As a leader in the movie industry, Regal Cinemas is constantly on the lookout for ways to maintain and innovate its competitive edge. And like other innovative brands, Regal understands that establishing genuine customer relationships through personalized experiences is key to building brand loyalty. For Regal, this forms a central aspect of its customer engagement strategy, but this strategy also goes so much deeper.
Beyond just building customer loyalty, Regal is also seeking to nurture an emotional connection with customers. And in an entertainment industry that is facing stern competition from an array of digitally disruptive forces, this is more important than ever.
The brand’s loyalty program, the Regal Crown Club, has become a key differentiator in this respect, and its recent renovation speaks to Regal’s commitment to customer loyalty as a top priority.
Up until very recently, this loyalty program took a more “passive” approach to customer engagement, and simply rewarded customers with free soda and popcorn without actually taking any individual customer preferences into consideration. However, because of the growing importance of individualized customer engagement, and the new advancements in technology that now make personalization possible, Regal knew it had the opportunity to leverage data and analytical insights to truly connect with customers.
“The Regal Crown Club loyalty program is the key tool we have to differentiate our brand in the movie theatre industry, an industry that has historically had little differentiation,” Ken Thewes, Chief Marketing Officer at Regal Entertainment Group, told Loyalty360. “While our program has been around for 15 years, we saw an opportunity to improve the experience and personalize it. With the new Regal Crown Club, we are providing added value, more choice and precision targeting of offers and information that are most relevant to our members.”
Simply put, Regal has made a tremendous effort to develop a program that connects with movie fans by giving them the rewards and experiences that they really want.
At this year’s Loyalty Expo in Orlando, Florida, Thewes will host a session, which will share this story. During the presentation titled, “How to Connect Customers to Your Brand,” Thewes will detail how Regal reinvigorated and relaunched a loyalty initiative that has since become the largest such program in the industry.
Marketers that attend this session will also learn how loyalty program data should be utilized for effective personalization, the best practices for revising or updating a program without alienating valuable customers, how new technology can create unique promotions to spark customer emotions and more.
Regardless of industry, those brands and marketers looking to create the biggest impact with their customer should not miss this session.
About the Author: Mark Johnson
Mark is CEO & CMO of Loyalty360. He has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/CRM programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs.