WHAT YOU SAID
Look for long-term loyalty
The claim that heavy discounting by retailers is far outweighed by offering an engaging loyalty scheme in a Maximiles report prompted an online debate. Find the story at mwlinks.co.uk/undermine and see comment extracts below.
While Guy [Keeling, managing director of Maximiles] is right to say loyalty schemes should stay core to a retailer’s promotional strategy, the balance changes at Christmas. Retailers need to go all out to incentivise that allimportant, one-off purchase.
The important thing is to remain consistent to the brand and provide the customer with a great experience (and maybe a post Christmas-timed reward offer) so they come back in the New Year.
Steve McArdle, Director, Loyalty Minds
True, but we’re all just a little bit bored of ’me too’ loyalty programmes. Retailers need to dare to be a bit different and have non-points-based loyalty programmes that are much more cost-effective and appealing to the consumer.
Sarah Cross, Uber UK
Retail loyalty is about getting to know your customers – is it the same customer visiting ten times or ten customers visiting once. Points are typically the price you pay for a customer to raise their hand, but this doesn’t have to mean discounts/money off. Loyalty programmes are not a
replacement of sales promotion, but can make these work harder and smarter.
Mark Sage
No matter how successful Christmas promotions are, such seasonal discounts only take a retailer so far. Businesses that want to establish an ongoing relationship with their customers, one that engenders loyalty and gets consumers buying more and more frequently, need more than just periodic blanket promotions – they need the sort of targeted activity that really only the data gathered from a loyalty programme yields.
Andy Wood, MD, GI Insight
