, ,

July is Triple Rewards Month ...

WM Circle Logo

By: Mike Giambattista, CLMP |

Posted on July 2, 2018

There are two kinds of rewards:  Points and Double Points.  And if you really want to stretch things, there are also stars.  So, the loyalty joke goes. 

By Mike Giambattista, CLMP

It’s the marketing equivalent of Henry Ford’s famous quote that people could order any color car they want – “as long as its black”.  But this isn’t 1909 and we want choices!  The data confirms it, brand experience confirms it, and every loyalty marketer worth their salt is busy optimizing for the myriad of reward choices they can now provide.

Technological advances including AI-empowered decision algorithms, lightning fast delivery channels and near-constant feedback loops are launching reward programs to what seem like stratospheric heights compared to just a year or two ago.

So we’re taking the month of July to survey the world of customer loyalty rewards.  It’s time to update ourselves on what’s working and what’s new, what’s on the horizon and what’s still on the drawing board in incentive design.

Over the course of this month we’ll be hearing from brands, providers, technologists, consultants and thinkers – some from the “old guard” plus a handful of perspectives from new faces and voices.

Aaron Dauphinee, our COO, will be bringing perspective on loyalty rewards in Canada.  Bill Hanifin, our CEO, has been elbow deep in C-Store rewards for the past several months and will be adding those insights to the conversation.  Mike Capizzi, Dean of the Loyalty Academy might actually be one of the grandfathers of reward strategy and will be delivering a historical perspective.  And we have contributors from Europe, UK, Southeast Asia and the Middle East lined up with points of view from their respective corners of the world.

From a data perspective, we’re working on a series of articles exploring the differences in reward thinking along cultural lines, multiple demographic lines and according to a segment’s propensity for loyalty.

To grease the skids of this month’s topic, check out the quick interview we did with Dominic Hofer recently.  He’s the founder and CEO of LoyLogic and he’s quite knowledgeable (and passionate) on the subject of choice.

One quick note on the above: it’s not clear whether or not Henry Ford actually made car color quote but the man knew something about what it took to scale production.  Its estimated that he sold 15 million Model T Fords over the course of their 20-year production.  Today, it’s not unheard of for a loyalty program to gain that kind of adoption over several months, not years – and that timeline is shrinking fast.

So, join us as we get up to speed on this fast-moving topic. We think July will be a very rewarding month.

Mike Giambattista is Editor in Chief at The Wise Marketer and is a Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional (CLMP).