Amilon Media and the 2019 Research signed Osservatorio Fedeltà di Parma

 

In a Linkedin article, Fabio Regazzoni talks about his own perception of the results gathered by the University of Parma, about the latest trends in Loyalty embraced by Italian companies and Amilon Media. The White Paper recently compiled by the Osservatorio Fedeltà of Parma, has gathered data that supported the 2019 event, which focused on the topic “Data, value and loyalty”.

The Osservatorio Fedeltà has carried out the research by means of an online questionnaire targeting brands engaged in loyalty activities in general, even scarcely formalized ones. Having collected the responses of more than 500 companies, the survey went on to examine the diffusion of loyalty programs and their state of advancement in terms of analytical accuracy of data collection and program personalization.

This year’s results were particularly interesting for us at Amilon, since we have presented our newest Business Unit at the Congress, whose key elements are data valorisation and customer experience personalization.

The collection and valorisation of data. The importance of personalization in loyalty and customer retention strategies

The findings of the 2019 survey reveal that 76% of companies measure the efficacy of their loyalty strategies and, more specifically, that 90% of companies have a proper loyalty program which evaluates the results.

These figures, which are higher than those of last year, indicate a more mature conceptualization of data and analytics, whereby, along with data collection activities, it is equally important to pay careful attention to the relative rationalization, interpretation and, consequently, the valorisation of  collected data. 

In brief, on such a dynamic market as today’s, we have realized that it is no longer sufficient to possess the tools for collecting and analyzing data, but just as essential to valorise them. The main aim is to work qualitatively on strategies, to make them increasingly targeted with regard to the specific interests of each customer, for the purpose of delivering a unique customer experience.

Personalisation is assuming ever greater importance, especially in a context in which almost all brands adopt loyalty programs that are more or less organized.  The achievement of tangible customer retention and the capacity to interpret customer needs and desires are two essential aspects whose success depends on the flexibility inherent in loyalty strategies and the capacity to offer significant alternatives to match consumer interests. An efficacious loyalty program can ensure the retention and engagement of the customer base, as has also been demonstrated by the findings of the OSFED 2019 research, which highlights a variable picture in which, according to the efficacy of the strategy, customers respond with an engagement that ranges from a minimum of 25%, and may even be as high as 80% in some organized and well functioning cases.  

Amilon Media and Future Buyers

In a context in which the more brands are able to hone the interpretation of their customers’ interests and needs, the more successful they are in increasing engagement and drive to store, Amilon has carved out an essential niche for itself, by offering something that is radically new.

By digitalizing gift cards and vouchers in 2007, Amilon has now become a go-to company in Italy and Europe for the distribution of digital vouchers to companies and private individuals as incentives, welfare, promotion, loyalty and prize contests.

Customer experience and customer insight have always been fundamental focus points, which have led Amilon to develop new innovative solutions combining a complex data analysis with advanced technological innovation, and to launch Amilon Media: the Amilon business unit dedicated to fully valorising voucher and customer data.

The most interesting element of the Amilon media offering is the fact that it is possible to accurately identify the consumer audience which, in the short term period, will certainly purchase the products of a certain brand or merchandise category. This information is obviously of great interest to brands and retailers who, once in possession of it, may efficaciously influence the purchasing behaviour of their users.  These highly qualified consumer segments are the “future buyers”, all those with a firm intention to buy the products of a particular brand. The qualitative profiling of these users is in fact based on the valorization of data collected from the web browsing of the Amilon properties and e-commerce but, above all, from the actual digital vouchers, which constitute the essential information enabling us to foresee with certainty (and not merely to “predict”) consumer purchasing behaviour.

In this way, the digital voucher becomes a powerful media channel, enabling the implementation of efficacious marketing actions; the voucher is no longer “just” a convenient payment method for using instead of cash, but also an interesting tool for personalizing the customer’s user experience.  The efficacy of advertising stems from the very nature of the digital adv on vouchers: the gift card is an essential tool of the customer journey and using it to carry digital adv enables the brands to reach consumers at the most critical moment of conversion.  In fact, that of showing products, offers and solutions to the user on the actual means of payment, together with a clearly expressed and appealing call to action, may significantly orientate the consumer’s choice in the purchasing phase.

Amilon Media: from data to insight and results

The OSFED 2019 research depicts a scenario in which 35% of companies still do not have access to sufficiently efficacious analytics tools and 53% use analysis tools to hypothesize and predict the future needs of their customers. In this context, Amilon Media constitutes the element of innovation that unites Data analysis and data valorisation, leading to a knowledge (rather than a mere hypothesis) of consumer purchasing behaviour before it actually takes place. The main ambits of application of this solution are the vertical markets of the various Retail industries and the media centres. Collaboration with the brands is being increasingly honed to create integrated media-marketing packages, which provide 360 degree support to companies in the implementation of complete strategies aimed at improving and maximising profits from every available tool.