Hewlett Packard Supplies wished to support their business partners (resellers and their sales force) in marketing and sales. To raise Hewlett Packard brand awareness and product knowledge with the employees, HP intended to start a loyalty programme (dealers do sell other products too) in Austria. Goal: make employees ambassadors of the HP brand and increase turnover by 10-15%. If successful, roll out in other markets in 2003.Target group: 60 dealers with 190 employees (250 people)Successful loyalty programmes depend on the high level of involvement of all participants.This needs a vision, a mission and an ambition. Start with a high impact approach and continue with regular emotional motivation contacts. Inform regularly about targets, train people to reach them easily and motivate to try harder to improve service quality and performance.

Printer supply compares to the art market: it shows high levels of competition and successful originals are copied right away. But actually quality always stands out and pays off.The claim 'The Art of Selling' was combined with a virtual figure, Andy Merhol, sender of all messages, a star in the art of selling, with a passion for originals (like Andy Warhol).

In communication terms, art stands for: • art like artwork (copies especially colour copies, are artworks too) • art meaning know-how (to sell)Various mailing steps from the introduction of the programme to interim and final incentives. Restart in 2003 (roll out in Switzerland and Poland) with Warhol's famous artwork, 'Campbell Soup'. The mailings are supported by html-mails and a web site showing individual targets and results.

210 people or 84% of the target group enrolled and communicated regularly with Andy Merhol. The success of the 2002 programme spread over the country. For 2003, an additional 90 employees (+35%) participated in Austria.Total costs of €14,000 resulted in costs per participant of €66 a very reasonable investment, since the motivation to offer HP led to an increase in sales of 22% compared to the previous year. Loyalty, based on internal research, has increased from 80% to 87%.