Rossignol launches first loyalty programme
French skiwear and accessories brand Rossignol is launching its first loyalty programme as it looks to reward its top customers and emphasise its “premium status”.
Le Club Rossignol will allow customers to collect points via an app, through ecommerce registration or with a loyalty card as they spend, to become bronze, silver, gold and platinum level rewards, such as vouchers or invites to participate in top global skiing events.
Rossignol has also just launched an app called Ski Pursuit, which allows skiers to track their speed, duration, distance, ascent and descent on the slopes and share their activity with friends.
Speaking to Marketing Week at Dreamforce in San Francisco, Rossignol vice president of marketing Sylvain Noailly said about two thirds of the brand’s marketing budget is being devoted to digital next year as it looks to dial up the consumer-facing side of its business over its more traditional b2b side.
He said digital will also help highlight the social side of skiing as well as its premium values, which it hopes will appeal to its “more classic” demographic, who love “elegance”.
In the mid noughties, Rossignol went through a “difficult time”, Noailly, explained. At the time the company was owned by Quiksilver, which had tried to move the Rossignol brand more into the lifestyle market, but Noailly said the decision resulted in a 30 per cent increase in revenue.
In 2010, two years after Quiksilver sold the business for $140m, Rossignol reverted back to focusing on the “super high end”. Since then annual revenue has increased by between 20 and 25 per cent each year.
Noailly said: “Our brand has been around for 160 years and it is in our DNA to create premium quality products. When a brand is being itself, it has a greater chance of success. Look at where Burberry was [in the noughties] and where it is now under its new CEO.”
