Introducing a First of its Kind White Paper from Mando-Connect and YouGov
Mando-Connect and YouGov have partnered since 2018 to explore, interrogate and understand the British loyalty landscape. They have published 3 previous papers on British loyalty, each covered in depth by The Wise Marketer, most recently in April 2022.
2023 sees the launch of a new kind of white paper “Understanding Loyalty in Europe”, the first of its kind, taking a pan-European view of loyalty. Through primary research the paper dives into loyalty membership, appeal and impact across 24 European markets. The research is then enhanced with local country insight and case studies from in-market experts and from pan-European programme leads. It’s then rounded out with the introduction of a new Loyalty Gauge™ - a unique measure that enables us to score and rank loyalty engagement per country, based on programme membership, appeal and impact data.
You can find the white paper either by navigating to Mando Connect here or, if you are a CLMP™ or Member of the Loyalty Academy, you can find this great work in the research VAULT.
We’ve pulled out 4 insights to inspire you to look outside of your own loyalty landscape, think bigger and achieve more in your loyalty ambitions.
1. It’s a big audience and a big industry in Europe
The majority of adults who live in our 24 European markets are members of loyalty programmes. On average, 61.3% are a member of at least one programme. We see the greatest membership in Norway and Sweden where over 80% of adults are a member of a loyalty programme. Great Britain comes 3rd with 77.2% of adults being a member of at least one loyalty programme. The majority of markets explored have between 50% and 75% programme membership.
Key Take-Out: The majority of adults (61.3%) across 24 European markets are members of loyalty programmes. In some markets it is as high as 4 out 5. Loyalty marketing should be a top priority for marketers everywhere.
2. Loyalty programmes have very strong appeal across markets
The majority of adults across the 24 European markets explored are fans of loyalty programmes. 56% of adults across our 24 markets think loyalty programmes are a great way to reward their customers. The biggest fans of loyalty are the British, followed by the Irish, Polish, Bulgarians, Slovakians and the Germans. The slightly more sceptical markets are the Danish, the Dutch, the Portuguese, the Turkish and the Norwegians.
Astonishingly, a whopping 42% of adults across the 24 markets think that every brand should offer a loyalty programme. This is especially true in Bulgaria, Ireland and Romania where over 50% think every brand should offer a programme. And lastly, 35% join loyalty programmes every time they are given the opportunity to do so.
Key Take-Out: Loyalty programme appeal is very strong across the 24 European markets. 56% think programmes are a great way to reward customers. If you are operating in a country where appeal is particularly high and you don’t have a programme, you should consider developing one!
Loyalty programmes have a significant positive impact on loyalty, spend, recommendation and emotional connection
On average across our 24 European markets, the impact of loyalty programme membership is very positive. When a membership of a brand’s loyalty programme…
- 43% say it makes them more loyal
- 36% say they are more likely to recommend the brand
- 33% feel more emotionally connected
- 29% will spend more
Key Take-Out: The very positive impact of membership on both functional and emotional loyalty is very clear. Loyalty marketers should review the data for their particular market and use this data to develop appropriate strategies for their programme – informed by a new understanding of where they are able to drive maximum value for members, brand and business.
The new Loyalty Gauge™ gives a great visual snapshot of the loyalty engagement per market
The Loyalty Gauge™ score is a new metric, developed by Mando-Connect leveraging their unique YouGov data. It provides loyalty marketers everywhere with a much needed quick snapshot of the net loyalty engagement in each of the 24 countries explored – broken down into membership, appeal and impact.
The Mean Average Loyalty Gauge shows a net score of 14.1 across the 24 European markets:
The highest scoring individual countries in Europe are Ireland, Poland, Great Britain, Slovakia, Norway, France and The Czech Republic. These are characterised by high membership, appeal and impact. The lowest scoring countries are The Netherlands, Turkey and Denmark – driven by significantly lower performance in at least one of the key metrics.
Key Take-Out: Loyalty marketers can download the white paper to see individual country scores at a net level, and also broken down into membership, appeal and impact scores. This insight should then be used to develop programme strategies per country.
This first every European Loyalty white paper has proved to be a very interesting read. For the first time we can take a pan-European view of loyalty. We have been inspired and intrigued by the data and by the variations per market.
The case studies showcased in the paper then bring that story to life.
- Deep Dive Case Studies from Marriott Bonvoy, Samsung Members and VeryMe Rewards from Vodafone provide an in-depth view of their approach, how they tailor their approaches to local market variations and give a sneak peek of future developments they have planned.
- And the 7 market experts featured in the paper show their favourite programmes. From the likes of Costa Coffee Club in Great Britain, to Moja Biedronka from Poland, to Club Matas from The Nordics, to Dr Maz Advantge Card from The Czech Republic, to Douglas Beauty Card from Germany, to Piacere Lavazza from Italy to Meer Hema from The Netherlands.
We strongly recommend checking them out and we hope this new research inspires you to look outside of your own market and helps you think bigger and achieve more in your loyalty ambitions.
By Charlie Hills CLMP™, Managing Director & Head of Strategy at Mando-Connect.
Additional Market Experts featured in the white paper:
- Cristina Ziliani (Italy) www.osservatoriofedelta.unipr.it
- Karl Bzik (Poland) www.openloyalty.io
- Leon Huyben (The Netherlands) www.emakina.com
- Nicole Wilhelm (Germany) www.get-focused.com
- Radek Hrachovec CLMP™ (The Czech Republic) www.voxwise.com
- Zsuzsa Kecsmar (The Nordics) www.antavo.com
