Long Overdue
First of all, please allow me to apologize for ignoring this Blog for such a long time. There are too many excuses and none worth mentioning. Suffice it to say that I’ll be doing a better job going forward to keep this updated with interesting news and more. I have quite a backlog of things I’d like to say.
Since my last series of postings, the business world has taken a sharp decline. 2008 was a very difficult year for a lot of people and a lot of companies. Not surprisingly, the world of Loyalty had its own set of ups and downs. One such casualty was uTANGO which posted a message on its website on January 30th announcing that it was terminating the program. You can read the message here. I am personally saddened by this having worked with the founding team for a short time. We can debate (and I’d love to do it) their business model of rewarding Loyalty through marriage and whether it was a good idea or not, but what isn’t debatable was that they built something from scratch based on industry best practices and had a lot of passion for the business. Perhaps in my personal experience too much passion. But uTANGO was not alone. Even Dale & Thomas, the delicious popcorn company closed its Loyalty program – The PopClub – due to business challenges.
Nevertheless, the capital crunch continues to make business difficult for a number of would-be start-ups. I am on the advisory board of one company that is looking for funding and did a consulting project for another that has a great opportunity to start something outside the U.S. based on what we’ve done here but they too are having some difficulty finding investors. I also know there have been layoffs at many of the top loyalty companies and I think it will get much worse before it gets any better.
But enough with the doom and gloom. There are some bright spots on the horizon if you know where to look. If you are in Loyalty and are looking for a job, one of my contacts is attempting to fill a position with a successful restaurant chain for a Director of Loyalty Programs position. If this is something you would be interested in, please contact me and I’d be happy to make an introduction.
I’m also pleased to say that I had an article published recently in DM News. It is a short article on whether or not Loyalty programs should be exclusive or open to all customers. I took the stand that a program can work for all customers if designed properly. You can read the article here. I’d love to see what you think so please be sure to leave a comment. And check back for more updates in the not so distant future.
Thanks for reading.