The company's marketing vice-president for East Asia, Yap Lee Lee, said Electrolux would tap Tequila's expertise in database management and loyalty programme management to set up a new loyalty scheme as the "next step" in its direct marketing thrust.
"We have been focusing on developing and offering comprehensive aftercare service last year. Now we are going beyond aftercare service in developing a loyalty programme," Yap said.
The company has tasked Tequila with developing regional direct marketing campaigns and creating its first loyalty programme for nine countries in Asia.
Since sealing the relationship in May, Tequila has developed an integrated print, direct marketing and point of sales campaign to focus on the brand's washing machine and home cleaning range of appliances. "In the consumer durables industry, the life-cycle for each product is quite long. We have to look at cross selling. The objective of the loyalty programme is to retain customer loyalty for the brand as well as to get them to recommend the brand to friends and relatives," Yap added.
Prior to appointing Tequila, Electrolux handled customer services in-house.
Tequila pitched against Draft and won the open-term contract for the Asia Pacific region.
The new DM campaign, which is said to be in the "early stages of finalisation" and will roll out first in Thailand, is an extension of the company's current marketing activities and seek to find new ways of reaching customers, according to Philip Brett, Tequila's managing director.
"It is not common for clients to venture into new fields when things are going south. It is a very enlightening approach to be looking at new communication channels at a time when the retail market is taking quite a lot of pain," he said.
Electrolux is still working out the budget for the CRM programme based on variables in each country, such as the cost for the IT infrastructure to run the plan.
Electrolux uses Lowe for above-the-line activities.
