How THUN Created A Best-In-Class Loyalty Program For Its Customers

Summary: THUN has 900,000 active members in their loyalty program and sees a 60% higher ticket size (€40 vs. €25) from members compared to non-members. And, their loyalty program was launched in just 5 months!

A Little Background

For 70 years THUN has been “bringing joy to its customers” with iconic ceramics, furniture and gifts. From crockery to coffee pots, toothbrush holders to tablecloths, diffusers to decorative objects, THUN is much more than a retailer, with every brick-and-mortar store an ambush on all five senses, fulfilling its mission to bring happiness and warmth to its many customers.

Today, this once small business fairy tale is an international enterprise with a yearly turnover of €82 million and more than 1,000 stores worldwide. With its long legacy of distinguished craftsmanship, THUN’s creations are gifts of affection.

1,000 stores worldwide

€82M annual revenue

1.1M Facebook followers

The Challenge

For generations, shoppers visited retail stores at the local mall, chatted to expert sales teams, and made considered decisions based on the trusted advice they were given. This has all changed.

Today shoppers browse in-store, only to purchase cheaper online. They expect one-click checkout, next day delivery, all complemented by free returns. They take advice from peers on social media ahead of any staff or celebrity endorsements.

As consumers choose clicks over bricks and the Covid-19 pandemic reinforces the growth trajectory of eCommerce, however special one’s product line, retail brands like THUN recognise they need to build a digital relationship with its customers.

As customers engage with a brand on several touchpoints the challenge for retailers like THUN is turning an unknown customer into a known in the database, and harmonizing all data in a single, unified record.

Although THUN has already achieved the honor of being a “love brand” with its loyal customers, it wanted to develop a loyalty program that was a differentiator – going beyond points-win-prizes and deepening customer loyalty and engagement even further.

Enter Cheetah Digital and its suite of tools that enable leading brands to collect opt-ins and preference data at scale and engender more meaningful digital relationships with consumers that eclipse traditional transaction and purchase activities programs and engage customers with content, activities, and interactions to expand memberships, increase sales, and build lasting and fruitful emotional loyalty.

“Data-driven organizations are 23 times more likely to acquire customers, 6 times as likely to retain customers, and 19 times as likely to be profitable as a result.”

McKinsey Global Institute

The Brief

THUN approached Cheetah Digital to reward its loyal customers and create an owned digital personalized communication channel, rather than relying on the walled gardens – imperatively THUN wanted to understand its customers through more than just transactions.

Concurrently,THUN demanded a centralized database of all its customer data that was accessible and actionable.

63% of marketers can’t assemble unified customer data

The Solution: A Two-pronged Approach

To turn insights into action, harmonize all customer data in a single, unified view and engender lasting loyalty, THUN leveraged the Cheetah Digital Engagement Data Platform and Cheetah Loyalty.

Cheetah Loyalty

Cheetah Loyalty empowered THUN to optimize its digital, social, mobile, and physical channels to deliver a better consumer experience, and offer a next-generation emotional loyalty program that recognizes, rewards, and engages consumers in a personalized manner.

The team launched the new THUN Loyalty Program within just five months, including everything from strategy and program development, to data migration and system integration, to customer experience and design.

The THUN Loyalty Program goes beyond a freebie on your tenth purchase and encompasses a seven-tier system, each with different and growing “one shot” benefits to motivate customers to quickly reach the top level. Consumers are rewarded for purchases, social engagement, and digital interactions, earning one point for every euro spent or earning additional points through digital and social interactions like content sharing.

The program can deliver intelligent offers making every customer feel like they have a one-to-one relationship with the brand and are not purely part of a large cohort. With Cheetah’s expertise, THUN has moved from the theoretical to the practical – quickly collecting and then activating customer loyalty data and is able to deliver contextually relevant, highly personalized offers to the customer.

The machine learning module combined with the personalization layer of Cheetah Loyalty means THUN can tailor interactions with its consumers and share personalized promotions, instant offers, and relevant content. The brand can also segment its consumer data and target marketing campaigns specifically to acquire new

Engagement Data Platform

The changes in the buying journey from linear to multichannel have sparked a need for brands to better understand their customers’ behaviors, past histories and what action they will take in the future. THUN understands this and harnesses the power of the Engagement Data Platform (EDP), to meet this need by enabling an always-on, always-processing single source of truth that facilitates a unified and complete view of the customer.

THUN has a holistic view of the customer, with machine learning, native omnichannel touchpoints, and solutions that drive customer acquisition, loyalty, and retention. Together, these capabilities provide THUN with solutions to create value throughout the customer lifecycle, from acquiring customers to watching them become brand loyal advocates.

As consumers engage in mobile apps, social media platforms, chat applications, and other touchpoints, this data is ingested in real-time. This data-driven strategy has seen THUN swell its loyalty scheme with over 900K unique members who spend 60% more than non-members.

The Results:

900k – active loyalty program members

5 Months – program launched in just 5 months

60% – Club members’ ticket size 60% higher vs non-members (€40 vs €25)

“Nowadays we are asked to challenge ourselves with new scenarios for marketing, from a pure product-driven concept to a more consumer-oriented marketing situation, where we understand and leverage the consumer’s transactions with the brand but also his/her passions.”

Francesco Spanedda, Chief Brand Officer, THUN