Huggies Lean Forward

Kimberly-Clark have launched a new loyalty programme for their Huggies brand called “Enjoy the Ride” which rewards consumers with points which they can exchange for rewards.

Nothing new about that I guess but what I think is really unique about this programme is that although it allows the member to collect points by entering codes, the codes themselves are not available on the products. Instead the member has to earn points by interacting with the brand or with friends.

Tim Abate, Senior Brand Manager for Huggies is quoted as saying “We want moms to be interacting with our brands as much as they can. They gain valuable information and offers and we can learn from their opinions, [The program is] one of the tools that lets us establish a deeper relationship with moms than we’ve had before.”

This is essentially a Lean Forward Loyalty programme.

I’ve spoken before about Lean Forward Loyalty and how this approach can totally transform a brands loyalty programme and it’s great to see Kimberly-Clark doing this with Huggies.

For those that have missed my previous posts the basics are that programmes now need to engage consumers more to get and keep their attention. They need to enable them to interact and provide reasons for them to do so – essentially to “lean forward” rather than sitting back passively.

This is achieved by creating buzz, creating reasons for people to discuss and interact and to then combine this into the longevity of a loyalty marketing programme that maintains this behaviour and deepens the relationship.

What really interests me about the Huggies programme is that whilst they have combined the interactivity of lean forward media with the longevity of a loyalty programme, they’ve done it without using on-pack codes.

It would seem that they feel that the more they can engage with consumers the more likely the consumer is to go on to buy Huggies.

Not using on-pack codes will obviously mean they cannot track actual purchases to consumers so they won’t necessarily know how many of their members love the brand and love the interaction – but then go on to buy someone else's brand. However what they will be able to track is any overall lift in purchases and the extent to which this campaign contributed to it.

The issue they may have though is maintaining the longevity of the programme once the initial flurry of activity has died down and the consumer has watched the videos, invited friends and scoured the magazines for the codes.

The advantage that on-pack codes bring to a programme like this is creating additional reasons to come back - to interact. On successful Lean Forward schemes like Coke Zone in the UK, this combination of interaction combined with on-pack codes creating reasons to visit is what really makes it work.

They may find it difficult to maintain the interaction without also recognising the transaction

Whilst they have included a daily prize draw for a years supply of nappies, experience would suggest that consumers quickly tune out of prize draws if these don’t change regularly, so this in itself will probably not create that longevity.

However it may not need as much longevity to achieve its results. As Jeff Dawson, VP of the Huggies Brand said “[the] programme is designed to establish a strong relationship with moms as they begin their journey through motherhood – ultimately creating Huggies advocates, and thus loyalty users of Huggies branded products.”

It could well be that this initial interaction with the brand, although short-lived, may be deep enough to develop that relationship and ultimately that trust.

This will really depend on whether in their chase to collect the points, the consumers actually stop and take in the content that they are attached to.

I think it will be interesting to see how this scheme works out as its essentially rewarding the interaction, not the transaction. It’s also working further up the chain in terms of consumer purchases, looking to change behaviours at the interest/desire stage rather than the action stage.

While I think this is a really great idea, ideally they’d be doing both -recognising consumers for getting involved as well as rewarding them for making a purchase – either way, it’s good to see they are trying something different.

Lean Forward Loyalty

Just a few years ago the world was a very passive place.

You could sit and watch television – no fast forwarding of the ads! You could go about your day seeing billboards or press ads – noticing them all but not being required to do anything.

Even in the early days of the internet the web was essentially a passive experience - you could browse websites, maybe even dabble in a little e-commerce, but it really was an undemanding experience. Broadband speeds have reflected this expectation with the download speed typically 4 times as quick as the upload speed – they really weren't expecting you to give information, simply to consume it.

Not any more. The world has changed.

Passive doesn't cut it anymore – everything must be active. It comes in all forms, whether its social networking, instant messenger, twitter, mobile internet, mini-web or any other technology, they all want you to do something – to interact. It's now not good enough to simply watch television – you need to interact with the telly – pressing the red button for more information, back stage interviews or re-runs of the weather.

Steve Jobs told MacWorld in 2004 "We don't think that televisions and personal computers are going to merge. We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on". He may still be right to some degree about the TV and computer actually merging – but what has certainly merged is the activity of people using the TV and computer at the same time. People are in essence making the passive active.

This change has been called "Lean Forward" media, contrasting the passive nature of "lean back" media which didn't really require much from you other than sitting in a chair.

However, it's no coincidence that the top 3 website are lean forward experiences – sites like Facebook, MySpace and Twitter – people like to interact, to integrate and interrogate. As technology allows this more and more then people will take advantage of it in ever greater numbers.

This has implications though for brands.

As consumers increasingly expect a lean forward experience they will expect brands to lead the way. It's not unusual within customer services to have service levels of answering a call in 3 rings, but answering an email in 24 hours – if you even get a response!

To the lean forward generation 24 hours is an eternity.

If a consumer can interact via their many channels (and it's not unusual to find me on email, Skype, twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn within a single hour), you can bet that the longer you take to answer a query the more time they'll have to spread their dissatisfaction.

Lean Forward media works both ways – it provides an active and open channel to both create positive engagement and to fuel negative reaction. Only last week we found a negative tweet about a loyalty programme which linked to a negative blog which had been written 6 weeks ago. Who was checking the blogs for feedback? Who was checking twitter for comments?

It begs the question…. Are you listening?

If you don't make it easy for consumers to talk to you on the channels they want to use, they will simply use those channels to talk to your customers.

The great thing about this shift to Lean Forward media though is that it also provides brands with ways of creating increased engagement and building stronger relationships.

Building relationships and engagement is typically the role of a loyalty programme, but this has previously been a passive experience – apart from the initial enrolment, the interaction tended to centre around a semi-regular statement and an occasionally card swipe. If you were lucky, the really "clever" programmes might notice when you stopped transacting and ping you a DM piece to re-activate you.

Things have moved on.

Programmes now need to engage customers today and continue to engage them tomorrow. Operators are beginning to integrate Lean Forward concepts like social media, allowing feedback between customers to exchange views or rate partners and rewards. The butter company Lurpak has a site entitled "In search of good food" which allows consumers to interact around all things food in the context of the brand. This isn't another "me to" corporate site – pumping out product listings and CSR policies. It's an attempt to create an interaction between their customers and potential customers – facilitated by the brand.

Brands also realise they need to create a buzz, a reason to discuss and interact. Walkers Crisps have been doing this very successfully over the last year or so. Beginning with their Brit Trips promotion which created an opportunity for customers to register, log on-pack codes and redeem for days out. They then seamlessly moved on to their "Do us a flavour" promotion which asked customers to interact online to recommend new flavours - with the winner getting a percentage of any subsequent sales. Moving the interaction from online to offline they have gone on to manufacture the 6 finalist flavours which you can now buy in-store. Back from offline to online you can vote for your favourite flavour – via mobile web, SMS, web, Facebook or email – almost all the channels covered!

This Lean Forward approach to loyalty sets apart the active brands from the passive.

At Carlson Marketing we are wrapping the interactivity of lean forward media into the longevity of loyalty marketing - allowing brands to start creating truly engaging and exciting programmes – essentially creating Lean Forward Loyalty.