Being a marketer often feels like living in a Holiday Inn Express commercial. An employee you’ve never seen before walks up to your desk and offers some advice: “I think you should make the logo bigger and use some glitter.” “I’m sorry, you don’t look familiar. Are you new in the marketing department?” “No, I’m…
Tag: Loyalty
NACS Show: Innovating Like a Start Up
The following originally appeared in Convenience Store Decisions and features W. Capra Senior Consultant, Jim Duboyce. Sheetz aims to empower an incubator team to strategize new initiatives for Sheetz that will position it for the future. In a Sunday, Oct. 7 educational session on innovating like a start up, Moderator Jim Duboyce, senior consultant, W. Capra Consulting,…
Loyalty Points to Ponder
The following originally appeared in Convenience Store Decisions and is written by W. Capra Executive Consultant, Ed Collupy. When considering a new loyalty program, asking the right questions can help you determine which option is best for your business. Many convenience operators have their own experiences they can rely on related to loyalty programs either from…
Engaging Consumers to Develop Fuel Brand Loyalty
Differentiation in an Undifferentiated Market Merchants realize that having a loyalty program is a standard requirement and not an added feature in consumer eyes, but the structure of their loyalty offerings can differ between verticals and between merchants operating in the same vertical. In the fuel sector specifically, it can be difficult to create a…
Should Your Organization Find a Loyalty Partner?
If a loyalty member is part of competitor programs as well, are they actually loyal? In many verticals, consumers follow incentives to register for competing loyalty programs. This is because, for large merchants, a loyalty program in and of itself can no longer be considered a competitive advantage—a loyalty program is a minimum requirement for…
The Loyalty Sweet Spot
What’s the sweet spot of a loyalty program? If you asked a consumer, you may get a far different answer than if you asked a business. The consumer wants: free items (that they would typically buy anyway) rewarding their current behaviors and shopping frequency at the places where they shop most frequently. A business wants…
Spotlight on Loyalty: Part II of II
Loyalty and the Consumer Experience This is Part 2 of a 2-part series. Part 1, “Five Assumptions That Will Doom Your Loyalty Program,” can be found here. Corporate loyalty programs are designed to drive consumers to spend additional funds and to encourage consumers to be loyal enough to their brand that they are willing to…
Spotlight on Loyalty: Part I of II
5 assumptions that will doom your loyalty program Loyalty programs are the cherry on a sundae; consumers come to expect them when making everyday purchases. While companies commit financial and employee resources to build loyalty programs, they must remember those programs are the cherry; not the ice cream, the bowl or even the hot fudge. …
Value in Loyalty Programs
Perceiving Value Any loyalty program introduced to market must of course add value to a merchant’s brand. To gain traction, however, it’s required that consumers perceive value in the program as well. Consumers typically choose where to shop based on quality, convenience, service and price. In a recent survey conducted by Colloquy, consumers cited understandability…
Adopters and Adapters
Loyalty, I noticed as the miles on my odometer increased, takes on many forms. The following is re-posted from Convenience Store News. My recent business travels took me by my city neighborhood grammar school. It reminded me of the many yearly assignments to write a story about my summer vacation. My travels these past…
Cover Charge? I Have to Pay to Get into this Club?
The other day I heard someone refer to Amazon’s Prime Membership as a loyalty club. It took me by surprise. I always thought of Prime as more of a membership club – they charge a fee, so how can it be a loyalty program? At first I dismissed the term as a generic label to…
What They Didn't Tell You about EMV
Whether you consider yourself a marketer, dealer, jobber or convenience retailer in the Retail Petroleum industry, by now you’ve been told you need to act on implementing EMV, empower new forms of payment (mobile chief among them), or drive growth through robust loyalty offerings. The complex relationships and technologies that are critical to the infrastructure…