by Bill Hanifin | Mar 23, 2015 | Customer Loyalty, Featured
The efficacy of loyalty programs is one of those topics that comes up for debate a lot. I recently came across a slide show on CMO.com crafted by Zack Loith, Head of Loyalty Strategy at 500 Friends titled “The 10 Most Common Mistakes of Loyalty Marketing”, prompting me to write this article. 500 Friends is a cloud-based loyalty solutions provider, recently acquired by Merkle, the largest privately-held marketing agency in the U.S.. One of the ways you can be sure to make your loyalty program more successful is to first understand where they often can go wrong. Let’s go through Zack’s list and add a few insights that should help you in your own planning. Mistake #1 says that “Deploying a one-size-fits-all program” can lead to disaster. We agree that every single consumer is unique. Each of us responds differently to ads and promotions, as well as to loyalty programs in general. Personalisation is key in 2015 and should be made a priority. Marketers need to stop talking about personalization and start executing better in this area. Mistake #2: “Setting reward levels without talking to customers”. Customer feedback can strengthen the process of creating rewards that are relevant to consumers. Let’s face it – rewards are one of two critical touchpoints for a loyalty program. You’ve got to get it right at enrollment and the rewards have to be compelling enough to keep members engaged. If you structure rewards based on customer feedback, they should respond as they identify with the value of the rewards available. Mistake # 3: “Celebrating and encouraging use of rewards”. Many marketers continue to...
by Bill Hanifin | Mar 20, 2015 | Customer Loyalty, Featured
Linking brands from different industries to create an “umbrella” value proposition for consumers is known as a Multi-brand or Coalition loyalty program. This structure is the dominant one in many geographic markets outside the US. There are over one dozen coalition programs that have successfully operated for more than 15 years, and Hanifin Loyalty has had the opportunity to work with several of these programs as well as contribute to the launch of newer programs. Coalition Loyalty Programs A quick list includes: Aeroplan (multiple markets) AirMiles (Canada) Bonus Peru (Peru) Dotz (Brazil) Grace Kennedy Value Rewards (Jamaica) KickBack Rewards (US) Building coalition loyalty programs successfully requires a fresh look at the strategic planning process. The programs are complex, there are competing interests, and the financial modeling which underlies business case development and budget procurement is complicated. With more Coalition Loyalty activity in the US than ever before, we thought it a good time to share our view of 8 Best Practices for Building Coalition Loyalty, based on our accumulated experience. 8 Coalition Loyalty Best Practices Customer Experience – The value proposition offered (as with any loyalty program) should communicate simplicity and transparency. It must be easy to understand, and members should quickly identify benefits. There should be multiple earn and burn opportunities across the partner network. Common Currency – A shared monetary system must be the coin of the coalition realm. It should be available on a consistent bases across the network of participating merchant. Partner Diversity – Optimal structure includes well recognized brands in key daily spending vertical markets. Fuel, retail, grocery,...
by Bill Hanifin | Jan 30, 2015 | Customer Loyalty, Featured
Hanifin Loyalty chose 3 words to help focus our efforts towards a successful 2015. We landed on: Re-Evaluate Re-Position Re-Calculate Today, we share a deeper dive on the 3rd word in the series: Re-Calculate When the Wall Street Journal took a look at the key business issues to be reckoned with in 2015, heightened pressure on the C-Suite was among the most important themes. Most business people can relate to the unrelenting pressure felt today on financial performance and budgetary adherence. But consider this: 45 companies among the S&P 500 index replaced their CEO’s during the first 9 months of 2014, equating to a faster turnover rate than in the previous year. The reality of this trend is that pressure from investors and other stakeholders will continue to be enormous and the demands on C-Suite accountability won’t relent any time soon. To manage marketing budgets with highest efficiency and accountability, C-Suite executives should continue to place priority on investments in data-driven marketing programs. There is no more secure place to invest marketing dollars than in financially accountable marketing programs, however, relying on measurable marketing plans won’t always translate to mean that every brand should have a loyalty program. Every brand needs to have a well planned and executed customer growth strategy, but not every outcome of the planning cycle will result in a loyalty program. To realize the highest rate of success and return on invested marketing funds in 2015, brands should increase emphasis on program measurement. Think about what needs to change in order to Re-calculate (or Measure) the impact of your customer marketing efforts on...
by Bill Hanifin | Jan 28, 2015 | Customer Loyalty, Featured
Hanifin Loyalty chose 3 words to help focus our efforts towards a successful 2015. We landed on: Re-Evaluate Re-Position Re-Calculate Today, we go deeper on word #2 Re-Position If you’re familiar with the shooting sports, you’ll know that to hit a target you have to aim for where it “will be”, not “where it is”. If you buy-in to the evolution in human behaviors that we talked about in word #1, Re-Evaluate, then you should easily embrace a big challenge for this year – to go beyond adapting to changes that have taken place and are widely recognized, and to re-position your customer marketing strategies to serve customers as they continue to evolve. Marketers can make a best-efforts attempt to predict what the evolved customer might look like, but have to accept that predictions can be made with only limited certainty. People are, after all, people. They often say one thing and do another. That alone is reason enough to continue to invest in data-driven marketing in 2015 and beyond. It’s also a reason to consider how you can connect the online profiles of your loyalty program members to their behavioral data to better understand how customer preferences might evolve. Another way to define Re-position is to think about Shift. Brands cannot fool customers anymore. There is no amount of loyalty currency that will consistently entice consumers to buy your product online or frequent your stores if the experience interacting with your brand is sub-par. Brands need to Re-Position (or Shift) their thinking to invest first in their own employees and create a cooperative and reasonably happy...
by Bill Hanifin | Jan 26, 2015 | Customer Loyalty, Featured
A budding tradition at Hanifin Loyalty has been to select 3 words that we believe will define the course of the data – driven customer marketing business (you can refer to it as Loyalty Marketing, if you prefer) over the next 12 months. Doing so represents much more than an excuse to write a “New Year’s” blog post. There is substance behind each word and, even if you don’t entirely identify with the word itself, the supporting explanation of each one should provide thought provoking points about customer loyalty trends to take back to your office. The 3 words chosen for this year are shown below and we start off by diving into our thoughts behind Re-Evaluate. Re-Evaluate Re-Position Re-Calculate Re-Evaluate By now, there should be C-Suite recognition of the influence on customer behavior by information transparency, consumer attention span, and the entitlement mentality. Above all, the customer growth strategies that we create must stimulate behavior change. To be successful, marketers need to firmly understand how the baseline of human behaviors are evolving and re-evaluate how we create strategies and campaigns that will have positive impact. If we remember that all customers are human beings – no matter what they say while on the phone with your call center – then we must agree that seeking to understand trends in human behavior is critically important to being able to connect and develop dialogue with our customers. Reported over the past several years as an influencer of purchase behavior, the availability and transparency of information has not only “empowered” the consumer, it has completely changed the mindset which marketers...
by Bill Hanifin | Dec 7, 2014 | Featured, Payment Technology
Earlier this week, our consulting firm Hanifin Loyalty engaged a service provider who presented an invoice to be paid via Square Cash. We managed to remit funds as requested but the transaction didn’t go down without a healthy debate between myself and my Digital Strategy Director about the efficacy and security of this new payment channel. Call it a debate between Boomers and Millennials on the changing face of the payments landscape, or just an illustration of the type of dialogue that needs to take place to keep the generation gap between Millennials and Boomers as tiny and manageable as possible. Either way, its clear that Millennials are making payment choices and are comfortable with a range of payment technology that still give Boomers pause for concern. Here’s a view into our discussion: Boomer: I don’t mind trying something new. I’m already familiar with Square as a merchant acceptance method and have a Square dongle myself. We routinely use PayPal and I’ve made Peer to Peer payments with Chase’s Quick Pay. But come on, is this one step too far? Millennial: Not sure what you’re worried about (haha). I’ve been using Square Cash for a while now. It is easy, secure, and most of my friends use it too. Remember that you reimbursed me for the office lunch last week using Square Cash? Boomer: You’re right, I did pay for lunch with Square Cash, but that was a $27 lunch. This is a much bigger invoice. What concerns me is linking an online app to my business debit card. Millennial: Maybe you just don’t know enough about it. It’s...
