Telecom Companies Strengthen Membership... KT Launches Customized Membership Commerce Service

[Asia Economy Reporter Seulgina Cho] KT has launched a commerce service that enables its membership customers to receive personalized product recommendations and make purchases. This move follows a trend among mobile carriers to revamp their membership programs, which had been criticized for low utilization amid changing consumption patterns due to COVID-19.

On the 21st, KT announced the launch of a personalized commerce service called 'Madeullan (Mindfully Selected Online Benefits)'. Madeullan recommends products based on KT membership customers' usage history and preference data, and allows customers to use membership points for additional discounts when purchasing products.

First, KT is collaborating with the ice cooler brand ‘Bamkel Outdoor’ to release a limited edition collaboration product, the ‘KT Membership Madeullan Special Edition Bamkel Square Water Cooler Jug (limited to 1,000 units)’ for the summer season in July. The limited edition water cooler jug, normally priced at 128,000 KRW, will be sold from 10 a.m. on the 27th for 108,000 KRW. If customers use 10,000 KT membership points, they can purchase it for about 78,000 KRW, a discount of approximately 39%.

Earlier, KT identified that the most selected keywords by customers through the 'Taste Capture' service in the membership application were 'healing' and 'camping'. In June, KT launched the Taste Capture service in the membership app, which recommends personalized promotions by saving individual preferences and anniversaries, and has expanded benefits such as 'Double Discount Special' and 'Franchise Cafe - Media Content Subscription Service' partnerships.

An event to celebrate the launch of Madeullan will also be held. Among customers who sign up for SMS alerts on the purchase start date, 10 will be selected by lottery to receive a newly released camping tumbler mug from Bamkel Outdoor. Additionally, the first 200 customers who purchase using KT Membership’s ‘My Account Payment’ will receive Starbucks coffee coupons.

Recently, the mobile telecommunications industry has been expanding and revamping services based on memberships. SK Telecom is reorganizing its existing T Membership, which was mainly focused on partner discounts, and plans to launch a 'Marketing Platform Service' in August tailored to changing customer consumption trends. LG Uplus has also introduced 'Subscription Kok', which provides monthly subscription service partner benefits such as shopping, reading, and convenience stores to U+ Membership customers through the 'My Kok' service.

This reflects an effort to incorporate post-COVID-19 changed consumption patterns into membership programs while linking with the growing subscription economy, aiming to maximize customer retention and lock-in effects.

Park Hyoil, Senior Executive Director of KT’s Customer Experience Innovation Division, said, “KT Membership has provided differentiated personalized services to customers through various collaboration models with partners. Starting with summer camping products introduced this time, we plan to continuously offer customer-tailored benefits based on membership big data and differentiated membership experiences.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.