Loyalty Programmes: Practices, Avenues and Challenges

<div align=justify>Complexity of modern business requires managers to strive for innovative strategies to acquire and retain customers in any product market field. As acquiring new customers is getting costlier day by day, business organizations have offered continuity/loyalty programmes to retain/reward existing customers and maintain relationships. The premise of CRM is that once a customer is locked in, it will be advantageous to both the organization as well as customer to maintain relationships and would be a win-win situation for both. Consumers find it beneficial to join such programmes to earn rewards for staying loyal. Through loyalty programmes, firms can potentially gain more repeat business, get opportunity to cross-sell and obtain rich customer data for future CRM efforts (Yuping Liu, 2007). This paper, exploratory in nature, attempts to provide a conceptual overview of Loyalty in organized retail sector, outlines practices of grocery retail outlets in Ahmedabad, the largest city in the state of Gujarat and the seventh-largest urban agglomeration in India, with a population of 56 lakhs (5.6 million). It also throws light on consumer expectations, perceptions and problems faced through indepth exploration. Based on literature review and environment in India, an emerging economy, it attempts to predict future of such programmes specifically in Indian organised retail sector and discusses managerial challenges of managing loyalty programmes and provides agenda for future research directions.</div>

РОБОТА ПРОДАВЦЯ НА РИНКУ СМАРТФОНІВ ТУРЕЧЧИНИ

Smartphone market is growing very quickly with embedding new technologies. Many global and local brands are entering aggressively to Turkish market. In Turkey, there are different channels for this business; technology superstores’, telecom retailer and mix retail channel. Mainly 3 technology chains have around 200 important shops. Telecom retail channel has around 8.000 shops with different operators and different owners which needs long-term investment, Mix channel also has around 11.000 independent stores which needs high field force investment to contact with all independent dealers. We may say that technology superstores seems more suitable for fast growing brands, Because technology superstore channel has only 200 stores with high capacity which can be controllable more easily.All brands are looking for a way to raise their sales and make the correct sales activities to be able to compete in the competitive smartphone market. Due to sales person is one of the key points that faces the consumer in the shops and ends the sales, companies positioning sales person (promoters) in technology chain stores. Additional to positioning sales person, companies provide sales promotions to sales person as tool to increase sales performance. We may list sales promotions as; price discount, bundle gift, marketing activities -to attract customer to stores- sales person bonus incentive, in store marketing material and activities. Sales person is the first point that facing with consumer in the retail store. Furthermore we believe sales person’s opinion is very valuable while defining sales actions for the companies in smartphone market. In this study, survey is executed with sales persons (sales staff, promoter) to find out sales person idea to improve sales performance and budget allocation about shop’s sales activities. We believe this study will guide and help smartphone companies for planning their sales promotion &amp; activities and sales budget allocation.Рынок смартфонов растет очень быстро, используя новые технологии. Много мировых и локальных брендов активно внедряются на турецкий рынок. В Турции для этого бизнеса существуют различные каналы: гипермаркеты техники, розничные телекоммуникационные продавцы и смешанная розничная торговля. Данное исследование направлено на помощь компаниям смартфонов для стимулирования продаж, а также распределения бюджета продаж.Ринок смартфонів зростає дуже швидко, використовуючи нові технології. Багато світових та локальних брендів активно впроваджуються на турецький ринок. У Туреччині для цього бізнесу існують різні канали: гіпермаркети техніки, роздрібні телекомунікаційні продавці та змішана роздрібна торгівля. Переважно 3 мережі з збуту техніки налічують близько 200 важливих магазинів. Телекомунікаційний роздрібний канал має близько 8000 магазинів з різними операторами та різними власниками, які потребують довгострокових інвестицій. Змішаний канал реалізації також має близько 11000 незалежних магазинів, які потребують великих інвестицій для контактів з усіма незалежними дилерами. Ми можемо сказати, що гіпермаркети техніки видаються більш зручнішими для швидкозростаючих брендів. Оскільки гіпермаркети техніки мають тільки 200 магазинів з великим обсягом, який можна легко контролювати.Всі бренди шукають спосіб збільшити свої продажі та зробити їх оптимальними, щоб конкурувати на ринку смартфонів. Завдяки продавцю, одним з ключових моментів, з яким стикається споживач в магазинах і закінчує продаж, це позиціонування компанії продавця (промоутера) в мережах магазинів техніки. Додатково до позиціонування продавця, компанії забезпечують стимулювання продажів для продавців як інструмент підвищення ефективності продажів. Основними джерелами стимулювання продажу, є: зниження ціни, подарунки до товару, маркетингова діяльність – для залучення клієнта до магазину – бонусне заохочення продавця, торгівельний маркетинговий продукт тощо. Продавець є першим, з ким стикається споживач у роздрібному магазині. Крім того, думка продавця дуже цінна при придбанні товару для компаній на ринку смартфонів. У цьому дослідженні, виконуються опитування серед продавців (співробітників відділу продажу, промоутерів), щоб дізнатись ідеї продавця про підвищення ефективності продажів та бюджету розподілу щодо торговельної діяльності магазину. Дослідження спрямоване допомогти компаніям продавцям смартфонів стимулювати продажі та підвищити ефективність діяльності, а також розподілу бюджету продаж

Loyalty Programme Applications in Indian Service Industry

Retaining all customers would not be a good idea for any business. In contrast, allowing the profitable customers to leave would be an even worse idea. Consequently the real solution rests in knowing the value of each customer and then focusing loyalty efforts on those customers. Customers are more likely to be loyal to a group of brands than to a single brand. This is particularly true if the chosen brand is the category leader and costs more. In contrast to the one – brand- for – life mentality of the past, today’s consumers are blatant in their divided loyalties, for their own safety and pleasure. The conceptual framework presented helps to understand the evolving logic of loyalty programs and process of implementing the same. Applications in different service industry for building and sustaining loyalty provide an overview of the status of such programmes.

Pingo Doce challenge : how to shift to a new positioning strategy without losing consumers’ loyalty?

This thesis was developed based on a real company, Pingo Doce, a 200 years old Portuguese retailer. The goal was to understand its current positioning in the market and how a different positioning strategy could beneficiate the firm. More specifically, it focused on comprehending the event that happened on the 1st of May 2012, when the company shifted from an Every Day Low Price strategy to a continuous promotional cycle. Since then, Pingo Doce is offering promotions to its consumers, immediate or delayed, but without extracting key information about its consumers which enables the company to build a strong customer’s data base and to tailor their offers. The purpose was to identify who Pingo Doce’s consumers are, what do they value and how the company could obtain relevant data about them to have a well-defined Customer Relationship Management (CRM) strategy. This strategy must be incorporated within the consumers’ needs in order to change the firm’s current price positioning to a more sustainable one in the long-term.A presente tese foi desenvolvida com base numa empresa real, o Pingo Doce, um retalhista português que opera no mercado há 200 anos. O objectivo foi o de perceber o positionamento atual da marca e de criar uma estratégia de posicionamento diferente de forma a beneficiar a empresa. Mais concretamente, o foco foi em compreender o que aconteceu no dia 1 de Maio de 2012 quando a empresa passou de uma estratégia de preços sempre baixos para um ciclo promocional continuo. Desde então, o Pingo Doce tem oferecido aos seus consumidores promoções, imediátas ou tardias, mas sem extrair informação relevante sobre os mesmos, o que o impossibilita de construir uma base de dados de clientes sólida e de personalizar ofertas. O proposito foi o de identificar quem é o consumidor pingo doce, o que este valoria e de que forma a empresa poderia obter dados relevantes sobre o mesmo de forma a construir uma estratégia de CRM. Esta estratégia terá de ser incorporada conforme as necessidades dos seus consumidores de forma a alterar o positionamento da marca para uma mais sustentável a longo prazo

Database Marketing In Travel And Tourism

An increasing number of organisations are developing customer databases in a bid to get closer to their customers and gain competitive advantage. This report investigates the practice of database marketing among different travel and tourism sectors, including airlines, hotels, museums and tour operators, and draws on UK and international examples. It compares direct marketing and database marketing and examines the different levels of sophistication at which database marketing can be practiced, the role of customer loyalty schemes, the ways in which a database can be segmented, the role of consumer data profiling companies and current developments in database marketing. The use of database marketing for customer retention and business acquisition is also investigated. In order to ensure true customer relationship building it is vital for the industry to leverage the information on their databases and provide customer recognition through the delivery of personalised service. Business acquisition through customer retention is likely to be a key strategy in future through the use of data-mining and cross-selling techniques. The report concludes that organisations must create a new marketing environment by moving away from transaction marketing towards the principles of customer relationship management

Inter-organizational information sharing of customer data in retail

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management, 2013.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 51-53).As massive online retailers are putting increasing pressure on the traditional brick-and-mortar retailers, new ways to compete for customers is needed. Identifying customers' behavior and understanding their needs could be a crucial way for firms to improve their competitive advantage. One way to better understand customers could be for retailers to collaborate and aggregate their customer data in order to gain more holistic understandings of customers. This thesis examines on a high-level how customer data is used in retail today and what new value can be generated by collaborating and aggregating customer data, both for businesses as well as for consumers. It then goes on to identify structures of customer data sharing that we observe today and what the underlying factors are for each structure. By projecting how these factors will evolve over time, different scenarios are drawn up of what we might expect to see in the retail industry in the future in terms of customer data sharing. The implications of those projections could possibly open up for new business opportunities, both for entrepreneurs as well as incumbent retailers.by John C.F. Tengberg.S.M

Casino CRM: Issues and Some Implementation

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software allows companies to manage their contact with their customers. It is critical for every industry to have a wealth of information about each customer’s preferences. CRM allows companies to integrate customer information with marketing promotions that results in higher profitability for the company. For the gaming industry, CRM software has allowed them to manage their customers’ preferences, track their expenditures, and provide them with offers and services that generate value for each customer. However, technology must be supplemented by a customer-centric organizational policy to fully realize the benefits of CR

The Effect of Loyalty Program Attributes on Customer’s Booking Choice

A loyalty program is commonly observed in our real world to establish and maintain a customer relationship. However, there is limited research information on the effect of loyalty program schemes on customers\u27 choice in an online booking context. The current study summarized the awards currently offered by major hotels and online travel agencies (OTAs) and examined: 1) customers\u27 preference toward attributes of the loyalty program, 2) within reward attributes, which contributes to an increase in consumers\u27 booking choice, 3) which attributes make customers book on hotel websites rather than on OTA websites, and 4) the interaction between customer involvement and hotel loyalty programs\u27 attributes on booking preference. The results revealed that customers prefer rewards that are related to hotel booking and immediate point redemption. Changing the reward attribute level from unrelated rewards to related rewards increased customers\u27 probability of choice. However, timing of redemption did not affect the choice. Further, the effect of related rewards on increasing the chance of booking was stronger for consumers on a high reward program tier than those on a low reward program tier. However, no interaction was found between time and customers\u27 tier of the program. Results suggest that the effect of hotel and OTA\u27s loyalty program attributes on customers\u27 choice is different from other industries\u27 loyalty programs

The differences in purchase behavior between redeemers and non-redeemers of coupons at till under retail loyalty programs

Despite the popularity of loyalty programs, evidence on the effects of rewards on consumer behavior is inconsistent. Behavioral loyalty is important for a company as it represents a consumer’s tendency to purchase on a regular basis. The goal of this paper is to explore the differences in behavioral patterns between loyalty program members who redeem coupons at till (redeemers) and those who do not (non-redeemers). A survey was carried out using a sample of 750 loyalty cards obtained from a national retail chain. The results show that coupons at till, as a monetary reward, reduced the time between purchases and increased the volume of purchases and average expenditure