DM Magazine July/August 2021

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Tackling Negative Reviews

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Four DM Ideas You Should Steal PM 4 0 0 5 0 8 0 3

VOL. 34 • NO. 7 • JULY/AUGUST 2021

Interview:

Doug Stephens, Retail Prophet on The Future of Retail

THE AUTHORITY FOR THE DATA-DRIVEN BUSINESS

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Vol. 34 | No. 7 | July/August 2021

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ON THE COVER INTERVIEW

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The Future of Retail: An Interview with Doug Stephens, Founder and President, Retail Prophet

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STRATEGY

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Why the Cause is Now a Cornerstone of Marketing

TRANSACTIONAL DATA

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Ten Tips for Tackling Negative Customer Reviews

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Four Good Direct Mail Ideas to Steal From

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How a Customer-Centric Business Model is Driving Growth in Canada for Afterpay DMN.CA ❰

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CUSTOMER SERVICE

Ten Tips for Tackling Negative Customer Reviews

BY JAY HINMAN

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sk any marketer today how he or she feels about customer complaints and there’s a good chance you’ll hear, “They’re never fun,” “They’re part of the job,” “There’s just so many of them,” or even, “We can’t make everyone happy.” Feedback that customer support and operations teams used to own has shifted to customerobsessed marketing teams and evolved into a key component of the overall customer experience.

Customers today are more empowered than ever before. With just a few taps on their keyboards or phones, they can leave reviews online that linger in place and shape public perception of a company or a brand — for better or worse.

Negative customer feedback is particularly worrisome as it poses a threat not only to a company’s reputation but also its bottom line.

Online reputation management has never been more important.

When you consider that nearly 95 percent of consumers now read online reviews before making a purchase, you start to understand the pressure marketers face. While they often feel like they’re playing defense, marketers should take heart.

The silver linings of complaints Online reputation management can certainly be a tricky dance, especially given the everincreasing number of channels where customers can share their experiences. While marketers can’t control what customers say about their companies or brands online, they are more empowered than they often realize.

For starters, marketers can control how a company responds to customer complaints online.

They can also choose to employ online reputation management software to better understand the voice of the customer and act on it.

Specific tools even offer customer complaint management systems.

Marketers also have the ability to influence the sentiment customers ❱ DMN.CA

— and potential customers — take away from a brand online.

Customer complaints offer important silver linings to marketers savvy enough to leverage them. Complaints indicate problems and when customers raise their concerns, companies learn how to improve their products. What’s more, when customers take the time to leave a review, marketers gain a unique opportunity to engage with them directly. By listening to and acting on customer feedback, companies can improve their overall customer experience, foster customer loyalty and gain new brand advocates.

How to tackle negative reviews Instead of fearing customer feedback, marketers should use it as an opportunity to shine.

When it comes to negative reviews in particular, marketers should develop a process for online reputation management. While the nature of customer complaints will vary, the best practices marketers should follow to tackle them are consistent: ❯ Avoid the urge to delete: As unfair as a review might seem or as negative as a customer might be, marketers should resist the urge to delete customer complaints. Negative reviews actually reveal an authenticity consumers have come to expect.

They understand it’s impossible for any company to make everyone happy, so only positive reviews could appear suspect.

Instead, marketers should focus on effectively responding to the complaints they receive and boosting the credibility of their companies along the way. ❯ Respond swiftly: Tackling customer complaints quickly shows a company is responsive, cares about the customer experience and values the business of its customers. In today’s digital age, marketers have no excuse for not responding in a swift manner, particularly with online

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reputation management technology available.

Apologize and empathize: Complaining customers often just want to be heard. After all, their perceived experience is their reality. This is why marketers should always apologize for the customer’s experience and try to empathize with him or her. When applicable, companies should also admit their mistakes. Doing so can not only reassure the customer but also help build or repair trust. Brands that go on the defensive run the risk of being cast as arrogant or uncaring.

Be polite and professional: Marketers are representing their companies when they respond to complaining customers, so it’s imperative to stay polite and professional, regardless of a customer’s behavior.

Highlight the company’s commitment to service: Marketers who are responding to customer complaints may be doing so from a reactive position but that doesn’t mean they can’t weave in important key messages. When crafting a response to a negative review, a marketer should absolutely highlight his or her company’s commitment to customer service and frame the customer experience in question as a oneoff experience — an anomaly.

Doing so shows potential customers that the negative review in question doesn’t accurately portray your company or services.

Move the conversation offline: Once a prompt and empathetic initial response has been sent, marketers should try to move communication with complaining customers offline, to private channels.

This prevents drawn-out, back-

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and-forth exchanges potential customers could see. Giving the customer a direct means of contact, such as a phone number or an email address, will usually help marketers move the conversation out of public view.

Find and execute a solution: Once a marketer has moved the conversation with the complaining customer offline, he or she needs to get more detail on the customer’s problem to find a solution and execute it.

Be genuine and authentic: While a marketer is working to get to the bottom of the complaint, he or she needs to communicate with the customer in a genuine and authentic fashion. This way, customers feel acknowledged and valued. After all, they did take the time to leave a review.

Send specific, personalized responses: Similarly, marketers need to send specific, personalized responses to complaining customers. Avoid the temptation to automate, as one might do for certain positive reviews, because vague or canned responses could be seen as impersonal and further inflame the situation. Recent research indicates 90 percent of businesses understand the importance of personalization and respond to reviews manually.

Don’t forget to follow up: Finally, don’t leave customers wondering. A marketer who has followed the above best practices would be remiss if he CONTINUED ON page 13 JULY/AUGUST 2021

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The future of traditional retail looks bleak.

Many more stores are expected to close as online shopping continues its sharp upward climb, expected to account for 20 percent of total retail sales just three years from now.

Doug Stephens, Founder and President, Retail Prophet ❱ DMN.CA

JULY/AUGUST 2021

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INTERVIEW

The Future of Retail: An Interview with Doug Stephens, Founder and President, Retail Prophet

BY STEPHEN SHAW

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STEPHEN SHAW is the Chief Strategy Officer of Kenna, a marketing solutions provider specializing in delivering a more unified customer experience. Stephen can be reached via e-mail at sshaw@kenna.ca

JULY/AUGUST 2021

or some time now traditional retailers have been staring down a gun barrel. The pandemic killed off the weakest retailers in the herd, while pushing consumers who were eCommerce holdouts into the welcoming arms of Amazon. But even prior to this calamity, stores had been shutting down everywhere due to changing shopping habits — pressure on profit margins — the closing down of shopping malls — and blind adherence to an industrial age model that was too reliant on foot traffic.

The future of traditional retail looks bleak. Many more stores are expected to close as online shopping continues its sharp upward climb, expected to account for 20 percent of total retail sales just three years from now. Much of that spending will be soaked up by Amazon and an expanding galaxy of online merchants.

Infinite aisles and same-day delivery have become the bullets in the gun, aimed at the heart of any conventional-thinking retailer whose imagination fails them.

The old retail model is defunct. The question, of course, is what takes its place. Do retailers look to China for answers, where shopping and buying have become a truly seamless experience due to the convergence of online and offline channels? Or is there a hybrid model better suited to North America where the end-to-end shopping experience involves many multiple channels and a more decentralized value chain? Either way, retailers who want to stay solvent better share the same mindset as Jeff Bezos who once said: “If you lean away from the future, the future wins every time”.

Brick-and-mortar stores are unlikely to go away anytime soon. There is still a large role for them to play as the face-to-face stage of the shopping journey. But the mundane store experience of today will need to improve dramatically to draw people away from their screens. Store shopping can still be an enjoyable way to pass the time — still be a gateway to discovery — still be the best way to experience a product first-hand — if retailers begin to think differently about what brings shoppers joy and value.

One of the industry oracles retailers can turn to for help in reimagining their business model is Doug Stephens who is a master at predicting consumer and

retail trends. The author of several highly readable and provocative books on the state of retail, he offers retailers a clear prescription for survival, warning them of the even more disruptive changes ahead, while providing hope in the form of an alternate vision rooted in the idea of putting customers first.

Stephen Shaw: Is this a good or bad time to be a retail futurist?

Doug Stephens: I don’t think there’s ever a bad time to be focused on the future. You always have to have someone in the crow’s nest looking out at the horizon.

For example, people think the pandemic was a black swan — that no one could ever have anticipated it happening. Well, there were organizations that did anticipate it — Intel being one of them. After the SARS epidemic in 2002, Intel established a pandemic committee. And ever since, they’ve been building contingencies in the event of another pandemic. This pandemic was foreseeable — so planning for the future should be important in every organization.

Shaw: Is that why you started Retail Prophet?

Stephens: Absolutely. After having spent 20 odd years in retail, I knew firsthand how short-sighted this industry was, and how they operated quarter to quarter. What they don’t realize is that decisions they make today are going to impact their future success, not just next quarter, but five to ten years from now.

Shaw: You make the point in your latest book that this pandemic is a catalyst for change. Is this an extinction event that wipes out mediocre retailers?

Stephens: Yeah, I think so. Somebody asked me the other day, “Who do you see being the winners and losers coming out of the pandemic?”. Who’s going to survive this crisis? Frankly, it depends on what their view of retail is. I think there are two camps.

There are those for whom retail remains an industrial occupation: it’s all about sourcing a product and getting it into the hands of the consumer — pretty much retail as we’ve known it forever. And then there’s another, more enlightened camp which accepts that society has fully moved into the digital era. Our DMN.CA ❰

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INTERVIEW primary concern as consumers is no longer, “Will I be able to find the things I want?”. In fact, we now live in a world where we can have anything we want. What we want in the digital era is inspiration; what we want is information; what we want is a fusion of commerce and entertainment.

Shaw: Coming out of this pandemic, many people have a changed outlook on life.

What are the ramifications for retail? One stream of thought is that shopping may no longer be seen as a pastime. Will we see a so-called “new normal” where shopping is less of an obsession?

Stephens: Oftentimes, we have to look to the past in order to understand the future. After the SARS pandemic, China’s retail economy was completely reinvented. Companies like JD.com, now one of the largest retailers in the world, were born out of the SARS pandemic. So, is it likely that we are now going to spend a disproportionate amount of our spending online? Yes, it’s quite likely. We may use stores very differently going forward. I don’t think that stores are going to become less important. But I do think that we are going to use them very differently than we do today.

Shaw: You also describe in your book a fairly apocalyptic vision of the retail future. On one hand, you’ve got “apex predators”, as you call them — like Amazon and Walmart; on the other, competing retail giants playing catchup, creating their own online marketplaces. How does that battle play out?

Stephens: Yeah. It’s an interesting question, and this is the reason I reject the idea that everything we’re seeing is simply an acceleration of what would have happened anyway. I don’t see it that way at all. I think that the pandemic has not just accelerated the future of retail, but altered it completely. Here’s the interesting thing: Amazon actually lost market share in global eCommerce. And the reason was simple: the rest of the world was catching up once and for all. This is now going to motivate companies like Amazon ❱ DMN.CA

We may use stores differently in the future. I’m not saying they will go away. to move into other sectors of the economy that are vulnerable to disruption and incredibly lucrative.

Like education. Like banking, a huge opportunity. In fact, Alibaba owns Ant Financial, which is the 15th largest bank in the world.

Insurance is another sector open to attack — same with healthcare.

Amazon has launched nine concerted efforts over the last three years to break into the health care market, consummating with an online pharmacy. So, imagine five years from now: you’re not just ordering running shoes and electronics from Amazon — they’re your child’s education platform; they’re your health insurer, your bank. Everybody gets one bill every month, and it’s payable to Amazon and it covers virtually every aspect of your life.

So, if you’re a retailer, now you have to ask yourself, “How on earth do we compete with that?

How on earth do we draw that consumer out of that ecosystem and get them to our website?”. And so, large international retailers like Costco, Target, Kroger, are feeling the heat too and are building third party marketplaces just to try and keep up with this expansion of Amazon and Walmart.

Shaw: Hudson Bay announced that it was creating its own marketplace.

Stephens: A third party marketplace gives you the ability to scale up your offering very, very quickly, with virtually no capital investment. And sales through third party marketplaces can actually be more lucrative than

selling that same product in your own stores. Retailers are realizing it’s not good enough anymore to just be a grocery store, or just be a building material store — they have to build out a minimarketplace of their own in order to give consumers new reasons to shop with them.

Shaw: You use the term “habitats” to describe these ecosystems. Does retail eventually become a battle of the habitats?

Stephens: Yeah, it’s a good question. Every morning, I read some article that talks about retailers trying to become “omnichannel”. In fact, omni-channel is a zombie concept. Omni-channel was a recognition that most retail companies had these two divisions: nerds who worked over in eCommerce and retail people who worked over on the physical side of the business. They didn’t talk to one another, they didn’t share data, and they certainly didn’t have a single view of customer.

Omni-channel at it’s inception was an effort to knit together those two parts of the business.

It was never about reinventing the shopping experience. And then in 2016, Jack Ma, who is now the chairman of Alibaba, came up with a term called “New Retail”. What Ma was saying is that we, as consumers, don’t operate in channels. We don’t say to ourselves, “I’m going to go online and do some shopping.” We are shopping now in the moment. So I watch a video on TikTok and that becomes a shopping experience. I

read a post on Facebook and that becomes a shopping experience.

I connect to a QR code in a magazine to get some information and that becomes a shopping experience. Ma recognized that consumers bounce from moment to moment in their life. And at various moments, retailers need to be available to serve those needs.

And at the same time, we need to build what my friend Michael Zakkour1 calls “power sources”.

These are new delivery systems, new technologies, to allow for new retail formats and experiences.

And what we see now is Amazon starting to take pages from Alibaba’s playbook.

Shaw: Some people say that the future is already on display in China.

Stephens: Yeah, absolutely.

And the rails of commerce are incredibly well oiled in China.

There’s very little friction in terms of one’s ability to shop and in particular to buy and pay for things in the moment, because so much of that activity is centralized across very few channels. WeChat is one of the primary avenues for commerce. Everything that you need is there: you can hail a taxi, order your meal, buy a few things, pay your rent, buy an airline ticket, all without ever leaving WeChat. So, it is a system that has been designed without even thinking about conventional retail channels, or conventional methods of payment. It’s a model that was created for the digital age. And so to your point, yes, I think that if we want to divine the future five years from now in North America, we should be looking at China.

Shaw: The other aspect of it that strikes me is how important social commerce is in China.

And of course, we’re seeing moves by Facebook now to take advantage of, as you put it, shoppable media, using social channels to buy things, connect with influencers, and during a live streaming event, buy stuff in real time. It’s quite a futuristic picture you draw.

Stephens: It is indeed. What we’ve seen in the Chinese market is a complete collapse of the boundaries between entertainment and commerce.

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INTERVIEW So much of the entertainment landscape has commerce built into it. Opportunities for consumers to connect with, as you say, key opinion leaders or influencers in the market — to connect with specific products that may be embedded within a movie or a television series. Again, Alibaba is a great example because they have this ecosystem that’s made up of video production, shipping, commerce, banking, and payments. All of these things are stitched together very elegantly, so that consumers can watch a TV show that’s produced by Alibaba — they can shop that TV show while they’re enjoying that entertainment — and they can pay for it all, using Alipay. It’s a complete ecosystem.

Shaw: With more and more streetside stores shuttering, the retail industry is in need of “remodeling”, as you put it. The answer, you say, is for retailers to adopt what you call a new “store archetype” and deliver something that the apex predators cannot. Is that a fair summation?

Stephens: That’s a very good summation. I don’t believe there’s room anymore for mediocre brands. There’s no surplus market share for them to subsist on.

What every retail brand needs to do now is define its purpose in this new world. Purpose is the new positioning. But I don’t mean positioning from the traditional standpoint, like luxury or discount. What I mean is a pretty simple litmus test.

And the test is this question: if your brand is the answer, what’s the question? That sounds like a pretty simple question. But I’ve asked it of executives at Fortune 500 companies and oftentimes you don’t get a clear answer. And so, I provide in the book 10 retail archetypes that retailers can choose from. They are divided into four categories. One is culture: brands that can tell interesting stories, and turn those stories into movements. And so here you find brands like Nike, a real storytelling brand, or Patagonia, a brand that espouses environmental responsibility. The next quadrant is entertainment. What brands do here is surround their products JULY/AUGUST 2021

with a theatrical and entertaining experience. The next quadrant is expertise where you offer the deepest knowledge in your category. And the final quadrant is product, where it’s the product itself that is the differentiator.

Shaw: What’s a good example of a retailer getting their model right?

Stephens: Go back to Patagonia, an activist brand which puts environmental causes right at the center of its business. They offer differentiated products by virtue of their recyclability, and the fact they’re made from recycled materials. They also offer a differentiation in their expertise. They hire people who are enthusiasts — who absolutely love the outdoors. Everything Patagonia does is aligned with its environmental positioning. It’s a brand with a strong position as an activist. And they enable it with people who are enthusiastic about the things they sell.

Shaw: I happen to be wearing a Patagonia shirt today. You also give another example in the book of a camera store in New York City.

Stephens: It’s called B&H Photo Video. If you’re a photography buff, you pretty quickly hear the name B&H talked about online. They have a tremendous reputation for knowledge. Unlike what you find on the Best Buy web site — a stock image of a bunch of people in blue polo shirts called

the “Geek Squad” — on the B&H site you see individual bios of all of their resident experts. And these are people who have spent decades as professional photographers, videographers, sound technicians.

And so, is expertise a commodity that can be delivered by any trained store associate? Or do you actually hire experts?

Photographers from around the world will order things from B&H which they would never dream of buying from Best Buy. So, identify what your strength is, and go really deep so that Amazon will never ever dream of chasing you down that rabbit hole. It’s just not worth their time or effort.

Shaw: As far as Canada goes, there are two companies that have done very well through this pandemic. One is Shopify, now Canada’s most valuable company. Scott Galloway2 calls them the anti-Amazon.

And then on the other side of that digital divide, you have Canadian Tire, which has had a fabulous year, and yet is very brick-and-mortar based. How do you see those companies evolving?

Stephens: Shopify is a remarkable company, for sure. They’re now the second largest marketplace in North America, just behind Amazon. The gross merchandise volume pumped through the Shopify platform is pretty staggering. But I believe their next move should be to provide a cohesive shopping experience

Today I am deluged by algorithms feeding more of the same products I like.

across all of their merchants. Make it a shoppable marketplace where you discover brands that you can’t find on Amazon. Canadian Tire has done very well through the pandemic, largely because they’ve been allowed to stay open, whereas so many other merchants have not.

But the challenge for Canadian Tire is overcoming resistance from franchisees to support a uniform level of online sales and delivery.

I don’t dispute that Canadian Tire has evolved to a point where they now provide eCommerce and logistics services to consumers to a greater extent certainly than they could even five years ago.

But it’s not up to the level that it needs to be. And frankly, service levels in their stores are not, in my opinion, where they need to be either — just go online and look at their online reviews. Canadian Tire has thrived because it did a very good job decades ago of putting stores in close proximity to consumers. Over the long term, they are going to have to make some very significant changes to both their in-store experience and their online capabilities in order to withstand the kind of change that is coming.

Shaw: Recently you wrote that “discovery is dying”. What did you mean by that?

Stephens: I was thinking about iTunes and the degree to which it was a catalyst for how we consume everything today. In the good old days, you’d buy an album because you had a favourite song on it that you might have heard on the radio.

But of course, you were paying for all the other songs on the album along with it. And oftentimes, it was listening to those other songs that gave you an appreciation for the artist or the band.

Your musical sensibilities were broadened. Today I am deluged by algorithms, feeding me more of the same products that I already like.

What I’m losing is serendipitous discovery. And so, it opens up a massive opportunity for retailers to provide consumers with the occasional surprise. Even in this post-pandemic world I think we’re still hungry for discovery.

1 A China retail specialist and author of “New Retail Born in China Going Global”.

2 Scott Galloway is an adjunct professor of marketing at the New York University Stern School of Business, and popular author and speaker.

DMN.CA ❰

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DIRECT MAIL

Four Good Direct Mail Ideas to Steal From

BY BILLY SHARMA

W

e all have come across a brilliant idea that we wish we had thought of or which we have filed away in order to adapt some day. Here is my humble grab bag of ideas for you to steal from with abandon.

Many of these simple “swappables” are either ones I admire or are mine, but either way I am sharing them with you because they have been field-tested and have worked each time. So, feel free to adapt, steal, reproduce, share, or pass them on to your friends or clients, but please don’t just copy them blatantly.

Here’s the list of things that work in direct marketing: 1. Use any device to get readers involved.

2. Add an item in your direct mail piece to tell a story.

3. Use your creativity to make a single important point.

4. Tell a good story.

Direct mail offers two huge benefits. First, it has been scientifically proven that the brain retains information gathered from paper for much longer than it does from digital messaging. In other words, people trust paper.

Second, you can practically mail anything. This tactile nature of direct mail, that is inherent only in this medium, is a big plus in telling stories and raising funds.

Here are some examples and the explanation for each of the above.

1. Use any device to get readers involved.

The beauty of involvement devices is that they engage your reader and draw their attention. And getting their attention is crucial in getting results.

Example 1: Here alongside is a brilliant example by a charity for the prevention of suicide that gets you from the start before opening the package. The idea of

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EXAMPLE 1

using string and button envelopes as a noose is a powerful visual demonstration of the message. By allowing recipients to untie the string and free the noose around the victim’s neck, they got them involved in a powerful way. This simple act drove home the point that saving lives is that easy. This almost forces your reader to paint a mental picture while they read, which anchors an image in their consciousness.

EXAMPLE 2

Example 2: Here is another way to get your reader involved.

A detergent company in Malaysia mailed this package to people who had just purchased a washing machine. Once they opened the package they found the product was wrapped in a t-shirt as below: And the message inside said it all.

Example 3: Amnesty International. Simulated Chopsticks. They put a clever twist on a familiar item. Pencils instead of chopsticks were handed out with these instructions: ❯ Tuck under thumb and hold tightly. ❯ Write the Chinese government to help end torture. ❯ Don’t let human rights violations by the Chinese government give China a bad name. ❯ Take further action at: amnesty.org/china Example 4: Talking about involvement, here is an insert for the Canadian Paraplegic Association that I used to convey what it feels like to be disabled.

Go ahead just follow the instructions and see for yourself.

2. Add an item in your direct mail piece to tell a story.

I have used many physical objects to tell a compelling story: I’ve sent brass keys to sell Fiberglass; I have mailed a single glove to get recipients to write back and request the other glove; I have used a piece of cardboard to dramatize the plight of the homeless.

Example 1: Here I used a bandage to talk about partner abuse.

Example 2: Or even a toothbrush to let the reader know that when a woman is fleeing from her abuser, she barely has time to pack even her most basic necessities.

Example 3: I mailed a pack of sugar to talk about obesity in children for the charity Food Share.

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DIRECT MAIL

Example 4: A Boston homeless charity mailed ID cards to their donors to demonstrate that homeless people lose their identity.

doors, so it needs to be exposed. And stats showed that partner abuse is prevalent especially among young mothers from impoverished families.

Sadly, 80 percent of the women at the Massey Centre come from such backgrounds. How well did it do? In the first two weeks the response was well above 18 percent with 3 or 4 weeks still to go.

Example 2: Then there is this simple post-undelivered slip from JWT London placed in the mailboxes of selected recipients.

To communicate the chunkiness of Kit Kat Chunky, JWT London’s card claimed that they couldn’t deliver a Kit Kat Chunky because it was “too big for your letterbox”. Recipients were directed to collect their free Kit Kat from their local newsagent.

3. Use your creativity to make a single important point.

Example 1: When I learned that some young girls at the Massey Centre became homeless due to physical abuse, I wanted to highlight the plight of these girls.

So, here is the letter donors received:

The idea was to make the bold words hard to read and to involve the readers by making them hold the letter up to a lamp or window. Because most partner abuse cases are hidden. Once it was backlit, it clearly revealed the words: PARTNER ABUSE, because the other half of each letter was printed on the back of the paper.

The main idea was to inform the readers that PARTNER ABUSE is mostly hidden behind closed JULY/AUGUST 2021

Example 3: In an emergency, flash the crisis as loudly as you can. Here is an appeal I wrote for the Canadian Children’s Fund of Canada to send to people who sponsored children in India. It was very successful.

Example 4: Wedgewood created a ceramic envelope that was mailed to couples that had registered to get married, because there is a tradition among many cultures to break a plate for good luck. When the recipients smashed the ceramic envelope, there was a discount

coupon inside for them to redeem many Wedgewood products.

4. Tell a good story.

Truth be told, the power of a good story cannot be underestimated.

There is plenty of proof in the many novels we read and the number of movies we watch. More amazing, stories captivate us because we want to know what happened next and how it all ended. Stories have the ability to open our eyes and hearts to someone else’s plight.

Stories can be agents of change.

Example 1: Stories can humanize your mission. Donors want to see how their money is spent. They want proof of your fiscal accountability. What better way to show this than by sharing a story that embodies hope and goodness; a story that reminds your donors how they can help change the lives of children who may have a serious or terminal illness.

Example 2: If you want to convert more donors to monthly donors, stay focused and be transparent; tell them where their last donation went. And tell them how important they are.

Example 3: Paint a picture of the surroundings of your main story character and bring it to life. That’s what I did with this dying rose, to speak about the bond between a dying wife and her husband.

Example 4: I have even used one of the best children’s storytellers, Munsch, in my letters, to show the plight of one disabled child for Easter Seals, Ontario. He wrote a story about her. Twenty percent is creative.

You can use the names of your donors and the communities where they live to first try to figure out their ethnic backgrounds. But, if you look a bit deeper, you will find the donation amounts that they generally give to your charity

may give you a clue too.

A person’s name may not specifically indicate their original ethnic origin. Many charities ask for rounded up amounts like $25, $50, and $100, but receive other donations such as $18 or $36.

What these donors are telling us is that they are probably Jewish. The number 18 in Hebrew also means “life” so it is customary to give gifts in multiples of $18. If you run a report on your database of donors who have given a gift of $18, $36, $180, $360, $1,800, $3,600, you will likely find some who gave that amount. By their giving behaviour, they are identifying themselves to you as likely Jewish.

Similarly, the Indian community generally adds an extra dollar to rounded up amounts, so they traditionally give $51 or $101, etc, at weddings and other occasions.

Chinese people often have specific numbers that they regard as lucky or unlucky. In China, lucky numbers have pronunciations that are similar to words with lucky meanings. Number 8 holds huge significance as a lucky number.

To a lesser extent 2, 6, and 9 are considered lucky. While 4 is the unluckiest number in China.

Different donation amounts can give you a hint about your donor’s ethnic background and how to best use that knowledge.

For Muslims, 786 is a sacred number because the Arabic letters of the opening phrase of the Quran add up to the numerical value of 786. Asians also go by Chinese or Indian astrology and numerology.

For the Chinese, even numbers are considered lucky, since it is believed that good luck comes in pairs. Now why is all this important? As a charity leader, you are always looking for good ways to contact and steward your most loyal donors.

So, if your donor has signalled to you that you may not want you to send them a Christmas or Easter card, mark your calendar for early August and send out wishes for a happy and healthy New Year (Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year).

Or send a Diwali greeting to those who celebrate the Indian New Year in October, or the Chinese New Year in February.

To ensure better stewardship, CONTINUED ON page 13 DMN.CA ❰

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STRATEGY

Why the Cause is Now a Cornerstone of Marketing

C

BY MICHAEL MORRIS AND LAURA TYSON

ause-Related Marketing is based on a very simple and honourable practice, which is partnering your campaign or product with a charitable cause.

This might seem straightforward or easy to do, but it’s hard to get right and it comes with considerable demand for expertise on a number of fronts.

We are living in a time of conscientious consumers — people are caring more and more about their social impact on the world.

How effective is CRM? A recent study found that Causerelated marketing is exceptionally effective and becoming more critical. Millennials and Gen Zer’s may respond especially strongly to marketing for a cause.* ❯ Earn more. Brands that people believe are making the world better earn more and have higher purchase intent; ❯ Avoid losing customers.

Sixty-four percent of people avoid brands that they don’t believe have an excellent social responsibility; ❯ Attract new customers, especially among young people. Sixty-nine percent of Gen Z is more likely to buy from a brand that contributes to a cause; ❯ Take a stand. Sixty-six percent of consumers think that brands should take stands on political and social issues; and ❯ Embody what North Americans think is important.

Seventy-two percent believe that it is important to buy from companies that reflect their values.

Benefits of cause-related marketing CRM has wide range of benefits.

Practically any business can take advantage of this form of marketing. Cause-related marketing may have a special ❱ DMN.CA

meaning for online retailers, eCommerce of all kinds, and any other company that may be lacking in natural attention-getting.

From boosting service and product sales to improving the public’s impression of your business’ dedication to social responsibility, there are many reasons to team up with a great non-profit organization.

Get attention and build credibility Statistics state show that millennials make over half of their purchases online, however, only 6 percent of them think that online advertising is credible. Causerelated marketing is another way to reach clients online without directly advertising their product or service.

By promoting ethically responsible initiatives, your company can build brand awareness and loyalty. This is especially important for companies that operate entirely online.

Millennials are more receptive to relevant online advertising, Which involve their current values. Sixtysix percent of young consumers view a brand more positively, if it is associated with a cause, and fifty-eight percent are more likely to buy from that brand, according to DoSomething Strategic.

A well-targeted social media campaign that can explain how your business WILL help the good cause that your consumers already care about can get a lot of positive attention for your business, quickly and inexpensively.

Win the race for loyal customers ALL businesses want more customers. Loyal customers bring in more loyal customers by telling friends and family about a company, displaying brands, and supporting each Cause-related marketing campaign.

You may not want to wait around in the race for loyal customers. Corporate giving has

increased by 15 percent in two years. Cause-related marketing is growing, and you don’t want to be left behind. Brands win out with each customer. (Yotpo 2019) If you want to be in the handful of companies that have a customer’s loyalty, you need an edge over the competition.

A third of customers have already stopped purchasing favourite brands by 2019 because they lost trust in the brand. You want your customers to trust YOU more thanks to your commitment to a cause, not to change brand loyalty because they lost confidence in your brand.

Stable revenue growth Cause-related marketing doesn’t just raise awareness for your cause and business — it increases income. 71 percent of Millennials are willing to pay more for something if they know some profits will go to charity.

Furthermore, sixty-seven percent of people are happy to pay more to have a great experience.

The satisfaction of contributing to a good cause can aid customers’ experiences and will make them even more willing to pay more.

Cause-related marketing can dramatically improve customer loyalty. Customers are more likely to be loyal to a brand that they believe is committed to a nonprofit organization or cause. Increasing a customer’s loyalty by just 7 percent can increase lifetime profits per customer as much as eighty-five percent.

Loyal customers are more likely to keep purchasing from a brand.

Increasing retention of as few as five percent of customers can result in an increase in revenue from twenty-five to ninety-five percent.

Starting a campaign If you’re ready to start a campaign, your motivation can include helping your business stick in the minds of your customers, building trust and loyalty, but most of all by

doing something good in the world.

A campaign built around a cause is a great choice. Find a partner who will ensure your campaign will work to successfully raise money for your charitable cause and incorporate powerful marketing campaigns for your business.

LAURA TYSON is Director of Communications of Social Strategy Group and Michael Morris is Founder of Social Strategy Group. https://www.socialstrategygroup.com/ (*contact us for details about these statistics)

Michael Morris was born in Manchester England in 1945.

He joined his family owned Ladies fashion retail-business in 1961. After 30 years as a successful manufacturer/ retailer in both the UK and Canada, Michael realized that to be successful in the fashion industry, one had to change the way they conduct their business. In 1993, Casually Yours, was formed as a workplacefashion fundraising program which benefitted over 50 hospitals across Southern Ontario. This successful fund raising initiative lasted until 2003, when the SARS outbreak forced a shutdown of all hospital events. The epidemic closed Casually Yours down for over 12 months. It was during this period, Michael Morris collaborated with Angelo Mantenuto, president of Stix Brands International, a company that manufactured quality soap products.

Together, they created Clean Freak Patrol, to help educate children and parents with the importance of hand sanitation and hygiene.

“Spread the word not the germs” was the campaign in support of Sick Kids Hospital, which was distributed nationally through Shopper’s Drug Mart.

JULY/AUGUST 2021

Resource Directory DATA ANALYTICS

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Ten Tips for Tackling Negative Customer Reviews CONTINUED FROM page 4

or she didn’t follow up with the complaining customer. By following up to ensure the customer’s problem has been resolved, the customer might be inspired to update his or her original review, or, potentially even, delete it altogether.

How companies respond to customer complaints online is incredibly important and visible, and marketers play a pivotal role. One bad experience doesn’t have to be the final say for that customer. Each customer interaction is an opportunity. With the right online reputation management strategies and tools, companies can differentiate themselves and show they’re willing to go and beyond to ensure a great customer experience.

JAY HINMAN is the head of corporate marketing at Birdeye. He has over 25 years of B2B marketing leadership experience at global companies, such as Opera Software and MobiTV, and helped lead two startups to acquisition as vice president of marketing at Neumob and Skyfire

Four Good Direct Mail Ideas to Steal From CONTINUED FROM page 11

you can build your donor base to reflect your research. Through customizing your stewardship and your giving levels, you can show your donors that you 10:43 AM are paying attention 13-07-04 to them.

They will appreciate the personalization and your thoughtfulness, and you will be able to appeal to them more effectively.

You can ask them in certain amounts and during appropriate holiday periods that are a better fit for them.

And that is what smart fundraising is all about.

BILLY SHARMA is President & Creative Director of Designers Inc. He started his career in the advertising world and have worked in four major cities — Munich, Montreal, New York and Toronto for some of the largest advertising agencies. For the past three decades he has run his own company, Designers Inc.

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TRANSACTIONAL DATA

How a Customer-Centric Business Model is Driving Growth in Canada for Afterpay H ow a Customer-Centric Business Model is Driving Growth in Canada for Afterpay Afterpay is the leader in “Buy Now, Pay Later” (BNPL) payments, helping millions of users get the products they want fast and with responsible spending in mind. More than this, Afterpay has proven to be a valuable marketing tool for retailers when it comes to reaching young and engaged shoppers. Afterpay is one of those rare “win, wins” for both consumers and merchants, helping the brand see unprecedented success since entering the Canadian market.

We spoke with Afterpay’s General Manager of North America, Zahir Khoja, to break down what Afterpay is, how it helps merchants and retailers understand their shoppers, and how the brand’s customer-centric business model has spurred Canadian growth so far.

Tell us about Afterpay. What is it and how does it work?

Afterpay lets consumers receive products immediately and pay over time using their own money — always interest-free — at thousands of retailers across the globe. Purchases are paid in four installments due every two weeks. Since launching, Afterpay is now offered by over 86,000 retailers and used by 15 million active customers around the world.

How does buy-now, pay-later drive marketing?

The benefits of using BNPL for merchants are far reaching. For one, merchants have access to millions of global shoppers, mainly in the Millennial and Gen Z cohort, who are turning away from traditional credit cards, debts and fees. Merchants see a service like Afterpay as a marketing vehicle, as many of our customers will start their shopping journey on the Afterpay platform. An average of 35 million merchant referrals are generated globally per month from our Shop Directory, providing a source of new traffic to our retail partners and an increase in cart conversation by twenty per cent on average.

What’s the cost for the merchant?

For merchants, it’s as simple as paying a small transaction fee for the service which, in turn, gives their brand exposure to millions of users.

Once a product is bought, the merchant ships the product immediately and Afterpay pays the merchant in full the next day, minus the fee.

Afterpay assumes the full risk of non-payment so the retailer doesn’t have to worry. ❱ DMN.CA

Our goal is to give its customers the ability to budget their own money and pay over time, instead of turning to expensive loans with interest, fees and revolving debt.

There’s a connection to loyalty as well.

Afterpay has a highly tailored user platform, which has influenced customer loyalty and acquisition. Tell us a bit about how Afterpay helps retailers understand their overall customer demographic and keep them coming back to shop.

Overall, we’ve found that a more personalized consumer shopping experience delivers strong value. In the US, we’ve seen this especially with our Favourites feature — which allows customers to keep track of all the items they want to Afterpay in one place. With Zahir Khoja is General Manager of North America for Afterpay. this feature, shoppers return more frequently to track saved Afterpay has seen great success since its items, merchants see increased referral traffic launch in Canada. What are some successes from return shoppers, and Afterpay get insights or results you’ve noticed from your to make better recommendations. We look Canadian partners? forward to bringing this feature to Canada in Despite Afterpay’s relatively recent entry into the near future in our newly launched app.

Canada, it is the most used and visited BNPL We also aggregate and share purchasing service in the country with the highest customer data with retail partners to help them better intent, according to a February 2021 Citi understand what people were buying, when, Research report. and why — see our latest Trend Report here.

This success is benefitting Afterpay’s retail Tracking massive shifts — like the move to partners in a big way. For example, recent more transitional dressing as consumers emerge data shows Afterpay owns 30 per cent of cart from lockdown — helps savvy retailers adapt to share with Herschel Supply Co. This is a result retail in a post-pandemic world. of bringing approximately 150,000 shopper referrals to Herschel between September How is Afterpay using its buy now pay later 2020 and March 2021 from Afterpay’s Shop service as a discovery tool for retailers?

Directory.

Afterpay’s Shop Directory is a destination where As of late, Canadian retailers such as Urban customers can find our newest merchants, and Outfitters, Lululemon, Pandora, NARS and can filter brands by category, trends, values, Shiseido have recently partnered with Afterpay and those offering sales. Whether customers to reach a younger demographic of consumers. are looking to browse through our thousands of retailers or they have a very specific item they’re ZAHIR KHOJA is General Manager of North America for Afterpay. looking for, our app and website are designed to Founded five years ago in Sydney, Australia, Afterpay has millions support them through their shopping journey. of global customers and tens of thousands merchant partners Our Shop Directory is also an important now using the platform globally across Australia, US, Canada, UK marketing channel for our partners, connecting (where it is called Clearpay) and New Zealand. Afterpay’s global the best brands in the world with a powerful team is currently made up of more than 700 people and growing. demographic of young and engaged shoppers.

JULY/AUGUST 2021