Starwood Perks Up the Ante: Impacting Lifetime Value
A couple of days ago Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide announced a series of pretty dramatic changes to their frequent guest program. I’ll share some of those changes are in a minute but I think it’s important to frame this announcement in terms of who’s making it – Starwood. Depending on which metric you prefer, [...]
Where is Loyalty Marketing Headed in 2012?
Loyalty 360 recently asked our President, Michael Hemsey to comment on the future of loyalty. They included his response (below) as part of a whitepaper entitled, Where is Loyalty Marketing Headed in 2012? An Inside Look at Trends Impacting the World of Customer Loyalty. You can download the full whitepaper here. “Our belief in the [...]
PayPal Expanding to a Store Near You – Should You Care?
Bloomberg reported the other day that PayPal is moving into in-store transactions as early as March in 51 of HomeDepot’s stores. And they make no bones about their intentions to shake up the worlds of both processors and credit cards in the process. While this year’s efforts are admittedly experimental, PayPal has hopes to expand out [...]
When Social Media Becomes Antisocial
Social Media exploded into Loyalty Marketing with an unparalleled force, equipping companies with the tools and knowledge needed to build deeper relationships with their customers. Still, even with an arsenal of hundreds of thousands of “Likes,” “Followers,” and tweets, companies must remain cognizant of the fact that social media does not replace the traditional ways [...]
Yes, But Do they Really “Like” You?
First, a question: In your organization, how do you value (note: “value” is different from “measure”) social engagement? The reason I’m asking goes to one of the great marketing arguments of our day: What’s the value of a “Like”? Ubiquity alone makes it seem like this little button just HAS to be important somehow? Doesn’t [...]
Are Millennials Really Affecting Marketers – or is it all hype?
Before we write off everything Detroit has to say about marketing in this new age of social channeling, fractured distribution and really short attention spans, it might make a bit of sense to pop the hood and see what we can learn from a few of their surprising successes. But first some context. Since the [...]
Shopkick Attempting to Redefine Location Based Marketing
If we played a word association game and I said “Location Based Marketing”, you might say “Foursquare”. After all, the system was the first to grab widespread consumer attention in the space and put “LBM” in our marketing lexicon. Competition has sprung from every corner, and now Shopkick is hoping not just to represent the [...]
Three Trends of the NRF BIG SHOW — Remarkable!
“Remarkable.” That pretty much sums up the National Retail Federation (NRF) Big Show held last week in New York City’s Javits’ Center. When I think about it, “Remarkable” could be applied to almost every part of the Big Show. In fact, I think this calls for a bit of Call-and-Response Self Actualization Therapy. I call [...]
Bain and Company Paint a New Picture of Loyalty in Retail Banking
Bain and Company, the home of Fred Reichheld and the repository of a generation’s worth of loyalty information and research, released a study that surveyed the key factors that determine customer loyalty in retail banking. Customer loyalty in retail banking Americas 2011 was written by Gerard du Toit and Beth Johnson and surveyed nearly 97,000 [...]
Adventure Loyalty
What do you get when you combine a globally recognized brand with opportunity to fulfill lifetime dreams? In this case, the answer is National Geographic Adventures. An unsolicited catalog came in the mail yesterday and the eye popping graphics compelled me to pick it up for a quick browse. National Geographic is a brand that [...]