The answer is always.  National chains should think and act local.

Local merchants are always competing with big brother but the opposite is also true.  Neighborhood merchants have some distinct advantages within their local communities and nationals are finding themselves having to adopt these tools and marketing strategies to meet the challenges of aggressive local competitors.

National advertising and promotions are great but a touch of direct communication to neighborhood consumers can make a big difference in sales. If given the incentive consumers would like to support local businesses, so it makes good sense to promote themselves as one.

Accordingly, they might benefit by initiating a “direct to their customers outreach program” that grabs local consumers and pulls them into their establishments. Add local cause marketing to the mix (schools, non-profits, hospitals, events) and you have a sure fire platform to attract the shoppers and see your sales figures attain a weekly lift.

Coupons are great but a combination of coupons, text messaging, emails and push messaging specifically targeted to bring back existing customers more often is a prime goal. Surveys have proven that Businesses can boost profits 25%-50% by bringing back 5% of their present customers back more often.

Here is an example of one of our tests:

I have been going to a local frozen yogurt and ice cream store for years. He has seen two national chains, right across the street, go out of business within a year. They had the power of national names and national advertising but he had an affordable local marketing program that generated traffic, sales and an affinity with the community.

I took a coupon into one of the national yogurt merchants (before he closed his doors), handed him the coupon, got the deal and walked out with my cup of triple chocolate yogurt. He had handed me a punch card but never asked for my name, email address, cell phone number or any information at all.

On the other side of the street, the independent yogurt shop handed a customer his punch card and then asked for, and received, all the information he needed to subsequently reach out and communicate directly with that customer.  First of all, he simply asked that person to join his loyalty program and quickly gave him the reason and incentives to do so. He used the same type of punch card approach but got a completely different result, & now he  has the ability to reach out to that customer, offer him targeted products and promotions to bring him back more often.

The merchant was wearing one of our “Ask Me About Screcials” buttons. The customer asked what is a Screcial and the merchant said it is a super special for loyalty members only. It is a daily special that you can scratch off on your computer, tablet or phone (Like a lottery Ticket). Then he mentioned all the other benefits of his program such as cash back and special discounts at over 1200 national merchants and hundreds of thousands of neighborhood merchants that are participating is his program. The consumer was very impressed.

His loyalty and rewards platform also included a branded coupon web site, mobile app, email, text, push messaging, analytics and other direct to consumer marketing tools that are designed to bring his customers back more often and attract new ones. As we all found out, the market is migrating to mobile, so a mobile app, texting and social marketing are paramount to success. For instance, 95%-98% of Text messages are read within minutes – and generating quick action.

Needless to say, I was very pleased because this was one of the member retailers that was enrolled in our Local Thanks loyalty program and it worked precisely as designed and gave him the marketing advantage over those nationals that he was looking for- all for less than the cost of a cup of coffee a day.

The moral of the story is a role reversal. If a national chain want to compete with the local merchant they need the local tools to do so.

National advertising is important to franchises and restaurant chains but their customers come to them from their close by neighborhoods. Our Local Thanks merchant to consumer outreach program is designed to communicate each merchant’s specific message to their existing customers and potential new ones. The bottom line is that we can help them attain measurable lift week after week.

By the way, Local Thanks will at the International Franchise Expo in NY June 16-18 to meet and greet that industry in Booth 972. Those that can stop by will see the interactive Screcial in action and win some neat prizes.

ABOUT LOYALTY SUPERSTORE

LOCAL THANKS℠ is an operating company of Loyalty Superstore® (www.loyaltysuperstore.com). The Loyalty Superstore management team has over 20 years of experience in the incentive industry and in building rewards/rebates web based loyalty shopping mall platforms that showcase over 1200 national merchants. Our one of a kind white label technology allows clients to customize our National Mall® and LOCAL THANKS℠ platforms instantaneously with their own graphics, videos, text and information. The National Mall® is marketed to medium and large sized clients that utilize the platform as a customer acquisition, retention and loyalty value added benefit. The Malls include a link to local shopping through the company’s LOCAL THANKS℠ platform. (http://merchant.localthanks.com)

The company offers its LOCAL THANKS℠ platform to local businesses, as a consumer outreach marketing program designed to bring existing customers back more often and attract new ones.