“Set the snowball effect in motion!” read the headline of a recent retail email I received–specifically, from Smith Micro Software. Snowball, indeed. The offer was for a graphics package called Anime Studio, and I was encouraged to share the deal (and the email) with friends. If 100 people accepted the offer, each would get one bonus gift with the purchase. If 300 accepted, two bonus gifts. If 500 accepted, three bonus gifts for all purchasers.
This is an effort incenting word-of-mouth, certainly, but it’s also a pointer to a trend that COLLOQUY has been discussing for a while now, most recently at our 2010 Loyalty Summit and at this month’s Cards & Payments Loyalty Conference in Orlando. Smith Micro is demonstrating what we’re calling “The New Marketing Reality.” COLLOQUY’s Kelly Hlavinka phrased it in her Summit presentation “Loyalty in 2030: The Changing Face of Consumers & How It Will Define Loyalty” this way: “The new reality in the world of marketing will be the growth of consumer power – which will expand and multiply to the power of 10…. We must prepare for a time when a critical mass of our customers may set the terms of engagement. If you want my time and attention, they will insist, this is what it’s going to take for you to break through.”
The snowball is rolling toward 2030, and Smith Micro just gave it a healthy, forward-looking push.
(Warch for COLLOQUY’s next issue–Volume 18, Issue 5–for fuller examination for loyalty trends we may see in the next couple of decades.)
