National Petroleum News (NPN) has been the independent voice of the petroleum industry since 1909 as the opposition to Rockefeller’s Standard Oil. So, motor fuels marketing and retail is not just a sideline for us, it’s our core competency.
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Additional Players and appreciate consumers across your marketing channels. This year, and likely all through 2012, c-store loyalty mar- keters will be presented with an unprecedented opportunity to grab market share. To win, c-store loyalty programs need to take advantage of their presence in all the ‘communities’ in which they belong.” VCMG has found that loyalty programs are a key driver for increased frequency, transaction size and repeat busi- ness in convenience stores. “If administered properly, loyal- ty programs yield a proven return on investment,” Knudson says. “Loyalty programs utilize the latest techno- logical advances to market your customers in a one-to-one fashion. Loyalty programs are a vehicle to strategically market to your customers to motivate spending habits in the most profitable way.” Magadieu adds there are key essential questions c-store owners and operators need to ask when it comes to incorpo- rating a loyalty program into their operations: • How and where are you tempting consumers into your program? • How are you becoming a part of consumers’ daily experi- ence to draw them in? • How do you make it easy for your members to become your advocates? • How are you leveraging the non-digital, communities in which your members live—offices, churches, schools, civic groups? • How are you building partnerships with other community businesses to build the community around your stores? “As far as the longer view goes, the mobile revolution is an area that owners and operators need to take advantage of in order to keep their younger consumers,”Waldrip says. “The devices are ubiquitous, they are the shopper creden- tial, the deal maker, order placement, payment system of the future.” Waldrip believes the most critical element to delivering a successful loyalty program is planning. “The software solu- tion is just the enabler,” she says. “Define your goals and expect it to affect your entire company.Create a project plan, get your marketing plan established, tell your partners, train your store associates, try it out internally, then with friends. When it all runs smoothly and you’ve answered the ques- tions that never occurred to you, go live with the program… and be ready to adjust.” When developing a loyalty program, you also need to show consumers that you “get them”—that the connection is personal. That’s why offers and rewards based on transac- tional behavior is so important. “Relevant offers deliver a positive experience,” Magadieu says. “The more consumers that you can reach with relevant offers—even beyond your member base—the greater your chance is to step above the overwhelming amount of marketing chatter and change behavior in your favor.” www.npnweb.com NPN Magazine Lucky for c-stores owners and operators, there is a wealth of loyalty programs to choose from. In addition to those mentioned above, these players offer some of the latest and greatest loyalty products and services: VERIFONE VeriFone offers loyalty solutions that can be used to drive more traffic at your site and add customer con- veniences in your business. As Sapphire becomes the “central command”of your store;VeriFone’s integrat- ed loyalty partners will help provide you the tools and the flexibility you need to ensure your customers come back again and again. The use of Sapphire opens the door to a wide range of loyalty and cus- tomer management opportunities, and with the open data exchange of XML, quickly provides detailed records of every transaction. Some of Verifone’s cur- rent loyalty partners include Centego, Fueland, Greenbax Enterprises, Kickback Rewards, Systems, Override, Sparkfly,VCMG, and Outsite Networks. KICKBACK POINTS Kickback Points offers a customer appreciation pro- gram for consumers making purchases at participat- ing merchants.As part of the program, customers earn redeemable points and chances to win valuable prizes. DRESSER WAYNE Building on Dresser Wayne’s expertise as a market leader for payment terminals in the retail petroleum industry, Wayne SCAN promotes customer loyalty, in-store rev- enue and cross merchandising programs—right at the dispenser, making managing and keeping track of cus- tomer loyalty easy.Advanced scanning technology in the store and at the dispenser offers customer convenience while providing simplified program management. SSCS The key component of any loyalty system is its POS counterpart. SSCS Inc. offers its Computerized Daily Book for Windows (CDBWin), an automated back- office accounting and inventory management pro- gram designed specifically for petroleum retailers and convenience store operators. SSCS’ program guides you through a simple series of daily steps that make it easy to capture and record sales, manage inventory, and perform your daily bookkeeping. SSCS Poller Interface software retrieves fuel and non-fuel sales data generated by Point-Of-Sale (POS) systems, including the Gilbarco G-SITE, Wayne Nucleus, Gilbarco Passport, Verifone Ruby-Saphhire and Topaz, and Wayne Plus. APRIL 2011 19