How COBS Bread Baked in Loyalty As a Competitive Advantage

COBS, a community-focused bakery offering bread and pastries across Canada, faced the common challenge of maintaining customer loyalty in the face of increasing competition.

Its competitors all have the advantage of scale and convenience. But COBS had its own advantage — quality. COBS just needed a way to encourage customers to try its product and keep returning for more.

After partnering with Cheetah Digital — part of CM Group and the leading cross-channel customer engagement solution provider for the modern marketer — COBS has taken its loyalty program from a punch card to a sophisticated rewards platform named COBS Club. This development enables the brand to build emotional loyalty with customers and evolve its offering for the future.

COBS Club was developed after implementing Cheetah Digital’s Customer Engagement Suite. Cheetah Digital specializes in unlocking personalized customer relationships. Thanks to this relationship marketing expertise, COBS now have big plans for its rewards program.

“Our vision is to turn COBS Club into a digital customer experience platform that transcends well beyond a point system,” says VP of Marketing & Franchise recruitment at COBS Bread, Brad Bissonette.

The key to this… a value exchange between the bakery and its customers, collecting zero-party data that allows for more personalized offers and creates emotional loyalty. This includes giving loyalty members first access to new products, discounts, and franchise-specific offers. The data gleaned from the new relationship marketing platform helped COBS better read consumer signals, particularly when it comes to developing new products and offering new services, such as remote ordering.

Its initial target was to acquire 80,000 members. After just eight weeks, it smashed that goal with 120,000 signups.

Click here to listen and learn about the COBS loyalty program