Latest news with #GenY
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
The CEO giving Keurig Dr Pepper a massive energy jolt
It's a cloudy afternoon in late March in Burlington, Mass., the Boston suburb that's the site of co-headquarters for Keurig Dr Pepper. CEO Tim Cofer—who's just dropped off his suitcase after arriving from KDP's second home base in Frisco, Texas, near Dallas—is guiding Fortune through the glass-framed modern office building which contains a warren of showrooms. One displays all 16 flavors of Dr Pepper, another shows a panoply of new energy drinks; walking down the hall we visit a gallery arraying dozens of Keurig models, from the K-Mini for dorm rooms to a business-size brewer at over $1,000. Between extolling the products in each room, the super-salesman describes the promise of this world of liquids, where he's never worked before, and his mission for KDP. Cofer is instilling the élan of a scrappy underdog in this old-line corporation of 29,000 employees. 'We're hungry, we like to disrupt; this is a challenger culture where we play offense, not defense,' he explains, while standing before a neon-rainbow rack of cans. 'There's a real sweet spot where a company's large enough to bring the scale in investment and distribution to win in a big way, but keeps the mindset of being nimble, aggressive, and continually dissatisfied with the status quo,' he says. It's what motivated Cofer to woo the 38-year-old entrepreneur who founded the popular energy drink Ghost, and in October strike a $1.65 billion deal to acquire the brand. The caffeine-like high of the Ghost tie-up exemplifies the jolt Cofer's delivering to make KDP an increasingly formidable challenger to the long-ruling kings of beverage, Coca-Cola and PepsiCo. Since joining KDP first as COO in November of 2023, then as CEO in April of last year, Cofer's been adding fast-growing, high-margin new offerings, from energy and sports hydration drinks to refreshers to ready-to-quaff iced coffees, while simultaneously supercharging the 140-year old flagship Dr Pepper as a top pick for the Instagram generation. Thanks largely to snazzy marketing that's enticed the quicksilver Gen Y and Gen Z demographic, classic Dr Pepper has raced from a distant third just a few years back to surpass regular Pepsi as the second-bestselling soft drink in North America behind Coke. In fact, KDP itself—like its signature non-cola—is a one-of-a-kind concoction, the product of a highly experimental blending of businesses. It's the sole big marketer to combine huge franchises in both hot and cold beverages. That union happened in mid-2018 via the $18.7 billion merger of Dr Pepper Snapple and coffee maker Keurig Green Mountain, making KDP by far the most diversified enterprise in nonalcoholic or 'refreshment' beverages with over 125 brands where it's an owner, investor, or distributor. The mating proved a giant success during the pandemic. As the crisis began, then-CEO Bob Gamgort, now KDP's chairman, brilliantly exploited data flowing from home coffee makers wired to data centers, deploying AI to foresee a spike in demand for coffee and bedrock soft drink brands in the sudden switch to the stay-at-home economy. Gamgort ramped up production of Dr Pepper, Canada Dry, and K-Cups, and secured big shipments of cans from Mexico well before rivals saw the wave building. But since 2022, KDP's coffee sales have flattened, pressured by a sharp rise in the cost of the raw beans that raised the price of K-Cup pods and pushed folks toward instant brands and making their own. 'Now, their crown jewel is beverage, and their problem child is coffee,' notes Connor Rattigan, an analyst at global data provider Consumer Edge. To lift KDP to Coke-and Pepsi-level profitability, Cofer needs to perform the tough, dual task of making high-margin hits on the supercompetitive soft drink side, while reheating coffee. He's got big plans for both. Though little-known for such an important CEO, Cofer spent a long pre-KDP career hopping the globe while recharging and merging many of the most celebrated brands in consumer packaged goods. The C-suite prized Cofer's knack for engineering quick turnarounds, and cycled him through jobs relatively quickly. He would typically put sales on the fast track, then get the call to move on. Cofer grew up in White Bear Lake, Minn., on the outskirts of Minneapolis/St. Paul, that's renowned as a summer resort for angling largemouth bass, and whose namesake Mark Twain described as 'lovely sheet of water.' His father started as a line foreman at a 3M ceramics plant, and rose to become a marketing SVP for overhead projectors. The romance of big business captured Tim around age 7, when he'd join his dad on Saturdays for a drive to 3M's headquarters in St. Paul. 'It instilled upon me the importance of work ethic, because my father would be the only one there. I loved walking around staring at the big desks and big offices. I became fascinated by the prototypes for the newest 3M Thermo-Fax copying machines, and would copy their design in pencil,' he recalls. On the trip home, he'd quiz his father about 3M's organizational structure and workings of its chain of command. As a student at St. Olaf College near home, Cofer got his first job as the 'arms and legs' of a local research agency. He'd visit grocery stores, clipboard in hand, count the 'facings' of Honey Nut Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and other General Mills cereals on the shelves, and record the posted prices, at $2.85 an hour. 'I soon figured out that I didn't want to be recording the data, I wanted to be on the other side, using the data to build a brand,' he recalls. In 1992, he finished his MBA as valedictorian from the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management, majoring in marketing, and took a job in Minneapolis at Kraft Foods' cold-cuts purveyor Oscar Mayer. 'I was assistant brand manager for deli meats, maybe not the sexiest of jobs,' he avows. 'But I was brand passionate, and it was great foundational learning.' In 2003, Cofer got his first break when Kraft handed him his introductory general manager role, and control of his own P&L, as chief of the European chocolate franchise that marketed such feted brands as Milka and Toblerone. Cofer relocated to London and set about instituting a dramatic restructuring mandated by headquarters: shifting authority from country managers who previously exercised full control of their businesses to the 'regional' level led by Cofer, who took the new position as European VP of chocolate. 'This disempowered the country chiefs,' says Ingeborg Gasser-Kriss, Cofer's innovation chief for Europe. 'A newly formed region category team was not something the country heads wanted.' To win Gasser-Kriss's confidence, Cofer took her on a long walk, for a heart-to-heart talk, on Vienna's famed Ringstrasse encircling the city's historical center, rich in baroque architecture. That was followed by a tour visiting all two dozen country leaders, says Gasser-Kriss. 'Tim presented business plans to all of the country teams, and we had dinner with them. He told them, 'Look, I want us all to agree that if something doesn't touch the region as a whole, you'll have all the freedom you need. But if a decision has to be made at the region category, it goes with the region.' In 2010, Kraft CEO Irene Rosenfeld, Cofer's mentor, engineered the purchase of British chocolate-maker Cadbury for $19.6 billion in one of the largest food industry transactions ever. She immediately sent Cofer—whom she'd recalled from London in 2007 to first head Oscar Mayer then the Kraft pizza business—to Zurich, to oversee the integration of Kraft and Cadbury chocolate franchises worldwide. The Cadbury deal started as a hostile takeover. 'Cadbury was an icon of Britishness from the 1800s,' says Cofer. 'They fought the takeover in the business community and the court of public opinion.' Adds Gasser-Kriss, 'Cadbury's proud team called us 'the American plastic cheese company,' that's how much they liked us at the start.' Rosenfeld had promised big synergies between the two companies to justify the deal's high price. 'Tim had to navigate through rough waters, a lot of people were nervous,' says Rosenfeld. 'He had to tell people on both sides they didn't have jobs in the organization.' Once again, it was Cofer's expertise in tough-minded diplomacy that won the day. Essential to his success was an unlikely partnership he forged with the figure heading chocolate at Cadbury, Bharat Puri. 'Two more different people you couldn't imagine,' recalls Gasser-Kriss. 'Bharat was the life of the party, had a great sense of humor, and loved jokes. Tim was a brain person. On the continuum from sincerity to fun he was much on the sincerity side. One time he showed up at an all-day meeting unshaven, without a jacket and tie, and everybody applauded. Bharat told him, 'You need to relax!'' Gasser-Kriss greatly admired how Cofer put his deep analytical abilities to work when questioning herself and other lieutenants on their project proposals that needed his approval, sans intimidation. 'He would always put his finger on the weak spot,' and that made us better, she remembers. 'He was like a precision drone in spotting things that could go wrong.' This embedded content is not available in your region. Puri recalls that despite their odd-couple chasm in personality, he and Cofer joined hands on the right strategy for merging the best of both Kraft and Cadbury to create the powerhouse in chocolate that's thriving to this day under Mondelez. Puri, who's now managing director of Indian consumer and specialty chemicals outfit Pidilite, told Fortune that, at the start of their partnership, Cofer 'was too much head and not enough heart. He would tend to be formal and shy.' Gasser-Kriss credits the gregarious Puri with helping Cofer develop a bigger public persona. 'They learned new sets of behaviors from each other,' she says. 'It wasn't that Tim was introverted, but he developed an engaging, compelling manner in the town hall mode, and may owe that to Bharat's example.' For Gasser-Kriss, Cofer showed all and sundry his affection for his brands by naming his beloved Maltese Shih Tzu Toblerone. A stint in Asia troubleshooting Mondelez's business (and overseeing the wildly successful launch of Oreo Thins) and a return to the U.S. in 2017 as head of North America under Rosenfeld, then CEO at Mondelez, had Cofer set up as the leading internal candidate to succeed her. Instead, the board awarded the prize to Belgian executive Dirk Van de Put, who'd headed McCain Foods of Canada, the world's largest producer of frozen french fries and potato specialties. 'While I was disappointed, it turned out to be a learning experience working with Dirk,' he says. Inside Mondelez, Cofer created a venture capital group called SnackFutures that proved a forerunner to the stance he's taking at KDP. The new group backed quirky entrepreneurs to commercialize such innovations as vegan chocolates and plant-based cookies, and made Mondelez a preferred partner for young, hot brands on the rise, presaging Cofer's purchase of Ghost. To measure what tastes would sell, Cofer insisted on junking the old system that relied on questionnaires and focus groups. Instead, he deployed pop-up stands at schools and farmers' markets to conduct on-the-spot taste tests for moms dropping off their kids and health-conscious shoppers cruising the fruit and veggie booths. Most of all, Cofer claims that he benefited richly by watching the divergent styles of Rosenfeld and Van de Put. 'From them, I learned the importance of situational leadership,' he relates. 'With Dirk, it was the high-level attention to detail. Irene was a master of playing the strategic chessboard, who engineered the Cadbury acquisition, which paved the way for the split from Kraft. I was able to study both styles, and choose times when it's better to bring a high level of intensity, or to step back and examine the big strategic picture.' Away from the office, Cofer's a big tennis and skiing fan. In both sports, it's been both a family and a worldwide affair. Tim's two sons, now in their twenties, were captains of their high school tennis teams, and his wife, Jodi, is also an avid player. Cofer's approach on the court will probably surprise no one. 'I play aggressive,' he says. 'I play offense, not defense. I like to rush the net,' not recklessly, he avows, but behind deep, strong approach shots. Sitting on the baseline, hitting everything back, is the antithesis of Tim's game plan for walking off the winner. The family has visited each of the four Grand Slam tournaments in New York, Melbourne, Paris, and London. They have also globe-trotted on skis, taking to the slopes in places as far-flung as Sweden, Japan, and the Czech Republic. In music, Cofer loves classic rock—rap not so much—and his hero is fellow Minnesotan Bob Dylan, whose vinyl discs entranced him as a teen in the '70s, and whom he'll fly halfway across the U.S. to catch in concert. Cofer plays the showman big-time on his video series, Taste Test With Tim, posted on the KDP website. On the episodes running around eight minutes each, he and a guest—either an insider, usually a marketing or an R&D exec, or a KDP beverage partner—sample a new offering. On the shows, Cofer rhapsodizes like a coffee and soft drink sommelier, praising 'the toasted coconut notes and creamy notes' of Dr Pepper Creamy Coconut, or the 'clean, smooth finish' and 'caramel notes' found in a blend of Green Mountain Coffee. Cofer finished one entry by joyously recapping the KDP advertising mantra, 'Brew the Love,' exhorting, 'We're brewin' the love, baby!' In 1885—one year before the birth of Coca-Cola—a pharmacy operator in Waco, Texas, famously mixed 23 syrups from his adjoining soda fountain in an experiment to re-create the drugstore's aroma. The tangy blend was Dr Pepper. For many decades, the brand was chiefly a regional favorite in the Southwest. But in 1963, a pivotal legal decision declaring that Dr Pepper isn't a cola helped take it nationwide. That landmark ruling enabled Dr Pepper to win deals where the network of Coke 'Red' and Pepsi 'Blue' regional bottlers produced and distributed the brand in sundry markets. Over the years, Dr Pepper established its own 'Maroon' system of bottlers and distributors that now cover 80% of the U.S. But Dr Pepper is still blended and shipped by Coke and Pepsi franchises in many parts of the nation. A major advantage from KDP's continuing cooperation with the two behemoths: Dr Pepper is served in restaurants and fast-food outlets where either Coke or Pepsi are the exclusive offerings. McDonald's is Coke-only for cola, and Taco Bell is Pepsi only; diners can push the dark red Dr Pepper button at both. KDP's nameplate prospers greatly from its role as the leading sponsor of college football. This will be the seventh season it's been airing ads conjuring a fantasy suburb dubbed 'Fansville' whose twin obsessions are the college gridiron and Dr Pepper. Babies emerge from the womb wearing football jerseys and sports caps. Parents bawl out their kids for hiding soccer magazines under their mattresses. Retired football star turned actor Brian Bosworth plays a sheriff chugging Dr Pepper from a quart bottle. Cofer's so all in on 'Fansville' that in December he appeared on one of his Taste Test With Tim episodes shown on YouTube at the SEC championships festooned in a Dr Pepper–labeled football jersey, declaring, 'What's more classic than home-gating and tailgating!' The trend toward ever zanier mixtures entered a new dimension with an explosion in 'dirty soda.' Such beverages gained major traction in the Mormon community, where folks who are barred by their religion from drinking alcohol or hot drinks except herbal tea took to social media announcing that they were having great fun slurping these custom bubblies at drive-in chains Swig and Sonic. In the Hulu reality series The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives, which aired last year, the players lauded dirty soda forays as 'my Mormon crack' and 'kind of our vice.' A big hit at Swig: 'Naughty & Nice,' a swirling mix of Dr Pepper, English toffee syrup, and half-and-half. By 2023, videos of youngsters touting their outlandish dirty soda recipes abounded on TikTok and Instagram. And a top choice as a canvas for this explosion in wild culinary self-expression was Dr Pepper. First to pounce was KDP. 'We realized we were in a zeitgeist moment that offered a rare opportunity to capitalize on a new cultural idea,' says Cofer. The first step came in early 2024 when marketing people at KDP huddled with the folks at Nestlé promoting its nondairy creamer Coffee Mate. Together, they crafted the first mainstream product merging the worlds of coffee creamer and soda, a pairing that was all the rage across social media. Their brainchild was Dirty Soda Coconut Lime Flavor Liquid Creamer, featuring the Dr Pepper logo on the bottle headlined by 'Mix with.' 'I approved the idea right away,' says Cofer. In May 2024, KDP introduced the first mass-market dirty soft drink in a can, Dr Pepper Creamy Coconut, which proved to be KDP's most successful limited-time offering ever. On Feb. 5, KDP followed up by launching another new flavor, this one a perennial named Dr Pepper Blackberry, which, according to analyst Rattigan, is contributing to Dr Pepper's recent gains on Pepsi and Coke. But despite the surge, KDP's profitability lags well behind that of Coke and Pepsi. Accounting expert Jack Ciesielski uses a yardstick called Cash Operating Return on Assets to assess how well companies are deploying all the capital awarded them by shareholders, excluding the effects of taxes and leverage. Last year, Coke and Pepsi registered COROA of 11.5% and 13.1%, respectively. For KDP, the figure was a relatively undistinguished 5.3%. Still, that shortfall is an opportunity. Cofer points out that total refreshment drink volume nationwide grows around 1% annually, tracking population. The key to putting the fizz in earnings: achieving a richer mix—selling a higher portion of offerings that generate extra dollars per can and bottle. Hence, he's counting on the big move into the premium territory of energy, sports hydration, ready-to-drink coffee, and refreshers to lift margins, while deploying gridiron marketing and catchy new flavors in KDP's classic brands to grab share from rivals. And finally, he's betting that the launch of K-Rounds will invigorate the lagging coffee business. Unlike the K-Cups that encase the pre-brewed coffee in plastic capsules, K-Rounds are super-densely-packed mounds of ground beans that don't have packaging; they come in a plant-based coating. Folks will pop the K-Rounds into a new Keurig coffee maker called the Alta. 'Remember, Keurigs today are in 45 million homes. We're the preeminent system, but we're willing to reprogram ourselves to provide this totally new product,' Cofer intones. 'What's really exciting is that we're willing to disrupt ourselves.' For decades, Tim Cofer worked for established giants of consumer packaged goods. But as a leader he's proving himself to be the un-cola of CEOs—and the giants had better take note. This story was originally featured on
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
This spring's commencements reflect Donald Trump's upending of norms
You've heard of Generation X, Gen Y and Gen Z. The current crop of graduates in America could well be dubbed 'Gen T' because they've spent much of their lives under the shadow of Donald Trump. For the last three presidential cycles, he has been the often caustic commander in chief or the campaigner denying his election loss, and there's no doubt he will leave a mark on a generation of young adults who have watched him smash norms, stoke division, seek retribution and ignore the Constitution and the rule of law. We witnessed the president's disregard for norms Saturday during his commencement address to the graduating class at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point while wearing a red Make America Great Again ball cap and delivering a speech that was more appropriate for a partisan political rally. But let's be clear, Trump's MAGA hat was maybe the least offensive thing about his maundering one-hour speech at the formal and typically somber West Point commencement. In a bizarre campaign-style avalanche of words that was disrespectful to the cadets and their families, he rambled about trophy wives and yachts and expressed a distasteful zeal for butchering one's enemies while addressing the men and women poised to become the next generation of leaders in the world's mightiest military. It wasn't that he didn't understand the assignment. He delivered the West Point commencement address in 2020 in a brisk 25-minute speech that focused on duty and even national unity, talking about the 'long gray line' of the institution's history. His world outlook and his leadership style have changed and along with it the futures of the graduates at West Point and everywhere else, regardless of their political leanings. Perhaps no group of 'Gen T' graduates knows that better than those at Harvard, who'll be participating in commencement Thursday as the president escalates his feud with America's oldest and most storied university. The Trump administration has frozen billions of dollars in federal research grants for Harvard, attempted to ban the university from enrolling international students and threatened to revoke its tax-exempt status, and it has directed federal agencies to cut any remaining ties to the school. The administration accuses Harvard of tolerating an antisemitic atmosphere on campus, and some conservatives have more broadly described Harvard as an incubator for aggressive liberal ideology. Harvard, for its part, is fighting back in court. The president has floated the idea of redirecting Harvard's federal funding toward trade and technical schools, which may play well with working-class voters, but Trump's team has said little about what it would do to fill the gap in health, technology, scientific or geophysical research that takes place at universities like Harvard. Railing against academic elites is red meat, but cancer research benefits people in red states as well as blue states. Not only that, but people who work in factories building ships and cars or who farm soybeans in the middle of the country are often using technologies that emerged from research labs at elite universities. This year's graduates form the most diverse cohort this country has ever produced. But they are walking into a world where the very word 'diversity' has been demonized and weaponized to cauterize the civil rights and human rights gains that should have been their true inheritance. The young people who remember the racial reckoning that followed the murder of George Floyd are graduating at a moment when the Trump administration has swiftly dismantled diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives under the claim that DEI discriminates against white people. A claim codified under executive order with absolutely no proof. 'They came through K through 12 where they learned these lessons about how you treat other people and to be accepting and how we were supposed to treat people that were different from us,' said Tressie McMillan Cottom, a professor at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and a New York Times columnist, 'only to arrive in college and find out that not only was that not the reality, but the very things they have been taught to value now makes them targets in their own country, either because they are those people, they embody those identities and those lived experiences or because they sympathize or empathize with those people.' McMillan Cottom, who spoke to me as I guest-hosted MSNBC's 'Last Word' last Friday, continued: 'So there's a sense of loss of trust, not just between generations, but I think between young people and what they think is possible for them in the United States of America. And frankly, that is heartbreaking.' McMillan Cottom notes that 'internet culture' set the stage by helping to destabilize 'the norms of what was acceptable discourse' and then Trump-style politics helped show them 'if you can get away with it, then it is normal, which ... is an absolute horrible way for social cohesion to work.' This season's graduates are marching into adulthood on new terrain and on their own terms. But on the way there, they did what young people generally do — look to adults for guidance about guardrails and decorum. And what did they see? Adults cheered a man making fun of disabled people and looked the other way when he talked about grabbing women by their private parts. In November, they saw a majority of those who voted accept and elevate a man who was twice impeached and convicted of 34 felony counts. And, since then, they've seen too many adults remain silent as an administration smashes constitutional guarantees of due process and lectures about the need for merit-based ideologies while appointing a litany of Cabinet officials who are manifestly underqualified but unquestionably loyal. Trump made significant inroads with young voters in the last election, especially college-age men. There has been a lot of analysis concerning why younger voters gravitated in his direction, but not enough about the impact his leadership will have on young people's psyches or their prospects in life. For not only are the graduates marching across stages this spring walking into a world where the norms have been upended, but they're strutting into an uncertain job market and a tumultuous economy. They and their aging baby boomer and Gen X parents are less likely than generations past, for example, to have solid health care or benefit from researched-based medical advancements. It has become clear that the real goal of this administration's chain saw approach to federal programs is not to cut waste, fraud and abuse but to provide more tax cuts for ultrawealthy Americans, an approach that will do nothing little to gild the futures of everyday American kids. Here's wishing all who are graduating, from universities, trade schools, military academies, community colleges and high schools, the best of luck. Given all the changes Trump is enacting, the path may be steeper for some than it otherwise would be. But sometimes it's easier to find one's footing when charging uphill. I hope this class discovers their best selves and creates a brand of leadership that combines courage and grit with compassion and curiosity. And I pray the adults that are presently in charge find a way to provide the opportunities in life that they all deserve. This column includes an adapted excerpt from the May 23 episode of 'The Last Word.' This article was originally published on
Forbes
21-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
How Retailers Can Engage Shoppers Across Generations In 2025
As CTO of Engage People Inc. Len Covello helps companies differentiate loyalty programs to deliver a better experience for their customers. getty It's becoming increasingly clear that members of different generations have distinctly different shopping habits— and thus, different preferences for what they want from retail loyalty programs. For retailers, it can be difficult to navigate how to effectively tailor products, offerings and even communications to satisfy the needs of shoppers, no matter their age. One thing is clear, though. Regardless of generation, loyalty program members want to maximize program value through monetary benefits. According to Deloitte, "eight out of 10 consumers said earning and redeeming financial rewards was the most important attribute when looking for a loyalty program." While financial rewards are top of mind across the board, there are generational differences that retailers should be aware of and tap into. Below is a look at what the data shows and how retailers can implement strategies to foster loyalty across generations. Various factors are causing consumers to abandon even their most beloved brands. It often comes down to cost savings, convenience and finding better deals elsewhere, but there are also challenges within loyalty programs themselves that can cause members to disengage. Out of all generations, Baby Boomers are the least loyal, according to WorldPay. Their research found that personalization, rewards that don't expire and the ability to redeem across retailers are the most important attributes of loyalty programs for this generation. Retailers looking to capture engagement from Boomers should plan their perks and communications accordingly if they want to fuel engagement. Keep in mind that unclear rules can also lead older loyalty members to disengage. When it comes to younger generations, particularly Millennials, they're looking for rewards with a deeper meaning, Worldpay found, and members of Gen X through Gen Y crave rewards that aren't linked to spend. For younger generations who want to use their points to make an impact and older generations who want to use their points across the retail ecosystem, 'pay with points' could be the ticket to fueling engagement. My company recently commissioned a survey with The Wise Marketer and found that 78% of those surveyed would engage in loyalty programs more if they could exchange points for cash-like value. This gives customers across generations more choice, similar to what they'd expect from cashback incentives, while keeping an intimate connection with the rewards and the retailer. Experiential rewards, where brands reward loyalty members for participating in various brand-aligned activities, are on the rise. But that doesn't mean everyone has bought into them. While experiential rewards are useful for engaging millennials and Gen Z, older consumers focus more on immediate financial benefits. In addition, younger consumers show a stronger preference for experiential benefits and novel customer experiences, according to the Deloitte research cited above. They want stronger digital capabilities and a sense of community. These are just a few areas that indicate members of each generation have different preferences and needs when it comes to loyalty programs. Breaking this down further, loyalty program basics like discounts and promotions are demanded by members of the Silver Generation, particularly those age 70 and older, whereas members of Gen Z want access to quality products. Considering loyalty program participants' diverse needs and demands, it's more important than ever that retailers adopt omnichannel experiences. This ensures that each member has a streamlined shopping experience regardless of how they engage—whether in-store or through email, which is preferred by older generations, or on social media and via apps for younger members. The good news for retailers is that they don't have to pull out all the stops to appease every member of every generation. Trying to please everyone dilutes brand identity. It's important to focus on core customer segments while ensuring inclusiveness, and there are a few strategies to consider to find that balance. One is to evolve loyalty programs with new tools to engage effectively with target customer segments. This includes leveraging AI to inform tailored messages and offers. AI recommendations can help ensure that promotions remain relevant across members of different age groups. In addition, tools like AI-powered chat, personalized push notifications and interactive mobile experiences can build up engagement among younger generations who prefer to interact digitally. That's in addition to user-generated content and gamification. Brands looking to ramp up digital engagement should consider the plethora of tools at their disposal. Gamification, for example, helps fuel a sense of belonging, which younger consumers crave. When it comes to earning and redeeming, instant is best. Allowing customers to leverage their rewards instantly at the point of sale can increase engagement, whether that's through paying with points, redeeming via a gift card or earning cashback. These days, brand loyalty is not a given. Retailers have to work hard to keep their core customers engaged while opening doors for new pools of customers across generations to try their products and services. 2025 is a year for testing and learning, investing more in meeting the demands of core segments while offering diverse options that invite other generations to the table. While testing and learning, one thing is certain: Retailers must remember that amid ongoing economic uncertainty, offering strong financial rewards as part of their loyalty programs is key. That's something members across all generations want. Without it, loyalty programs will fall flat. Forbes Technology Council is an invitation-only community for world-class CIOs, CTOs and technology executives. Do I qualify?
Courier-Mail
21-05-2025
- Business
- Courier-Mail
From penniless to property mogul: Rate cuts fuel migrant's success
A migrant who arrived in Australia eights years ago with barely a penny to his name, has shared how timely interest rate cuts helped him purchase 11 homes in just five years – all before the age of 40. On his son's second birthday in July 2017, Rohit Gehlot made the heartbreaking but necessary journey from India to Sydney in search for a better life for his family and to progress his IT career. He arrived with just $7000 to his name, was unemployed and his only connection in the country was his cousin. Despite initial financial struggles, including requiring a $20,000 loan from his cousin to cover living expenses, Mr Gehlot persevered and arranged for his wife and children to join him in Australia. By February 2018, after an initial job loss, he had secured work at Commonwealth Bank, allowing him to stabilise his finances and repay his debt. MORE NEWS Gen Y investor resigns at 28 with $6m empire '$7.7b cost': Why stubborn Aussies could lose fortune Surprise way to make $100k from a vending machine Only spending his income on necessities, the father of two estimates he saved around 60 per cent to 70 per cent of his wages. 'I got my first salary from CBA on March 25, 2018 and using that I repaid all my debt and after that I started saving. Previous salaries from previous employment helped me only pay some. So, I got debt free in March 2018,' Mr Gehlot recalls. 'I remember that on my birthday in April, 2018, we went to a restaurant in Harris Park, an Indian restaurant, which was the first time we went out since arriving in Australia. Until then, we never had a single meal outside. 'We spent $48 and for the next couple of days we kept talking about how much money we had spent…but from there, life started picking up.' Interest rate cuts property journey With his work contract renewed soon thereafter, which also brought with it a handsome pay increase, Mr Gehlot was finally in a position to think about homeownership. In early 2019, Mr Gehlot managed to secure a 10 per cent deposit for his first home by withdrawing funds from his provident fund in India, similar to superannuation. With the assistance of a mortgage broker, he received pre-approval for a loan, combining around $30,000 from his provident fund and savings for the deposit. 'In May 2019, I ended up buying a home in Kellyville and this property was bought for $900,000 – a property that would now be with around $1.9m, easily,' he said. 'At the time, I didn't know anything about property and the only thing I did know was that we were 600m from the train line.' Mr Gehlot signed his first property contract just days before the Labor Government was elected in 2019 and nine days before Sydney Metro Northwest started operations, 'Timings worked out perfectly well in my favour and from August 2019, we started seeing rate cuts which shot the market up again.' MORE NEWS: Warning over RBA cut: Aussies to cop major blowback In 2019, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates on several occasions, the first on June 4, which lowered the cash rate to 1.25 per cent. Following this, there were additional cuts on July 2, (to 1 per cent), October 1, 2019 (to 0.75 per cent), and finally on December 3, 2019 (no change). Mr Gehlot said the consecutive cuts played a big factor in growing his property portfolio over the following 18 months. 'It helped, for sure, because it left more money in my pocket. So even if people don't want to buy more homes, they can pay off their mortgage loans faster because they have more disposable incomes.' From small things, big things grow When Covid hit, Mr Gehlot used his extra free time to research property financing by listening to podcasts and following property gurus on a number of streaming platforms. It inspired him to gauge a better understanding of the property market which motivated the father to seek alternative lending opportunities. '(A) broker from the eastern suburbs in Sydney got in touch with me and told me that by using a non-banking lender, I could borrow around $400,000 due to interest rates dropping,' he said. On January 21, Mr Gehlot purchased his first investment property in Brisbane which he leased for $430 a week. Only six months later, after helping his wife secure a minimum-wage job to help with lending approval, the couple purchased a second investment property for $310,000, which they later leased for $380 a week. MORE NEWS: Bank's shocking rate cut refusal Mr Gehlot's borrowing capacity meant he could purchase another two properties in Perth and, by the end of 2021, his portfolio had amassed to five investment properties, including his principal place of residence. By the end of June 2022, he ended up buying three more properties in Mackay and Townsville, taking his investment portfolio to eight properties. This number grew to 11 last year, following the purchase of three more properties in Sydney and Melbourne, taking the worth of Mr Gehlot's property portfolio to $10.7m. He's also since become an accredited buyer's agent, helping others on their property journey through his business InvestorAid. 'I bought my first property when I was 34 and before I turned 40, that (number grew to) 11,' he said. 'I think migrants are good with property investing because…they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 'When you don't have anything to lose, you just take chances because the worst outcome is that you just go back to where you started. 'But you also have to have a hunger to establish yourself…and even if you can't yet purchase a property, you can do your homework, you can do your research and you can get prepared financially and save a deposit.'
Mercury
20-05-2025
- Business
- Mercury
From penniless to property mogul: Rate cuts fuel migrant's success
A migrant who arrived in Australia eights years ago with barely a penny to his name, has shared how timely interest rate cuts helped him purchase 11 homes in just five years – all before the age of 40. On his son's second birthday in July 2017, Rohit Gehlot made the heartbreaking but necessary journey from India to Sydney in search for a better life for his family and to progress his IT career. He arrived with just $7000 to his name, was unemployed and his only connection in the country was his cousin. Despite initial financial struggles, including requiring a $20,000 loan from his cousin to cover living expenses, Mr Gehlot persevered and arranged for his wife and children to join him in Australia. By February 2018, after an initial job loss, he had secured work at Commonwealth Bank, allowing him to stabilise his finances and repay his debt. MORE NEWS Gen Y investor resigns at 28 with $6m empire '$7.7b cost': Why stubborn Aussies could lose fortune Surprise way to make $100k from a vending machine Only spending his income on necessities, the father of two estimates he saved around 60 per cent to 70 per cent of his wages. 'I got my first salary from CBA on March 25, 2018 and using that I repaid all my debt and after that I started saving. Previous salaries from previous employment helped me only pay some. So, I got debt free in March 2018,' Mr Gehlot recalls. 'I remember that on my birthday in April, 2018, we went to a restaurant in Harris Park, an Indian restaurant, which was the first time we went out since arriving in Australia. Until then, we never had a single meal outside. 'We spent $48 and for the next couple of days we kept talking about how much money we had spent…but from there, life started picking up.' Interest rate cuts property journey With his work contract renewed soon thereafter, which also brought with it a handsome pay increase, Mr Gehlot was finally in a position to think about homeownership. In early 2019, Mr Gehlot managed to secure a 10 per cent deposit for his first home by withdrawing funds from his provident fund in India, similar to superannuation. With the assistance of a mortgage broker, he received pre-approval for a loan, combining around $30,000 from his provident fund and savings for the deposit. 'In May 2019, I ended up buying a home in Kellyville and this property was bought for $900,000 – a property that would now be with around $1.9m, easily,' he said. 'At the time, I didn't know anything about property and the only thing I did know was that we were 600m from the train line.' Mr Gehlot signed his first property contract just days before the Labor Government was elected in 2019 and nine days before Sydney Metro Northwest started operations, 'Timings worked out perfectly well in my favour and from August 2019, we started seeing rate cuts which shot the market up again.' MORE NEWS: Warning over RBA cut: Aussies to cop major blowback In 2019, the Reserve Bank of Australia cut interest rates on several occasions, the first on June 4, which lowered the cash rate to 1.25 per cent. Following this, there were additional cuts on July 2, (to 1 per cent), October 1, 2019 (to 0.75 per cent), and finally on December 3, 2019 (no change). Mr Gehlot said the consecutive cuts played a big factor in growing his property portfolio over the following 18 months. 'It helped, for sure, because it left more money in my pocket. So even if people don't want to buy more homes, they can pay off their mortgage loans faster because they have more disposable incomes.' From small things, big things grow When Covid hit, Mr Gehlot used his extra free time to research property financing by listening to podcasts and following property gurus on a number of streaming platforms. It inspired him to gauge a better understanding of the property market which motivated the father to seek alternative lending opportunities. '(A) broker from the eastern suburbs in Sydney got in touch with me and told me that by using a non-banking lender, I could borrow around $400,000 due to interest rates dropping,' he said. On January 21, Mr Gehlot purchased his first investment property in Brisbane which he leased for $430 a week. Only six months later, after helping his wife secure a minimum-wage job to help with lending approval, the couple purchased a second investment property for $310,000, which they later leased for $380 a week. MORE NEWS: Bank's shocking rate cut refusal Mr Gehlot's borrowing capacity meant he could purchase another two properties in Perth and, by the end of 2021, his portfolio had amassed to five investment properties, including his principal place of residence. By the end of June 2022, he ended up buying three more properties in Mackay and Townsville, taking his investment portfolio to eight properties. This number grew to 11 last year, following the purchase of three more properties in Sydney and Melbourne, taking the worth of Mr Gehlot's property portfolio to $10.7m. He's also since become an accredited buyer's agent, helping others on their property journey through his business InvestorAid. 'I bought my first property when I was 34 and before I turned 40, that (number grew to) 11,' he said. 'I think migrants are good with property investing because…they have nothing to lose and everything to gain. 'When you don't have anything to lose, you just take chances because the worst outcome is that you just go back to where you started. 'But you also have to have a hunger to establish yourself…and even if you can't yet purchase a property, you can do your homework, you can do your research and you can get prepared financially and save a deposit.'
