In this week's Newswire you can enjoy a curated list of the latest customer loyalty, technology, payments, and other relevant marketing news. We include a spectrum of topics, all with the intention of keeping you informed and enabling you to star in your next big meeting.
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- Dunkin Loyalty Program Update Sparks Controversy
- Delta and Starbucks Announce Cross Brand Promotion for Loyalty Program Members
- Brands Play Experiential for the Long Game of Loyalty
- Gen Z Pleads with Marketers to Stop the Name Calling
- Clicks ClubCard (Africa) Wins Award
- PayPal Rolls Out a Unified Rewards Program
- Membership in Fresh Market’s Ultimate Loyalty Experience Hits New Benchmark
- Juniper Research Announces 2022 Future Digital Award Winners
Dunkin Loyalty Program Update Sparks Controversy
Highlight: Dunkin has announced the rollout of an improved loyalty program. The program name changes from DD Perks to Dunkin’ Rewards and introduces more food and beverage rewards, including increased flexibility on when and how guests choose to use their points. According to the company’s press release, reward members will earn points faster and be able to redeem rewards after spending only $15. For the first time, members will be able to redeem points for donuts, hash browns, bagels, breakfast sandwiches and more.
The announcement was met with acidic vigor by existing program members with a thread worth reading on Reddit titled “I no longer run on Dunkin”. The discord is related to the new points structure for redemptions with critics accusing Dunkin of a significant devaluation of the point values.
Delta and Starbucks Announce Cross Brand Promotion for Loyalty Program Members
Highlight: The two category leaders have created a partnership where customers can benefit from “cross-shopping” the two brands. Members in both programs who opt into the new benefits will be able to earn one SkyMile for every dollar spent at Starbucks and double Stars on purchases made at Starbucks during days traveling on Delta. According to the press release from Starbucks, members of Delta SkyMiles and Starbucks® Rewards, two of America’s most highly regarded loyalty programs, will have the ability to unlock even more ways to earn rewards at Delta and Starbucks. The new program changes commence on 12 October. Members can link their accounts and begin earning by visiting either deltastarbucks.com or starbucksdelta.com.
Brands Play Experiential for the Long Game of Loyalty
Highlight: This story from AdWeek is premised on the idea that “as the world shifts from a “things” economy to an experience economy, branded experiences offer an investment in long-term loyalty. Brands that want to weather economic storms and maximize earnings over the next ten years should be actively investing in building authentic relationships with consumers, studded with memories, emotions, and personal connections.”
We can hear a cheer coming across the horizon from marketers focused on building customer loyalty. We believe that most every brand has a unique set of brand assets which can be leveraged to create customer engagement and loyalty. As most of us agree, value can be found beyond the points and there are many valid approaches to creating customer loyalty. This article is worth a read, though we apologize in advance if you have to fiddle with the AdWeek account wall.
Gen Z Pleads with Marketers to Stop the Name Calling
Highlight: Have you ever struggled with the generational labeling that is common parlance among marketers? Gen Z certainly does, and it appears they wish marketers and brands would lessen their emphasis on adopting labels that over-generalize the characteristics of specific people groups. Though marketers find comfort in creating labels for broad swaths of the population, the practice runs contrary for the desire to personalize marketing communications to meet consumer demand. This article states that “it’s time to toss personas and instead design campaigns with matrices of demographics and corresponding modalities.”
Gen Z represents 68 million people between 10 – 24 years of age. The group influences $150 billion/year in spending power, equivalent to about 20 percent all consumer spending. According to the 2022 Broadridge CX and Communications Insights survey, the key ways to create a better CX for Gen Zers are to focus on Personalization and Customization. 77% of Gen Z believe it’s important for businesses to customize interactions, while 76 percent are looking for companies to send them digital communications they can customize based on their preferences.
Clicks ClubCard (Africa) Wins Award
Highlight: The Clicks ClubCard loyalty programme has been awarded ‘Best short-term loyalty marketing campaign’ and ‘Best use of multichannel loyalty communication’ at the South African Loyalty Awards. The awards event, now in their fourth year, celebrates loyalty excellence and innovation. Clicks Group Limited is a retail-led healthcare group and the Clicks brand enjoys approximately 23.8 percent of the retail pharmacy market in South Africa. The Clicks ClubCard has membership of about 9.7 million and you can learn more about the program structure here.
PayPal Rolls Out a Unified Rewards Program
Highlight: PayPal announced the introduction of PayPal Rewards, a new unified rewards program that gives customers an easy way to shop, earn, track, save, and redeem rewards – all in one digital wallet. The program connects merchant offers, cash back savings and shopping products into one experience. Greg Lisiewski, Vice President of Shopping and Global Pay Later, commented in the press release "With the financial challenges people face these days, brought on by rising prices and the need to tighten budgets, it can be frustrating to shop for everyday essentials or plan for the holidays… PayPal Rewards makes it easy to find sales, discounts, and great deals when making a purchase with PayPal – through cash back, discount codes, or other rewards."
Membership in Fresh Market’s Ultimate Loyalty Experience Hits New Benchmark
Highlight: The Fresh Market launched its new customer loyalty program, the Ultimate Loyalty Experience, just one year ago and it has already announced membership to have surpassed the 1 million mark. The program affords members exclusive savings and digital coupons, club benefits and even a free slice of birthday cake on the members “big day”. The Fresh Market, Inc. currently operates 159 stores in 22 states across the U.S.
Juniper Research Announces 2022 Future Digital Award Winners
Highlight: Juniper Research is trusted to deliver thought leadership and analysis in the Fintech and Payment industries and has been doing so for more than a decade, covering topics ranging from banking and anti-fraud services to innovative financial technologies and payment services.
Fresh off the press is the list of 2022 winners of the Future Digital Awards for Fintech & Payments. The awards recognize the most impactful financial products and services operating across Banking, Fraud & Security, and Retail & Payments. Shopify and ACI Worldwide were named in the Retail Innovation category and Mambu CEO & Co-founder Eugene Danilkis was recognized as the Fintech Mover & Shaker of the Year. You can read the entire list here.
Observation of the Week:
This week we witnessed two leading coffee brands heading in opposite directions with their customer loyalty programs. While Starbucks and Delta Airlines linked up with a powerful cross promotion, Dunkin’ faced unmitigated blowback from followers who express extreme dissatisfaction with their perception of a program devaluation. While the Reddit universe may be overly critical of the changes at Dunkin’, our observation is that loyalty managers can never be too careful to evaluate the perceived nature of program rule changes from the member point of view before going public.
Stat of the Week:
Gen Z represents 68 million people between 10 – 24 years of age. The group influences $150 billion/year in spending power, equivalent to about 20 percent all consumer spending.
Miss the previous newswire? Stay informed: Loyalty Newswire – October 10, 2022
The Loyalty Newswire is compiled and edited by the hard-working, customer-centric, data-driven staff at The Wise Marketer.
