Bangkok--2 Oct--Aziam Burson-Marsteller
Big C has reinforced the great success of the Shop Call Free campaign, extending this unique initiative under a joint cooperation program with AIS and Unilever to offer more participating products.
According to Ms Jariya Chirathiwat, Vice President, Marketing & Communications, Big C Supercenter plc, “Big C has implemented Shop Call Free, an innovative sales promotion campaign that offers Big C customers who buy participating products the chance to accumulate their purchases and receive credit for free calls worth from 1 to 2,000 baht. For over five months (17 April — 15 September 2006), the Shop Call Free campaign has received consistently favorable responses with more than 700,000 customers registered for the program and a 22% increase in sales of all participating products. The program also provides in-depth insights into customers’ buying behavior which is a major influence in the current retail market. Some useful customer information acquired to date includes data on diverse product categories, product purchases, buying frequencies and the location of branches where customers most often go to shop. We have identified clearer customer segmentation using data on the participating products bought via the program cards by over 700,000 customers and developed the customer data base that will be deployed in support of our future business requirements,”
“Shop Call Free is more than a promotion; it is also a marketing strategy deployed to boost brand loyalty. It allows customers to buy products at lower prices that appeal to Big C shoppers while also adding 500 product items from all departments to the participating product portfolio. Shop Call Free will help promote sales while broadening our customer base by attracting mobile phone users to be Big C customers. And in the future we will develop other networks,” said Ms Jariya.
Advance Info Services PLC, an early partner with Big C in this project, has confirmed its satisfaction with customer responses recorded to date. Shop Call Free enables AIS to open up new customer access points and provide enhanced value for AIS customers nationwide by giving them diverse and exciting privileges. Mr Chamnan, Excecutive Vice President-Marketing stated, “The Shop Call Free campaign was designed to reward our customers and this is the policy that AIS has undertaken on an ongoing basis to suit customer demand. Our recent insights into customer behavior asserted that they are looking for daily shopping privileges. We believe that this cooperative effort with Big C will really suit customer requirements, as indicated by the high customer feedback from more than 700,000 pre-paid customers registered over the past five months.”
“Shop Cll Free is quite different from other promotions and has proven to be very successful in helping us to maintain our customer base. All participating customers have been satisfied with this campaign, as shown in the number of participating customers exiting the program which is less than the regular churn rate. The campaign has been instrumental in generating more knowledge about our customers. We have learned which customers preferred shopping at Big C. This will allow us to co-launch a program that best suits customer needs. AIS has therefore extended this exclusive offer to our AIS GSM Advance customers since September 13 to make sure that all AIS customers can receive the free call offering throughout the campaign,” added Mr Chamnan.
In addition to AIS, Unilever is another major partner to join the Shop Call Free campaign. According to Mr Chanin, Vice President Customer Development, Uniliver Thai trading Co.,Ltd, “Unilever has been an integral part of this program since its inception. Unilever recognized that the campaign features a genuinely unique sales promotional strategy which has never been implemented in Thailand. It is relatively easy and simple to implement this program and we have witnessed significant growth in sales in large part because of the many attractive features of the Shop Call Free campaign,” said Mr Chanin.
To make the Shop Call Free campaign more appealing and colorful, Big C is holding the Shop Call Free, Receive Free Calling Credit and Win Free Mobile Phone campaign that will run from today until October 26. Customers who buy participating Unilever products will receive credit for free calls, along with special discounts on many products.
Big C Supercenter PCL (BIGC) founded in 1993, is a retail consumer goods operator trading under the name of Big C Supercenter. It offers a wide variety of products at the most competitive prices under the slogan “More Than Just Low Prices” to maximize the highest value for customers at its 47 store nationwide. For further information about Big C Supercenter, visit our Web site at www.bigc.co.th .
For further information, please contact:
Barakorn or Supaporn
Aziam Burson-Marsteller
Tel. 0 2252 9871