Effective personalized marketing examples don’t just earn a one-time sale. Instead, they drive consumer relationships that can keep them buying products for years to come. Brands that use personalized options must tread a fine line between sending a useful message and sending an invasive one. Luckily, there are plenty of excellent personalized marketing examples that provide marketers with inspiration.
Technology and the data it provides allow brands to gain more insight on customers. Through this insight, they can craft messages that appeal to consumers in the shopping aisle. However, to manage this, brands must establish trust. This way, consumers are more willing to share information about themselves which brands can use to improve marketing. Several major brands are excellent examples of using consumer data to enhance the customer experience and drives sales.
P&G Uses Tech to Provide Personalized Services
Procter and Gamble made a big splash when it showcased a host of customized services for its products at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. One notable addition to the portfolio was the Olay Skin Advisor. This artificial intelligence service uses a selfie from the consumer, as well as a short questionnaire, to provide detailed skincare recommendations.
The free tool is cleverly designed to provide a personalized service for consumers while allowing the brand to share its products as solutions to a consumer’s problem. The service builds trust, and the proprietary platform helps them control the message. Making it mobile-enabled also reduces the learning curve which makes adoption more likely. Enhancing a product with a digital service is a growing trend in the CPG industry. It helps brands expand their reach while marketing to a captive audience.
This strategy doesn’t require complex technology. A shopping app, like Shopkick, can be used to craft personalized messages and enhance the customer shopping experience. The added value helps build brand affinity as the app incentivizes product interaction based on the consumer’s location. It can provide a personalized, virtual greeting to engage consumers at the start of their shopping trip, which increases sales.
Starbucks Leverages Rewards to Provide Timely Offers
Starbucks has one of the most popular retailer apps out there and for a good reason. The company updates the app regularly, improving its features to keep consumers engaged. Starbucks is a big proponent of consumer interaction via mobile, reporting those who are digitally engaged buy two to three times as many products as those who aren’t.
Customer loyalty programs in retail are an excellent way to keep consumers coming back as they don’t require brands provide an instant discount but still offer the same benefits. Delivering rewards via a mobile program enhances the customer shopping experience by allowing the company to travel with the consumer and gain insight on their purchase behaviors. The brand can send timely offers on products the consumer has tried and enjoyed in the past, which creates a personal connection.
Rewards programs are a staple in marketing because they create a symbiotic relationship with the consumer. The company gives the consumer points for interacting with them. The consumer agrees to provide information about themselves so the brand can better serve them. It eliminates disruptive advertising by creating a permissive relationship where the consumer agrees to receive messages from the brand.
Nestle Sets a Personalized Marketing Example With DNA
Another example of personalized marketing comes from Nestle. In an effort to improve sales of its health products and services in Japan, the brand is working with a test group of about 100,000 people who agreed to collect DNA via at-home test kits and provide it to them for analysis. Following this DNA analysis, the consumer then receives a personalized nutrition plan.
In this nutrition plan, Nestle can recommend its supplements and teas to consumers and provide specific details on how these will help them. The brand heightens the experience with an app the consumer can use to track progress and gain more information. This highly personalized program is still in its early stages, but if successful could set the standard for others supplement providers to consider in the future.
Consumers will not deliver their information without receiving something in return, whether it’s an added service or rewards program.
One thing these personalized marketing examples show is that mobile is an integral part of the experience. Consumers will not deliver their information without receiving something in return, whether it’s an added service or rewards program. Starbucks, Nestle, and P&G recognized this and leveraged it in their marketing with great success. Brands who want to personalize their interactions with consumers should consider how mobile apps can support that goal.
Shopkick partners use our app to improve their personal connections with consumers in the shopping aisle. To leverage our app in your marketing mix and enhance the consumer experience, contact us.
Image courtesy of SFIO CRACHO
