A few years ago, Shell was looking for a way to get drivers to “turn right instead of left” when it came time to refuel. Creating a reason to select one brand of fuel over another is no easy task, but that is what Craig Schneider, Shell's GM of Marketing for North America, set out to do when he launched the Fuel Rewards program. “The quality of the product is really key and that's the DNA behind Shell. What we do best is develop new technologies to produce the best fuel that you can buy. But fundamentally the word “convenient station” came into being was because convenience makes more sense to consumers about why I should turn right at one station versus another. Our customers need to get on with their lives and so a lot of technology was invested right there at the site with the pay at the pump technology.
I asked Schneider what inspired him to develop a loyalty program based on saving money on fuel. “I had an experience at a restaurant with a waiter who after finding out that I worked for Shell shared why he loves Shell, and Shell V-Power or Premium product. He said "It's an everyday luxury that I can afford." And that really stuck. We spend quite a bit of time making sure that we're perfecting the technology because of the importance of people's cars in their lives. And to hear that we're seen as a luxury is fantastic, and to hear that we're affordable is also fantastic. The car is so essential to that waiter. It's a means to get to his work, but he was talking about all the things that he loves to do in his car. We just simply wanted to get beyond that one waiter to so many out there that can afford it. So that led to the formation partnership with Excentus and bringing Fuel Rewards to life.”
“The process is pretty simple. Like on the convenient side, we wanted to fit into people's lives - to let them shop where they want to shop and earn fuel rewards. When they come to our site, they actually watch the price of the fuel rollback instantaneously right there at the pump. It's an amazingly impactful thing! You see it on our social media all the time. We call them Shellfies where somebody actually takes a selfie of themselves next to the gas pump to show other people, their friends and family, the price that they paid for their fuel. I mean it's an emotive very powerful thing.
“It's great that they're getting the lower prices, but we love to get the story of what over 5 million members with nearly half a billion dollars in savings can now do as a result of that. We're enabling people's lives. We constantly hear stories about the next step that they make -the mother that goes to the grocery story directly afterwards who can afford to buy one or two more items that are personal favorites of her child or her husband. Or a story that we got recently of a group of college friends that were able to go to their bowl game and they did the road trip basically for free based upon Fuel Rewards.”
I had a hard time believing a program that promotes saving “at least three cents a gallon” could be so success. But according to Brandon Logsdon, president & CEO of Excentus, the company that manages the program, “There's a whole spectrum of people that are achieving well over the 25 cent per gallon average and are saving $1 dollar, $2 dollars or almost a free tank of gas on every fill-up, just by spending in the network of coalition partners and then redeeming that value at Shell.” Coalition partners include restaurants and major retailers where purchases count towards earning cents of Shell fuel.
But do people really want to carry another card around with them? Logsdon added “that's why we're integrating with
I was also curious how the recent Apple Pay announcement would change smart phone-based loyalty programs. According to Jack Philbin, co-founder and CEO of Vibes, the mobile platform used by the Fuel Rewards program, “It has been really fun to watch Tim Cook standing up on stage at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference and saying ‘Hey we're getting into payments. We're coming after the wallet. And you're going to put your credit cards in Passbook’. It was the first time that Apple had publically talked about Passbook even though it's been around and we've been running programs in Passbook for two years. But the announcement was really a wakeup call for marketers, especially those who haven't established a presence in Passbook, or in Google Wallet. Apple Pay is the payment functionality but when you consider the nonpayment side of Mobile Wallet, it’s first and foremost loyalty and offers. Not every retail point of sale system is going to be enabled with an NFC reader overnight. These options will take time.”
With the investments Shell has made in the Fuel Rewards program, has it been a business success? Schneider believes it has worked well for Shell. “The beauty of getting to know your customers like this it has allowed us to look at these customers as an individual and see how much they're purchasing. What we see with our customers who joined Fuel Rewards is they're coming to us an extra six times a year. They're increasing their purchases, not only at the fuel pump, but also inside the store. And even more powerful than that is we can look at the difference between somebody who comes to us for the first time, trials us and joins Fuel Rewards versus someone who comes to us for the first time and doesn't join Fuel Rewards. We have improved our retention of [the fuel Rewards] customer by almost 67%. So converting that trial customer into a loyal customer is significantly higher with Fuel Rewards.”
