By Jay Bemis | Advertising Systems Inc.
Jump in your car to run a few errands and you see them everywhere: By “them,” we’re talking about loyalty and rewards programs that seemingly every kind of business is unveiling lately.
Also, take your bank’s credit card with cash-back rewards with you perhaps — you may need it to collect points while you’re completing those errands:
- You first see that gasoline is advertised at $3.39 on the service station’s flashing billboard, but that’s followed by a second flashing price of $3.49, which is the price you’ll actually pay if you’ve yet to sign up for the station’s loyalty card and you are using a debit card or credit card instead. (This is where your cash-back credit card could already come in handy; many of them do offer extra rewards points for gasoline purchases.)
- A couple of blocks later, you see cars snaking around the side of a major supermarket, queueing so to pick up groceries they have ordered. These customers were able to do so, of course, because they have signed up for the store’s loyalty program and already have engaged in some online grocery shopping. Once they’ve picked up their food, they’ll just need to drive home and eat.
- But your next, and perhaps final errands destination before heading home, is the fast-food drive-through. Here you see that you could have gotten a second sandwich for free — if you have signed up for the restaurant’s free online app and already ordered your meal digitally. (“Hmmm,” you think, “I may just have to download that app someday.”)
Why Such a Rise in Loyalty and Rewards Programs?
Why have loyalty and rewards programs seemed to rise so significantly?
One reason is that marketers are in dire need of collecting first-party data, thanks to newer laws aimed at privacy concerns with third-party cookies in such jurisdictions as the UK and California. Google, that so popular search engine, is in the midst of an ongoing effort to eliminate third-party cookies on its Chrome browsers; that work is in its earlier stages, but supposedly will be completed by the end of 2024.
Thus, marketers are eager to collect first-party data, which becomes quickly available when people sign up for a brand’s loyalty and rewards program. Marketing consultants may advise their brands to use first-party data to create personalized experiences on their brands’ websites and apps.
Those consultants also most likely will advise using such means as contextual advertising to collect first-party data, a concept on which we’ve reported here before.
Entice your brand’s customers with bargains, discounts or maybe even freebies, and loyalty and rewards program sign-ups can help you grow that first-party collection and battle a cookie-withering world.
Recent studies have shown that customers have warmed to loyalty and rewards programs in recent years — but there are certain things that bug those customers, too.
What Customers Like, Dislike About Rewards Programs
With rising prices a chief concern, discounts are the leading reason consumers now participate in a loyalty or rewards program, eMarketer experts recently reported — saying that 48% of US adults cited that reason in October 2023 data from Merkle.
The same research from Merkle also shows that 22% of US adults also like earning free products as part of those rewards.
Meanwhile, rewards taking too long or being too difficult to earn were the top two features that US adults dislike about loyalty programs, Merkle found.
Advises eMarketer in the wake of those recent Merkle reports, and the rising trend among marketers to offer loyalty and rewards programs:
“To keep consumers engaged in loyalty programs, brands must ensure they have the right mix of rewards and perks, as well as a platform that is easy to use.”
