An Adventurous Approach to Customer Loyalty

The story behind Maverik’s move to better segment customers and appeal to their unique needs.

February 13, 2015

MIAMI BEACH – During Thursday’s NACS Leadership Forum, attendees got a variety of perspectives on how to create a customer-centric business model, including a presentation from Ernie Harker, executive director of marketing for Maverik, describing the company’s approach to customer engagement.

At Maverik, everything the Salt Lake City-based convenience retailer does is filtered through an “adventure” lens. This approach appeals both to the region’s active, outdoor audience as well as to those who view the adventure lifestyle as aspirational. It is core to the Maverik experience, from the store associates who are called Adventure Guides, to custom outdoor and extreme sports-themed murals at every store and uniquely targeted promotions.

Several years ago, Harkin explained, Maverik decided to take a customer-centric approach to better understand its customers and find out what they were buying and ensure that those products were available. Maverik developed five key customer segments and analyzed their typical purchases: blue collar, Hispanics, emerging adults, moms with kids, and white collar. Although customers blur the lines in some categories, by getting to know the segments better Maverik was able to develop tactics to appeal to each customer segment.

For instance, the data showed that typical blue collar customers purchased hearty meals, so Maverik introduced new breakfast meals such as the Breakfast Beast and the M.O.A.B. (Mother of All Burritos). The retailer also developed a loyalty program offer to win a truck, accompanied by a tongue-in-cheek ad featuring a group of men serving as car washers for two women who had been off-roading in the truck.

For the female audience, Maverik knew that they were looking for healthier options and added additional salads to the menu. “While we may not sell a lot of salads, it changed the perception of our foodservice offer,” he said.

Harkin described the Hispanic audience as one of the more challenging for the company, due in part to a cultural disconnect that has taken trial and error to overcome. However, through “failed” promotions, Maverik learned key characteristics of the audience and is now able to focus marketing efforts on the lifestyle aspects that appeal to the demographic, such as a focus on family-based activities and loyalty incentives. The company has also started including Spanish language promotions and loyalty programs.

While this initial approach to customer-centricity was admittedly general, categorizing customers into five large buckets, Maverik is now using the learnings to focus on individual customers using more granular data.

The NACS Leadership Forum is an annual, invite-only event, bringing together retailers and suppliers to provide thought leadership that is relevant to the convenience and fuel retailing industry, while strengthening existing relationships and building new business relationships. The event is taking place this week in Miami Beach.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement