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Utter Loyalty brings you live, on-location conversations from the heart of the loyalty and CRM industry. Loyalty leaders speak as themselves — no scripts, no rehearsals, no best-practice theatre. Just raw thinking, real opinions, and the grey areas shaping loyalty right now.
Hi everyone and welcome to another episode of Utter Loyalty. We are here in Stockholm and today's episode is kindly sponsored by Braze. We're actually at their Grow with Braze event here in Stockholm. And today I'm joined by the wonderful Charlotte who leads Loyalty for Marshall Group. We are going down the rock and roll groove here.
Emma Collins:But I'll let Charlotte introduce herself. But you know, a real another real Nordic centric brand and yeah, I'll just let you talk about who Marshall are and what you've done from a loyalty perspective. I know it's fresh today because you've only just launched it, but I'd love to hear more about what you've been up to.
Charlotte Wik:Yeah, that's right. So yeah, we just launched a few days ago last week a loyalty team for So Marshall is the audio tech and design company, rooted in the iconic music brand Marshall. So Marshall Group was formed in 2023 by merging the consumer audio company Sound Industries and the legendary iconic guitar amplifier maker Marshall Amplification. So now we are basically a powerhouse of offering the whole ecosystem of amplifiers, speakers, headphones to musicians and to music lovers. We also have a record label and so on.
Emma Collins:So cool. For all you music lovers out there, I'm sure we'll have a few listeners today who are very interested in what Marshall have been up to. So you've just launched your loyalty program which is guess labeled a loyalty program, but I guess Marshall in essence has had a very loyal audience anyway. So how have you gone about introducing loyalty?
Charlotte Wik:Yeah, we're labeling it membership. We want to create that sense of belonging to our I believe it all started with the fact that we really wanted to give back to those people and really give back to them and and treat them in a in a nice way. And then obviously also want to look at how we can keep those people and and new fans, keep them loyal.
Emma Collins:I mean, we've taught, you know, we're at the Grow with Braes event today and we've heard a lot about the importance of emotional connection. We've talked a lot, I've talked a lot to various different people in the loyalty community about how loyalty needs moving forward and to be successful in loyalty. It has to move beyond that base level value exchange of points or discounts or basic reward. And it was interesting today, wasn't it, when everybody, you know, we got people to stand up if they'd actually joined a loyalty program just for the reward and then kind of escaped afterwards or left the loyalty program. But actually for Marshall, it is very much about emotional connection, isn't it?
Emma Collins:And also giving back, isn't it? Talk to us a little bit about how you're engaging beyond.
Charlotte Wik:Yeah, that's right. When we decided that we wanted to start looking at membership as a company, it was important to start with the brand, also something that only Marcia can deliver on and also that feels rock and roll. So yes, and a classical loyalty program with a points team and tiers and discounts.
Emma Collins:It was a no no.
Charlotte Wik:So we really started from the heart of the brand and our DNA and our culture rooted in music and looked at what type of value do we want to offer that is not And obviously there is a layer of functional needs that a consumer has. Free shipping and and early priority support and customer service, warranties and such will always be important for the consumer, but that's not where we wanted to start. So, we wanted to build on the access part, so making sure that the access that we as a brand have to the music and the music culture scene, we were able to spread out to our most loyal consumers and share the joy of that together with them and create unique best case money can't buy type of experience that we are able to deliver as Marshall. And then embed a real purpose into the membership programme.
Emma Collins:That's interesting you used the word joy, I think that's a perfect word that works with loyalty because certainly as we look, lift our head and look forward for those loyalty practitioners out there, it is about trying to bring the joy factor, isn't it, with you. Obviously you've got a fantastic brand to work with and there will be loyalty practitioners out there that perhaps doesn't have such a strong brand but everybody has a connection in some way and it's actually that sort of joy connection with the brand, isn't it, that you're trying to deliver? Yeah, fantastic. What did you get from today's event? What was your overriding thoughts from the event today?
Emma Collins:What are you taking away from today's event?
Charlotte Wik:The purpose I was talking about and the importance for us to give back to the music industry. Yes. So basically it's in Marshall's DNA to support grassroots music and to be part of that culture where it all starts. That's so important for us and they are struggling now. They're massively struggling.
Charlotte Wik:So Marshall are committed to support and do the best we can to keep live music alive. And this is nothing new for Marshall We've done this in sixty plus years But what's new now is that we have embedded it into the loyalty programme and into the loyalty team So we're actually committing to that members that buy from marshall.com are part and belongs to that commitment from ours and we will give back a percentage of all purchases directly back to the music industry, to grassroots music and more precise independent music venues. So, that's something we're really proud
Emma Collins:That's amazing.
Charlotte Wik:As I said, the important part of it is that it's really the mechanics are embedded into the programme. So it's real, it's not something we're saying, it's something we're doing, actually doing.
Emma Collins:And so you talked on stage today with Haydee and she asked you the question about what you're obsessing about and what you're not obsessing about. Share with our, you know, from a measurement perspective, what does success look like for you? Talk to us about how you answered that question today because I thought it was fascinating.
Charlotte Wik:If people are engaged in our brand then the rest will follow. That's my firm belief. So, in the first six months of the programme I'd like to measure how people of course genuinely sign up and join the programme. Obviously that's a key metric to look at. But also how they are engaging and actively engaging in other type of activities that we do or events we put up or emails we send or whatever it might be that sits in loyalty team that they're actually taking part and being part of that.
Emma Collins:But you know, in one of
Charlotte Wik:my
Emma Collins:previous podcast interviews with Emily Wells from Sainsbury's. She heads up transformation and she talks about this flywheel effect of the data, leadership, future thinking and the customer almost all having to work as a cycle constantly moving, constantly growing. Well, obviously the loyalty program will grow on the basis that you are constantly moving. How does that work for Marshall? Would you agree with that?
Charlotte Wik:Yeah, of course. I think another way to describe it that our CMO said, sorry Nick, he said you created a Tamaguchi. You have to feed it.
Emma Collins:You do? Yeah. It doesn't stand doesn't stand still. Absolutely.
Charlotte Wik:It's something that you need to feed into and And that's also throughout the work that we've done now with Amplify the past years, with setting the foundation for everything. It's been eye opening to understand how many parts
Emma Collins:of the business that are involved in that. It touches every department.
Charlotte Wik:Touches basically everything
Emma Collins:that we do. And how do you, I mean, obviously a massive part of loyalty working is getting buy in from the top. How have you gone about, I guess, is it through the business case in terms the fact that you're not obsessing with that commercial impact, now, now, now, now, now. A lot of people are struggling with that and actually their leadership is like, how is this paying back? It's never going to be the silver bullet, but how did you prove or how did you present the case that actually you need to give it time?
Emma Collins:Or, you know, obviously it does have to come from the top.
Charlotte Wik:I think some people might be frustrated by the answer but I must say that our leadership is already there. It hasn't been that hard because they really understand the value of the brand, value of creating deep emotional connection with the loyal consumers and make them stay because I think overall we talked about discount is not the way to go. But overall, especially in our business where it's quite a low frequency purchase type of business, you're not buying headphones so often as you're buying groceries. It's so important that we keep them and make them stay loyal in between purchases and then it's I'm not saying it's impossible but to measure lifetime value of a consumer, electronic consumer, you need to be a bit patient.
Emma Collins:Yeah, I mean there will be a lot of people listening to that that are slightly frustrated that they're not in the same position and actually they struggle with that stakeholder management piece around almost getting the leadership from the top down really believing in it. And it's absolutely fantastic that you as a business are on that pathway anyway, which is fantastic. To end, Charlotte, in the podcast we talk about ta da moments which are celebratory moments. You've just launched this programme so that in itself is a Ta Da Moment but in your journey to launch that loyalty programme what would you say is your biggest Ta Da Moment so far?
Charlotte Wik:I actually have one.
Emma Collins:Good, I love this!
Charlotte Wik:I'm happy that I already have one. Launched nine days ago. And we put out our first experience that we wanted to. I talk a lot about experiences, and that's so important. Those both like physical experience that you when you experience a brand and really get that connection with the brand.
Charlotte Wik:I think that you can do that digitally, but physical connection is so important. That's what we've seen also when we looked at consumer research and connecting to building the concept around Amplify. And we pull up our very first opportunity. So we have tomorrow a so called tone sanctuary in Austin, Texas. And that's where artists come in and get to play our amps and get to experience maybe things that we have not released yet and get to meet our artist relations team, etcetera.
Charlotte Wik:And this time now, as we have launched our loyalty team, we invited consumers to come join us in that. Oh, wow. And I it was Friday night, I was reading the email from a guy called Trevor. That's like a self described bedroom guitarist who's been dreaming of getting his very first Marshall amp he can't really afford it yet but he's dreaming about it And tomorrow he will be there. He will be there among the other artists, try our amps, meet our team.
Charlotte Wik:And I think that's genuinely so strong to see that those moments where fans that grew up with seeing the culture around music and being inspired by that suddenly find themselves at that moment.
Emma Collins:Because they've remained so loyal. Mean that's ultimate goosebump moment there Charlotte. Absolutely fantastic. Yeah, I could talk to you for a long time and yeah. Rock and roll.
Emma Collins:And are you going to any concerts soon? Who's your band of choice?
Charlotte Wik:Is always a live concert. Yeah, I bet. Every night in any town, right? So yeah. I'm coming.
Emma Collins:Yeah. I'm coming. Thank you so much Charlotte. You've been an Take amazing
Charlotte Wik:care.