Loyalty Club : An Online Brand Relation Management Project

Abstract: ABSTRACT Title: Loyalty Club. An Online Brand Relations Management Project Amount of pages: 46 (61 including abstract, references and annexes) Author: Michaela Ristiniemi Tutor: Peder Hård af Segerstad Course: Media- and communication D Period: Spring 2007 University: Division of Media and Communication, Department of Information Science, Uppsala University Object: To research how an interactive relation online could be created between a brand such as Matrix and their customers, on the Swedish market. Method: Qualitative interview Material: Interviews with Matrix product manager and hairdressers Main results: A relation online works the same way that a relation does offline; that even if the Internet as medium works fast and effectively, the relation is built over time. It is a communication process which requires much attention, where it is the consumer that to a large extent runs the relations company. This sort of relation can be very valuable for the hairdressers since it can save time and trouble where it is needed and develop them as professionals, and for the brand it can give loyal customers when they themselves become loyal to the customer. The online space, or “loyalty club”, should be simple and contain only information that the hairdressers are interested in, and what that is, is found through the dialogue with them. This is a new development and it meets skepticism as does most of the new occurrences, but much points to that it is the future of communication and more so for the generation that was brought up with the Internet and thus interacts with it naturally. The core question of In ernet is that it is used to organize timespace, with the freedom to act independently. Key notions: Communication, time-space, interactivity, dialogue, relationships and loyalty.