Category — Loyalty Marketing

Nickel Treats, Pret A Manger and Showroom Showtime. A British fast-food restaurant with a French name hopes to build loyalty across the United States with a special focus on customer service.

Pret A Manger, which translates into “ready to eat,” starts by giving prospective hires a six-hour trial run, followed by a Survivor-style vote by co-workers. The 90 percent who make the cut are given “a thick binder of instructions” that tells them, among other things, to always be busy, sometimes give out free goodies to regulars and always share their “true character” with customers … read >>

The Hub Magazine, Vol. 7, Issue 45. The entire issue of Nov/Dec 2011 edition of The Hub Magazine, centered on loyalty, featuring a cover story interview with Steve Pinetti of Kimpton Hotels & Restaurants.

Also featuring a roundtable on loyalty at retail, with Terry Sutton of LL Bean, Ruby Anik of JC Penney, Cammie Cannella of Kiehl’s, Russell Winer of New York University and Spencer Hapoienu of Insight Out of Chaos and 13 other articles. download pdf >>

Technology is no substitute for shopper-focused collaboration. By Spencer L. Hapoienu. How often do you get an offer that is truly relevant to you? What percentage of the offers that you receive online or in the mail are actually of interest? Of the billions of dollars spent by manufacturers and retailers on marketing, it’s likely that less than five percent of the money spent is actually customer-specific and relevant.

With all of the technology and data horsepower available to track purchases, behavior, and lifestyles — which makes it so much easier than ever before to know which customers fall into which categories and to market to them with specific offers and creative messaging — retailer-manufacturer partnership marketing is still way down on the list of priorities and way down on the percent of dollars invested … read>>

Burger King treats its fans to a new kind of dining experience. An exclusive Q&A interview with North American president Chuck Fallon by Tim Manners. Loyalty to Burger King might be defined as enjoying a Whopper for lunch every day. That would make Chuck Fallon a loyalist for sure, because that’s what he so often has — with cheese but no mayonnaise (yes, he has it his way).

However, for most people — anyone who, unlike Chuck, is not the company’s North American president — loyalty may not be so easily defined.

But Chuck well remembers what deep-seated loyalty feels like. He recalls that when he was eight, and growing up in Texas, his parents let him ride his bike to the neighborhood Burger King all by himself. The emotional pull of that memory endures to this day … read >>

Creating loyalty is tougher than ever. Or is it? A discussion featuring Dr. Byron Sharp of Ehrengberg-Bass Institute, Rob BonDurant of Patagonia, Ryan Green of Soutwest Airlines and Beth Ann Kaminkow of TracyLocke.

Are consumers less loyal today than they were five years ago?

If the supermarket doubles the number of brands it carries, that does not mean that people massively increase the size of their repertoires. They can still get through a modern supermarket in 15 minutes. They do that by being exceptionally loyal and looking out for the brands they usually buy … read >>

A weight-loss app could be the gold standard for building loyalty. By Spencer L. Hapoineu. How do you lose 110 pounds without dieting and increase customer loyalty at the same time? Through information that’s fun to access — no points required.

All Lose It does is provide the user with information that calculates the calories burned from every form of exercise — no matter if it’s the serious kind like running, weightlifting and Pilates, or the banal forms of everyday living like housework and vacuuming … read >>

Advocacy is the new currency in today’s socially-networked world. By Liz Crawford. Every day we read about the ways technology is changing how we live and shop. For me, the most interesting aspect of digital marketing is the advent of new forms of currency.

There have already been discussions about emerging currencies in a digital world. In the book, The Attention Economy, Herbert Simon, a Nobel Prize-winning economist states: “What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention” … read >>

The path to brand loyalty runs through positioning and spending effectiveness. By Jim Gabriele. In today’s uncertain economic environment, meeting the demands of consumers, customers and Wall Street analysts is no easy task.

To grow profit in this environment, consumer packaged-goods companies face a stark choice: volume-driven earnings growth or cost cutting. Too often, companies choose the latter … read >>

Values now define consumer loyalty. By John Gerzema. As America emerges from the worst economic calamity since the Great Depression, all the artificial demand based on the value of inflated assets and a mirage of wealth has disappeared. But in the space opened by the crisis, our society is rediscovering its strength by reappraising its consumerism.

We are moving from mindless to mindful consumption, where values now define consumer loyalty. In this new climate, “consumers” become “customers” and, more important, “people” whose needs mandate that companies deliver value and values. And like-minded businesses are mashing up old-fashioned American virtues with progressive technologies to form a solid foundation that is remaking capitalism, and America for the better … read >>

New habits and old traditions create emotional loyalties among holiday shoppers. By Seth Diamond. The holiday season is a beautiful time of year. A renewed focus on traditions and other activities anchor us as families, communities, and society as a whole. Hope and optimism — or at least a willingness to suspend our cynicism — returns, at least for a short period of time.

A natural tension between the traditions we hold near and dear and the newest “shiny object” that we (or our children) desire to bring into our households — whether it’s dolls, toys, games, electronics or something else — allows us to make new memories … read >>

Keeping customers means adding value in new and inventive ways. By Randi Moore. Shopper satisfaction is critical to building loyalty, which is why retailers have built extensive loyalty program infrastructures.

However, when these programs reward shoppers on transaction history alone, they can create the wrong expectations. Only when retailers overlay insights into who their core shoppers are, and what motivates them, can they begin down a clearer path to loyalty … read >>

Loyalty is the connective tissue between the steps in a consumer’s journey. By Eric Pakurar. Whenever my family and I make one of our regular visits to the local ice cream parlor, I make sure we are served by Lisa.

One night, facing long lines at the ice cream shop, we walked out of the store when we saw Lisa wasn’t working. It just wasn’t worth it. How did it come to this? … read >>

Hispanics and loyalty is more complicated than most marketers realize. By Will Minton. Over the past several years, marketers have shown an increasing interest in understanding the Hispanic consumer in order to leverage the community’s explosive growth and purchasing power (estimated to be $1 trillion).

In our review of available data, there appeared to be an absence of focus in understanding the topic of building retailer and brand loyalty for Hispanic shoppers. We, therefore, conducted primary research at several Hispanic festivals delving specifically into brand and retailer loyalty … read >>

A new tracking study reveals insights into Hispanics as shoppers. By Noemi Ricalo. Much has been made about the stunning impact that Census 2010 will have on Hispanic marketing — but what does that mean for serving the Hispanic shopper?

Understanding the Hispanic shopper purchase behaviors, origins and passions is the cost-of-entry with this influential demographic. I have some insider insights and high-level recommendations to share, and will be quizzing you on your Español* later in the article! … read >>

How do marketers feel about their own privacy? An executive summary of a Reveries.com survey. Because privacy and loyalty are kind of like the yin and yang of marketing, we decided to ask our senior-level marketer readership how they feel about their privacy — but as consumers, not marketers.

The result: A slim majority of 53 percent said there is no difference between their outlook on privacy as marketers versus as consumers. However, many of the respondents acknowledged feeling conflicted … read >>

Trustiness: A crazy little thing called loyalty. The pressure to keep people buying our brands — and, better yet, telling others to buy them — certainly has taken on greater weight in the “new” economy. Our assumption is that when times aren’t so good, people will care less about labels and more about prices.

It’s a fair assumption, but how true is it? Haven’t we, as shoppers, always cycled through a variety of brands in any given category? But don’t we also tend to buy the same brands over and over again, no matter what? … read >>

Privacy Fallacies, Creepy Crawlers and Vending Eyes. “Since information helps markets work better, the cost of privacy is less efficient markets.” That’s the first of economist Paul H. Rubin’s various rebuttals to what he sees as “fallacies” about privacy.

Contrary to what some may believe, Paul says our privacy is not free, given “a strong trade-off between privacy and information.” He also says that the costs of privacy are not “borne by companies” because “consumers get tremendous benefits from the use of information” … read >>