How Generation Y will reshape customer loyalty

Generation Y are skeptical of the location-based offers that pop up on smartphones but (not unsurprisingly in the era of over-sharing on Facebook) will reveal personal details for fast, free and easy rewards.

Gen Y (or Millennials) are a fair portion of the global population today at 1.7billion strong (there’s more of them than there are Baby Boomers and three time as many of them as Gen X).  We’ve completed a proprietary study in the USA, UK and Canada (with possibly markets closer to home to follow) on this important market segment.

In all markets we’ve found that Millennials are active in loyalty programmes (75% participate and they’re more willing than their parents to do so) and 75% of them will prefer a brand that gives offers a programme over one that doesn’t. In unprompted responses, Millennials rate loyalty rewards as the top incentive they look for in exchange for sharing personal information with marketers.

Millennials are willing to promote brands or products through social media in exchange for rewards.  This doesn’t extend to them wanting to receive location based offers on a smart phone (only 10% have responded to these offers).  They do however (25% of them) want their smart phones to be a replacement for a plastic loyalty programme card and for the loyalty programme to deliver coupons or gift cards through the smart phone.  Only 10% though want the smart phone to replace their credit or debit card.

The first part of the study covering the USA is available for download from Aimia.com.

Rick Ferguson, Aimia's VP Knowledge Development lead the research and presented it in Sydney this week at The Customer And Loyalty Show.  

Rick Ferguson - Aimia's VP Knowledge Development -  presents the Millennial Research in Sydney this week.

"Millennials are even more willing to participate in loyalty and reward programs than their parents, but they expect reward programs to be free, easy and fast," said Rick. "This generation also relies heavily on outside information to make purchase decisions—information that is often out of the realm of control for marketers. The winners in building sustainable brand loyalty with Millennials will be those who break through the information overload to deliver value at the level of the individual customer."

We have re-branded as Aimia - Inspiring Loyalty

On Thursday the 6th October 2011 Carlson Marketing changed it's named globally to Aimia.

Carlson Marketing has been operating in New Zealand for over 30 years and we're trusted by some of the country's largest companies and brands to manage their customer, staff or channel loyalty programmes.  There are 1.5 million Kiwis in the the loyalty programmes we manage in New Zealand.

In 2009 we were acquired globally by Canadian based Groupe Aeroplan (GA) - a global loyalty programme powerhouse.  GA had already acquired the equivalents of New Zealand's Fly Buys coalition programme in Nectar (UK), Air Miles (Middle East) and Aeroplan (Canada).  They also owned one of the UK's leading loyalty and retail analytics companies in Loyalty Management Group.

We've spent the last 2 years integrating with our sister companies in the GA fold.  GA have expanded further around the globe with Nectar launching in Chile and Italy and investments in Club Premier (Aeroxexico's Frequent Flyer Programme) and Cardlytics (the USA's leading card transaction based marketing company).  They have also won the leading Australian supermarket Coles as a customer for loyalty analytics services.

Today we are Aimia.  Our new name cements the integration of our businesses into a global loyalty marketing leader.  Aimia is modern and distinctive and resonates in many languages.

• There is dialogue and movement within the name itself. The creation of Aimia was inspired by palindromes – words that read the same backwards and forwards, as they give the sense of two way conversation, a clear reflection of our approach to delivering value to our customers and consumers.
• It alludes to pinpoint precision – where two aims cross over. Whether it’s the sweet spot where the needs of clients and the wants of consumers overlap or the insight garnered from two different vantage points.
• It is inspired from the word ‘aim’: highlighting focus and precision, describing our expertise in targeting the right consumers with the right messages.  It is also from the French words ‘aimer’ or ‘ami’ emphasizing the importance of partnership and relationships and denoting a friendly tone and approach.
• The symmetry of Aimia mirrors the balance and partnership that sits at its core. A crosshair of aims, a meeting of minds. We see relationships differently.

We have over 3,700 Aimia colleagues in 20 countries around the world of which approximately:

• 1,885 are in Canada
• 850 are in the US
• 650 are in the Europe, Middle East and Africa region as well as in South America
• 475 are in the Asia-Pacific region

In New Zealand we are the same team with the some commitment to our client's success.  We will be transitioning over to Aimia during the remainder of this year.

Retailer offers delivered inside online banking - our new partnership.

Last week our parent Groupe Aeroplan announced that it had signed a long-term global strategic alliance with Cardlytics, a US based leader in merchant-funded transaction-driven marketing for electronic banking. Groupe Aeroplan has also acquired a  minority  equity  position  in  Cardlytics  for  total  cash  consideration  of  US$23  million.


Cardlytics’ solution is ground-breaking in the world of marketing. Cardlytics leverages individual financial card information, captured and secured behind the financial institutions’ own firewalls, to provide consumers with personalized merchant offers. These highly targeted offers are delivered directly to the consumer via trusted electronic banking channels including mobile, email and on-line banking. The company’s proven technology solution is uniquely designed for banking offering maximum security for the protection of customers’ personal information.  In  addition  to  providing  participating  retailers  with  a  targeted  and  measurable  channel, Cardlytics provides valuable analytics services to help understand where consumers are making their buying decisions.


Cardlytics Video - describes Cardlytics ground breaking solution.



“This  transaction  allows  us  to  further  complement  our  full-suite  loyalty  services  offering  within the important  financial  services  sector,”  said Rupert  Duchesne, President  and  Chief Executive Officer of Groupe Aeroplan. “Our alliance with Cardlytics will also give us invaluable access to top  retailers  around  the  world  and  is  in  line  with  our  strategy  of  making  small  strategic investments in the data, mobile and digital spaces.”


“Cardlytics  brings a solid track record and international reputation among leading retailers and
financial  institutions,  in  addition  to  a  highly  trusted  and  reputable  technology  solution,”  added Duchesne.  “We  look  forward  to  working  closely  with  Cardlytics  in  the  nascent  but  fast  moving space of transaction-driven marketing.”


Through  their  long-term  global  strategic  alliance,  Groupe  Aeroplan  and  Cardlytics  will  further grow Cardlytics’ offering outside the United States.


“Transaction-driven  marketing  is  a  uniquely  powerful  solution  for  retailers  and  financial
institutions,” said Scott Grimes, Chief Executive Officer of Cardlytics. “Today, we can reach 70% of  U.S.  households  in  conjunction  with  our  financial  institution  partners.  Our  deep  strategic alliance with Groupe Aeroplan positions us to rapidly establish the same leadership position in
other major markets.” 

Socialnomics Revolution 3

Erik Qualman yesterday updated the Social Media Revolution YouTube video which, once again, reiterates the growth of social media in the world.

What does this mean for Loyalty Programmes? It means serious adaptation is required to ensure the customer remains engaged.

The Ford Explorer Facebook launch, which generated more traffic than a Super Bowl advert, reiterates the opportunity for engaging with customers utilising alternative media channels. This combined with the 80 million Farmville Farmers across the world, reiterates the untapped Gamification opportunity.

What Gamification shows us, is not just a new way to encourage consumers to shop with you, but the importance of how those consumers engage with you outside the bricks and mortar. With 90% of consumers trusting peer recommendations versus 14% trusting advertising, marketing investment needs to be focused on encouraging consumers to share their positive experiences and to reward them for doing so. Because your customers are talking about you, whether or not you have a dedicated Facebook page, Twitter or YouTube account. So you can either leave it to chance, or, like Starbucks with their MyStarbucksIdea.com, you can get involved with your consumers to help grow your business

"Prehaps sizes could be in, you know, English?"

Bob Pearson, Dell's VP of Communities and Conversations says it all - "Is it better to listen to tens of thousands of customers’ vote on ideas, discuss them and participate with them over a period of a couple of months, or get 10 customers in a room, feed them sandwiches and listen to them behind smoked glass?"

Digital marketing technology – the best thing since sliced bread?

I recently attended the Shopper Marketing conference in Sydney which featured speakers, workshops and case studies on how to best drive sales, engage shoppers and subsequently influence their purchasing power while in store.

One consistent theme at the conference was that digital marketing technology is the latest trendy must-have for retailers and manufacturers. From iPhone apps, digital billboards and interactive LED screens, digital was touted as the next best thing.

However, many of the opportunities lacked a strong business case and ROI - primarily because the core foundations of new product development were missing. This means for marketers - beyond the "cool" factor, the ability to get a solid ROI out of the innovation is missing.

It's a good reminder, whether working with loyalty programmes, promotional communications, or iPad apps, to look beyond the trend to ensure that the opportunity;

• meets a need that a customer has yet to realise they have (if not meeting an existing need);


• relates to your product or service and the purpose of your business;


• tells you something about your customer that you can use in your business;


• is difficult for your competitor to replicate.

And don't forget, if your customer service is poor, your product unappealing or the pricing is wrong, the coolest app will not save your sales.

Loyalty expert Nathalie Moolenschot joins us from Air New Zealand's Airpoints

We're very pleased to have Nathalie Moolenschot join our team from Air New Zealand Airpoints. We've known Nathalie for some time and she claims to have been through a 10 year job interview to join us as our Strategy & Rewards Services Director.

She has a history steeped in the best of New Zealand loyalty programmes. We first met Nathalie in the 1990's at Westpac where she worked on their hotpoints loyalty program (our client for the last 11 years). She moved over to their then new joint venture with the Red Sheds - The Warehouse Financial Services - and drove card acquisition (and we're fortunate to be able to count Warehouse Financial Services as a client since 2009) . She moved to BNZ to work on their loyalty programmes - Fly Buys and GlobalPlus (their partnership with Air New Zealand Airpoints). Finally she joined Air New Zealand where she launched the Fly Buys and Air New Zealand Airpoints partnership ( a world first).

Nathalie says “I’m excited to be working at the forefront of loyalty. With the continuous pressure on companies to achieve results, my role will be to make sure that we continue to help our existing and prospective clients develop effective and dynamic loyalty propositions to exceed those targets. I will also keep challenging the traditional loyalty program concepts with innovative solutions regardless of industry. This focus will also benefit our suppliers as we develop partnership models moving forward”.

She'll also be sharing here thoughts here on our blog.

Driving better returns from retention dollars

M1 Telecom - Singapore's smallest telco lost more customers this year than last year - 33% more customers to be precise (their customer churn rate increased from 1.2% per month to 1.6% per month). This on the back of a retention budget that increases 12% in 2008. Not the kind of result they were likely expecting.

Customer retention expenditure needs to be focused and disciplined. Sutowu of Carlson Marketing Asia Pacific has outlined a disciplined investment taxonomy for retention dollar investment.

Our man Sutowo is based in Singapore - he's responsible for our Decision Science Services in Singapore, Malaysia, India, Japan and Hong Kong.

Published in the Marketing Institute of Singapore's April journal issue, Sutowu's model relies on 3 pillars :

1. Customers need to be targeted at the right time
2. The right customers must be selected in the targeting
3. They must receive the right offer or value (which in our business is often driven through a loyalty programme)

All of this is underpinned by frequent Test and Learn programmes.

Sutowo's full article is available here.