The high school of increasing sales

The name "Boost" and the claim "Activating Shoppers, elevating sales" already define the core competence: "All our activities and services serve the goal of increasing sales," explains Alban Haas, Director Client Service Switzerland at Boost in Cham. The company offers services in three areas: shopper marketing, collectibles' promotions and loyalty programs. The story began in 1987 with Shop Display AG in Basel. Following various developments, various specialists in the shopper activation sector merged in December 2012 to form the international Boost. The company now has three branches in Switzerland, the Netherlands and Belgium. Over 150 top international brands in more than 15 countries are served from these locations. "Our goal is to become the number 1 in Europe in the next five years," explains Alban Haas. Boost already generates annual sales of around 150 million Swiss francs across Europe. And the company has already put out feelers to China and Hong Kong with two offices.

Shopper marketing

In the area of shopper marketing, Boost develops customized concepts for promotions, tastings, product sampling campaigns, roadshows, direct sales campaigns, events and exhibitions. The specialists at Boost rely on the knowledge that "only 4 percent of consumers have a clearly defined budget when they enter a store". In order to "activate" these undecided shoppers in the store, Boost has around 1000 agents in Switzerland working around 60,000 days a year. Boost employs three in-house creative departments to design its promotional materials. Boost also offers individual customer support, including inbound and outbound call services. The aim is to achieve rapid sales success as well as long-term customer relationships. In addition to Coop, the consumers of various telecommunications providers are also looked after in Cham by a total of over 100 specially trained call agents. Boost has its own training academy for coaching, product and sales training.

Loyalty programs

Everyone in Switzerland has probably already come into contact with Boost's loyalty programs. The company in Cham looks after Coop's Supercard. With over 4 million cards, 11 million orders for rewards have to be processed here. Boost also manages Air Miles, customer loyalty programs for banks and insurance companies as well as various benefit programs for employees in the B2B sector.

Collectibles' Promotions

The promotions with trading cards are aimed specifically at retailers and manufacturers of fast-moving consumer goods. Such promotions usually run for six to eight weeks. Collectibles have a positive and lasting effect on the brand image. With the help of social networks, collectibles campaigns have a very high hype potential. During the "Twistymania" campaign at Migros, tens of millions of figures were distributed to consumers in seven weeks. The "Nanomania" developed by Boost two years ago was subsequently also implemented in various countries in Europe. Increasing sales is only one aspect of such campaigns. By handing out the coveted "Jokers" exclusively on Wednesdays, retailers can also control their customer flow. Mothers whose children are desperate for a "Joker" will do their bulk shopping on Wednesdays, when people are at work. As a welcome side effect, supermarkets are not overcrowded on Saturdays when the big-spending singles and couples are shopping. Alban Haas does not see any danger of the concept dying out. The next concepts are already in the pipeline. "However, we all know that you shouldn't overdo it."

Andreas Panzeri