How to unlock today’s experience economy through people-centricity

TELL US ABOUT YOURSELF, WHERE YOUR PASSION FOR PEOPLE-CENTRICITY COMES FROM AND WHY YOU PICKED THIS PHOTO.

In one quick sentence: Pascal Haider, CEO of RIX Rewards. passionate entrepreneur and father of four children with master’s degrees in Business Administration and International Management.

The reason I mention my studies, is that during my time at university I focused my research on customer behavior in charitable giving. This is what originally sparked my curiosity and interest in people-centricity. This topic and the question of how to create environments that emotionally speak to people have been my source of passion and inspiration ever since.

The picture – it was actually a few years ago during an event which included a small boat ride in Sydney harbor. For me it symbolizes very well our nature as humans, wanting to experience special things and create memories for life. Somehow a great summary of the experience economy we find ourselves in.

Who are your customers at RIX and how do you serve them? Tell us about your products and services. 

As a Creative Reward Agency we support consumer facing brands such as Samsung, Harley Davidson, Maserati, Citibank with customer-centered promotions. Reality is that many companies are so much in love with their own brands, products and services that they often forget the people they want to reach – the customers. Sounds funny, but this is what we are faced with every single day.

This is where we come in as RIX and specifically support them to shift the focus of their promotions towards people. We follow a 3 step process, where we first highlight the opportunity and guide brands through a journey of ideation and discovery and then develop together appealing sales promotions that create magic moments for their customers.

How do you provide great customer experiences for these brands, your own customers?

A key element for us is that whatever we sell, we first have to live it internally as an organization. Our customers are renowned brands with a clear identity and purpose. It is important to acknowledge that all of them are in a unique situation, with specific requirements especially when it comes to their promotions.

Instead of highlighting benefits of working with us we like to take people on a memorable journey, to show directly the positive effects of a unique experience. This marks the starting point of our journey together and often results in an effective promotion we design together. It is truly exciting when you can leverage their market experience with our expertise from running promotions with brands around the world.

In your opinion, what do you think makes a great experience or as you often call it “a magic brand moment”?

As a company we have defined a few key elements that to our view create a magic brand moment and result in a great customer experience.

On the customer side it is all about enrichment. We focus on lifestyle relevance, active engagement, and a memorable post-purchase experience. On the brand side we think it is important to nurture brand attributes, highlight a specific product feature and stand out from the competition.

When these things come together, it naturally leads to a great customer experience, which is not limited to sales promotions, but can be applied just as well for employee engagement concepts and other fields where people are at the center of attention.

Can you give us a concrete example of such a promotional concept?

Let’s imagine a typical negative example of a sales promotion: “Buy a fridge and receive a 100$ cashback voucher”. While the cash-back might be appealing and offers a competitive edge towards the competition, it is purely product-centered and essentially limited in terms of experience and impact.

With the same 100$ we could tell a whole different customer-centered story. Under the theme “A fridge is not a fridge, when it is empty” a brand could offer their customers a 100$ grocery voucher to initially fill it up with the food they love.

With such a promotion you would now highlight elements of lifestyle (food they love), active engagement (go shopping) and post-purchase momentum (after installing the fridge at home, fill it up for the first time). At the same time it also emphasizes product attributes and features (storing food) and stands out from the competition (when all fridges are empty – the full one naturally shines).

As you can see, same budget but a whole different story. This is just a simple example but the effect of changing from product to people centricity really does magic.

How do you practice this within your own organization at RIX?

We are always in the process of fine-tuning our processes and come up with greater experiences and campaign ideas for our clients. I think it is important to notice that all great things start within the organization and the collaboration between all of us rooted in the desire to learn from and support each other. This internal passion and creativity is then transported to the decision makers within organizations and finally ends up directly or indirectly at the end-consumer.

We want to be the source of inspiration for companies to design promotional experiences that make people fall in love with their brand.

This can only happen, if we are 100% people-centered in our organization and create a great team-spirit amongst all our employees, directors and partners around the world.

Your final remarks?

It is quite surprising how a change of perspective can do miracles to sales promotions and I can only encourage brands to try new things, think outside the box and engage customers differently. It really pays off.

At RIX, we work with you to create rewards that transform your sales promotions into magic brand moments, empowering you to increase sales and market share in the short term, while boosting long-term brand equity.

Want to see how we can rid your brand of discounts? Get in touch.