Touching Your Customers: Interactions And Incentives

Riding the rails this morning, I picked up the Metro, and saw a feature on Loyalty & Rewards.  With Bill's post on interacting with a brand without it being online, I found this feature interesting from a marketing vantage point.

While I use some loyalty programs like Air Miles, the program I see the most value (for me) is Aeroplan.  From a person who enjoys international travel, this is a great incentive for using their products. Their CIBC credit card is among the most popular loyalty cards in Canada, and for good reason: people like to travel, especially when it is free.

In an age where consumers are smarter with online tools like Travelocity for travel, or Red Flag Deals for local bargains, companies need to find new ways and incentives to get customers using their products, and find new and interesting touch-points for interaction.

When I went to see The Grindhouse last week, I saw an ad for Cineplex's Scene Card before the trailers.  This card is relevant to frequent movie-goers (of which I am not), but by touching customers in a variety of mediums (trailer, billboards, and kiosks) Cineplex is able to target a niche demographic. Both advertisers and marketers are realizing that driving traffic to a URL is simply not enough.  Product conversions are going to occur at a much higher rate if you companies are offering visitors and users some sort of incentive for their eyeballs and dollars.