Fuelling Fandom: Reward your VIP Customers

Fanatical customers are a brand’s best promoter and looking after them is key. Fan achievement can mean many things, but its essence is that fans can move up in your brand community by participating and contributing value. Recognising and rewarding your VIP fans is crucial to nurturing long-term relationships and fostering loyalty for your brand. Know your fans. Often brands focus too heavily on attracting new customers and less on retaining loyal supporters who will repeat buy from and consistently engage with your company. Despite loyal fans only accounting for 21% of a brand’s customer base, they generate 44% of their total revenue (Shopify 2022). The sports sector knows this lifelong fan well, but building support akin to that of a football club for your brand requires a deep understanding of each customer’s individual needs and how you can nurture them.

At UNRVLD we take a strategic approach to implementing modern technology, helping you understand your customers’ every move - from their purchase history to typical user journey, spending habits and much more. An owned Direct to Consumer (D2C) platform, integrated with a powerful Customer Data Platform (CDP), enables you to collect and segment your customer data, building a single customer view and identifying your most loyal superfans. It is integral for your business to recognise these top consumers through a membership or reward system, not only to give them appropriate recognition, but to leverage their loyalty and utilise their insight to improve your brand.

Keep it simple‍

Ensure your reward system is easy, reliable, and worth it. Reducing blockers on your site and having an easy sign-up process for your reward programme is essential. If it’s not obvious or is missing necessary information, customers will be less inclined to sign up.  Everyone knows the Tesco Clubcard Membership. Whilst having one doesn’t make you a VIP as such, you’re at a financial disadvantage without one. The simple, easy to use process, either with a key ring or in a phone wallet, means the user barely notices it. Tesco can then provide moments of user delight with “you’ve saved £13.09 with your Clubcard”, and with every purchase the brand gains a better understanding of their customer's shopping habits to improve the future experience.

There are many ways to reward your customers, and each brand has a different approach. While the Tesco Clubcard is a free membership which exchanges financial reward for customer data, makeup brand Sephora has a more complex three-tiered reward system; Insider, VIB and Rouge. The Insider is free to join, to become a VIB member you have to spend £350 annually and to be a Rouge member you must spend £1000 annually. The benefits are savings, experiences and samples. By encouraging their customers to spend more to receive better reward, Sephora boosts data collection on their most loyal customers. Sephora have a clear view of their top consumers and sends them powerful targeted marketing campaigns, tailored product recommendations and personalised omni-channel experiences which resonate with their individual customers - encouraging further spending and strengthening brand loyalty.  

Other brands are rewarding their VIPs with the ability to impact creative and business decisions by encouraging creators within their ecosystem. Brands such as Lego are giving fans a chance to win brand equity in return for quality user generated content, while Glossier uses fan feedback to influence the new products it creates. This system has many positive impacts; users have a much stronger affiliation when they feel a sense of ownership and it broadens the community by looking beyond the product.

UNRVLD works with brands such as Crystal Palace FC, Euroleague Basketball and LIV Golf to implement digital strategies that support all elements of fan engagement. As part of an ongoing digital fan engagement strategy with UNRVLD, Crystal Palace FC now serves relevant content and advertising to fans based on their membership status, content preferences and location. This work subsequently contributed to the club's membership sales reaching an all-time high in the 2021/22 season. With UNRVLD, you can implement a similar data-driven membership strategy that identify and unify your brand’s VIP fans, ensuring you recognise their contribution and encourage further brand loyalty.

We've helped Euroleague Basketball take fan engagement to the next level, defining, developing and compelling their fans to become more loyal and engaged at every touch point with the game