Blog

We tend to think about loyalty from the customer standpoint and we envision points cards and mobile rewards apps—but this view can be narrow and does not fully encompass the enterprise benefits associated with an effective loyalty strategy. Enterprise Loyalty isn’t just a consumer value proposition, but a management proposition that offers up organization-wide tools and mechanics that can help your business rationalize and optimize technologies, operations and expenditures; all the while better understanding and engaging your consumers.

When many people think of loyalty programs, points cards and coupons, they think of retail department stores. This is because many consumers’ first interactions with loyalty and rewards are in the form of a store credit card or in-store rewards card. Kohl’s, a large department chain retailer that has over 1,160 stores nationwide and with JCPenney, Macy’s and Nordstrom, is known for its competitive pricing and cause-centered fundraising with Kohl’s Cares.

“The Butler did it, in the Service Bay, with unmatched listening skills”

While you may not have played the board game Clue recently, there is compelling evidence that great consumer experience begins with an insight followed by clear and sometimes surprising action. An insight, in our opinion is a fact married to intuition. We used this insight to tackle the need for improved hospitality in the automotive sector and offer an experience that would lead to a higher rate of satisfaction and therefore greater advocacy.

In fact, loyalty increased by 17% for consumers who were completely satisfied with the service on their previous vehicle while under warranty, according to the Maritz New Vehicle Customer Survey.

It’s that time of the year again! Summer is coming to a close and that can only mean back to school and back to campus. While this can be an exciting time of the year for students, with total spending on back-to-school items expected to reach $74.9 billion, it's also a huge time for retail brands. According to the National Retail Federation (NRF) report that breaks down into $26.5 billion for back to school (BTS) and $48.4 billion for back to campus (BTC) shoppers.

Experience matters. Every action in a relationship either builds or erodes trust. We see this in the staggering number of divorces that occur every day—over 6,000 in America alone. The same can be said for consumers and their relationships to brands and products. How many times have we “broken up” with a brand because they didn’t deliver the experience the brand had promised, failed to communicate well or even did or said something that was a deal breaker—remember the backlash from Lululemon brand fans when founder Chip Wilson said that some women’s bodies weren’t “right” for their pants?

Last month a Sobeys Urban Fresh location on busy Bloor St in Toronto closed its doors. Sobeys reported that they are closing 15 of their smaller format locations in addition to 35 other larger stores across the country.

There is more to engaging customers than points, discounts and rebates.

According to the 2014 Loyalty Report, the average American is enrolled in 10.9 loyalty programs, but are only active in 7.8 of them.

Something is getting in the way of a higher level of engagement among program Members. The answer lies in values alignment.

Fast Food or rather Quick Service Restaurants (QSR) are ubiquitous and in a time when consumers eat out an average of four meals a week, are a huge part of the dining industry. Many consumers, especially the ever important Millennial segment, are looking for a fast and healthy way to feed themselves and their families. As Millennials are the consumer demographic that are most influenced by loyalty and rewards programs and control 1.3 trillion in spending power, it’s clear why these QSRs are targeting them in their marketing efforts. Papa John’s, a QSR that gained top scores in both the ACSI Restaurant Report and The Loyalty Report, had a high customer satisfaction score with regards to both their product and their popular loyalty program Papa Rewards. But other than offering discounts and deals, how can brands in the crowded category of quick dining cultivate customer loyalty? As we see with Papa John’s, the recipe for getting customers to keep coming back is to offer them ways to connect with your brand on more than a "take out" level.

All of Marketing is caught up in ‪#CannesLions —but what’s the celebration really about? When we say that ‘All Marketing is Loyalty’—we mean it. Every step in the loyalty lifecycle that begins with acquisition and *must* continue in the form of an ongoing relationship, are equally important. Brands who do well by their loyal customers, offering them new and innovative experiences, are more profitably succeeding - if those experiences are good, they will tell others for you. We see this ideal in the submissions for this year’s Direct Lions and we are offered a close up look at what triggers bonding with a brand beyond the monetary.