BP Turns to Text to Increase Customer Loyalty

CHICAGO — BP is on a mission to understand its customers' taste for technology.

As part of this mission, the fuels company has rolled out a texting-based pilot program called BP Offers. Launched at the start of this month, BP Offers easily enables BP customers to join by simply texting "MOBILE" to 38831. Once BP Offers members, they start receiving personalized messages, interactive games, and discount codes directly to their phone.

The importance of the loyalty side of the fuels business cannot be overstated, which is why BP is making a push to its customers through text.

"All of the communications we send will be based on cents-per-gallon discount codes. The first one we sent was a bit more generic; there was a really fun, kind of spin-to-win game that you could just play on your phone and you could win a different level of cents-per-gallon reward," Jo Brecknock, director of US Fuels Brand & Communications for BP, told Convenience Store News, noting that more interactive games are in the works.

"Once we get a bit more into the program, we'll target those messages based on someone’s transaction history. So, depending on whether we're going to pull them back in to buy more fuel at BP, or just want to reward them for coming to BP regularly," Brecknock added.

As Brecknock pointed out, BP is not alone in its desire to get closer to the customers who go to its sites and buy its products, and to understand the best way to go about effectively building relationships with these consumers. 

"It's a really tricky balance of inserting the brand into the consumers' lives vs. the consumer inviting us in. Particularly in the case of a fuels brand. What we're trying to test here is if texting is potentially one of those preferred channels that consumers would like to use to engage with BP," Brecknock explained. "[We're] trying to test if consumers — specifically the younger consumers that come to BP sites — whether they're more interested in engaging with brands through different types of technology."

BP seeks to gain loyalty through doling out limited-time offers and cents-off-per-gallon discounts as rewards for consumer-brand interactions, according to Christy Ford, brand manager, Interactive Marketing for BP, further articulating the idea behind BP Offers. 

"Really, the message is around getting [consumers] engaged with our site and then rewarding them for engaging with our site," Ford told CSNews. "There will be some fun ways that we'll be able to test giving different types of offers to consumers."

BP will primarily promote the BP Offers program onsite using point-of-purchase (POP) signage. The company will also tap social media, email, and digital advertising on mybpstation.com.

Getting the word out, however, is just part of the battle. Once consumers join BP Offers, the question remains whether or not they'll be active participants in the texting loyalty program. If it works, BP will continue the program; if it doesn't, the company will set about finding a channel that proves more appealing to its customers.

"We're super keen to see if consumers like [BP Offers]. That's really why we're doing this. We're building some learning in the first six months," explained Brecknock. 

"Based on if we're able to acquire consumers into the database, if we see consumers engaging with BP through this channel and, obviously importantly, if we see fuel volume increasing as a result… those are the things we would consider when we think about continuing this as a channel of communication," Brecknock continued. "We always have more ideas, and are definitely looking at different channels of communications and different ways of getting consumers to engage. There will definitely be things coming."

BP plc is an oil and gas producer. Its Chicago-based North American division employs approximately 18,000 people across all 50 states.