Bill Hanifin
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Orange Juice has been on my breakfast menu for as long as I remember. Linus Pauling shined the original spotlight on OJ as he asserted the benefits of Vitamin C to cure the common cold and retard the impact of certain forms of cancer.
Since then, there has been great debate about Pauling’s claims and the fruit juice has survived public relation storms from Anita Bryant to OJ Simpson. Nonetheless, we’re still enjoying OJ in our home and I just noticed the other day that Tropicana was promoting Juicy Rewards on its cartons.
The biggest challenge for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies is to understand who is buying their product. Sure, they understand market share through reporting services and can track sales through various distribution outlets, but connecting with individual consumers is a highly problematic chore.
The messaging on the carton caught my eye:
- “Click, Save, Enjoy”
- “Collect points online for healthy savings on healthy fun”
- “Thousands of rewards nationwide – log on to find the ones near you!”
In a labor of loyalty love, I visited Tropicana.com and arrived at the Juicy Rewards landing page. My initial curiosity was held by two messages:
- “20,000 ways to save on everything from golf and workout gear to water parks and zoo admission”
- “One carton saves you up to $15, three can save you up to $45”.
With the average price of a 56oz. carton of OJ in my area around $3.50, Tropicana creates the perception of a huge return, dwarfing the usual 1-3% funding rate for rewards these days.
As soon as I completed my enrollment, I was asked to participate in a brief 4 question survey. Well designed, I was asked:
- Which rewards categories most interest you?
- We’d love to get to know you better. So clue us in by sharing your interests.
- Think back on your most recent orange juice purchases. Ahhh … a fond memory, we’re sure! We’d like to know how often you buy Tropicana.
- Are there children in your household? [this does not include the neighbor kid who just snuck in!]
These questions were cleverly designed and not overly intrusive. The entire customer experience was moving along without a hitch until I had to spend about 15 minutes locating and entering the correct on-carton codes to get my credits for future discounts. In the process, I discovered that the program was product specific as the Grapefruit Juice we had in the fridge didn’t qualify.
The labor intensive and menial nature of code entering is the achilles heel of CPG rewards programs and there surely must be a better way to solve this painful aspect of program execution.
Overall, Tropicana’s approach is well executed and the messaging supports its product branding. Among the reward options available, members can donate points to “Rescue the Rainforest”. We are told that on the website that “Each point donated to help Rescue the Rainforest saves 33 1/3 sq. ft. of rainforest.” I don’t have any idea how the calculation is made and it is not explained on the website, but it feels right nonetheless.
Sometimes, rewards are all about perception. The Juicy Rewards loyalty program delivers a top-line message of value and capably solves the issue of customer engagement. Digging deeper, consumers will realize that the program is all about discounts, so nothing is “really” earned until the member decides to spend more money with one of the partners involved.
Still, the partner list is wide ranging, includes many top brands, and are localized and searchable by zip code. If drinking our morning OJ can result in a 10% discount off a visit to MassageEnvy, it just might be worth the time taken to enter those codes.
I wonder what Anita Bryant would say about that?
