On December 11th, 2008 five top loyalty marketing experts gathered to discuss the future of loyalty programs. The panel consisted of:

Chris Whitaker, Sr. Vice President and Partner, OSL Marketing
During his 16 years at OSL, Chris has worked with a talented team of specialists, enjoying remarkable success with a number of loyalty programs. One such program was the award-winning Pepsi Quaker Tropicana “Breakfast Central” partnership.

Pat McGoey, Consultant and CRM Guru

Steve Allmen, General Manager, Business Development, Aeroplan

David Soberman, Professor of Marketing, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

This highly engaging session revealed insights, which showed how loyalty marketing is evolving and advised on best practices for the future. The following summarizes this roundtable discussion.


Top 5 best practices:

1. Ease. Easy for the consumer to join, accumulate points and redeem.
2. Everyday Use. Expanded opportunities for consumer to earn loyalty points.
3. Execution. Do your research of good and bad case studies and work to create the program correctly the first time.
4. Learn and Extract Information. Know your customer and use it to add value to them.
5. Modulate Rewards. Differentiate between customers to maximize return on investment.


The role of loyalty programs:

Building brand equity
In the marketplace, you have many, many, competing brands. To be successful today national brands need to avoid commoditization by discounting prices to match competition. Brands who want equity and to stay profitable must add value to take the place of a deep discount. – Chris Whitaker

Driving loyalty for retailers
Consumers are forced to make more purchasing choices than ever before and retailers will have to remember that price will only ever get people into the store; it will never build brand equity. – Chris Whitaker

Enhancing sales success
Loyalty programs direct marketing dollars and effort to customers with the highest purchase potential, leading to increased sales success. – Chris Whitaker


Who is driving innovation in loyalty programs?

Consumers:
They want choice. Canadians lead the world in loyalty program participation.

Retailers:
They demand more creative solutions. They are looking to take care of their consumers in ways superior to their competition.

Marketers:
They are helping to shape Canadian loyalty programs by providing a choice of rewards and increasing the ways to accumulate loyalty points.


A recent innovation: The Breakfast Central Loyalty Program

OSL Marketing was closely involved in the conceptualization and creation of this innovative loyalty program. Many Pepsico brands including, Quaker and Tropicana products are now sold with a personal identification number (PIN). Customers register online at www.breakfastcentral.ca, enter the PIN into the database and are awarded their Aeroplan Miles. To date, Breakfast Central remains one of OSL’s most successful loyalty programs.

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