EDITOR'S NOTE: This story was originally published by MarTech Outlook

“Price is what you pay, value is what you get,” a famous quote by Warren Buffett, strikes a chord with investors. Yet, while retail or everyday investors own more than $17 trillion in stock, they have no relationship with the brands they own and don’t receive any perks for being a shareholder. Establishing a relationship with these investors can help companies attract new consumers and new investors and encourage existing shareholders to spend more with the company and their brands.

Research conducted by Harris Poll shows that 77 percent of retail investors would like to get perks or discounts from the stocks they own, and eight out of ten consumers would buy a stock if it offered a rewards program. However, retail investors are a long-overlooked consumer audience because, before TiiCKER, there was no way to market to them and no relationship between investors and the public companies they own. On top of that, companies are unaware of the size of their retail investor base – tens of thousands up to millions of people – and how to reach them.

As the world's first shareholder loyalty platform for the 130 million people in the U.S. who invest in individual stocks, TiiCKER’s software platform verifies retail shareholders and connects public companies to their investors through exclusive perks and rewards that are served up weekly.

“We offer a completely personalized experience and an innovative way to market directly to this large and loyal audience, and the consumer investors want to connect with and get perks from the companies they own. It’s a win-win for marketers and consumers,” says Jeff Lambert, founder and CEO of TiiCKER. “Consumers and investors can create their profiles, link their brokerage accounts, trade for free, and discover and collect the rewards they qualify for based on the stocks and brands they own.”

TiiCKER's team includes investor relations, sales, marketing and software professionals, providing a diversity of perspectives. One of the brands TiiCKER partners with is Lionsgate (NYSE:LGF.A), a global movie studio and the owner of STARZ, which launched their Shareholder Red Carpet Rewards program through the TiiCKER platform. The partnership offers qualifying investors a 50% discount on a STARZ annual subscription, access to commemorative stock certificates for classic films like John Wick and even offered investors a chance to win a trip to the Los Angeles Premiere of John Wick: Chapter 4. TiiCKER also collaborates with other brands such as car enthusiast company Hagerty, food and wine brands Real Good Foods and Willamette Valley Vineyards and global brand Whirlpool, to name a few. Own Whirlpool stock? Get access to their Inside Pass employee store for shareholder-only deals on KitchenAid, Maytag, Jennair and Whirlpool home appliances.

Along with being a retail investor platform, TiiCKER is a direct-to-consumer marketing platform. With its vision to reward individual investors and convert brand champions into shareholders, TiiCKER bridges the information gap between current owners in a company and the consumer.

What delights CMOs, CEOs and CFOs is that TiiCKER serves as a resource for any brand trying to reach this previously inaccessible audience for over 130 million investors – every one of which is a consumer–creating a new way to acquire customers and drive unprecedented loyalty. Who’s more loyal than an owner? TiiCKER provides an atmosphere of mutual benefit for consumers, investor relations teams, and marketers. CMOs not only grow their CRM loyalty platforms, but also have access to valuable data that helps them personalize and drive loyalty and more consumer spending. Meanwhile investor relations officers and CFOs develop a stronger shareholder base that leads to less stock volatility, more supportive proxy voters, longer term investors, and an increase in customers who are shareholders and shareholders who are customers.