Marketing Communications

CASE 13 453

Step 1: Database

It was first of all necessary to contact only the right

consumers. Therefore, Lotus Bakeries installed an ongoing

selection of all identified consumers in its database to filter

out those consumers who had not interacted with the

company over the past two years. This meant that if a

consumer did not interact with Lotus Bakeries, for example

by using a coupon from a direct mailing sent to them, or

by participating in a contest or submitting a savings card

during the preceding two years, then this consumer was

characterised as ‘non-active’ and would no longer receive

any direct mail. Tequila, the CRM advisory agency of Lotus

Bakeries, developed an additional database cell (which

meanwhile has developed into a separate company, SPICE),

to be able to better identify customers and link their

redemption history. SPICE enables Lotus Bakeries to

regularly measure and analyse the impact of CRM actions.

It also allows the company to keep track of its customers’

history, preferences and participation in the different direct

marketing actions.

Step 2: Content and tone of voice of the CRM

programme

The new CRM platform also entailed a clear choice to pro-

vide less product information. Lotus Bakeries purposefully

evolved from a product-centric to a consumer-centric

company in order to better reflect its brand essence and to

create more intense brand experiences. This approach paid

off. Consumers started to read the contents of the magazine

more thoroughly, which enabled them to develop a stronger

bond with Lotus.

Step 3: Coupons

Personalised coupons were added to each direct mailing to

encourage consumers to try out new or other Lotus Bakeries’

products and to get a deeper penetration in each of its pro-

duct categories. By means of highlighting specific products

not only in the editorial, but also by means of coupons,

Lotus Bakeries hoped in the long term to stimulate families

to use the coupons in order to keep the brand top-of-mind

and especially to boost short-term sales.

Step 4: Extension to online media

To bring the company more in line with the growing import-

ance of digitisation, the corporate website was addressed

in 2009. Besides a pure corporate website featuring facts

and figures such as the annual report and the company’s

stock price, a separate consumer website was developed

which allowed interactivity and enhanced consumers’ brand

experience. The consumer website contains, for example,

a recipes module where consumers can suggest ideas for

starters, main courses and desserts for which Lotus Bakeries’

products are used as an ingredient. Further, online contests

running jointly with offline CRM contact moments and an

archive of all mini consumer magazines deliver a strong brand

experience and give consumers a reason to visit the site.

This way, also in the absence of an extra recruitment campaign,

traffic to the site is high. This classic CRM approach worked

very well: within the active group of 300 000 families, the

number of coupon users showed a growth of 500% while

the redemption rate almost doubled.

Applying e-CRM: LotusFriends

After three years of classic CRM, Lotus Bakeries took up the

next challenge: How to improve even further? Lotus Bakeries

wanted to rejuvenate and energise the brand to be able

continuously to attract new customers. Therefore, Lotus

Bakeries decided to take into account the current media

consumption behaviour of consumers. Realising that the

media behaviour of consumers was shifting to the online

world, the company changed its approach drastically. Lotus

Bakeries wanted to follow its customers in the online world

in order to communicate with them on a more frequent

basis and in a more interactive way. To this end, in 2010 the

company launched ‘LotusFriends’ (in Dutch, ‘LotusVrienden’;

and in French, ‘LesAmisLotus’), an online platform based on

two pillars: ‘taste goodies’ and ‘share pleasures’ (in Dutch,

‘lekkers proeven’ and ‘leuks delen’; and in French, ‘goûtez à

nos délices’ and ‘partagez les plaisirs’) (see Photo 13.2).

This platform was again based on the fact that the company

wanted to enhance brand bonding as well as to stimulate

cross-selling.

Lotus Bakeries had the postal addresses of 300 000

families, but unfortunately close to zero e-mail addresses.

Therefore, the company set a target of collecting 100 000

e-mail addresses from the active Lotus families in its data-

base by the end of 2011. Lotus Bakeries sent out a final

mailing. The mailing consisted of a movers box containing

the request to visit Lotus on the LotusFriends website and

providing two reasons to comply with this request: (1) a

coupon that could be downloaded online; and (2) a contest

to win a trip to New York by guessing how many of the

consumer’s Facebook friends dips their caramelised biscuit

in their coffee. After a single month (and not at the end of

the year), the company met its target of 100 000 e-mail

addresses. All these people became LotusFriends and

several indicated how often they used products from

Lotus Bakeries and from its competitors. This was perfect

information to start a segmented e-coupon approach via

the new LotusFriends platform.

LotusFriends is conceptualised as an interactive plat-

form with a clear focus on the consumer and his or her opinion.

Consumers can download coupons, every month, to dis-

cover new products and provide honest feedback. But Lotus

Bakeries goes a step further than merely asking for scoring

of its products. LotusFriends actually involves consumers

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