Saturday Star

P n P are pick of the bunch

- BRENDAN SEERY

I WAS having an interestin­g conversati­on with senior people at First National Bank (FNB) about the success of their e-Bucks customer loyalty system, which is by far the biggest in the country.

There are about 4 million FNB customers using it and apparently (I say apparently because I am not an FNB user myself) consumers have made it part of their lives – and part of their budgeting.

This is quite a contrast to “loyalty” programmes like Avios from British Airways and South African Airways’ Voyager, which only seem to generate negative feedback from their users… again I say seem because I am not a member of either scheme.

Loyalty is not something which enters my head, in reality. I do get, I suppose, some Greenbacks from time to time through Nedbank but, because the bulk of finances are handled through my wife and her account (which has been Greenbacks-enabled) it seldom pops up on my radar.

A year or so ago, the local Spar was offering a special offer on kitchen knives but I worked out what you would actually have to spend (multiple thousands to get a utensil worth just over R400) that I quickly chucked away the coupons and card.

However, some time ago, my wife joined Pick n Pay’s customer loyalty programme (no, I don’t do shopping – so sue me for not being a Snag – Sensitive New Age Guy).

And a couple of times a year she has earned enough points to pay for the regular grocer shop. And that is a very real, monetary benefit. You spend with P n P, you get something back.

So, guess what? P n P is where our grocery money goes (the bulk of it, anyway).

It’s been around a while now, but for something which is great marketing, you get an Orchid from me, Pick n Pay. And thanks… Years ago, when the kids were small, we went looking for a new car. Toyota had just launched the Tazz and it was just the ticket for our young family. I will never forget popping in to Darrenwood Toyota in Joburg to see if we could look at one or take away a brochure. The salesman did not even move his butt out of his chair: “We’ve run out of brochures!” he screamed across the showroom floor.

Really? Ten minutes later we were sitting in Imperial Toyota with a charming salesman who offered us tea and biscuits – and took our order. Needless to say, we’ve never darkened the door of Darrenwood Toyota again and I hope Imperial Randburg benefited from our small bit of business…

These days, of course, brochures are playing less and less of a role in research for new-car buyers. Everything is – or should be – up on the internet.

You’d be surprised how many motor manufactur­ers have sloppy websites, incorrect pictures, incorrect available colours, even incorrect specificat­ions and prices. And – that applies to a number of them, so I won’t go into detail.

Frankly, I wasn’t expecting much when I went on to www.toyota.co.za to do some research on a test vehicle I had.

But – what a revelation! It was clearly and concisely laid out, pictures were correct, prices were also correct and the site was a pleasure to navigate. If you can please a cynical hack like me, Toyota, then doubtless you are making the process of buying your cars much easier for your customers.

And that is good marketing – so you get Orchid Number Two. Pay attention the rest of you out there.

Sometimes you can have such a clever marketing tagline that when you get something wrong it bites you in the rear end.

Such is the case with a company called Colony, a data company which boasts this motto: Turning interactio­n into intelligen­ce.

The problem is that, in the list of its rates, it twice uses the word “umlimited”…

Did no one check this, which is actually your shop window? Um… no.

Would I worry about the intelligen­ce of a company which didn’t choose its words as carefully as its data? Um…yes. Chances of me using it: Um… limited. An Onion to you people at Colony and as my clever friend, who pointed this out to me, said: “They need to get an editor for their site…”

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