How we used customer data, segmentation and channel strategy to move Nando's members from web to app.

Nando's Malaysia was moving its loyalty programme into its app. From launch, members could only earn reward points through the app, meaning the brand needed to move a large existing customer base onto a new behaviour. The challenge was that most of the member base had never opened the app.

Nando's already had the customer data in Netcore, giving us a strong foundation to understand different customer groups and determine how each should be approached.

Our role was to turn that data into a practical CRM strategy across email, WhatsApp, push and on-site communication, from audience segmentation and campaign sequencing through to copy, creative and campaign optimisation.

‍

The Challenge

The brand was not simply trying to acquire new app users. It needed to change the behaviour of an existing customer base. Three things made that difficult.

A large non-app customer base: roughly seven in eight members had never opened the app. The brand therefore had a large pool of known customers, but very little app behaviour to work with.

A loyalty mechanic was changing: members were used to earning points through web checkout. After the relaunch, points could only be earned in the app. The communication therefore needed to explain a behavioural change without creating anxiety around existing points and rewards.

Existing email engagement was weak: email gave the brand broad reach, but the customer base had shown consistently low click engagement. Sending more email was not necessarily going to solve the migration problem.

The opportunity was to use customer data to determine who should receive what message, through which channel, and at what point in the journey.

‍

From One Customer Base To Different Customer Journeys

Rather than treating the entire database as one audience, we used the available customer data to identify higher-value cohorts within the non-app population. One priority segment combined four conditions.

no app activity
phone number available
above average order value
recent purchase activity

That gave us a practical audience for WhatsApp, where the communication could be more direct and immediate. The wider non-app base continued to receive email for reach and reinforcement.

The principle was simple. Do not optimise the message before you optimise who receives it.

The CDP allowed us to move from a broadcast approach towards a more targeted CRM strategy.

‍

‍

Reframing The Campaign Around The Customer

The original campaign direction focused heavily on the benefits of using the app. We challenged that approach. For an existing member who had never used the app, an app-only deal was not necessarily relevant. Their immediate concern was more likely to be a different question: what happens to the points I already have?

So we changed the communication sequence.

1. Explain the change: tell members what is changing and reassure them that their existing points are safe.

2. Build awareness: use subsequent communication to reinforce the move and create familiarity with the app.

3. Introduce the reward: once the customer understands the change, introduce the benefits and rewards available through the app.

4. Drive the action: use the most relevant channels and audience segments to push customers towards the app.

This shifted the campaign from promoting an app to managing a customer behaviour change.

‍

‍

Channel Strategy: WhatsApp Against Email

The biggest learning came from comparing channel performance across different customer segments. For the higher-value non-app cohort, WhatsApp significantly outperformed email.

WhatsApp
around six in ten opened it
six percent clicked
roughly forty times the click rate of the best performing email
about one install per sixty delivered messages

Email
around a fifth opened it
under a fifth of one percent clicked
fewer than one install per ten thousand delivered messages

The audiences were not identical, so this should not be treated as a controlled channel experiment. But the size of the difference gave us a clear strategic signal.

The best channel for reaching a customer is not necessarily the best channel for moving them.

That insight changed how we approached the next stage of the CRM programme.

‍

‍

Email Delivered Reach, Not Action

Email was not useless. It was effective at generating reach and awareness, but it struggled to generate action from this particular audience. Across five sends, delivery remained around ninety five to ninety eight percent, open rates ranged from roughly a tenth to a quarter of the base, and click rates stayed below a fifth of one percent.

Changing the framing could increase attention. Announcing the loyalty change generated roughly sixty seven percent more opens than pitching the app benefit to a similar audience. But the improvement in opens did not translate into meaningful clicks.

That told us the problem was not simply the copy. The bigger opportunity was channel and audience selection.

Rather than continuing to optimise broadcast email indefinitely, the next opportunity became behaviour-led lifecycle communication.

‍

Turning Campaign Data Into A CRM Strategy

The value of the engagement went beyond the individual campaign. The work surfaced several opportunities across the wider customer journey.

Audience strategy: identify high-value customers within the non-app population and prioritise them for higher-intent channels.

Lifecycle journeys: move from one-off broadcast campaigns towards journeys triggered by customer behaviour and engagement.

Identity: close the gaps where customers could not be properly matched across the loyalty and app experience.

Experience: three app experience findings, documented with recommendations for improving the migration journey.

Programme optimisation: a wider programme audit identifying additional opportunities across six areas of the customer journey.

Four interventions were raised outside the original campaign brief, with two subsequently adopted.

The campaign therefore became more than an acquisition push. It gave Nando's a clearer understanding of how different customer segments should be communicated with throughout their lifecycle.

‍

The Outcome

By the end of the campaign window:

+25%
approximate growth in members who had opened the app

2.5x
first app launches in the seven days following relaunch, against the preceding seven days

40x
higher click rate from WhatsApp than the best performing email

+67%
more opens when announcing the change than pitching the benefit to a similar audience

More importantly, the campaign established a clearer CRM direction.

Segment the audience. Match the channel. Sequence the message. Learn from behaviour.

The next phase moved towards behaviour-led lifecycle journeys rather than relying primarily on broadcast communication.

‍

What We Delivered

CDP and segmentation: used existing customer data to identify priority cohorts and build more relevant audiences.

CRM strategy: designed the communication journey around customer behaviour rather than simply promoting product benefits.

Email and WhatsApp: developed and executed communications across multiple customer touchpoints.

Campaign optimisation: used campaign performance to identify where the real constraint sat, whether audience, channel or messaging.

Customer journey strategy: identified identity, app experience and lifecycle opportunities beyond the original campaign scope.

‍

The Takeaway

Nando's did not need more messages. It needed a smarter way to decide which customer should receive which message, through which channel, and when.

By combining CDP data with CRM strategy and campaign optimisation, we helped turn a broad app migration campaign into a more targeted customer engagement programme.

That is where a CDP becomes valuable. Not just storing customer data, but turning it into better decisions across the customer journey.

‍

About the figures. Figures cover one campaign as the customer data platform reported it. The first app launch comparison covers a seven day window against the seven days immediately before it. The WhatsApp and email audiences were not identical and no send ran as a split test, so channel and framing differences are observed rather than controlled results. Reward points became earnable only in the app at relaunch, so the movement in app adoption reflects the loyalty change as well as the campaign. Absolute revenue, order, customer and audience volumes are held back for client confidentiality.