that’s why I think these formats, like these podcasts are so useful because people are really excited, you know, to look outside of their own markets and their own experience to see what other program owners are doing and, and to look at those ideas for, for inspiration and to see what’s really working. 

I think you are quite in quite a, a unique position in Samsung members as well, where you actually tailor it so much by market into local market needs. I know, Laura, you, you have quite a point of view on how you vary the approach of markets and how you work hand in hand with those markets to make sure that it’s really relevant in every market.

Do you want to talk to our listeners a little bit about how you do that and how you actually work in partnership with the markets and, and then bring that to life with some examples of the kind of ways you mix it up across Europe? 

Laura: Yes, absolutely. I think, as we are such a huge organization, so we work, we sit in the European office and then we have, 15 different, you know, in-market offices that we work with to alongside their expertise.

So we really see the, that we need to have that right balance between what you drive centrally in order to gain economies of scale. You also generate more customer consistency in terms of the global brand experience versus what should you be able to localize, and adapt on a, on a, in the market level.

So we definitely always have that right balance when it comes to centralization. We, we generally find, you know, it’s very important to consider the foundations of the tech, the data, and the strategic framework to be consistent across Europe. But then the actual elements of content and the rewards, they can be varied on a local level to work within that framework.

In order that we have that right balance of what is applied, what is a global framework and what is then relevant to the local market. So as Cat was saying, we create a, we create quite a lot of mechanics that are implemented for Samsung members. We make recommendations in terms of what are the principles for those rewards and for the content, etcetera.

We also will create kind of a, a core suite of rewards or content for, for the markets, but then they also will invest on a local level. And, and what’s great about that is, that it gives us an opportunity to test and learn really effectively across all the different markets. You know, with the UK they may run one thing.

We see that performed really well, we can create that as a best practice to share with other markets that they can implement in trial. So it’s a really great community, that we have at Samsung, me with Samsung members to really help drive that sharing and learning over time to really drive the success of the program.

Charlie: Yeah, I think thatstakeholder integration really shows out really strongly across the program actually, and that local market adaptation must be a huge contributor to the, to the program’s success. I know another area that you’ve talked about in them in stakeholder integration is actually how you integrate the program with all the other marketing programs and channels across the business.

How do you manage that? Is that the same or is that a different sort of approach?

Laura: You’re right. We do so because we have got the tech and the data integrated consistently. We can ship, basically use the the data sources between members, to personalize our emails, in terms of their customer experience.

We also are able to, we also integrate, our data from Sam, from Samsung into our media activation, ensuring that we are tailoring our, our media campaigns to the customer, properly. Also the website personalization. So when they land on.com, if they are a member, we would look to optimize that experience.

So overall, we’re really trying to drive a more optimize consistent customer experience, between our own and our paid channels, through that integration of like a consistent data and tech landscape. 

Charlie: Yeah, I think that single customer view is something that we are seeing across a lot of programs, actually.

And I think what’s been really interesting in the last couple of years is how the sort of the loyalty and engagement program is actually coming to the fore of many brand strategies and actually becoming, you know, that, that recognition that owning the customer experience and caring about your existing customers is, is really important, is coming right up.

We’re certainly seeing it in the British market and I think one of the things we observed in, in the European paper was actually that’s not just Great Britain. That seems to be a trend that’s happening across all of Europe. What other trends are you seeing, coming to the fore in loyalty? I think the conference was great for that.

The paper was great for that, but there’s nothing like being on the ground. What are you seeing? What are the big things that are coming that loyalty marketers everywhere should be keeping an eye out for? 

Laura: I, I think we have great momentum right now because of the advent of the cookie list world, right?

Like everyone’s, been talking about this for a couple years. The, the, the fact that cookie, cookies are removed, being removed from media, and therefore it’s driving increased importance of our first party data for companies. So the loyalty program can play a vital role in helping a customer and a brand to, to helping a brand collect customer data.

And not only sort of basic data, but really better understand what our customer preferences and interests. I remember at the conference we, we seen quite a great, a few cases of, of a really nice gamified ways to collect customer data. So I think that is a trend that we all need to look at how do we improve that first party data collection through our loyalty programs and make sure that it’s being used to personalize the customer experience.

The other trend that we see is definitely that it’s not only, it is not only about transaction or emotion, it’s about what’s that right blend of driving a transactional and emotional experience for the customer in the loyalty program. We don’t want to, we need to make sure that we enable both customers do need to receive some transactional benefits, but they also want to have a more active, engagement with the brands so that we can drive additional benefits to them throughout their ownership and reward them for their loyalty. 

Charlie: Yeah, I think that was one of my most interesting observations actually across the 24 markets that we looked at in the paper. The different stages that each of the markets are at in functional versus emotional engagement.

And actually within every market, I think there were some great case studies of br, you know, brands that were breaking the norm and really moving into that emotional space. But, but some markets very much more in that, in that transactional space. So I think those were, those were some big trends that we saw.

I think sustainability and the rise of sort of corporate social responsibility and loyalty was something that was talked about a lot. I know Loyalty Magazine, have just covered a big piece on it as an outtake of the conference as well. Is that something, that plays a big role in loyalty? Is that something that you think programs should be looking out for, for the next couple of years?

Laura: Yes, absolutely. You’re right. I think it’s really important that it becomes part of a brand strategy. In particular new, it needs to be integrated to the brand and then it needs to be brought through into the loyalty activation as well. H&M I think is a good example of how they do that already. You know, you can, if you come into the store with a reusable bag, you get points. If you bring your garments in, they will take them and give you points and rewards and for recycling. So that’s a really nice way that H&M are doing it. I know as well, obviously a lot of brands are, are starting to reward, like Costa Club. If you, bring in your reusable cup, you will then only need to get, I think it’s four, purchases before you get your free coffee. So definitely, you’re right.

It’s a, it’s a, it’s a new trend, so I think sustainability is really critical. And one way that we are doing that in Samsung is also through, smart things. So we are helping drive customers to have more connected experiences. For example, using your phone with your smart devices in your houses, so in your house, so you can better, manage your electricity.

You can optimize the usage, usage of. Your oven, your, washing machines, etcetera. 

Charlie: Yeah, I mean, I’m a huge fan, as you know, of Samsung products. I love the fact my Samsung TV talks to my Samsung washing machine that talks to my Samsung dryer, that talks to my Samsung fridge. It’s absolutely, it’s a brilliant network and I think it was lots of fun at the beginning. 

But actually particularly with the cost of living crisis. In Great Britain on a personal level, I’ve found that really helpful. And actually things like the eco modes, have really made a, a big difference to devices and to consumers. So I’m excited to see it, what happens and, and what more we can all do in that space. I feel like there’s a lot we’ve all learned.

What about you, Cat? What are the most important lessons that you think you’ve learned about loyalty and, and what do you think our listeners should, should be thinking about in our space at the moment? 

Cathryn: I mean it’s, it’s really tricky cause I think we obviously are going through the, across the living crisis and I think a big theme from the, the, The Loyalty Summit, was about actually how important, loyalty and customer engagement is gonna be over the next couple of years because actually, you know, trying to acquire customers is a, it’s more expensive, but also it’s, it’s, it’s more difficult.

So how do you nurture and stop people from leaving and, you know, making sure that they’re more brand loyal. So I think obviously that’s kind of a bit of a, a theme that we’re, we’re starting to see. And I think that, you know, with our, as we talked about in our, in our presentation, we’ve obviously had to make this Samsung Pivot, where we were selling through, physical retail. So that was the majority of where our sales were coming from, was physical retail. And obviously through Covid, physical retail was shut. 

So, consumers started to turn to samsung.com to buy our products, which then meant that actually as a business we had to make a quick, you know, transition to making sure that we were looking after our customers and enhancing the, you know, the samsung.com experience.

And obviously utilizing our customer data and then creating all of these great relationship, relationships with our customers. So I think for us, this is about kind of leveraging our journey that we’ve been on over the last couple of years since Covid. And I think for us, what we really are starting to focus on now is personalization.

And I know that obviously that’s been a hot topic for a number of years, so it’s not anything new. But I guess for us it’s not just about personalization, it’s relevancy. So it’s the relevancy in the communications we have with customers. So what we are looking at the moment is, is trying to look at actually as a brand, how can we help enhance customers lives, as want for a better word?

You know, through our products. So how do we help? To, you know, get them to enjoy their passions a lot more? Whether it’s through photography, whether it’s through their love of entertainment, whether it’s through, you know, stuff within the home or wellbeing. You know, how can Samsung help our consumers, make the most of all of this.

And through communications, how can we make them more relevant so that we are making sure that we are tapping into these passions and tapping into the products that they’ve currently got and helping to enhance what they currently have in their hands. Because at the moment, as Laura just mentioned, through smart things, we know a lot of customers already have a lot of smart products already in their home.

And it’s about how do you connect it up? A lot of customers dunno that you can actually connect it up through the Smart Things app, because it’s an open platform and you can connect, you know, your Alexa to it, your ring doorbell to it, etcetera. And so actually that then opens up this ability for customers to interact with the Samsung brand a little bit more so than what they do at the moment.

So I think that for us at the moment is, is, is a big key area, is this relevancy. Trying to drive that personalization through key communications with customers. And I guess also enhancing that experience through, you know, the, the, the, the Samsung brand experience. That’s what we’re trying to tap into at the moment.

Charlie: Yeah, and I think that’s something we’ve seen across a lot of the programs that we’ve talked to actually. It’s that opportunity for loyalty to be the way that you can create a bigger relationship for your brand with your customer, and actually you can play a greater role in their lives. It’s, it’s fascinating to hear that, you know, actually you can link into your non Samsung products actually.

You can help people manage their whole home and actually the loyalty program can become the prompt and, and the home for those conversations with your customers. I think that’s something that would apply across a lot of businesses and a lot of brands out there as they, they look to think about what should their program look like over the next few years.

Laura, how do you manage, you know, and measure the success of the program? I think when you’ve got ambitions that big, and opportunities that’s sizeable, with your customers, how, how on earth do you measure success for Samsung members? 

Laura: Yes. So we, we have a, a pretty structured measurement framework in place from the beginning, which, helped us kind of sell in the business case.

The, the opportunity here for us is, is really looking at two key areas. It’s about how do we drive customer retention, and then how do we drive, customer cross-sell. So usually it’s about retention, of our core base of mobile customers. Ensuring that we’re retaining them year on year, but then helping also cross-sell and up upgrade them into the other world. 

The ecosystem of Samsung, we are in a such a lucky position as Samsung as a brand. We have such a huge, variety of products that the customers can benefit from. And as we were saying, these, these, these products are now connected together in ways more than ever before to really help the customer live a more frictionless experience with, with their tech.

So it’s really is about how do we help drive customers to stay with Samsung, but also, you know, buy a mobile phone, buy a TV, buy earbuds, buy tablets, buy a washing machine, you know, and connect that all together. So those are the areas that, from a, a high level, and then to, in order to do that, we make sure to track, on a, on a weekly basis, the engagement metrics.

So we look at members growth, monthly active users. We then look at what is their average order value for the, and how that, how is that changing year on year. We also track NPS to understand their satisfaction. in the past, a recent sort of result has been that, you know, our Samsung members that are engaged are much more sat, have a much higher NPS than our non-members, that are not engaged with the program.

So we, we have quite a lot of metrics in place to make sure that ultimately we’re going in the right direction from engage, from enrollment to engagement, and then ultimately the business KPIs of retention and cross-sell. 

Charlie: I thought it was really interesting when you presented that as a ladder, at the conference as well, about how you talk about that journey that your customers go on from, you know, bringing them into the ecosystem to then, you know, building them up to advocacy and how all those metrics work together.

How do you manage that internally? That’s a lot to communicate, Samsung and a lot of objectives from across the whole business. You know, not only in one market, but across all the markets, that you operate in. How do you, how do you manage that  side of things as well? Cause I’m guessing there’s as almost an internal stakeholder group as much as there’s a, a membership group to talk to.

Laura: Yes, definitely. So we do have, monthly dashboards available, which everyone can kind of self-serve, report. And then in addition we will do, bimonthly calls with the markets, which we will then run through what are the key results versus target, and we will have, we make sure to have regular contact with them.

We will also do biannual in face, face-to-face conferences where we get everyone from Europe together. And we review the results, we share best practices. So it’s really about having a strong, engagement and communication with all the markets regularly to share the latest results. Share the best practices, be clear on what our targets are on a yearly basis, and then really track against that.

Charlie: And what kind of resources do you use, you know, to provide updates and inspiration for all the markets, you know, where do you get your own updates on the loyalty industry from, how do you find out, you know, what’s, what’s going on? 

Laura: I, I definitely love this podcast for one tour. I have to say I have been, I think, when this podcast first came out, I was on maternity leave and I literally started listening to it to try and keep.  So that I didn’t feel completely out of the loop. So I feel like I’m a loyal member of the loyalty podcast. I listened to the, the, the one that you did, many a couple years ago with Cat. 

First of all, so no, I do love this as, as well. One way, you know, it’s hearing directly from brands, so it’s a great way for inspiration. Also, you know, signing up to The Wise Marketer, getting emails through there. Attending industry events. So we get invites, like The Loyalty Summit, which we, which we attended last week, where we can. So I think those are sort of key areas. And then also working with our agency. So we work closely with, with Wunderman on a European level and the wider, WPP Group. So they will help share breadth, benchmarks, and ideas as well. 

Charlie: I think that’s really nice actually, and we’ve had that from a lot of the guests on the podcast, actually. Some really interesting sort of sources and, and places for people to keep an, their finger on the pulse of what’s happening. Have you seen any sort of new ideas, both of you, or innovations that you particularly think, oh wow, that’s really good when you are looking at all of those sources?

For me, one of the things I saw at the conference actually was the inflation button, which I thought was really interesting that Cristina Ziliani, presented as a case study from a, a smaller brand, but that was actually letting people as they were going through their shopping experience, recommending a more cost effective solution, as part of that loyalty experience.

And that made me think, wow, that’s a really interesting way of, of doing product or service recommendation. Not necessarily just for cost of living, but actually there are all sorts of ways that programs could use that device, you know, recommend new things to their members. What have you both seen, recently that you thought, wow, that’s really cool, or something that you are particularly proud of?

Cathryn: What I really, enjoyed, kind of finding out a little bit more about was, adiClub. So obviously Adidas, operate adiClub and it’s, it’s quite a, an aspirational kind of membership club. You know, as suppose part of that brand and obviously it’s, it’s a lifestyle brand. So they’ve got quite a lot of permission in terms of being quite creative.

But I think one thing that kind of really landed with me when, when they were talking at The Loyalty Summit was that actually as a mantra in their Adidas is that loyalty is a, two-way relationship. So customers that show loyalty to the brand and then the brand needs to show loyalty to the customers.

And I know that kind of sounds a bit, actually it should be bread and butter for, for the loyalty industry. But actually it kind of really landed with me cause I was like, actually that’s, it’s a great way of looking at it in terms of, you know, we need to reward customers for their loyalty to us. And they need to have that reciprocal value from doing so, so they then, yeah, stay loyal to the brand.

And it’s just a nice way to kind of show that actually it’s not just a one way relationship. We’re not just doing this so that customers can then, you know, it becomes transactional cause we want them to buy more. It’s actually, we’re doing this for the longer term. And you know, if you do that, then hopefully you start to see that customers are, are more, kind of dedicated to your brand and therefore we’ll then shop more and stay longer.

So I thought that was quite a nice little tidbit that I got, from the, from the, the summit. 

Charlie: And what about you, Laura? What stood out for you? Something you’ve seen recently 

Laura: In terms of something I’ve seen recently fom, from the summit as well. I quite like the case study from PetSmart. I thought that was really nice how they’re making it very emotional, you know, calling their, their, their, all their customers parents, and then delivering benefits to them, in that way. So it, it’s helping make, make, ultimately make their par their, their pets more, loved through, through the store experience, demonstrating that, giving them special grooming services.

So I guess it was more, that’s more about the proposition, than an innovation as such. Like the proposition there is, very, well-rounded in terms of like driving that emotional engagement, with understanding like, like what the pets are, customer or owners of pets do feel like parents. I thought that was really nice.

The other element I liked at the conference was the presentation on different gamification elements that could be done. So, there was one example using Gillette, where they were really having a more in interactive way to capture well how, how you need to share, you know, what your feelings are on it.

It’s not something that you would think, would be very, you know, you could ask a lot of questions and people would have a lot of thought on it, but actually it showed that there were some neat ways to kind of get a better understanding of why customers need this and then they can recommend the right product for them.

So again, I think coming back to the insight that it’s really important that loyalty programs are capturing relevant first party data. I think innovations that help drive that are really exciting. And that’s something that we’re also gonna be testing more ways to do that ourselves. 

Charlie: Yeah, I really liked that as well. I think that was that EBT presentation, wasn’t it, where they were talking about conversational loyalty and actually how engaged people are in quizzes and how much information they will willingly share. And again, I think that’s one of those really nice insights that actually you could roll across programs.

You know, how do you actually build that two-way dialogue? In a meaningful and interesting way with your membership so that they not only tell you more about themselves, so you can make the rewards better, but that actually they get an engaging experience in itself from, from the moment and that interaction with the program.

I, I completely agree. I thought they were really, really cool things that we saw and it was really excited to see, you know, things moving on as, as quickly as they are in, in loyalty, particularly in that emotional space. 

I also really love the PetSmart program. I’m totally a pet parent. My, my pug Edna, totally rules the household and I thought that was a really brilliant example, of a loyalty program, really understanding how people feel about their brand, and then baking that into the program.

Well look, it’s been wonderful to talk to you both today. And thank you so much for your time. I’m sure, our listeners might have more questions for you about Samsung members, and it’s great to see the, kind of the program getting out there. If they did want to get in touch, how could people reach out to you both?

Laura: Absolutely. if you’d like to get in touch, you can find me on LinkedIn. Laura Moore is the name, so, yes, look forward to hearing any questions on LinkedIn. 

Cathryn: And the same goes as well. I’m also on LinkedIn, Cathryn Lodwidge, which is obviously a, a different way of spelling Cathryn in a different, an unusual surname.

So, I’m sure if they said to you, Charlie, they can, they can find me cause we are, we are connected. 

Charlie: That’s great. And we’ll put all the details as well, in, with the podcast on the site when it goes out. So thank you both very much for your time today. It’s a really brilliant program and such an interesting case study.

Everybody it is available within the white paper, which is available to download from www.mando-connect.co.uk as well if you’d like to see the full case study or get in touch with Laura and Cat to find out more directly as well. Thank you both very much for your time today and goodbye from Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Laura: Thank you very much. 

Cathryn:Thank you. 

Paula: This show is sponsored by The Loyalty People. A global strategic consultancy with a laser focus on loyalty, CRM and customer engagement. The Loyalty People work with clients in lots of different ways, whether it’s the strategic design of your loyalty program or a full service including loyalty project execution.

And they can also advise you on choosing the right technology and service partners. On their website, the loyalty people also runs a free global community for loyalty practitioners, and they also publish their own loyalty expert insights. So for more information and to subscribe, check out theloyaltypeople.global.

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