Almost every department store, hotel or restaurant now has a loyalty card. These help establishment owners collate information on the buying habits of cardholders. It also allows them to come up with store promotions according to the preferences of majority of the members.
“That’s what sets us apart from the others,” said Jay Soliman, Watsons CRM controller. Each Watsons card, priced at P100, has features designed to appeal to new and longtime customers of Asia’s leading health and beauty retailer.
“Based on feedback, we learned that our shoppers like to watch movies,” said Viki Encarnacion, Watsons customer director. “We decided to formally launch the card to coincide with the regular run of the much-anticipated Hollywood movie, ‘Captain Marvel.’”
Last weekend, Watsons hosted block screenings of the movie at seven SM cinemas nationwide for 1,800 cardholders and one companion.
“This is one of the card’s newest features: access to member events. We contacted cardholders with the highest transactions, and asked if they wanted to watch the movie,” Soliman said.
Like other loyalty cards, the Watsons card has several tiers. The movie screening was offered to those with the highest accumulated transactions.
Cruise?
“These block screenings are just the start of other events we are looking at. We’re hoping that by September or October, when we mark the first anniversary of the Watsons card, we can bring cardholders on an actual cruise,” he said.
Watsons’ catchphrase is “Members Get More.” Aside from such access, cardholders are guaranteed lifetime membership with no renewal fees.
They earn one point (equivalent to P1) for every P200 spent and twice the number of points when they purchase Watsons-branded products, ranging from personal care (shampoos, body washes, lotions) to generic medicines.
Cardholders also get five times the points on the first transaction on their birthday month. These points can be used to purchase products or can be combined with cash.
“We also offer exclusive discounts to cardholders,” Soliman said, pointing out an Omron blood pressure monitor with a regular price of P3,480.
“If you buy it at the store but don’t have a Watsons card, it will cost P2,958, but if you’re a cardholder, it goes down to P2,784 so you really get more savings.”
Soliman added that they didn’t have a hard time convincing shoppers to pay the one-time fee of P100. “The common response we’ve been getting from customers is, ‘I can easily get back that amount since there are so many items on discount.’”
