Constant advances in mobile technology have drastically changed the way that consumers interact with brands. It is no surprise that consumer engagement helps drive more sales and increase average revenue per user. Smartphones and QR codes are ubiquitous, and the majority of consumers are familiar with scanning codes. Studies show that customers who are fully engaged with a brand represent an average 23% premium in terms of share of wallet, profitability, revenue, and relationship growth compared to the average consumer. Consumer engagement now takes one step further, and can be incorporated into an anti-counterfeiting program.
Consumer engagement programs add tremendous value to a brand’s authentication program, specifically those in the licensing industry where a global market exists. Entertainment and sports brands are great examples of this. Character brands and sports teams can engage with fans and provide them with rewards, all while gaining valuable data. For example, a consumer could scan or enter a product’s hologram code on a designated website and build points or credits that they can use to obtain music, games, videos or other valuable benefits from the brand owner.
In the process of engaging consumers in this way, the brand owner now has an opportunity to learn more about what products consumers purchased, where they bought them, what they like or dislike, where they live, what their preferences are, who their favorite celebrities are, and what they are looking for next, etc. This enables the brand to better understand their actual consumers and fans, and what motivates them.
One very powerful approach for driving consumer engagement is to connect your product labels to rewards programs and sweepstakes opportunities that consumers can enter by using their product’s unique serial number. There are numerous opportunities for enhancing brand visibility and consumer engagement.
When consumers scan codes found on the product, the brand owner can match those codes against its own database to determine whether a product was sold where it was expected to be sold, and this information can be very useful tracking down channels distributing unlicensed, gray market or counterfeit products.
As the brand discovers where its consumers are buying its licensed products, the brand can then determine where it may want to focus more of its marketing and advertising dollars for future campaigns and products.
The marketing information that results from these relationships with consumers is nearly priceless, and it is doubly remarkable that this information can be generated out of a licensing arrangement that is itself producing direct revenue for the brand.
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