Going Where the Money Is

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In 2014, an established card issuer with operations in Southeast Asia called on PulseMetrics to refine its customer acquisition and activation strategy. As the economy was experiencing an upswing in consumer confidence, our client saw the golden opportunity to tap onto the expanding consumerism in food and fashion. To do so, it had to be more targeted in offering deals to customers of greater value. It also needed to identify trendy restaurants and fashion brands for strategic partnerships, so that our client can offer deals on trendy brands to increase their customers’ share of wallet. For this purpose, our consultants were hired to identify the trendsetters and trend followers in our client’s customer base.

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Seeking Out Valuable Customers

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The team began by designing a scoring model that utilised external data from magazines and social media to single out and rank the trendy brands. After incorporating customer transaction data from the card issuer and its retail partner, we were able to draw out the trendy period and identify the customers who made purchases before the masses followed. In order to prove a strong track record of being early adopters of trends, customers had to receive a high trend setter score.

This trendsetter score incorporated the trendy restaurant or fashion brand score and the frequency at which customers made a purchase during the different periods: ‘adventure-seeker’, ‘trendsetter’, ‘in-crowd’, ’trend follower’ or ‘mass/lagger’. By conducting further demographic and behavioural analyses, our consultants revealed an extremely valuable customer segment. The trend setters proved to be the most profitable, having the largest spend by ticket size and the highest transaction volume.

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Manufacturing Desire and Delight

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To create greater value for our client, our consultants delved deeper into the psychographics of trendsetters and trend followers to truly understand what they love and why they seek out trends. Our results have equipped our client to innovate new products, excite with promotions that involve trendy brands and improve customer relationships. Trendsetters can be used as a radar for trend followers, keeping the latter target segment in the know through customised promotions while rewarding the former segment with discounts on a tailor-made credit card. By identifying trendy restaurants and fashion brands, our client advanced ahead of the competition in establishing the most strategic partnerships. This is how data can be used to hack the acquisition and activation of the most prized customer segments.