For many companies especially retailers, Christmas is a key sales period. What are you doing to promote your business over Christmas? Discover how Egg made the most of Christmas from this case study.
Egg Card
Egg launched their innovative Egg Card in September 99 with no annual fee, 1% cash back and APR’s (interest rates) less than half the competition. It was bang on Egg’s marketing strategy of helping individuals to manage their money better.
In these early ‘internet days’ fraud was a key concern but research showed that 6 out of 10 would buy more online if they were protected. In reality, fewer than 1 out of 100 had experienced online deception. The key issues were where can I go online to buy products and services and who can I trust?
The Egg Shopping Zone
Our digital marketing strategy was to launch the Egg Shopping Zone (alongside Egg card) which provided easy access to over 100 of Britain’s biggest and best retailers. It included well established high street brands and newer web specialists like Figleaf. The strategy was based on retail best practice learned during my time at Asda.
Shoppers using Egg Card in the Egg Shopping Zone were covered by the Egg Card Internet Guarantee and had the extra incentive of receiving 2% cash back.
The Egg Shopping Zone Phase 2
Two months later, our digital marketing strategy was to make the Egg Shopping Zone the best place to shop online at Christmas. In negotiations with suppliers, we developed over 300 inspirational gift ideas for all the family. A new shopping page template and navigation bar was developed including a great Christmas gifts finder.
The Christmas gift finder contained 8 people sub-categories such as boys, girls, mums, grandads. Each people category contained 40 gift ideas in 4 price bands designed to make it easy to find the right Christmas present for that special person. The shop was expanded to include over 140 online retailers and over 3 million products.
Egg Card results
The Egg Card launch was the UK’s most successful credit card launch ever and over 250,000 cards were issued in the first 6 months. Through innovative use of digital marketing, Egg’s approach went way beyond the norm in financial services incorporating retail best practice.
In addition to business success, in 2000, Egg received the Grand Prix award for Outstanding Marketing Achievement at the Chartered Institute of Marketing’s Effectiveness awards.
Key learning for companies big or small
- how could you help your customers and prospects over the Christmas period?
- don’t restrict your thinking to a standard industry approach – consider a radical approach like Egg
- does it differentiate your brand from the competition?
- does it support your key brand thought
n.b. During this period, Brand New Way’s Peter Hawtin was Director of Web Experience at Egg
