Finally, a promotion I liked by Manchester United!
The other day I attended a talk by one of the founders of Gett taxi app (they are probably no.2 or no.3 after UBER/Lyft), and he referred to a book he read about Zappos. They are a multi-billion dollar company that spent ‘ZERO’ on marketing. How did they do it? They excelled in creating WOW moments for their customers.
Football clubs are great at creating these moments on the pitch, however on the commercial side of things it’s not quite the same picture. As much as football clubs don’t like talking about it, ‘discounting’ retail prices is found EVERYWHERE on football club merchandise stores. We’ve been analysing data for most UK football clubs and monitoring their email communications, and the figures are astounding. Check out more info here.
The question we should ask ourselves is:
WHAT ARE THE TRIGGERS WE WANT TO USE TO KEEP FANS COMING BACK?
So far most of the industry uses:
TRIGGER: LOW PRICE FOR LIMITED PERIOD >>> BUY NOW
Yes, this can work and you’ll probably measure short term bursts in your revenue. However, in the long term it is detrimental to your brand value.
Barcelona — WOW
Trigger: Reward (Guess the Score) >>> No Action Required
Chances of winning: 1 in 10,000
In some of the recent newsletters by Barcelona, they advertise a Guess the score/prize draw to WIN A BARCELONA SHIRT. There is no call for action apart from guessing the score, but subtly gets fans to visit their digital assets. I think this is a step in the right direction, and probably has a WOW factor of 1 star.
Man United — WOW WOW
Trigger: Buy Now >>> Reward (Prize Draw)
Chances of winning: 1 in 1,000
Now this is smarter. You ask your customers or guide your customers to an action, and if they do they are entered into a prize draw to WIN 1 of 10 shirts. I like this and probably has a WOW factor of 2 stars.
West Ham have also done this too. WOW WOW to them too!
Liverpool — WOW WOW
Trigger: Buy Now >>> Reward
Chances of winning: 1 in 1* Assuming you comply with entry terms
A slightly different take to the Manchester United offer, but I think this campaign by Liverpool is smart too. Ask your customers to buy now, and reward them with a voucher to spend later. You keep your regular prices, and also engage them to come back later — a closed loop.
This is exactly why I founded DiscountIF — WOW WOW WOW
Trigger: Buy Now >>> Voice your opinion >>> Get Rewarded
Chances of winning: Tailored based on the club budget. Can be as low as 1 in 2, or as high as 1 in 100.
I’m not looking to ‘shamelessly’ advertise (even though truth be told it’s my own blog). I am a customer that ONLY shops when there are discounts. For those of you who were at the Sports Conference in Barcelona, you got some of my tips on how to buy a TV at a discount probably 4 times better than anyone else. If you ask nicely, I might send you my presentation with MY ‘SECRET’ tips.
As a customer I’m not loyal to any brand, and this is why retailers & brands need to create WOW moments. Something that sticks in the mind of the fan or consumer. Together with my small (& awesome) team we truly believe we’re creating WOW moments for our clients’ customers. We believe in rewarding, the RIGHT WAY.
The WOW we have added is that we give customers the choice. This is the killer WOW. The data shows it too with 90% satisfaction rates from customers experiencing our reward tool on our clients websites.
I will selfishly give us 3 WOWs; WOW WOW WOW
We’d be happy to chat and share insight from our team’s digital experience. I’ve worked for many years with companies that were 100% online businesses, such as Betfair. We won numerous awards for digital innovation and were always ahead of the curve for digital solutions. Others in the team worked for clubs like Manchester United and understand the challenges of growing commercial revenues, during the bumpy ride of a football season.
As always we’d be happy to listen to your feedback and thoughts on the subject.
If you’d like to get further insight into your merchandise store, and how you can improve revenues feel free to contact us on www.discountif.com, or our email contact@discountif.com.
