Solar care model Solar Bum is working with rewards platform Rediem on The Bum Membership, a loyalty program that netted almost 14,000 sign-ups throughout a current gentle launch. The Bum Membership seems to be to commerce the transactional nature of conventional loyalty applications for a enjoyable, community-building method.
“Loyalty is one thing that we considered for a extremely very long time,” stated Vanessa Lhotsky, govt director of digital, direct-to-consumer and e-commerce for the model. “The problem was that the large ones on the market appeared very transactional and never very customizable or distinctive, and, truthfully, simply felt actually boring.”
Solar Bum desires to interrupt the mould of loyalty applications by rewarding factors (or “bananas,” impressed by its ape mascot) to shoppers for a variety of actions past merely buying its self-care merchandise, together with: sharing footage of a sundown, educating themselves about pores and skin most cancers prevention, collaborating in web site scavenger hunts and even doing nothing in any respect. Rewards embody a customized welcome equipment, reductions on associate manufacturers and an look on a billboard within the model’s hometown of Encinitas, California.
The actions and rewards elevate what the model has already executed and seen its prospects do. It beforehand put a 12-year-old tremendous fan on a billboard and has seen followers tattoo its emblem on their our bodies. Plus, the deal with pores and skin most cancers prevention permits Solar Bum to construct its core model values into this system.
“Doing issues which can be undoubtedly completely different when it comes to loyalty, however realizing that our shoppers have been already doing that form of stuff… how will we fold that right into a loyalty program that really feels distinctive?” Lhotsky stated.
Constructing a loyalty program for the model additionally introduced a problem confronted by different CPG corporations: the best way to seize client consideration for a product offered at main retailers, together with Walmart, Goal and CVS, in addition to its personal direct-to-consumer channels, whereas being true to a “be massive, really feel small” ethos.
“Having that basically direct, one-to-one client connection is absolutely essential to us as we develop and scale,” Lhotsky stated.
A platform optimized for cellular
To satisfy its loyalty program wants, Solar Bum tapped Rediem, a rewards platform launched in 2023 that raised $1.2 million in pre-seed funding, led by Ivy Ventures. The corporate was based to handle the dearth of name alignment with many loyalty applications, particularly in an period when storytelling-forward manufacturers like Liquid Loss of life and Oura are ramping up client engagement.
“All you are able to do together with your factors is money out for $10 in your subsequent order, which doesn’t actually foster any sense of loyalty. It’s this passive, turn-and-burn, gathering mud within the [website] footer,” stated Regan Plekenpol, a Rediem co-founder. “We’re nonetheless in punch card land.”
To that finish, Rediem created a platform that serves as infrastructure for community-first, omnichannel loyalty applications like The Bum Membership, particularly for manufacturers like Solar Bum that aren’t online-only however retail-everywhere.
“We’ve got this mechanism of rewards, actions and challenges, after which the model can go loopy,” Plekenpol stated. “In the event that they wish to reward you for doing leaping jacks in Instances Sq., they will try this.”
Whether or not doing leaping jacks or writing messages in sunscreen, Rediem’s loyalty program turns client actions right into a neighborhood feed of user-generated content material. It can also flip the experiential activations which can be having a post-pandemic revival into measured visitors and traceable client information, from purchases to SMS numbers.
Whereas The Bum Membership is presently a web-based widget, round 85% of utilization was cellular throughout the gentle launch. For now, Solar Bum will hold it that approach, reasonably than becoming a member of an app-based panorama that’s crowded with some nice however many dangerous loyalty apps.
“The combination with our present tech stack actually helped, when it comes to Shopify, SMS and electronic mail,” Lhotsky stated. “We do have a reasonably small, lean advertising and marketing staff, so I believe it’s one thing we’re at all times going to have a look at… How will we proceed to enhance it?”
