social media

Where loyalty becomes a part of corporate DNA

Where loyalty becomes a part of corporate DNA

Branding Insights
One of a series by John Paulo Cardoso, Spyder Works Chief Creative Officer & Founder

Are points and travel miles cards the best way to spur customer loyalty? Or is there a better way by embedding a loyalty program in operations? Shoppers Drug Mart is about to find out. It has launched a new Shoppers Drug Mart Everyday App to build a stickier user community from its customer base. The app invites shoppers to gain real value by displaying online coupons at checkout, refilling prescriptions anytime, and creating a shopping list that customers can carry with them on their phone based on offers available at their preferred location.

To me, this is a different kind of loyalty program. Instead of being driven by collecting points or special promotions, Shoppers Drug Mart is building a trusted relationship with customers by designing programs intended to give customers ‘the most personalized health care experience possible.’ A well designed app can be a valuable extension of your brand at a time when in-store promotions and service offerings can be accessed on demand by anyone with a smartphone.

What’s more personal than that?

Innovation Insight: “Type and navigate with ease”

Innovation Insight: “Type and navigate with ease”

One of a series by Ken Tencer, Spyder Works CEO

Research in Motion is takings its lumps these days, but I am impressed by RiM’s new 9900 series BlackBerry. Since fully touch-screen phones came out, I have resisted. I am not a short-form, emoticon kind of guy, and I never felt touch-screen phones were conducive to the long-form e-mails that occupy my day.

I always hoped somebody would combine a sturdy keypad with touch-screen navigation. Well, BlackBerry’s done it. Who knows, if the financial pundits would only leave them to their innovating ways, we might see more of the ground-breaking innovation that took RiM to the top for so long.

As tough as it may be, every company needs to block out the noise and keep a focused eye on new and relevant product introductions. Always.

How does Social Media Facilitate Innovation?

How does Social Media Facilitate Innovation?

Innovation should always be on the forefront for organizations, and needs to be applied to many facets – products, services and processes. The question is, how do organizations use social media to foster innovation in one or all of these areas?

The answer: use social media to bridge the gap between you and your customer. We all talk about continuously engaging with our customers by finding new ways to strengthen our relationship with them by coming up with new and improved products and services. Well, we have never had a better tool to research and get true insight into what customers think, feel, want, lack or need than social media. It provides us an open, one-to-one communications channel with hundreds of thousands of people! And it does it through an open, engaging and immediate response vehicle.

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