Brand Loyalty – program or strategy?

Mark Johnson of Loyalty 360 wrote a great blog post recently titled “Reflections from the “Back of the Bus” – The Changing Face of Loyalty, To Shutter or not to Shutter, and the Connected Vacation!” that focused on how the concept of customer loyalty is rapidly evolving in the B2C marketing world. In his piece, he details the recent announcements of complete changes or actual closing of long standing loyalty programs from several major national and international brands. At first blush, it would seem as though the message to consumers, and especially the members of said programs is either that the program isn’t working well or we (the brand) no longer value your loyalty.

Of course, all brands will state that they value loyalty. Who wouldn’t want customers who have developed some sort of long term attachment, or even dare we say “faith” in a brand and what its position and essence stand for? Yet, as is often the case in modern B2C marketing, the programs that are developed to attract and reward loyalty end up as transactional, siloed, stagnate and disconnected from the things that truly create loyalty – experiences that fulfill a brand’s mission and that delight the specific customers to whom the brand is trying to appeal to. How many cards can a consumer possibly carry around? How many “programs” can they eep track of, and is it really important to their lives to do so? As the consumer world has become always connected, multi or omni-channelled and socially surrounded with all of our technology, traditional reward programs look (and feel with piles of plastic) relics from an era when brands where more in control of consumer thinking & behavior.  It is no wonder that brands on the  move are re-thinking the basic premise of these programs, and seeking ways to develop customer loyalty through new means.

When viewed through the lense of the multi-channel marketer, a loyalty program that is disconnected from current campaigns as well as the brands broader web, mobile and social strategies is a big problem. It is probably rewarding behavior that isn’t keeping pace with where the brand is trying to go, and it probably isn’t reaching the consumers that the brand is trying to influence.  Loyalty shouldn’t be thought of as a “channel” or a “program”. If it is important to a brand, it ought to be a concept that pervades every contact point with the brand’s target consumers, always sitting in the background, ready to create situations where the brand experience exceeds expectations.  Strategy, campaigns and execution through media and technology platforms need to support this new type of “Loyalty Everywhere” type of thinking, or run the risk of being disrupted.