New currency for loyalty is quite a breakthrough

Loyalty marketing has become very tired. People are overwhelmed by frequency discounts and membership reward programs. Most people belong to many programs.

Now mobile applications are introducing a new way to show your loyalty to a restaurant or retail establishment. You can send you friends a social message about where you are and invite them to join you.

Mashable.com: 5 Ways Foursquare is Changing the World 2010-Jan-16, by Jennifer Van Grove

while Foursquare may appear to be nothing more than a mobile application getting excessive buzz, it’s actually fueling the location-based mobile space with unique creativity that competitors can’t copy fast enough. The real-world effects of the game are also quite pertinent. If you need proof, we’ve dissected how the startup is creating a new currency, turning social activity into a game, redefining what it means to be a regular at an establishment, pioneering a deeper connection between place and patron, and putting people focus on higher education.

Marketing by Doing

As a marketing communication expert, I spend way too much time on words, and way too little time on action. Our branding efforts will improve dramatically when we realize that people trust brands that do more than talk at them. So now I have my new year's resolution: every week I have to record some action taken for my audience. Next week I will be delivering the prize for last month's contest.

The Drew Blog: Six Questions to Start the New Year, 2010-Jan-14, by Drew Neisser of Renegade

It is a simple fact—beloved brands do better. Becoming beloved requires achieving customer satisfaction on the basics (product quality) and somehow exceeding expectations via service. Zappos calls this delivering “wow” and does this wherever they can. The Apple Store does this with its amazingly knowledgeable squad of orange-shirted concierges. Others use Marketing as Service to foster brand love, as HSBC does with the BankCab, whose riders send at least one love letter every week. So ask yourself, what could your marketing be doing (versus saying) to generate this kind of passion?

Dialing up transparency with Andy Bond at Asda

A grocery store with glass brick walls? Now that's transparency. Asda CEO Andy Bond makes me smile. Check out his Wikipedia entry (if not squelched yet it describes him as James Bond's brother), and the Aisle Spy blog. I appreciate Bond trying to DO everything he can to communicate transperancy, not just talking about it. More details about their innovative experiments with transparency at Reuters.

WSJ.com: Grocer Asda Turns to Customers for Advice, 2009-Oct-2, by Lilly Vitorovich

Asda, the second-biggest supermarket chain by U.K. market share behind Tesco, is hoping that involving customers more in business decisions will gain their loyalty as much as specially tailored discounts. "My ambition for Asda is to actively involve customers in every aspect of the business, to lift the lid on how we do things, and enable our customers to help make decisions that have an impact on what we sell and how we sell it," Mr. Bond said.

"It's about entering a new partnership, working with customers rather than simply working on behalf of them," he added. Asda also unveiled a new blog, "Aisle Spy," and introduced a number of webcams within its operations -- including a dairy farm, a carrot-processing plant, and its head office in Leeds. It will also open a new "transparent" store in Gorseinon, South West Wales, next year. Glass walls will replace brick walls to expose areas of the supermarket normally kept out of view.