Feature: Vouchers & Gift Cards: Ask the audience

As management guru Peter Drucker famously said, the aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well that the product or service fits him and sells itself. The same ethos can be applied to motivation programmes where the customers are the staff and channel partners whose behaviours an organisation is striving to change.

There is a growing choice of vouchers and gift cards available for rewards in the business-to-business sector, according to the VA, the industry’s trade body, and this means there are more opportunities than ever before for organisers of incentive schemes to make sure they are offering the most inspiring products.

Segmenting and understanding your audience is something that can be done for organisations of all sizes. Tracy Aslam, business partner director UK at The Gift Voucher Shop, explains: “It doesn’t have to be a complex exercise, but it will pay dividends in the longer term.”

Like a number of suppliers in the sector, her company – which supplies the One4All vouchers – will guide clients through the process of research. “Knowing your audience is vital, whether the participants are employees or customers,” she says. “Identify their desires and aspirations, and you’re halfway to a very successful programme. We recommend that our clients give the segmentation considered thought at the very beginning of the process, which helps focus the mind on the shortlist of potential incentives on offer.”

Dave Fleming, corporate account manager at Kingfisher Gift Voucher, says that some companies decide to carry out qualitative research before launching a programme. “An incentive scheme needs to inspire participation, and without segmentation you may fail to meet your scheme objectives. Having identified participant demographics and preferences, it’s then simply a matter of selecting specific products and rewards that match, and using them to drive the campaign.”

As John Davis, chairman of Argos Business Solutions, remarks, it can be a very simple process that can actually increase engagement. “What a client’s employees want from an incentive programme can be determined in many ways, but the most successful way is to simply ask them,” he says. “All employees like to feel valued and appreciated. Knowing that managers want their opinions on how to reward them will ensure they are on track from the outset with the new incentive scheme.”

Catherine Forrest, business incentives manager at House of Fraser, also recommends that clients carry out profiling before making a buying decision. “By knowing more about the audience’s demographics in terms of age, gender, marital status and interests or hobbies, it’s possible to ensure that the vouchers or gift cards purchased will be relevant and enthusiastically received.”

On top of this, adds Aslam at The Gift Voucher Shop: “One must also bear in mind the market, new product innovations such as technology and must-have items, the value of the incentive and the key business drivers in relation to the return on the investment required to make the whole campaign viable.”

However, the need to carry out research does not stop with the launch, points out Fleming at Kingfisher. “As the campaign progresses, it’s essential that the research process is ongoing,” he says. His own company provides data on redemption across its voucher’s three brands – B&Q, Comet and Woolworths – which helps to adapt communications. “So if they’ve assumed that a predominantly male audience in their 20s is going to spend on gadgets in Comet, and have featured relevant products in marcoms material, only to find from the redemption analysis that they’re spending in B&Q, then product imaging and messaging can be revised going forward.”

Research helps programme organisers to decide whether their audience is more likely to be turned on by Harrods or Halfords, Theatre Tokens or Threshers, but, more pertinently, it can help to tackle the question of whether to use plastic as well as paper. Yvonne West, manager of Sainsbury’s Business Direct, says there is great variance between customers, some of whom are eager for gift cards and others who fear it would be inconvenient. “It does appear that the larger the workforce and the larger the incentive/reward scheme, the more suited cards are. It’s the ability to activate the cards once they’re in the hands of the recipient which is a very attractive security feature to some.”

Of course, motivation programme participants are also consumers, and familiarity with gift cards will increase as they become more common in the high street. However, plastic is still more in tune with some demographics. Motivation agency Maritz points to the so-called Millennial generation, of Generation Y, of under-25s who are eager to embrace new media. “Currently the younger the audience, the greater their familiarity with plastic and over time, due to retailer migration from paper, more people will want plastic,” says Maritz’s incentives specialist, Paul Brown.

Paul O’Brien, managing director of Acorne, owner of Virgin Vouchers and Leisure Vouchers, warns that some audiences might be put off by a reward programme because they are just not ready for gift cards. “Paper vouchers remain the most requested format. Our B2B customers tell us they choose paper vouchers because recipients are familiar with them, where to spend them and the denomination is clearly printed on them.”

As Derrick Hardman, managing director of Capital Incentives & Motivation, adds: “The fact that vouchers are tried and tested keeps them at the forefront. Marketing, sales and human resources professionals still frequently need an instant, simple solution and are often reluctant to take the risk of testing relatively new ideas.”

When making this choice, it is important to identify whether your audience includes demographic groups who are likely to pass on their rewards. “Prepaid cards definitely work for large organisations who want the facility of being able to control their incentive schemes with remote top-up and activation but, even for some of these larger companies as well as for SMEs, cards just won’t suit their employees’ or customers’ lifestyles,” comments Kevin Harrington, research and development director of Sodexho, operator of the SayShopping voucher. “If you’re used to sharing out your work benefits or rewards with your family, how do you divide up a card? Whereas, with a bundle of vouchers, it’s easy to share them out.”

Forrest at House of Fraser says there is also the fear that some recipients are not ready for a reward product that does not have a face value. “There are situations where a card may not be suitable. That might include, for example, a reward scheme for a salesforce where a company is giving gift cards with a variety of values to a large number of people,” she explains. “Not being able to see a monetary value on the card – something that is visible on a voucher – could cause a lot of logistical headaches.”

However, incentive organisers may simply choose a mixture of paper and plastic or multi-store vouchers and cards. “The essential point to remember is that it is virtually impossible to select a reward that will appeal to all participants in a scheme,” concludes Hardman at Capital Incentives. “Choice motivates, and that is why multi-choice gift cards and vouchers, rather than single-store products, are an extremely popular option. Not only do they provide recipients with the chance to choose their own gift, they also make life easy for the company giving them.”