How to Build Emotional Connections to Reach New Segments with SheerID and Lufthansa

 In today's uncertain economic climate, consumers are tightening their purse strings and being more selective about their spending. A recent study found that 92% of shoppers have changed their spending habits, and 54% are actively reducing their spending.

However, the research also suggests that consumers are still willing to spend money on brands that they connect with on an emotional level. One way to build emotional connections is by offering personalised discounts and promotions to specific groups, such as students, healthcare workers, and teachers.

We explored this further in a webinar with SheerID and Lufthansa titled ‘Building Emotional Connections to Reach New Customers. Here, we give you a brief overview of the discussion.

View the full webinar here

SheerID is the market leader in identity verification and Lufthansa is one of the world’s leading airlines. They have been working together to help Lufthansa target the student market by offering segment-exclusive offers. In the webinar, hosted by Hannah Davis from WBR, we were joined by Francois Rychlewski, Vice President of Sales EMEA, from SheerId, and Matthew Donaldson, Digital Sales Manager Asia Pacific of Lufthansa.

Francois explained that consumers are more likely to feel positive about brands that offer them exclusive discounts and helps to build emotional connections. “Specifically, we wanted to find out how they (consumers) felt about the downturn, their purchase behaviour, and what brands can do to engage,” he said.

“It was no surprise that we found consumer confidence in the economy and their willingness to spend could a difficult environment for brands. This could last at least for another year as consumers are feeling pessimistic. They are spending less across the board on everything such as clothing, software, electronics and travel. It is crucial for brands to find different ways to engage with their consumers.”

Francois continued by highlighting the importance of providing an excellent customer experience when it comes to building loyalty. However, he acknowledged that this is a challenge for many and Matthew agreed. “Being a global airline, we operate in multiple markets across the world,” Matthew said.

“We have to take into account the local requirements and still offer a product that is suitable. That is a challenge for us. How do we scale our special offers while remaining consistent across the market, so the customer knows what they are getting is not a different offer in the places they are traveling to?

“The main thing for us is that we really do try to remain consistent with our product, so the customer knows exactly what they are getting and are not going to be surprised. We also need to make sure our products are easy to access as well. And we’re doing this through our website and also working with SheerID.”

SheerID have a proven track record of helping brands to target their offers to specific segments. Once such case study involved their work with Back Market, a refurbished electronics retailer based in France. “Sustainability is a huge driver for them,” Francois added. “

This affects the purchasing decisions of their consumers who take a positive approach to environmental sustainability. Instead of doing a mass discount, Back Market has adopted an approach of tailoring their discounts to one important demographic – students - who they looked to target with a personalised offer. They launched a campaign offering a 5% discount to students and they saw a 30% increase in customer lifetime value from students.

“For Back Market, it’s all about dedicated offers, listening to what the audience wants, capitalising on the core community, and engaging them in a meaningful way.”

Lufthansa also launched its own campaign to target students. The research carried out by SheerID revealed that 64% of consumers who belong to an identity-based community such as students feel more emotionally connected to a brand that gave them exclusive offers. Despite the current economic turmoil, more than 90% of students, healthcare workers or teachers would share an exclusive offer with others who were eligible for it and 89% of students would be more likely to buy from brands with exclusive offers.

“At Lufthansa, we are specifically targeting the student segment with SheerID,” Matthew added. We know that students need to travel regardless of external factors so they are quite crisis resistant. This is why it’s a suitable target market for us.

“We offer them increased baggage allowance and more flexibility for their bookings should their travel plans change. So we know that our offer is competitive and we also benefit from the fact that students are highly likely to share our special offer with their friends and their peers. We see this quite a lot, especially across social media. This has really helped us.”

Interested to know more? Find everything you need to know about SheerID’s verification platform on their website. You can also download their recent research reports and watch the full webinar.

SheerID's research can also be accessed by scanning the below QR code.