Loyalty Tips that Unite Customers for Life and Go Far Beyond Points!

Recently had the privilege of interviewing the VP of Loyalty or United Airlines and learned some great tips for building loyalty that goes far beyond points and even the product you deliver.  Enjoy these easy to execute insights from one of the world's best loyalty marketers.

Enjoy!

Loyalty Tips that Unite Customers For Life

Jeanette

Human nature does not change.  We will always be driven by the anticipation of rewards whether its monetary, social, physical, emotional or even something as simple as beating our past score at solitaire!  Marketers that know this are those that get the biggest ROI rewards in the short and long term.  The article below is also on my author page at www.targetmarketing.com.

The Psychology of Rewards

We live at the best time ever to be consumers. Every brand we love and store we frequent wants to reward that loyalty. It seems marketers have figured out the big secret: We humans are just like a pack of dogs, or rather Pavlov’s dogs, and come running for rewards.

Extrinsic motivation, or our behavior which is driven by the anticipation of being rewarded by others for engaging in specific behaviors, drives much of the choices we make in life — how we perform our jobs and what products we chose to buy.

And down deep that motivation is linked to what I’ve said before is our greatest psychological driver: our survival DNA. Unconsciously, rewards help us feel like we are getting closer to that place in life where we have what we need to survive the daily battle to fulfill needs and wants that propel us ahead of the pack.

When we get something cheaper than usual, more than what we paid for or something for free, as a rewards program often delivers — in our unconscious minds, we are stronger, better, richer, faster or have more resources than others, and so we are posed to survive. And it’s fun!

Getting rewards is like playing a game we know we can win. We do little things that take little effort on our part and get something back, like a two-for-one deal, a free gift, a big discount on a purchase. Even small prices, like a free car wash worth $10, can spark a dopamine rush. And when we drive out of that “free” car wash, we have a bigger smile on our face than when we paid for a car wash that was just as fast and clean. It’s simple how we are wired.

Loyalty Programs Spark Brain Triggers

Rewards programs have long been successful, in all industries, to spark trial, boost incremental sales and secure loyalty. We eagerly sign up for point programs that can earn us free pizzas, airline tickets, hotel nights and such.

And then really smart marketers came along and let us choose our rewards, like American Express Membership Rewards, that let consumers shop various brands for products purchased strictly through points. And today, marketers are getting even smarter and building apps for rewards programs that cater to the current frenzy and greatest needs of consumers today: instantaneousness.

Ibotta Case Study: Ugotta Love It and UGottaDo It

One of the best examples of a reward program that caters to the psychological state of most consumers today, regardless of there generation, is Ibotta, a young app birthed just five years ago in the basement of a fire station in Denver. It simply helps consumers get rewards, such as rebates and discounts, or loyalty premiums redeemed faster and easier than before. Ibotta allows users to submit their receipts online in order to get instant cash back, which is deposited into their accounts and can be cashed out via PayPal, gift cards or other digital processes, eliminating the “check in the mail” process that seems to take forever in today’s world. Just this past holiday season of 2016, Ibotta at four years old, was the third-most-used shopping app during the holiday shopping period in December 2016, outpaced only by Amazon and eBay.

Its growth has been staggering. Take a look at these numbers:

• Nov. 16, 2012 — Ibotta app launch on iOS
• Dec. 18, 2012 — Ibotta announces 100,000 registered users on iOS; announces Android version launch
• Feb. 5, 2013 — Ibotta announces 500,000 registered users in just under four months
• May 14, 2013 — Ibotta users have earned $1 million in cash rewards in just six months
• July 20, 2013 — Ibotta users have earned $2 million in cash rewards

While every stat above is very telling about this successful new business idea and its value to consumers, take a look at the last two bullet points. In just one month, Ibotta doubled its payouts from $1 million in cash rewards earned to $2 million. And this, at just seven months old. This is serous validation as to how powerful the force of rewards is for attracting customers and keeping them actively engaged in what matters most: shopping! And shopping for rewards.

But not all rewards programs grow this quickly. Here’s what Rich Donahue, SVP of Marketing for Ibotta, has to say about the company’s success:

“What we’re focused on at Ibotta is helping consumers live a ‘Life Rewarded.’ Our goal is to make sure that you earn rewards on everything you buy, wherever and however you shop. With Ibotta, you earn cash back and make those rewards count in your life.”

Creating awards around everyday routines and shopping needs has catapulted Ibotta’s growth during its mere five years of existence. As of this past week, Aug. 9, 2017, Ibotta users have earned more than $200 million in cash rewards and a download total of 23 million. On top of that, it’s become the 43rd most-used app in the App Store.

So Whatta? Marketers Ask, ‘What’s in It for Me?’

What does all this mean for marketers today? Alotta!

• Rewards, small or big, matter — and matter a lot — as they are not just prizes for the conscious mind to get excited about. They are triggers of the unconscious mind, which drives 90 percent of our thoughts and choices.
• Instantaneousness matters, too. Everything about our lives is instant now … instant access to information via Google searches 24/7 on our mobile devices, which are instantly available as they are in-hand or pocket 24/7.
  

• And Choice matters, too. We are long past the days of reward programs for more of a brand’s product and only that brand’s product, and on that brand’s terms, not ours. Brand loyalty programs may have a lot of enrollment, but they get very little redemption. According to a Forrester report, which surveyed members from the Loyalty360 association, only 16 percent of consumers, on average, redeem points from brand loyalty programs. To succeed, brands of all sizes need to take on the Ibotta and American Express approach of letting customers be rewarded for products and services they choose vs. get rewarded with “stuff” they may not need at the moment, if ever.

Conclusion

While I’m not suggesting you expire all of the points your customers have earned with you to-date (there are many cases of this backfiring), I am suggesting you take a look at your system to make sure you are offering choices that matter, and the speed to redemption that clearly matters to consumers today.

If you don’t up your rewards program to fit our psychological need to win rewards that help us up our chances to survive (emotionally, physically, financially, socially and more) and do it quickly, you’re wasting alotta resources of your own. Make your time and effort matter by changing your game to up the fun and fulfillment of the consumers’ game when it comes to getting the best deal and reward. It’s just something you GOTTA do!

Here's some insights on why your "father's marketing" might still be the best path for yours.  This can also be found on Target Marketing magazine. 

http://www.targetmarketingmag.com/post/slow-go-faster-marketers/

Slow Down to Go Faster, Marketers

Sometimes you have to slow down to go faster.

Those wise words of wisdom don’t just apply to business strategy, they are highly applicable to marketing.

We live in an age of extreme digital addiction, consumers glued to digital devices every waking hour. As a result, marketers rush to buy up all of the digital channels they can to be present and steal mindshare from all of the other brands tweeting, posting, sharing and hoping to get attention, engagement and sales. Yet, the simple truth is that most brands can’t really tell if its working, if they are getting sales and they don’t really know if consumers are really focused on their messages, even when data analytics say they were.

The secret is quite clear: to create meaningful engagement with customers in ways that build brands for the moment, as fleeting as it is today, and brands for the long-term despite technological changes, brands must slow down in order to go faster. Faster toward securing meaningful, purposeful engagement that results in what matters most to brands, now, in the past and in the future – lifetime value.

As old-fashioned as it may seem, print is one of the best ways to do this. And one of the oldest forms of print at its best is the catalog. In 1845, Tiffany and Company put out the first mail order catalog in North America, which they called the “Blue Book.” Shortly after the most commonly known catalogs like Sears and JCPenney took hold and the American catalog industry took off. Yet with online stores taking off and minimizing the cost to entry the retail world, print started to die off. Fewer ads in magazines, fewer catalogs and eventually, for companies that dropped their catalogs, that  meant fewer sales. A lot fewer.

Here’s just one example:

In 2000, Lands’ End cut back on sending catalogs to consumers. The result was a mere drop in sales of $100 million.  When the company conducted a survey among its customers to see what happened, they discovered that 76 percent of their online customers reviewed their printed catalog before going online. (Research by Kurt Salmon)

Xerox has helped add even more life to catalogs by using its variable data printing machines to create personalized catalogs.  Like personalized direct mail which enables customers to see their names and transaction history in a letter written “just for them,” customers can now see their names and other personalized information references in a multipage catalog.

According to Shelley Sweeney, a VP/General Manager at Xerox, brands are seeing big increases in results.

Catalogs are re-surging, not just because they can be personalized, but because they appeal to some key psychological drivers that digital just can’t. We humans are tactile people. We seem to trust more, believe more, like more and act more when we can reach out and touch something or someone. When we hold a magazine in our hands, carry it in our bags, and feel it with our finger tips, we feel connected. And when those catalogs present stories about the products, about the people who use the products, about the lifestyle qualities, values and causes associated with those brands and products, we feel connected with brands with a veracity that is hard to get from the fleeting digital screen with all of its moving parts, pop up distractions and links to click.

Patagonia’s catalog is a great example. This epic catalog features products alongside stories from its ambassadors and customers, sharing their personal stories in ways that inspire passion and evoke bonds with the brand telling the story. They use world-class photography to showcase the lifestyle of those who love their brand. And people love the art, story and products in the catalogs to the point that it not only creates product sales, but another life of its own. You can now purchase a book called “Unexpected,” which features some of the best catalog photographs from over the years.

The Patagonia catalog is not a quick read. It's not a fast project and it’s not about fast and furious sales. It's about slowing down for a moment, to read, to touch, to ponder the life you want to live and can live with brands that provide you tips, ideas, inspiration, and connection with themselves and with others just like you.

Its just like Dmitri Siegel, executive creative director and vice president of e-commerce for Patagonia, says, according to a recent New York Times article.

“Catalogs are a way we’re speaking to our closest friends and people who know the brand really well.”

Catalogs, now commonly called “magalogs," are critical tools that build connections like few other channels can. Some things just never go out of style and this form of communication is not heading that way fast. In fact, while catalogs might seem to some like taking a step backward, they are truly becoming one of the fastest steps forward. And all by slowing down to regroup on what we humans like most: tangible, credible communications about things that matter to me.