Yeo Valley turns to mobile coupons to grow appeal

Yeo Valley is to ramp up the use of mobile couponing in its marketing activity and use the data gleaned from the tool to better target younger consumers.

YeoValley-Campaign-2013
Yeo Valley is hoping insights from its mobile couponing activity can help it to create more targeted promotions.

The organic food business is turning to mobile to accelerate a shift away from using coupons purely to drive retail footfall to strategies designed to develop longer-term relationships with shoppers. It is using insights gleaned from its partnership with online platform Shopitize to create schemes that use targeted discounts and other incentives to build loyalty.

Matthew Falk, retail marketing manager at Yeo Valley says the initiative allows it to target “savvy” shoppers who are using their smartphones more frequently, but do not currently buy the brand. The business aims to use coupons to “tempt” consumers to try its products.

Falk adds: ”We can offer these shoppers great deals to drive trial and disrupt their normal shopping behaviour in the hope that they will love our products and continue buying them. [This] is an opportunity to get fast and actionable shopper insight that we can then use going forward as mobile shopping and couponing becomes more & more mainstream.

With consumer interest growing rapidly and mobile couponing becoming easier to implement, several brands are looking to exploit the discipline while it is still in its infancy. Kellogg’s, United Biscuits and General Mills have all made investments in the area in recent months, although efforts have been hampered somewhat by supermarkets’ reluctance to accept mobile coupons in-store.

Yeo Valley’s coupon plans are part of wider push to use mobile to broaden its appeal. The brand stepped up efforts to target consumers three years ago when it launched its much lauded Yeo Valley Rap campaign.

Falk adds: “Using mobile as part of the marketing mix is more important than ever with more and more shoppers using it as their main device. The online shopper tends to be more loyal and also more valuable as they have a higher basket spend so it is key we engage with these shoppers and ensure we are visible to them.”

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