Driving Brand Loyalty!

Convenience store consulting and management services are essential to supporting operational excellence and sustained growth within the retail sector. These services provide strategic insights that allow convenience stores to improve customer experience, streamline processes, and optimize product selection, enhancing their appeal to local communities. As consumer preferences shift, consulting increasingly involves utilizing data and technology to adapt services and meet growing demands for speed, accessibility, and personalized offerings. From loyalty programs to in-store experience enhancement, consulting firms guide retailers in crafting environments that meet immediate customer needs and build long-term loyalty through impactful, customer-centric innovations.

Hana Hassan, Director of Marketing and PR, brings an inspired, leading approach to her role, blending a keen understanding of brand engagement with a focus on creativity and teamwork. Hana’s passion for connecting with customers shapes her strategies, pushing her team to embrace analytical and creative processes to achieve authentic engagement. Her leadership is marked by her commitment to innovation and ability to communicate a clear vision for impactful campaigns. Through initiatives like ‘31 Days of Summer’ and partnerships with well-known brands, she nurtures a marketing culture that prioritizes customer interaction and drives memorable, loyalty-enhancing experiences.

At H&S Energy, Hana’s efforts are shaping a vibrant brand presence in the energy and convenience retail space. Known for its customer-focused approach, H&S Energy uses Hana’s data-driven strategies and her creative vision to drive growth and maintain a competitive edge. The company engages customers meaningfully beyond transactional interactions through loyalty-driven campaigns and a robust digital presence. By aligning her team’s efforts with H&S Energy’s mission, Hana is advancing the company’s brand loyalty and customer engagement goals while keeping pace with the demands of a fast-paced retail environment.

Let’s explore Hana’s customer-focused strategies for steering growth in convenience retail:

Passion for Connecting with Customers

Hana’s career journey began with a clear focus on marketing and public relations, driven by her ambition to reach the CMO level. Starting as the director of marketing at H&S Energy, she was given the responsibility of analyzing reports, implementing strategies to boost loyalty redemptions, and promoting customer engagement across multiple channels.

Throughout her role, she has emphasized the importance of teamwork, clear communication, and creativity, including leading campaigns like the ‘31 Days of Summer’ and ’25 Days of Christmas’ and collaborating with well known brands.

She has grown to enjoy the nature of the industry, where data-driven insights meet creativity, and she is now working to build a dedicated marketing team to maximize their impact. Her journey is fueled by a passion for connecting with customers and making their brand a meaningful part of their lives, which she believes is the core of effective marketing and PR.

Creating Authentic and Impactful Campaigns

She believes that innovation in marketing and PR means continuously exploring new ways to engage customers, amplify brand loyalty, and adapt to changing market trends. It’s about thinking beyond traditional strategies and using technology, data insights, and creative storytelling to deliver memorable experiences.

Hana’s philosophy on innovation has grown significantly over her career. Early on, she focused primarily on analytical approaches, but as she advanced, she saw the power of combining data with human-centered storytelling and brand partnerships to create authentic, impactful campaigns.

For instance, designing loyalty-driven events like ‘31 Days of Summer’ and collaborating with major brands for real-time sports promotions has shown her that true innovation lies in making the brand an active part of customers’ daily lives. Now, innovation means building a culture within her team that embraces experimentation and new ideas to keep them ahead in an ever-changing industry.

Utilizing Data Analytics for Marketing

Hana uses digital tools and technologies in several ways to drive innovation across PR and marketing strategies. First, she uses data analytics platforms to gain a deep understanding of customer behavior and preferences, enabling her team to tailor campaigns more effectively.

The Power Market app plays a central role, where they design in-app exclusive campaigns, like the ‘25 Days of Christmas’ and ‘Powerfest,’ to engage users with personalized offers. Push notification features allow them to connect with customers in real-time, maximizing engagement during key events, such as sports promotions.

On the social media front, she collaborates with the digital marketing team to employ targeted ads and content, reaching specific demographics with messaging that resonates. Additionally, she is exploring AI-driven tools for content optimization, enhancing their ability to respond to customer needs quickly. By combining these digital tools with traditional strategies, the company stays flexible and relevant, creating more personalized and impactful interactions with its audience.

Boosting Brand Visibility and Customer Engagement

At H&S Energy, Hana has implemented various innovative marketing strategies that have significantly boosted brand visibility and customer engagement, directly impacting company growth. One key initiative is their loyalty-driven campaigns, such as the ‘31 Days of Summer’ and ‘25 Days of Christmas,’ which offer daily deals to keep customers returning.

This strategy has increased app engagement and loyalty redemptions, bringing them closer to their goal of creating a devoted customer base. Another impactful strategy has been their collaboration with major brands, where they offer exclusive, game-based promotions that engage customers through real-time push notifications, creating excitement around sports events.

Additionally, Hana introduced a Monday Night Football promotion, providing free items in-store to drive traffic during prime time, which has resulted in positive foot traffic and incremental sales. These strategies, combined with consistent social media engagement and targeted ads, have strengthened their brand’s presence and built strong customer loyalty, ultimately supporting the company’s growth objectives.

Integrating Sustainability in Marketing

H&S Energy Group is integrating small-scale sustainability practices into its marketing by promoting app and loyalty program usage, reducing the need for printed loyalty cards and aligning with more eco-friendly options.

H&S Energy Group also prioritizes reusing signage across locations to minimize waste and save on print resources, making incremental steps toward reducing its environmental footprint. Through these efforts, it aims to support sustainable practices within its existing operations while delivering convenience and rewards that resonate with its customers.

Empowering Teams for Creative Ownership

Hana’s leadership style is collaborative and strategic. She strongly focuses on empowering her team to contribute creatively and take ownership of their roles. Early on, she concentrated heavily on setting direction and overseeing analytics. Still, as the team expanded, she adapted her approach to nurture a culture that encourages open dialogue, experimentation, and innovation.

She has learned that the best ideas often come from a mix of perspectives, so she actively seeks input and insights from each team member, whether it’s for loyalty promotions, digital marketing, or in-store campaigns. To support innovation, she ensures her team has regular brainstorming sessions where everyone can pitch new ideas, explore emerging trends, and think outside the box.

This approach has led them to experiment with unique campaigns like ‘25 Days of Christmas’ and real-time sports promotions, pushing them to create fresh, engaging customer experiences. By giving her team the freedom to innovate and the tools they need to succeed, they are constantly progressing their marketing strategies to meet their brand’s goals.

Vision for Future Marketing and PR

Her vision for the future of marketing and PR at H&S Energy Group is to create a customer-centric, data-driven approach that builds strong brand loyalty and establishes the company as a trusted name in the energy and convenience store sectors.

Hana sees the company expanding its digital and loyalty initiatives to deliver hyper-personalized offers and experiences, making the app the primary touchpoint for customer engagement. She plans to lead her team by cultivating a culture of innovation where data analytics, creative campaigns, and digital tools work together to drive their efforts.

This includes investing in real-time engagement tactics like event-driven promotions and partnerships with major brands to enhance their offers. Additionally, they will explore ways to subtly integrate more sustainable practices that resonate with their customers.

By empowering her team to embrace experimentation, actively seek out new trends, and prioritize meaningful customer interactions, she believes they will reach and exceed their growth goals and set a new standard in their industry.

Continuous Learning and Adaptability

Hana takes a proactive and adaptable approach in her leadership strategies to stay ahead of market trends and position H&S Energy Group as a leader in the industry. She prioritizes continuous learning, both for herself and her team, by regularly analyzing industry shifts, customer behaviors, and emerging technologies.

She encourages her team to stay curious, inviting them to share insights from competitors or creative campaigns they admire, which they discuss in brainstorming sessions. Additionally, she incorporates data-driven decision-making, using analytics to adjust their strategies swiftly based on performance and customer feedback.

Hana also cultivates a culture of agility, where they are quick to pilot new ideas—whether it’s real-time promotions tied to sports events or unique loyalty rewards—allowing them to respond to trends in ways that resonate with their customers.

By championing flexibility and a forward-thinking mindset, she ensures their strategies grow to meet the demands of a changing market, keeping H&S Energy Group at the forefront of innovation in the energy and convenience space.

Evaluating Team Engagement and Collaboration

She measures her success as an innovation leader by tracking a blend of quantitative and qualitative KPIs that reflect team engagement and tangible campaign results. Key performance indicators Hana focuses on include loyalty program growth, app engagement rates, and the success of new promotions in driving customer traffic and sales.

For example, tracking redemption rates in their loyalty campaigns, like ‘Powerfest’ or ‘25 Days of Christmas,’ provides insights into how well their innovative ideas resonate with customers. She also closely monitors customer feedback and app usage data, which shows if they are creating value in ways that increase brand loyalty.

On a team level, she evaluates engagement by looking at the frequency of new ideas being proposed, cross-functional collaboration, and each team member’s comfort in experimenting with creative solutions. By balancing these metrics, she can gauge not only the direct impact of their innovative efforts but also the health of a team culture that is enthusiastic about pushing boundaries and adapting to trends.

Collaboration and Diverse Perspectives

Hana advises aspiring marketers and PR professionals who want to be innovators to stay curious, be adaptable, and embrace both data and creativity. She believes the best ideas often come from being open to learning from every experience, whether it’s analyzing campaign results, observing competitor moves, or drawing inspiration from unrelated fields.

One key lesson she has learned is that innovation comes from taking calculated risks—experimenting with new ideas, even if they seem unconventional. Start small, measure results, and be ready to iterate.

Another lesson is the value of customer-centricity: “Understanding your audience deeply helps shape campaigns that genuinely resonate. Collaboration is also essential; working with diverse perspectives helps refine ideas and uncover new angles you might not consider alone.”

Lastly, stay grounded in data—successful innovation relies on using analytics to guide and refine creative efforts, making sure ideas are both exciting and effective. Embrace change, keep learning, and never be afraid to bring fresh ideas to the table.