Adopt feel good PR with random acts of kindness
Author: CIMCOM
Peace campaigner Ann Hebert is credited with writing this mantra on a restaurant placemat in the 1980s: "Practice random kindness and senseless acts of beauty."
Random acts of kindness have long been a feature of our culture but only more recently have they been seen as a means to enhance the customer experience and build brands.
Diverse brands have taken a stance and surprised customers with kind gestures. Take inspiration from these three examples from the retail, education and travel sectors. With Worldwide Random Acts of Kindness Day coming up on 13 November 2015, could your brand mark the occasion with a selfless gesture or two, to delight customers?
Retail: complimentary coffee with Prêt a Manger
This year UK sandwich chain Prêt a Manger empowered its staff to give away free drinks and food. The nation is mad on hot drinks. We consume 1.7billion cups of coffee a year from 18,000 outlets according to consultancy, Allegra Strategies. For Prêt a Manger with sales of just a million cups of coffee a week in 2014, it’s an area that’s set to grow.
Since the chain’s gratis scheme began, approximately 28% of customers have received free food or drink at some time. These random acts of kindness don’t require any costly or cumbersome loyalty card collection mechanic or points scheme. Instead they motivate staff and reward customer loyalty. Sales at Prêt a Manger grew by 16% last year. This is just one of several initiatives geared towards driving future growth.
Education: hugs and a buzz at University of South Wales
Student on campus at the University of South Wales were offered flowers, snacks and even hugs by student brand ambassadors. It was timed to coincide with International Random Acts of Kindness Week. Each day videos were recorded and released on social media. The videos were designed to raise awareness, showcase the campus to prospective future students and reinforce the decision to select the university for those students who had already applied.
Watch the video: Random Acts of Kindness Week Highlights – University of South Wales
The Random Acts of Kindness Campaign received a Gold Awards as Best Low Budget Initiative in the Education Heist awards.
Air travel: 1m twitter impressions from KLM’s 40 gifts
With incredible attention to detail KLM provided 40 travellers with gifts tailored to their interests as they checked in to fly, as part of the ‘KLM Surprise’ campaign in 2010. The airline searched Twitter and Foursquare for mentions of people due to travel with KLM and then flight attendants presented a suitable gift when they arrived at the airport, matching gifts to their social media profile. A man travelling to Mexico as a volunteer to build houses was provided with muscle ointment and bandages. An elderly lady who was travelling on her own was upgraded to a first class seat. A woman interested in sports was given a watch that tracks distance and speed.
The KLM Twitter feed was viewed a million times and the brand created a video of customer reactions.
Take a look at the video: KLM Surprise
How could you brand mark these dates?
- Worldwide Random Acts of Kindness Day
13 November 2015
- Random Acts of Kindness Week
14-20 February 2016
- Random Act of Kindness Day USA
17 February 2016