Multi-tier Loyalty Programs to Stimulate Customer Engagement

Customers differ in their purchase behavior, profitability, attitude toward the firm, and so on. These differences between customers have led to numerous firms introducing multi-tier loyalty programs. A multi-tier loyalty program explicitly distinguishes between customers by means of hierarchical tiers (e.g. Silver, Gold, Platinum) and assigns customers to different tiers based on their past purchase behavior. Next, customers in different tiers are provided varying levels of tangible rewards and intangible benefits, which are potentially powerful instruments to stimulate customer engagement. In this chapter, we focus on the design and effectiveness of such multi-tier loyalty programs. Building on loyalty program and customer prioritization research, we discuss whether, why, and how multi-tier loyalty programs are effective (or not) in influencing customer behavior, thereby enhancing customer engagement and financial performance

Witty Celebrity-Endorsed Ads: Share and Share Alike

Actor George Clooney’s ‘What else?’ slogan is arguably the most memorable piece of Nespresso Coffee’s online advertising campaign. Like Clooney, an incredible number of celebrities now endorse a product or brand image. Viewers of the U.S.A.’s Super Bowl can attest to the public’s fondness for humorous ads. This research is a preliminary investigation of how consumers react to a celebrity endorsement in an online humorous ad. The objective of this study is to highlight how humor influences consumer attitude, how it affects the likelihood of an ad going viral, and whether it encourages the consumer to share the ad on social media. Exploratory research provides answers to these questions