Building Loyalty & Sales with Droid Brand

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Category: B2C

Type: Loyalty Program

Channel: Digital, Email, Direct Mail, eCommerce

Industry: Technology

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Challenge

 

Verizon licensed the Droid brand name from Lucasfilm in Q3 2009 and launched its first Droid phone in November 2009. Verizon established the brand to better compete with AT&T’s exclusive iPhone agreement which ran through June 2010. Verizon sought to differentiate its large line-up of Android OS smartphones from the competition since HTC, Motorola and Samsung were also supplying Android OS phones to competing carriers.

 

By Q2 2011, Verizon had nearly 6 million Droid owners, the vast majority of these were first-time smartphone users. In anticipation of migrating to a new pricing model based on metered data usage (old plan was based on metered voice usage with unlimited data), we wanted to encourage customers to realize the full potential of their smartphone through the use of apps and accessories. This would in turn increase revenue for Verizon. In particular, smartphone accessories had up to a 90% margin and represented an enormous revenue opportunity. 

 

Solution

 

We worked with our partner Pace Communications to develop a quarterly Droid magazine and Droid online shopping portal. The magazine launched in summer 2011 and had a lifestyle feel with educational content featuring ways to use apps with your smart phone. We provided comprehensive reviews of exclusive apps for Verizon customers. We featured how to use apps for travel, health, gaming, and work. Additionally, the magazine featured many new accessories such as Bluetooth speakers, headsets, projectors, cases, mounts and more. Since many of the early Droid customers were coming up for contract renewal, we showcased the newest Droid devices to inspire them to upgrade in the near future. 

 

To encourage high-margin purchases, we provided a compelling offer: 25% off two or more accessories or 10% off a single accessory found in the magazine.

 

Result

 

Verizon experienced more than a 20% lift in Droid accessory sales as well as a 12% lift in new Droid smartphone purchases.