Loyalty Marketing and More…

You may have seen the news recently that Starbucks is considering rolling out a Loyalty program. Howard Schultz, the returning CEO to Starbucks did an interview with Andy Serwer of Fortune Magazine. According to Schultz, “…we will do more things to better reward our most loyal and best customers.” The rumored program will be based on their customers using a stored value card (a.k.a. a gift card) to make their purchases. Stored value cards are becoming increasingly popular and the ability to re-load the cards with additional funds makes it simple for consumers to pay quickly and get to their much needed caffeine. (more…)

Rumors are swirling around the fact that Rainbow Rewards is having problems. I have it from a very reliable source that people at Rainbow Reward have their resumes on the market because they are concerned with the long-term viability of the program. Rainbow Rewards is like most other Rewards programs but they’ve taken their program a bit further with the addition of lots of “local” merchants. Small local merchants often struggle to participate in national coalition Loyalty programs due to the cost of participation, the difficulty of data sharing and matching, and the small numbers of participating members. But even small numbers of shoppers can be a big advantage. Look for more national coalition programs to begin rolling out local programs over the next 12 – 24 months as the pool of large national merchants reaches a saturation point of companies willing to participate. And look for more Local only programs such as Boston Community Change from Interra OS. Local will be a way these companies can continue to grow.

If you’re interested in learning more about Loyalty, there is an upcoming conference that might interest you. Check out the IQPC 2nd Customer Loyalty Conference on March 31, 2008 at Stonebriar Resort. They have some very interesting companies presenting and an international base of attendees joining them.

There’s a new service that launched recently in the world of Loyalty that aims to take the traditional “coupon” and turn it on its end. There are lots of pros and cons around coupons for both the company issuing the coupon as well as the consumer using it. From a company perspective, how many times have they wondered about giving a discount to someone who would have bought the product anyway? Even with all the sophisticated data collection, tracking technologies and analytic services, proving incremental sales as a result of coupons isn’t easy. On the other hand, if a coupon gets someone to make a purchase that might otherwise have opted for a competitive brand, as long as you get enough of these, can make a coupon campaign a real winner. (more…)

Has it really been that long since my last post? I know things have been busy but time has really been flying. There have been lots of interesting and exciting things happening in the world of Loyalty. Maybe you’ve seen them and maybe you haven’t. In either event, I’ll point out some interesting developments in the next few posts and will be curious for your feedback.
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