Welcome back to The Wise Marketer. Every Monday, our team of editors curate a list of the latest customer loyalty, marketing, and other relevant news. Our goal is to make it simple for busy professionals to quickly digest important news and trending topics. Show your support by joining our mailing list to gain access to exclusive content, events, and promotions. Or you could just follow us on social media!
- IHOP experiments with virtual brands and announces plans to launch a new loyalty program
- HashCash reveals the development of its blockchain-based customer loyalty platform
- As sales rebound, The Cheesecake Factory prepares to roll out a new loyalty program later this year
- Hudson teams up with leading retail brands to develop its new shop-in-shop store, Evolve by Hudson
- Amazon scores major victory as India's top court stalls Future Group's $3.4 billion deal with Reliance Industries
- Indian digital payments provider Paytm files for a $2.2 billion IPO
- Whatsapp releases a new privacy feature, View Once, as part of its strategy to regain consumer trust
- As airlines increasingly deal with unruly passengers, FAA administrator Steve Dickson urges concession stands to stop serving alcohol in to-go cups
LOYALTY PROGRAM NEWS:
IHOP explores virtual brands, new loyalty program
Highlight: A virtual brand, or brands, would also boost IHOP's digital and off-premise capabilities even more as the model is facilitated by delivery orders, which accounted for nearly 14% of the chain's sales mix in Q2. Its imminent loyalty program could also provide a digital tailwind for the chain. Its current MyHop program offers free pancakes and special deals to members, but Johns did not lay out details of what a new loyalty program would look like yet. “Our goal is to drive trial and importantly incremental visits from existing IHOP guests," Johns said, adding that the pandemic was a major impetus behind this launch. “[It] forced us to reflect and refocus our relationships with our guests within a transforming restaurant industry.” Those guests want loyalty programs from their favorite brands, and nearly 50% of diners now use at least one such program — an increase of 12% from January through April.
HashCash to Provide Blockchain-based Customer Loyalty Platform for E-Commerce Site
Highlight: A customer loyalty platform will be designed to enable the company to float rewards and devise its customer loyalty programs to identify and retain its valued customers. A beta version of the HashCash product will be ready for test deployment by the end of August 2021. “Customer loyalty programs are excellent marketing instruments when devised appropriately. Our blockchain-powered loyalty platform is designed to maximize customer retention and facilitate repeats,” remarked HashCash Chief and blockchain pioneer, Raj Chowdhury. HashCash’s development team strives to make the highest impact with innovation in the blockchain and crypto sphere. With the customer loyalty platform algorithm, it looks forward to achieving the scheme for heightened customer retention, balancing company profits, by optimizing the rewarding strategy in the program.
The Cheesecake Factory Has Plans To Start A Loyalty Program
Highlight: The restaurant is planning to launch their own loyalty program! Yes, TCF lovers, you read that right. There's about to be a way for you to cash in on your obsession with the overflowing menu. As the restaurant continues to thrive, it's only right to give their customer base something to thank them for their loyalty. According to Restaurant Business, The Cheesecake Factory will be rolling out a loyalty rewards program that will be a permanent fixture for 2022 and beyond. Though we don't know too much about it, it will seemingly be “tailored to the chain and its hardcore customers,” and the upcoming rewards program will be very, very “on-brand” for the restaurant and their guests.
RETAIL NEWS:
Hudson Debuts Expansive Shop-In-Shop Experience Store – Evolve by Hudson
Highlight: Hudson, a Dufry company and travel experience leader with more than 1,000 stores in airports, commuter hubs, landmarks and tourist destinations across North America, today revealed its plans for Evolve by Hudson (Evolve), a new shop-in-shop store that will blend a specialty brand experience with the accessibility of travel essentials to create an immersive, customer-centric shopping destination. The strategy we’ve executed over the years has positioned the Hudson brand as an iconic and trusted anchor of the airport experience for travelers and landlords alike. Now, as we’re witnessing the dynamic transformation of the retail space, we’re taking the opportunity to further leverage what makes it successful: convenience and brand recognition,” said Brian Quinn, EVP and Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Hudson
Amazon scores big win as India court stalls Future's $3.4 bln retail deal
Highlight: India's top court on Friday handed Amazon.com Inc a major victory in a dispute where it sought to block its partner Future Group from selling $3.4 billion in assets to rival Reliance Industries. The outcome of the tussle involving two of the world’s richest men, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Reliance’s Mukesh Ambani, is seen reshaping India’s pandemic-hit shopping sector and deciding if Amazon can blunt Reliance's dominance of the country's nearly trillion-dollar retail market.
PAYMENTS NEWS:
India’s digital payments start-up Paytm files for a $2.2 billion IPO
Highlight: Indian digital payments start-up Paytm is planning to raise up to 166 billion rupees ($2.22 billion) in an initial public offering, according to draft papers submitted to the country’s market regulator on Friday. Paytm will issue new shares worth 83 billion rupees and an offer for sale worth another 83 billion rupees by existing shareholders, which include Japan’s SoftBank, China’s Ant Group and Berkshire Hathaway. It is also in talks to potentially undertake a pre-IPO placement of 20 billion rupees, which would reduce the size of new shares issued. The Noida-headquartered company said it would use proceeds from the IPO to grow and strengthen its payments ecosystem, as well as invest in new business initiatives, acquisitions and partnerships.
DATA & PRIVACY NEWS:
Will View Once by WhatsApp ease data privacy concerns?
Highlight: Earlier this year, widely-used messaging app WhatsApp faced global criticisms due to concerns around data privacy. The app planned to make changes to its terms and conditions, which included using users’ private data for marketing purposes. Eventually, Facebook announced that they would not be making the changes to WhatsApp terms and conditions. However, the damage has been done and the app now faces a mountain of a task to get back users’ trust. As such, WhatsApp promised more transparency, better encryption, and enhanced security features for its users. One of its newest privacy features is allowing users to send photos and videos that can only be viewed once. The new feature is expected to improve user privacy, especially with privacy issues being a huge concern today.
TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY NEWS:
The FAA Wants To Punish Reckless Airline Passengers Even Harder
Highlight: Flight crews are facing a sizable problem with unruly passengers disobeying orders and punching flight attendants. The Federal Aviation Administration is asking for authorities to criminally charge reckless passengers and for airports to stop serving to-go alcohol. In January, the FAA announced a stricter policy that fines reckless passengers up to $35,000 and threatens jail time on top of that. You’d think the threat of being fined the value of a Ram 2500 Tradesman would stop people from trying to beat up flight attendants, but the incidents continue to happen. The FAA’s investigations have found alcohol to be a contributing factor in some of these incidents. As a result, FAA Administrator Steve Dickson is asking airport concession stands to stop serving alcohol in to-go cups.
Did you miss last week's newswire? Stay informed: Loyalty Newswire – August 2nd, 2021
The Loyalty Newswire is compiled and edited by the staff at The Wise Marketer.
