Emerging brands in today's highly competitive market face constant challenges in attracting new customers and building lasting relationships with them. With the festive season in full swing, brands have a unique opportunity to connect with their audience on a deeper level, using festive offers, personalised experiences, and loyalty programmes to stand out.
Advertisment
However, gaining initial traction is not enough—customer retention is becoming more crucial as consumers are presented with endless options, making it vital for young brands to cultivate strong bonds beyond a single purchase.
As the festive season brings a surge in consumer spending, it offers a chance to implement retention strategies, such as personalised communication, exclusive deals for repeat customers, and seamless post-purchase experiences that ensure customer satisfaction.
For emerging brands, successfully navigating this competitive landscape requires balancing festive season excitement with thoughtful, relationship-driven approaches that turn new buyers into loyal advocates.
At the third edition of afaqs! Challenger Brands, experts discussed how emerging brands can build strong, lasting relationships with their customers in a competitive market.
The session titled Customer Retention Strategies for Young Brandsfeatured a distinguished panel of retention marketing experts, including Hitarth Saini, head of marketing, Freo; Kritika Sriram, chief growth officer, Plix; Ram Vinayak Deshpande, chief marketing officer, Lendingkart; and Tejnoor Grover, head of retention marketing, MPL(Mobile Premier League) Industry. The panel was chaired by Sreekant Khandekar, co-founder and CEO, afaqs!
Khandekar opened the session by discussing the intensity of competition among brands and how they target customers based on their geographic location, tailoring their strategies to regional preferences. Saini said that the target group of the brand he represents is present in tiers 1, 2, and 3 cities. However, this presents a unique challenge for the marketing team in effectively balancing the messages.
“We must maintain a balance between simplicity and interest. We are trying to build personalisation layers in our app. If required, my consumers will have different experiences in the tier-2 versus tier-3 market,” he added.
Talking about how effective personalisation is for consumers in terms of keeping them with brands, Sriram explained that the relationship of a brand with its customer has to move from transaction to a much more personalised sphere not just at the time of acquisition or in the time of order fulfillment but even beyond that.
"We have mapped out our customers' journey, not just pre-purchase but also post-purchase, and built branches out of it. These branches help customers get more personalised experiences based on previous interactions they've had. We also facilitate consumers with diet plans for free whenever they buy our products,” she said.
When a brand consistently meets or exceeds a customer's expectations, it typically becomes evident that the customer will remain loyal to the platform. This often involves a combination of personalised experiences, seamless interactions, and outstanding customer service.
Grover stated that he employs an omnichannel approach to maintain consistency. In the gaming industry, Grover explained that if a user remains active for seven consecutive days, the brand can expect them to return to the platform.
“At MPL, if a user has already absorbed our money, will they come back? It depends on the game they play. It also depends on the size of the game the users play. I would want to incentivise those users who play high-format games and upsell them more in different categories,” he said.
In the early stages of building a brand or platform, many leaders form assumptions about what drives customer retention. Initial beliefs often revolve around product quality or competitive pricing as the key factors in keeping customers loyal. These initial beliefs may also turn out to be incorrect.
Deshpande said that not everything in the world would be digital. He believes that one has to have a trusted flow and a mix of strategies while communicating with customers.
"As human beings, we always consult with an expert when purchasing business loans or filing an income tax return (ITR), rather than relying solely on digital methods. This realisation opened my eyes, leading us to consistently implement a trusted flow and a blend of online and offline strategies to ensure customer retention," he explained.
/afaqs/media/agency_attachments/2024-10-10t065829449z-afaqs_640x480.png)
Follow Us/afaqs/media/media_files/zYQjhuEmHvS0wRv9PVrV.png)