As the retail industry marketing teams align their battalions for the high-stakes shopping events of Black Friday (USA) and Buen Fin (México), brands must look beyond mere sales figures to achieve long-term success.

Come, sit down, let's explore four strategic approaches that can support your actions for a stronger brand performance, build and develop loyalty, spread awareness far and wide, and open the doors to new market segments.

1. Building Brand Loyalty

Fact is that, during the last five years, and more precisely during the last two, there's a trend where customer retention has come to be as crucial as acquisition, moving us to take action on building brand loyalty as the main focus, and reducing our performance marketing activities due to multiple legislation that comes from local, national, and international trade agreements or commerce policies.

Loyalty programs are the foundation to boost awareness and customer LTV, a proven method to keep customers engaged and returning. Along with limiting brands to any type of negative impacts that arise with third-party dependency. That's why companies are starting to remove the dust from their loyalty programs to offer exclusive deals or early access to sales for loyalty program members, with the aim to create a sense of exclusivity and appreciation.

It's no secret that communities are back in a moment when brands objectives are focused on creating a sense of belonging towards 2030, with FIFA World Cup and Olympics taking place in North America and being two key events for brands in every sector: from CPG to airlines to telcos. So, brands have two years to define and cement their communities and loyalty programs.

The reason for communities is clear: personalization.

Personalized marketing is a powerful tool to push (focused on previously detected needs) specific offers and communications based on customer preferences and past purchases. This way customers feel valued but also motivated to repeated purchase events. According to Accenture, 57% of consumers spend more on brands to which they are loyal. This highlights the importance of investing in strategies that have loyalty at its core, with the final objective to enhance lifetime value from each customer.

2. Enhancing Brand Awareness

You can't foresee (build for) the future if you are not considering brand awareness with a long-term growth objective. Content marketing plays a pivotal role to success on this matter. Lead your team to create engaging content that highlights the brand’s values, stories, and unique selling propositions to build a stronger brand identity. Remember that content marketing generates over three times as many leads as outbound marketing and costs 62% less, according to Demand Metric.

Social media campaigns are equally effective. Leveraging platforms like Instagram, Pinterest and Twitter to run interactive campaigns, such as contests or challenges, can significantly increase brand visibility and engagement. For instance, during Black Friday, brands can launch hashtag campaigns that encourage user-generated content, amplifying their reach and creating a buzz around their products. Just don't forget: the best results come from content focused to educate, inform and attract customers without a "just selling" mindset.

This value-driven content (educate, inform, create habits) ensure our campaigns generate awareness and not just noise. Consider educational posts, behind-the-scenes looks, and customer testimonials that provide genuine insights and build trust (remember Blockchain Marketing is starting to trend without the use of dApps, tokens, NFTs and any platform, but to be transparent in your operations). If you are going to contract influencer services, beware of the current trend suggesting otherwise. Collaborating with influencers who align with the brand’s values, however, can help reach a broader audience in an authentic way. For example, a beauty brand might partner with a well-known makeup artist to create tutorials using their products, so that the brand is showcased when providing value, with the long-term result of brand visibility increase.

3. Entering New Market Segments

Sometimes brands try to expand their target segments in a local market or entering new markets in other state or country, which can be a game-changer for brands. One effective strategy is product bundling, which showcases different uses of products and attracts new customer segments. For example, a tech company might bundle a laptop with software subscriptions (this is a real practice that you can see when buying a new laptop and an Office 365 30 days trial is preinstalled), appealing to both students and professionals.

Collaborations and co-marketing campaigns with other brands can also open new avenues. When brands from different verticals or complementary horizons join forces, they can tap into each other’s customer bases and create a more compelling value proposition. According to McKinsey, companies that use advanced personalization see a 20% increase in sales. Real-world examples include the collaboration between Nike and Apple, where they co-created the Nike+ product line, seamlessly integrating fitness tracking with athletic wear. And there is a very recent one: Sony Corporation and Honda Motor Co to manufacture and launch a new EV car under the name Afeela. Such alliances not only boost brand awareness but also drive cross-industry innovation.

4. Enhancing Customer Experience

What concerns brands today is offering a user experience that aligns with the expectations of the product or service being offered. We are all aware of the complaints about financial services, banking, internet connectivity, streaming, and even sewage systems that are abundant on social media.

This is what brands can expect, especially during high-traffic periods like Black Friday and Buen Fin, when customers expect to receive or find expedited delivery, service, or sales processes.

Providing good customer service during limited-time shopping periods like these creates a favorable long-term impression, which fosters repeat purchases and word-of-mouth recommendations.

Here, omnichannel experience ensures that customers have a seamless shopping experience across online and offline channels. This includes synchronized inventory, consistent pricing, and a unified customer service approach. Brands like Sephora excel in this area, offering a seamless transition between their online store and physical locations, enhancing customer satisfaction and loyalty.

However, implementing an omnichannel strategy comes with its own set of challenges. Increased complexity is a significant hurdle, as it requires integrating various systems and processes to ensure a cohesive customer experience. This can involve substantial higher costs related to technology investments, staff training, and maintaining consistent service levels across all channels. Additionally, managing data from multiple touchpoints can be daunting, forcing brands to create, rent or hire robust data analytics capabilities to get actionable insights.

Despite these challenges, the benefits of a well-executed omnichannel strategy are substantial. Increased customer loyalty is one of the primary advantages, as customers appreciate the convenience and consistency of a seamless shopping experience. This loyalty often translates into higher volume sales, as satisfied customers are more likely to repeat purchases and recommend the brand to others. A big advantage is that an omnichannel approach can provide valuable data on customer behavior, enabling brands to adapt their marketing efforts more effectively and improve overall business performance.

Keep in mind that a current trend shows that customers increasingly prefer to “talk to a human” rather than interact with bots or AI assistants to get a solution for problems they face with products or the buying process. This preference has its origin on the frustrations with poorly designed automated systems. Often, these systems suffer from bad coding, a poorly conceived chain of strings, or limited algorithms that fail to understand complex queries or provide satisfactory solutions. When customers encounter these issues, it can lead to a negative experience, reinforcing their desire for human interaction.

Addressing this issue requires a dual approach: improving the AI systems and ensuring human support is readily available. Enhancing AI with better natural language processing and more sophisticated algorithms can reduce errors and improve user satisfaction. Additionally, providing a clear and easy path to human support when needed can help balance efficiency with the personal touch that customers desire or expect to receive.

-----

You now have a new vision to know how to approach the yearly events of Black Friday (in the USA) and Buen Fin (in México). Why to talk about events from different countries? Because, in the real life of these modern days, any customer from the USA or México can buy a product from each side of the border... even from Canada: the USMCA commercial treaty benefits.