Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

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Nearly Half of Holiday Spending Led by Loyalty

The study, which surveyed 1,000 American consumers, found holiday gift budgets are up over 2013 at US$770, with generosity being lowest for pets and bosses at US$10 each. With only 50% of consumers planning to stick to their budget, there's lots of opportunity for brands to influence customers and to increase share of wallet.

"Less than one-third of consumers think customer service is better during the holidays," said Rob Daniel, EVP for Bond Brand Loyalty. "This represents a great opportunity for brands to invest in unique differentiators such as VIP shopping events, gift wrapping, valet parking and loyalty member privileges."

Among the study's main findings:

1. Brand loyalty plays an important role in shopping decisions:
   • 66% of consumers will shop at their favourite retailers;
   • 44% buy their favourite brands as gifts for others;
   • 42% use loyalty points to fund their shopping;
   • 41% choose retailers and brands where they can earn points.
2. Holiday shopping is not necessarily a social event, as almost 60% of Americans do not view holiday shopping as a time to connect and bond with friends or family.
3. How much are they spending and when?
   • 68% of consumers will shop on Black Friday and/or Cyber Monday, and will spend 45% of their holiday budget during these two days;
   • US$770 is the average gift budget, with men spending US$815 and women US$735; Men will spend US$78 on themselves and women US$50;
   • Pets and bosses are not the beneficiaries of holiday generosity - they are at the bottom of people's holiday budgets, at US$10 each;
   • 17% of consumers will re-gift this year, the highest being millennials at 27%;
   • Only 50% of Americans stick to their holiday budget;
   • 24% shop all year for gifts, 38% shop in the last month, and 7% in the last week.
4. The impact of the online channel is significant:
   • 53% of holiday shopping is done in-store, 29% shop online (desktop/laptop), and 7% shop on mobile or tablet;
   • Research on purchases is being conducted almost equally in-store (57%) and online (54%);
   • Advice from friends and family ties with Google searches at 44%. Research using flyers is next at 27%, followed by television at 26%, social media at 25% and magazines at 18%.

"This study highlights the importance of building meaningful engagement and experiences with digitally empowered customers", concluded Bob Macdonald, president and CEO for Bond Brand Loyalty. "Brands that deliver a differentiated and consistent shopping experience across all channels will not only come out on top this season, they will build trust, advocacy and long-lasting brand loyalty for months and years to come."

Have you seen The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook?

This comprehensive and practical guide to the latest ideas in customer-focused marketing hands you over 200 packed pages of strategy, best practices, do's and don'ts, practical know-how, facts and figures, and ideas to optimise your marketing strategy, boost sales, market share, increase ROI and profit.

Learn the insider's tricks and techniques to turn every customers into a 'super spreader' for your brand. It's better than free advertising. Once you start this ball rolling, your brand can grow rapidly through word-of-mouth, advocacy, influencers, and customer loyalty. Super-charge your company's marketing strategy, build up your market share, and make more sales through repeat business and customer loyalty.

Find out what works - and what doesn't - and who's succeeded, and how they did it. See how the world's top brands keep their competitive edge against all odds.

The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook walks you step-by-step through the techniques, metrics, reporting, analysis, marketing models, technologies, tools and innovations for successful marketing strategies - both traditional and emerging - with expert guidance from thought leaders in every major market. Find out the best ways to gather, analyse, and act on customer data to increase profitability, build your brand, empower your customers, beat the competition, reduce churn, and increase customer profitability. This is a marketing book you simply can't afford to be without.

This book aims to hand you all the facts, figures and research data you need for the best decisions for a more profitable, more engaging marketing strategy. It also highlights all the facts, forecasts and trends identified by our experts from the global Marketing Factbook's vast database of market data, news, studies, research and articles, and presents you with an invaluable library of ideas and practical support you can call upon at will.

With The Customer-Focused Marketing Playbook at your side, you'll have instant access to a true goldmine of easily adaptable and up-to-date strategies, walk-throughs, trends, research and market data, plus all the supporting arguments you need to build a solid, profitable marketing strategy.

Get it on Amazon (Kindle/Print)