Rewards: Impact’s 8 Key Must-Win Moments For Brands
How does your brand acknowledge an individual’s exceptional effort? Do your members feel like their milestones are important? A strong rewards program turns customers and employees into brand advocates. Not only this, but customer acquisition, talent recruitment, competition cut-through and staff retention are all impacted by your rewards program.
You need to keep your rewards program fresh and exciting. All while tailoring your approach to your brand and the individuals that make it successful.
Below, you’ll find out why rewards are important for your brand. As well as how to win this key must-win moment with creative branded merchandise that brings your brand to life.
What are Rewards?
Milestones and achievements that drive your business forward need to be recognised!
Rewards are about celebrating your members’ and employees’ key moments. There are many ways to incorporate rewards into your business.
Whether it’s through a loyalty program for customers, tracking team goals or member perks, rewards are an opportunity to express your brand’s appreciation for continued support, advocacy and a job well done.
Acknowledging the achievements of your team goes a long way toward theirs, and your brand’s future performance as well.
“According to the 2015 Employee Recognition Report by the Society for Human Resource Management and Globoforce, values-based employee recognition significantly contributes to bottom-line organizational metrics and helps create a stronger culture and more human workplace.”
Impact’s 8 Key Must-Win Moments
What are they?
Over our 20+ years of branding experience, we’ve learned that the most effective brands connect with their audience in key must-win moments. Now, these moments vary across industries, but we’ve narrowed them down to the eight most common.
- Rewards
- Onboarding
- Point of Sale Presence
- Events and Tradeshows
- Campaigns and Promotions
- Gift With Purchase
- Educational Campaigns
- Rewards
- Calendar-Based Events
You may find that your brand focus is just one of the key moments. On the other hand, your brand might find the most success in three, or five, or all of these. Whichever it is, if you can bring your brand to life in these key must-win moments, you can make a meaningful connection with your audience.
Why are rewards one of the key, must-win moments?
Rewarding employees and customers is essential for building strong relationships, fostering loyalty, and driving business growth. After all, achieving your brand objectives could not be possible without the people that make it happen.
An effective rewards program creates a win-win situation where employees and customers feel valued and appreciated, leading to long-term success for the organisation. As a brand, you want to reward the behaviours that drive your business forward, both internally and externally. Those behaviours could be long-term membership, repeat purchases, long service within the company, outstanding sales numbers or implementing game-changing processes. Rewards help you incentivise personal and professional growth that benefits the whole organisation.
On the other hand, rewards offer your customers and members another positive brand experience.
So how do you win this moment and make it key for your brand? There’s one way that we know.
How to improve your rewards with promotional products.
Make it memorable
When employees receive branded merchandise as rewards, it creates a sense of pride and belonging in your organisation. It also serves as a tangible reminder of their achievements and can help foster a positive brand culture. Your rewards should be a memento of their accomplishment or a token to commemorate a membership milestone.
Lapel pins are a classic place to start. Keep it simple with your logo or exclusive achievement design; or add colour with vibrant enamel filling. These small gifts are symbol of excellence and are a subtle way your customers, members or employees can display their accomplishments…without being too braggy.
It can be tempting to buy your rewards in bulk. You’ll get a better price per unit. However, it is important to consider your audience’s preferences and interests when choosing branded merchandise as rewards.
The more personal, the more meaningful and the more your reward will be appreciated. Try rewarding your team with something they wouldn’t buy for themselves. Like a mixologist’s cocktail set, or a nostalgic backyard cricket set for their whole family to enjoy.
Consider co-branding
Adding another name to your merch is an opportunity to borrow credibility. We broke it down in detail in our Co-Branding article. One of the key takeaways we describe is how the weight of the product’s well-known brand flows on to yours. If your team knows the brand well and enjoys their products, you already know that your reward will be well-received and valued.
Camelbak drinkware is an easily identifiable brand in the drinkware space. For the adventurous among your members, adding a co-branded Camelbak drink bottle or tumbler to your rewards would easily provide incentive to reach higher and hit targets.
Moleskine has a long history of quality journals and are synonymous with bringing ideas into reality. Their durable covers and cream pages will capture the imagination of all the creatives in your team. Not to mention how printing your brand right there next to Moleskine will raise your profile and separate you from other brands.
Finally, Skullcandy has the reputation of delivering modern, music-driven and experience-orientated personal sound solutions. For the musos on your team and client list, these headphones, branded with your logo are a great motivator.
Just remember to make sure that your values align. As we said in the above article, “aligning with a brand with clear values and a stance on social issues can change the way your audience views your brand.” Be sure that it is for the better.
Create on-brand experiences
Thoughtful rewards, gifts to celebrate a job well done, show just as much of yourself as it does of the recipient. Inject your brand into your rewards with gifts that reflect your values, like the ones above. Then make it a big deal.
Half the excitement of rewards comes from the hype around the achievement. Being clearly on-brand in these moments creates meaningful connections. So, include your branding in the details of your rewards.
You may send a branded gift box filled with goodies in the mail to reach your outstanding individuals at home.
Alternatively, you could pull the team together for a couple of minutes in the designated, branded up, rewards area.
For the achievements that made the most impact on your business, you should go all out. Host a rewards night and kit the place out in your brand.
Make sure your team feel the extent of your appreciation and celebrate your great company culture together.
Rewards are a tool your brand needs to incentivise engagement both internally and externally. Staying on-brand with what you give to your high achievers increases positive brand perception, brand loyalty and can set you apart from competitors. Look after the people who support your brand and celebrate your wins together.
For some more reward program inspiration, have a read of this article by Entreprenuer. We really enjoyed it!
