Read about different ways of creating brand advocacy

This is a follow up to my last blog entry (see http://mytimeinretail.blogspot.com/2015/10/see-how-converting-loyal-customers-into.html) where I looked at converting customers into loyal customers and then into brand advocates. Today's blog is concerned with different strategies for enacting this conversion. There are many different ways of doing this, and as a retailer you will have to find your own way but I'll look at some examples. It's all about creating that relationship with your customers that transform the way they feel about you and how they shop with you.

Loyalty schemes

These have become more abundant in all forms of retail after the success of the Tesco Clubcard. Every coffee shop, large and small, will give you a free coffee after you buy 6 or 8 or 10 with them. But for me, a loyalty scheme should be about more than just trying to twist someone's arm to come back. Loyalty is one thing, but were looking at brand advocacy as the target here. The next step is to offer your loyal customers something that other customers can get. This can be one-off products that the rest of your customers can't buy, invites to exclusive events, the first chance to see new products or another exclusive that only your very best customers can get hold of. These customers will talk positively about you and some will become advocates.

Events

As I've mentioned above, having an event that gives exclusive content to your best customers creates brand advocacy. A new product launch, products that you just can't get anywhere else or additional benefits to chosen customers promotes advocacy. If you have a guest list of certain customers that gain access to these feature then you're creating the next level of customer. If your best customers get a free cup of tea, a personal shopper, somewhere to store their shopping whilst they browse or extended guarantees as a set of examples then they are more likely to return and to tell their friends,

Exclusives

As unintelligent retailers compete more on price and race to the bottom, the intelligent ones are looking onwards and upwards. Exclusives is a huge area to build your advantage over the competition. If you can sell something that no one else sells then the customers of that product will come to you. Of course this means that your sourcing of the product needs to become a focus. Either it's products you make yourself or you need to have an exclusivity conversation with your supplier. Having an exclusive could mean

• a short-term exclusive (for the first month)
• a different design or packaging of an existing product
• a different size to what is available elsewhere

If you then add a high level of customer service, an event or a loyalty scheme to add to your exclusive then you're heading down the road towards brand advocacy.

See how converting loyal customers into into brand advocates increases your income

I've worked with retailers over the years and a recurrent theme is the question of how to reward customers. I've looked in this blog at different ways of rewarding your team but having ways of rewarding your customers can help to transform a retailer. This is a large subject so I've split it into two blog entries. The first one is today.

A constant theme of my blogs is turning customers into loyal customers into brand advocates, so it's probably best to start here and explain what I mean by these three categories-

Customers

This is simply people who buy something in your shop. They may be passing by and see something in the window, they may be a visitor to your town and come in to have a look around. They may shop with you once and never again. This doesn't mean that these customers are unimportant. You will need one-off customers and irregular visitors to help your sales. They can be attracted to your door by promotions, a great window display or word of mouth. However they arrive is unimportant. The fact that they got to you gives you a chance to impress them and get them coming back time and again. This turns them into the next level, the loyal customer.

Loyal customers

A loyal customer is one that chooses you over another. You may have one or more stores in your town that sell the same thing but your loyal customer will buy from you over your competitors. You can create loyalty with price, promotion or excellent customer service as well as other means. Supermarkets in particular fight for loyalty and this has sparked the loyalty card and the price matching over the years. A loyal customer will return to you over and over again unless something happens in their relationship with you to break the loyalty. It's a well-worn phrase that it costs so much more to win a new customer than to keep an existing one and that's the relationship that loyalty projects attempt to protect. Many businesses stop here. Having a band of loyal customers spending good money with you in a regular basis, plus the odd infrequent customer can be a lucrative proposition. But I propose looking to the next step.

Brand advocates

And I strongly believe that brand advocates are the next step for a retailer to increase success, and in a more interesting way. The ways in which you can achieve this will be the subject is the second part of this topic and my next blog entry. Today I'll describe what a brand advocate is and the effect they can have on your business. A brand advocate is someone who goes out of their way to tell other people about you. It may be one of several ways of doing this-

• Bringing their friends into your store
• Talking about you on their blog
• Positive social media comments about you
• Telling people face-to-face about how great you are

The brand advocate is a marketing tool that you can rely on to bring you more business and all it costs is a great relationship with them. Having several brand advocates starts the cycle off again for the next set of customers. They arrive at your doorstep because of a brand advocate, and you will hopefully turn them into loyal customers and the next brand advocates. How you start this relationship and maintain it can be interesting and fun, and we will take a look at that in the next blog.

Shop Local is about spending with genuine authentic brands

I have talked many times before on my retail blog about the importance of shop local. Shop local has become an important movement and I think that getting behind the small businesses that produce high quality products becomes more and more important as every day passes. News articles about the perceived greed of Starbucks, Google and Amazon have been followed by recent articles about large restaurant chains taking tips away from their waiting staff. And every time one of these issues is exposed in the media or social media, there is a genuine outcry of anger from consumers. Being a responsible consumer, though, is about much more than boycotting a brand because they have had an unseemly practice exposed in the media. The positive side of responsible consumption is to be a consumer of, and brand advocate for those products that reflect your own values.

One such product is Mannys Sauces. They currently produce a range of 9 sauces and all free of the top 14 allergens, and are suitable for vegetarians and vegans. The sauces come with a guarantee of 100% satisfaction or your money back – that’s how confident they are that you will love them. In fact, the Piri-Piri and the marinades are considered to be within the best sauces on the planet. So, when you have a product that’s made with all natural ingredients in the UK to the highest standard then it’s something that you just have to get behind. And there are more than one way of getting behind a product as good as this. The first step is to try it. The Meat Marinade is created to marinate all red meats such as pork, lamb and steak but, it’s actually also delicious with any kind of fish or seafood. The Curry Sauce lets you make the most delicious and healthy curry in your own home, without any hard work or effort! And they can be found at http:/mannyssauces.com Once you’ve tried the sauces and I’m sure that you will love them, it’s time to be a brand advocate and make sure you share your love of them on social media. Mannys Sauces can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/Mannys-Sauces-182624281912692/timeline/ on Twitter at https://twitter.com/MannysSauces or check out their YouTube video at https://youtu.be/9gSO1jGftyM

My blogs always look at the process of being a retailer and how your actions fit in with your overall brand, and being an ambassador for a genuine, authentic product will help your overall business as their name and your name move through the social networks. When you find a product that you can see is on the way up then your instinct as a retailer is to get behind it. And I feel that Mannys Sauces is one of these products. The next step for you will depend on where you work. I know that my blog is read by independent retailers and those who work for larger organisations. If you are an independent retailer then, using Mannys Sauces as an example, you should get behind a UK independent, genuine, authentic product by becoming a stockist. If you are working for a larger organisation then you should be as aware as you possibly can be of these genuine, authentic products appearing on the marketplace and seek out the producers to see if you can provide them with a platform for their product.

Something else I repeat on this blog is finding out what you are good at and then making sure you can produce it day-in, day-out. Expanding your empire should come at a time when you have got a complete grip of what you are currently doing and you are ready to move on. Well, Mannys Sauces have done just that with a range of continental meat lines that would perfectly expand on what they already do, as these are great for snacks, tapas and sandwiches etc. These are more great products and you can currently choose from Portuguese-Style Chorizo, Chicken Chorizo, Paio, Presunto or Pork Belly. These make a perfect plate if you don’t have as much time, or if you want something lighter.

The products are backed by enthusiasm and a dream – the story of Manny. I’ll let him tell the story himself here-

“As any other person in the world, I had a huge dream - to open the first Piri-Piri Chicken Restaurant in the world, and then spread this dream to every corner of the planet. It wouldn’t be easy to achieve, but neither was it impossible. I had the will, the courage, the faith and family support to make it come true. Early in 1985, I sold my home to open the first piri-piri chicken restaurant outside of Mozambique. CHICKENLAND was the chosen name and Johannesburg, South Africa was the birth place of my dream! After a short while, I was making, bottling and selling a range of 5 different Piri-Piri Sauces and Marinades. After a slow start, the business was a stunning success! The name quickly spread across the city and everyone was talking about this new food place that was taking the food industry by storm.

The business success was proven! The next step was expansion to other parts of the city, country and abroad, and many people tried to get financially involved. Expansion included a need for capital and people, and so in 1987, I sold some of my business shares to two young men: one of Portuguese origin and the other, a South African of Jewish origin. Shortly after they joined, the business name was changed to NANDOS. Chickenland was a nice name, but according to marketing experts at the time, it was felt that the business should be backed by a personal name before the expansion took place. BetweenMANNYS and NANDOS, I was out-voted two to one, and the latter name was chosen. Despite a few initial problems, the expansion started taking off and now more than ever, the success was tremendous!

A few years later, the rug was pulled out from under my feet and I was forced to leave my business. I lost my dream; one of the best things in my life after my family. After this happened, I opened a few other restaurants including Chickenland in Portugal, but these weren’t my dream. It was a way to make a living, but it wasn’t my passion. It took me a long time to recover from what happened, but I was determined and pushed through until another dream emerged; to make the best sauces and speciality food products in the world! MANNYS SAUCES is now my new dream! Once again I can see this new dream taking shape and growing strong all the way to the TOP! The passion is back and I again have the will, the faith, the support of my family, and the support of so many loyal customers that know and appreciate the high quality products that we make. I am forever grateful to my family and my customers for their support and the divine forces for showing me the way.

Manny x”

So, shop local is about more than paying lip service to spending some time and money in your nearest High Street every now and again. It’s about getting behind genuine, authentic products that show the World (and the World of social media) that the brand choices you make change people’s lives.

Help your customers through your process and they will be your advocates

If there's a quirky or different part of your company up others then In my eyes, you've got a choice. Either-

Ensure there are always staff to hand to explain

Or

Ensure there is sufficient clear signage to explain.

In talking about parts of your business where customers don't intuitively know what to do. The ticket machine that required you to put your card in and remove straight away to work, the self-service till or well, pretty much the self-service anything. It shod be enough that you can have one team member looking after 6 or 8 tills, don't take this team member away!

Ikea does this beautifully with a mi. of the above approaches, more signs than staff though. It uses explanation and a little humour to let customers know that they will be picking and assembling the furniture themselves and the fact that this helps to keep the cost down. In fact they've now taken this quirk into a virtue - it's part of their business, their ethos.

If you have a part of your business that needs a little explaining or guidance then don't be afraid to explain or guide - your customers will appreciate your help and give you honest feedback about the process at the point that it's happening - one of the buzzwords in retail at the moment is "in the moment feedback" and it doesn't get more in the moment than that.