Monthly Archives: July 2022

Top 5 Hotel Loyalty Programs And Their Engagement Strategies

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Hospitality is the broad segment with sectors ranging from accommodation to tourism; restaurants to entertainment & recreation. Although the industry is segmented, there is significant overlap to enhance the overall customer experience. That said, accommodation still counts as one of the major segments of the hospitality domain.

 

It is the generation of millennials traveling more often than compared to GenX, Boomers & previous ones. Deloitte’s study says that more than 64% of millennials have at least one hotel mobile app on their smartphones. And this paves the way for hoteliers to make a progressive move toward loyalty apps as a significant part of their hotel loyalty programs. Since digital natives demand constant connectivity, and flexibility, seek affordable luxury, participate in sharing economy, and value authentic & personalized experiences, hospitality businesses need to consider these factors while designing their loyalty programs and engagement strategies.

 

This blog will focus on the hospitality sector & hotel loyalty trends adopted by them recently. Further, we will dive into prominent hotels’ effective engagement strategies to set up the best hotel loyalty programs.

 

What is Hotel Loyalty? How did hotel loyalty trends change in 2022? 

More than the reward system, the core for any hotel business is to know its customers better, engage with them & improvise their travel experience. Hoteliers often tweak their loyalty programs to retain frequent travelers and also attract new customers. Unlike leisure travelers, corporate guests often do not prefer experimenting but rather build long-time relationships at the places they visit often.

 

The traditional set of hotel loyalty programs offers hotel loyalty rewards like discounts on subsequent bookings, suite upgrades, complimentary snacks or meals, reward points with expiry slots, etc. But the COVID-19 pandemic had a different plan for the industry.  Frequent travel bans further dampened the spirit of hoteliers. That’s when they realized the need to revive their existing loyalty programs.

 

In today’s dynamic world, consumer preferences have changed immensely. People look for personalized experiences more than ever before. With changing hotel loyalty landscape in 2022, many hoteliers introduced novel trends like no-expiry reward points, fully refundable cancellations, and multiple lower-tier groups to induce loyalty among existing members. In order to add more value to their customers, hotels also raised non-stay loyalty rewards to support the hospitality ecosystem. Non-hotel alliances like airlines, cab rides, hotels & restaurants, and shopping malls help them connect better with their audiences. Offering hyper-personalized rewards based on customer brand interaction patterns brings greater engagement. A recent example of building experiential loyalty was helmed by Airbnb as they introduced rewards like cooking and other hobby classes that help travelers tick more things from their bucket list at ease when arriving at a destination.

 

Now, let’s take a look at the top hotel loyalty programs & their promising customer engagement strategies.

 

Top 5 Hotel Loyalty Programs Ruling The World 

1. Marriott Bonvoy 

Home to renowned social media trends internationally & millennial corporate travelers, Marriott comes with a multi-category tier upgrade offering limitless membership privileges. With six-tier membership levels starting from– member, silver elite, gold elite, platinum elite, titanium elite, and ambassador elite; Marriott lets every guest reserve their space in their loyalty arena. Marriott Bonvoy takes the hospitality experience of its guests to the next level with end-to-end services. It allows room upgrades to suites in contrast to conservative room upgrades by some of the other hotel group loyalty programs. You can sign up for the Marriott Bonvoy program by checking in at any of Marriott’s properties in Africa, APAC, America, Australia, Europe, & Middle east. There is no fee charged at the time of signup. The elite guests can acclaim the ambassador’s services & unlock milestone awards later.

 

In addition to the hotel stays, Marriott’s guests can earn points through tours & activities, partnered credit card spending & traveling with Marriott’s partners. Besides, its elite guests have perks to redeem reward points in flights & car rentals, hotel nights & leisure activities, as well as shopping & claiming gift cards.

 

2. World of Hyatt 

As the name elaborates, “World of Hyatt” takes you to a unique and enticing world of its own, where you will get the rewards exclusively designed for you. Hyatt simplifies loyalty with three elite tiers that guests can unlock with qualifying activities every time they visit. Anyone can be a member of ‘World of Hyatt’ for free and frequent travelers even have the chance to be a ‘Lifetime Globalist’ when they earn one million base points over the course of membership. Being a partner of the plethora of brands – Hyatt stayers can get a free night for interacting with every five unique brands. Their travel alliances and expedition partners can make the customer journeys more comfortable.

 

Hyatt nurtures the well-being of its members with access to spa sessions, resorts, planning journeys & access to mediation from Headspace for free via the app. With their mobile app, Hyatt’s digital amenities come to guests’ fingertips like access digital key, streaming option for in-room TV. Customers can easily connect with the hotel staff at any time. With personalized offers & upgrade options readily available over push notifications, Hyatt caters its clients with the personalization of rewards offering an exquisite experience for all its guests.

 

3. Wyndham Rewards

Wyndham Group makes one of the best corporate hotel loyalty programs in Europe, especially with its benefits extending in 95 different countries to nearly 9000 hotels, out of which 333 hotels you’ll find in Europe alone. Wyndham offers four membership tiers: blue, gold, platinum, and Diamond. From adding the rollover nights that never expire to claiming suite upgrades, there is no end to the array of rewards offered by them. Starting from dedicated member services, late checkouts, & additional point earnings, guests can unlock plenty of rewards by signing up for Wyndham rewards over time.

 

Every guest at Wyndham rewards is eligible to get free award nights & non – expiry rollover nights with member-savvy benefits. The platinum & diamond members of their hotel loyalty program can opt for early check-ins, late checkouts, & car rentals/upgrades. The guests earn points for every dollar spent in booking in addition to their stay and activities. Moreover, members can opt for easy check-in & checkout, using the Wyndham Rewards app to plan their road trip, check stops, book stays, and keep their journeys well-planned on the go.

 

4. Radisson Rewards 

Radisson with its nine brands & 1500 hotels is, strongly supporting sustainability. It promotes businesses to opt for carbon-neutral meetings- aiding reduce their carbon emissions and contribute to global carbon offsetting. The environmentally friendly approach of Radisson hotels makes Radisson Rewards more riveting. Anyone can be a part of the Radisson Rewards club & enjoy the never-ending benefits of spending more nights at Radisson. From facility of room upgrades to discounts on meals, partner redemption offers, rollover nights, and free breakfasts, there are many Radisson offers to its guests.

 

Your business means a lot to Radisson; hence the Radisson rewards for business. Business tycoons can get a venue to book business meetings, and conduct events, and training sessions. The reward program is accessible to travel agents, small and medium enterprises, as well as meeting and event planners in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and APAC regions. In addition to the existing world of rewards, Radisson launched its new loyalty program – Radisson Rewards Americas & Radisson Rewards for Business Americas & the Caribbean in June 2021. It unlocks special deals, flexible offers & inspiring destinations for hotel stays in the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, and Latin America.

 

5. IHG Rewards Club 

IHG Hotel & Resorts has a diverse portfolio of brands with 5994 hotels & 884,484 rooms globally. They have four membership tiers viz Club, Gold Elite, Platinum Elite, & Spire Elite. Members unlock these membership tiers and get exclusive discounts and dedicated customer services to earn points on staying in hotels. Since IHG is partnered with airlines & other premium brands, members can burn their miles here & earn rewards points to book their next flights. At IHG, elite members get exclusive hertz gold plus rewards, five-star upgrades, exclusive choices upon receiving status, complimentary room upgrades, rollover nights, guaranteed room availability & no blackout dates for reward nights. Extended checkout is one of the premium benefits that also works well for IHG stayers.

 

An agile approach to hotel loyalty programs 

Hotel loyalty programs are designed to be fascinating to make anyone fall for them. However, with evolving travel patterns of both leisure & business travelers, hoteliers need to evolve their loyalty programs. Staycations are gaining more popularity with the novel work-from-anywhere trends. But, it’s not the case with everyone – some want to feel exquisite, get a taste of adventure, or prefer luxury. It’s the variety of the experiences & exposure for which people travel to places.

 

When each of your guests is different, they have preferences for distinct experiences. Deloitte’s Hotel Customer Loyalty survey shows the way around winning race for guest loyalty. It says “to turn your customers into enthusiastic, even passionate brand devotees, you need to understand the patterns in how different travelers view and use rewards. And you have to use that insight to craft a program that stands above the ordinary and the expected.” The better you understand your guests, the more personalized & instant service experience you can offer them. It would be best to stay connected with your guests even when not in hotels. With multiple touch-points, it is very much possible now to delight your guests with personalized experiences. Do you want to revive your existing hotel loyalty programs with advanced personalization features? Schedule a call to discuss further with our loyalty program experts.

 

How To Leverage Shifting UAE Consumer Trends Through Behavioral Loyalty Programs

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The sweeping and large-scale impact of pandemic has caused consumers to reduce their outlets for spending. While some of this scaling back is caused by limited financial flexibility, a lot of it is because customers don’t have many avenues to spend. Travel has taken a back seat and work-from-home culture has taken precedence further lowering down overall spending power. Given the current scenario, there is one thing that your customers do in abundance – spending time on the internet. In a time like this, marketers must leverage the fact that since consumers are hooked to their gadgets, their customer engagement strategy needs a total makeover.

 

In our last blog on emotional loyalty where we talked about how brands can emotionally engage with consumers, today we will look at behavioral loyalty and how it can delight consumers’ in-between transactions by closely observing customer behavior. Simply put, Behavioral loyalty is the ability of brands to retain loyal customers by adopting strategies to reward members’ non-transactional behavior.

 

Through behavioral loyalty, brands can (a) segment customers based on high or low engagement frequency, and (b) reward customers based on key elements like purchase behavior, occasional purchasing, engagement levels, user status, participation in customer feedback and more. As we move ahead, we will describe how behavioral loyalty has leveraged the shifting UAE consumer trends.

 

The current UAE consumer landscape

 

In 2019, the UAE’s retail market was valued at $55 billion, according to market reports site Report Linker. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the country was witnessing rising per capita income and was gearing up with its growing tourism industry, increasing population of foreign workers, extravagant Dubai Expos and a large number of development projects.

 

But 2020 brought a major change to the economy due to the pandemic driven changes like closure of offline stores. And UAE was no exception. A study by Mckinsey showed that 95% of the consumers in UAE changed their shopping behavior. People were willing to explore different stores for their regular products and started experimenting with other brands. This forced a lot of brands to revisit their loyalty initiatives and strategies to remain relevant.

 

2021, however, started well for UAE market given there was an incredible pent up demand. The country is geared up to splurge again albeit, cautiously. The rapid vaccination drive (UAE being one of the most vaccinated country) will definitely help drive footfall back to retail stores. Retailers’ challenge however would be to retain their loyal customers and adopt strategies to ensure customers don’t churn or migrate to other competing brands. In such a situation, adopting behavioral loyalty elements can act as a lever to build a mutually rewarding relationship between the retailers and consumers.

 

How marketers can benefit using behavioral loyalty

 

 

1) The shift to online shopping: In the Consumer Pulse Survey conducted by Mckinsey, 54% UAE respondents have responded that they have tried a new digital shopping method during the Covid lockdown. Many UAE customers are therefore warming up to digital methods, and are realizing the ease behind getting what they want in just a few clicks.

 

Marketers’ perspective: Brands can get much closer to consumers by building an omnichannel loyalty program. This further gives the brand endless opportunities to delight their customers by rewarding desirable behaviors. For instance, customers can unlock bonus rewards when they link their loyalty accounts to their online purchases. Customers can be incentivized higher when they pick-up online orders against getting them delivered. Those who engage more by writing reviews or visiting specific pages or watching videos can be rewarded using a behavioral loyalty program.

 

2) Brick and mortar stores rule the roost: Thanks to the fast and vast vaccination drive in the country, UAE is one of the first countries to open up its malls post the lockdown. And consumer trends too point out that buyers regain the touch and feel experience of offline stores, especially for goods like clothes, footwear and electronics. With appropriate guidelines in place for restaurants, consumers are feeling more confident and safe to dine-out,

 

Marketers’ perspective: Customers visiting stores once they have reopened can be incentivized when they ‘check-in’ into the stores. Customers can be offered options to pre-order and pick up items during ‘lean’ hours. These socially desirable behaviors can be rewarded using the loyalty programs. Premium tier customers can be given options like assisted shopping or options to visit stores in specific slots with limited number of other customers in stores.

 

3) New found love for local: In 2020, the global supply chains were affected and many international goods could not reach store shelves. This is when consumers shifted to local brands products. A report by NielsonIQ suggests that across the globe people are gravitating to home-grown heritage. This has especially been true for perishable goods like dairy products and meat.

 

Marketers’ perspective: Loyalty programs can be tweaked or enhanced to ensure that customers earn more when they add local brands to their cart. Customers are increasingly looking for relevance and would shop more with businesses that are committed to social causes like promoting local businesses.

 

4) Ease of payments: With the surge in ecommerce platforms, UAE consumers are also expecting top-notch digital payments services. Since 2020, there has been a spike in the use of cash on delivery, and over time buyers have drifted to using digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

Marketers’ perspective: Consumers in UAE are looking for flexible payment options. So, it is important that the ecommerce platforms of brands seamlessly integrate all of the commonly used payment options. To ensure that consumers get the extra benefit, retailers can provide special offers across the various payment options.

5) The coupon and discount hunt: UAE is the third-richest country with respect to GDP per capita. But the country’s economy did not escape from the effect of the pandemic, which affected household income and spending. The drop in income has resulted in UAE consumers becoming price conscious, and buyers are seeking ways to save through discounts and offers. Talkwalker claimed that many international brands are being associated with deals and discounts.

Marketers’ perspective: When consumers are looking for great deals and value, it’s a good idea to include personalized deals in loyalty programs. This makes the customer feel special and would stick around with the brand for a long time. The hunt for coupons can be packaged into a game to keep customers engaged ‘in-between’ transactions and to reward engagement with the brand on digital channels.

Implementing behavioral loyalty programs creatively

Behavioral loyalty programs in UAE can be shaped creatively depending on the products. In fact, Capillary’s loyalty program enabled one of the leading fashion retailers in UAE to get a boost in their overall average transaction value. Our loyalty program triggers bonus points to customers when they shop on specific days of the week, thereby encouraging more store check-ins. This program also incentivize customers with additional benefits for buying from multiple categories.

Our loyalty experts share some more ways where retailers from different sectors can adopt behavioral loyalty at the right time and reward customers:

  • A customer who buys a pair of running shoes may not revisit the store for at least 6 months. However, retailers need not wait that long to engage with the customer. To encourage the customer to regularly use the product, customers can get access to content that help customer with their running basics, posture and nutrition. Customers who consume the content or are able to maintain a streak of consecutive workouts can unlock badges that they can share on their social media pages.
  • In an apparel store, if the customer has purchased a shirt, the brand can delight customers with personalized offers on pants or other accessories to pair with the shirt, encouraging more store check-ins and purchases
  • Loyal customers entering their regular aisles in a supermarket can find QR codes across their favourite products and can avail exclusive offers and discounts.

Consumer relationships with brands are likely to change and evolve post pandemic. Innovation will be the driving force. While agile marketing strategies will help brands thrive during changes, levers like behavioral loyalty programs can up the ante on customer engagement. To know more about how changing consumer behavior can be the gear for your loyalty program, get in touch with our experts and chart a new customer loyalty strategy for your brand today.

A Comprehensive Guide to the Growing Demand for Aviation Loyalty

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Do you know Hawaiian Airlines’ loyalty program as of 2022 offered 24.78 USD/100 USD spent to its frequent flyers? Also, Alaska Airlines reserves its second spot by offering 24.65USD to its frequent flyers. And this brings them brand loyalty like no one’s watching. Now, let us reveal the true story here. Hawaiian Airlines is successfully running its airline business, contributing 1.7% of the domestic market share to US airlines as of December 2021, even post-pandemic.

 

In 2002, when United Airlines filed for bankruptcy, its Frequent flyer program (FFP) was the only money-making business it had. Frequent Flyer Programs (FFPs) helped United Airlines make a whopping revenue of $5.3 billion revenues in 2019! Now imagine if a core airline loyalty program – FFP is capable of making the airline business survive, think of the revenue it can generate for airlines in today’s AI/ML world. In this blog, we will cover everything about airline loyalty – starting from its definition, the need, the challenges, some of the reigning airline loyalty programs and why now is the best time for airlines to venture into aviation loyalty programs.

 

What is aviation loyalty?

Aviation loyalty talks about the loyalty programs run by airlines to transform their existing customers into loyal customers. Just like discounts offered to shoppers in any shop, airlines provide benefits to their regular flyers for choosing them over other airlines. However, aviation loyalty is more than just airline miles and rewards; at Capillary, we call it creating memorable experiences for flyers.

 

From searching for a flight to booking, boarding, traveling, landing, and, reaching the final destination – it’s the entire customer journey that offers different touchpoints for aviation brands to interact with the customers. Since no two passengers are similar, a common approach of making every customer engaged wouldn’t work in the longer run. Instead, you need to understand the choices of your flyers & address their needs distinctly. Even when hundreds of passengers are going on each flight regularly, engaging with them on a personal basis needs time and thorough planning for which brands must have a robust marketing strategy.

 

The inception of aviation loyalty

The tradition of making your flyers loyal to the airline brand was started by United Airlines in 1972 with the name ‘Frequent Flyer Program (FFP). Further, in 1979, Texas International Airlines adopted FFP full-fledged by using actual mileage tracking of passengers & rewarding them based on the miles covered in the air. This legacy of FFP was further followed by many airlines including Western Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, Continental Airlines, Air Canada, and many others. FFPs were designed to reward frequent flying customers. It was based on the simple math; more customers fly, more points they will get & higher conversion rates the airlines will have. The core airline loyalty program – FFP, was based on an earn & burn scheme. Greater will be the distance or miles covered; greater will be a counter of points, and customers can burn them on the next flight to earn more.

 

With the growing customer demand, airlines further partnered with associated businesses like cab services, restaurants, lounges, etc., to create unmatchable experiences for their customers throughout their air journey. The earned rewards & offers from FFP programs could now be used to shop food items at airports, book car rentals, and take flight tickets using exclusive travel credit cards. Ancillary services benefited airlines & associated partners largely in creating a profitable & comforting ecosystem for travelers. Do you know that Frequent Flyer Programs have dedicatedly gained so much popularity in the airline industry that the term then and even today is interchangeably used for airline loyalty programs?

 

Are FFPs enough to make the aviation industry bloom?

Though FFPs gained much fame in the airline industry, aviation loyalty programs are much more than FFPs. Since FFPs can benefit the company as long as they offer flying services, the recent COVID-19 pandemic was an eye-opener for the aviation industry to factor in a situation where airlines had to stop flying services for some time. This was the situation of existential crisis for the aviation industry. And that’s the time when airlines figured out the need to widen their scope of the customer loyalty business. Besides contingencies like the pandemic, there are other reasons that have now made airlines shift away from the routine FFP approach & refurbish airline loyalty programs. Let’s take a look at the three callouts:

 

1. Loyalty programs matter more to some travelers than others: 

Mark it as a fact. The low-frequency travelers often overlook loyalty programs as they continually seek cheaper flights from any airline. Even if they signed up for a loyalty program, they must be opting for 3-4 programs at a time & they keep switching between them. High-frequency business travelers rank loyalty programs as the second factor when choosing flights over safety & punctuality. That’s why core FFPs alone can’t bring larger outcomes to airlines.

 

2. Airlines need customized loyalty programs: 

Every user’s journey is unique right from the purpose of traveling to surfing flights, budgeting, booking patterns, choosing preferences, and thinking of travel ideas. So, even if you mark an ideal customer journey with your flyers, you can miss plenty of touch points with just a single earn and redeem loyalty program. Some of your flyers may prefer a complimentary spa session before a late-night flight, while other ones may like to have warm food instead. Existing airline loyalty programs miserably fail to engage with this massive variety of customer preferences. Hence, the need for personalization in the loyalty programs that traditional FFPs won’t offer.

 

3. A dire need for brand advocates: 

Your regular flyers can be the best tool to put your airline marketing in shape. It is vital to conduct timed surveys to ask your customers if they prefer to be your brand advocates & share their experiences with others. Airlines often sign celebrities as brand ambassadors to build credibility but in today’s social media age, counting on testimonials from regular flyers can work wonders for your aviation brand.

 

Why is aviation loyalty a priority for airlines now?

When people choose to travel with your airlines, they trust you. More than ever before, in the post-covid era, you need to ensure safety for your passengers. When your customers know they are traveling safely with all precautionary measures & treated as per their individual preferences, they won’t be skeptical about choosing your flight next time. Free goodies are still widely preferred by people as they often rake up points in their cart to claim free coffee, complimentary spa lounge services, & even free flights. Though different airlines have different mile reward & redeem systems based on their brand rules, these perks are capable of engaging flyers.

 

If your airlines widen the scope of airline loyalty programs from FFPs to partner bundling, points to cash conversion options & give personalized promotions – you can grow your customer engagement rate. Your flyers may need to shop something from the airport, play games to kill boredom, or upgrade their seats – the reasons could be many but as an aviation brand, you must factor in all these requests in advance integrating real-time information and airline services, you can help your customers find the solution to the ongoing situation. Recently, Deloitte conducted a proprietary survey of 2572 air travelers who took at least 1 flight in a year with their most preferred airlines. And, here’s what figures tell –

 

Flyers often travel for business or leisure purposes. Hence, they are looking for comforting experiences in either of the cases. Loyalty programs are meant to make this journey convenient & hassle-free for flyers unlocking access to an exclusive airline experience. Here, partnering with travel & hospitality businesses and enabling your customers to use their loyalty points to access these VIP services can help you find an edge. You can also add perks of traveling with your flight rather than your competitors.

 

Besides the COVID-19 pandemic,  the environmental & climatic change that we’ve witnessed in the late 2020s worldwide has made businesses and travelers mindful of their choices & preferences for that need. As a result, industry leaders, business owners, and individuals are discussing sustainability goals and taking action in support. Shai Weiss – CEO at Virgin Atlantic, shares the vision of aviation with sustainability in his TED talk that how their airlines is paving the way to fulfill the pledge of net-zero emissions by 2050. Your brand too can take a step towards airline sustainability or any other cause you support. Futuristic loyalty programs & loyal flyers often prefer airlines that not only support global causes but also work towards them. All the aviation businesses sooner or later adopt these trends to offer personalized experiences to their flyers. However, given that the trends keep changing and the technology is constantly evolving, airlines must open new dimensions to stand out in this competitive world.

 

And the 5 best aviation loyalty programs are…

  1. SkyMiles by Delta Air Lines – Delta flyers can earn miles while traveling on Delta as well as via their partner airlines like Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeroméxico, Air Europa, Air France, China Airlines, China Eastern, Czech Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and many more. For its members, miles never expire; they can shop on SkyMiles marketplace or opt for upgrades anytime they plan to travel.
  2. Rapid Rewards by Southwest Airlines – With some 3900 flights and no blackout dates, Southwest’s Rapid rewards can be used on care rentals, hotel stays, & of course, flight upgrades with no expiration timelines.
  3. AAdvantage by American Airlines – American Airlines has more than 1000 partner companies, and their AAdvantage flyers can redeem miles while opting for flights, hotels, upgrades, and even shopping for retail products at 1200+ stores like Sephora, Adidas, Wallmart, Groupon, Macy’s, Eddie Baver.
  4. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – Virgin Atlantic’s flying club members can spend miles with their host partners like eBay, Tesco, Delta, and many more. The best part is the redemption of reward travels & discounts on the Virgin Holidays.
  5. Mileage Plus by United Airlines – United Airlines lets its travelers access thousands of destinations across the globe with their 30 partner airlines. From enjoying cruises to having fine dining & shopping experiences, flyers can use their reward points for everything.

 

Aviation loyalty: The runway to future

Clearly, customer loyalty has become the lifeline for the aviation industry.

 

Even if an individual travels only once a year, using the partner programs, co-branded credits, digital wallets & marketplace shopping – aviation brands can stay connected with their flyers throughout the year. The profits of investing in airline loyalty can bring to your business is no longer a debatable topic – Capillary’s value-driven loyalty framework enables brands to measure how much topline revenue can a loyalty program generate for your brand in a particular stage. This novel approach to airline loyalty programs, upcoming trends & access to insightful customer data can drive more flyers to your business. If you would like to relook at your existing airline loyalty programs, connect with our loyalty and engagement experts to revive your FFPs & transform them into the most engaging aviation loyalty programs.

Conglomerate Loyalty is Becoming the Largest Grosser in 2022 & Beyond

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Encapsulating value, convenience, and privilege with higher customer retention and stakeholder return, multi-brand conglomerate loyalty programs are thriving in the here-and-now.

At the outset, it’s interesting to note that the potent value proposition of conglomerate loyalty is a direct outcome of the rampant digital transformation of all major retail conglomerates during the pandemic. Their businesses came together in offering their most valued customers better incentives on every purchase. According to the Global Worldpay (FIS), 80% of customers now favor signing up for programs that allow for point redemption across major retailers at once. Enabling rewards for different categories and brands under a singular sign-up, individual businesses made higher profits even as brand loyalty decreased. Moreover, the teaming up of complementary brands meant envisioning new customer engagement strategies that revived the conglomerate loyalty program like never before.

Single hub, multi-brand loyalty for maximum value 

Customer satisfaction grew most with increasing cart size and order value across those brands, in particular,  that prioritized personalizing their communication through efficient CRM and analytics frameworks. They acted upon centralizing rich customer data towards a singular source of truth before setting up sophisticated tech stacks that could cater to customizing rewards. As a result, businesses within the conglomerate were able to better connect with customers who showed high affinity towards multiple brands, at once, over individual purchases. Thus, while brand loyalty suffered from consumers’ fickle-mindedness, conglomerate loyalty improved overall. In fact, with the growing preference for cutting down on retail expenditure in the aftermath of the lockdown’s spending reprioritization, this trend thereby became the most profitable for large corporations in 2022.

 

This is only the beginning. It is expected that, over the next three years, conglomerate loyalty programs will redefine the CRM ecosystem by optimizing both topline and bottom line effectiveness for disparate business divisions at once. A good example of innovation powering growth within the conglomerate loyalty sphere is Wipro’s single hub loyalty program in their largest serviceable market, the Middle East. Designed in 2021, Wipro, the retail giant, successfully managed to bring all its businesses within one unique umbrella of rewards and recognition. They implemented the tech solution of automating personalized promotional campaign creation, execution, and management for a massive customer base of 100K+ generating a total annual revenue of ~$9 Bn in the region. Initially, their key challenge was that each business within the conglomerate ran its loyalty programs in silos, making them less impactful on the whole. Moreover, with no customer profiling, testing and optimization, the company was sending out confusing communication that saw a fair bit of duplication.

 

Wipro’s decision to, then, orchestrate a common loyalty program completely changed the game in terms of unifying and optimizing their campaign strategies and budgets for all stakeholders involved. 

They deployed SAP Hybris and Oracle Eloqua to implement the centralized CRM framework that built loyalty up to 100% higher in terms of business impact. The biggest advantage of Wipro’s conglomerate loyalty program, however, is the reduction in real-time campaign setup and personalized content creation time from 24 to 2 hours. This is essentially what led to the program’s success and escalation to other markets this year.

Redefining CRM through effective program management

 

Streamlining CRM through messaging that avoids duplication in favor of serving unique customer needs is the high point of any well-designed conglomerate loyalty program. It ensures that varied demographic, as well as psychographic or behavioral attributes, are factored in while designing a common set of rewards and recognition for multiple brands. In doing so, the customer is reassured that her preferences are taken care of without having to opt for multiple different programs with their time-consuming sign-ups and monitoring of points earned over time. Effective program management is an essential part of this process for the conglomerate that spontaneously fulfills customer expectations as they change. The data sources that, therefore, merged into one from across brands to make sure that customer profiles get richer.

 

Thailand’s Central Holding Group – a well-known conglomerate spread across merchandising, hospitality, restaurants and retail – facilitated a 1Card loyalty program. It allowed varied corporations under their investment to benefit equitably from reduced customer churn. Sales increased significantly by 20% for the Group, as nearly 7.2Mn customers were able to redeem coupons and discount codes across many brands at once.

 

One-to-one marketing communication was the winning CRM strategy as high-paying, high-value customers were delighted by personalized offers they could not resist over time. 

The accumulation of points from across services acts as a lever with which to entice buyers in the long haul with birthday messages and refer a friend add-ons. The flexibility of, then, significantly lowering the overall purchase amount for many different products through high points redemption is one that is sustainable to build equity. Moreover, Central Group’s 1Card members receive rewards after every purchase that they could use on the very next one, increasing affinity for the brands. A great user experience aided the conversions as is always the case with any successful conglomerate loyalty program.

Taking other markets by storm… 

Similarly in other major markets, conglomerates are launching unique loyalty programs tailored to the cultural and personal needs of their customers. In India, the landscape is reaching a mature stage with JIO, ABFRL and other leading groups investing heavily into singular programs for their diverse retail offerings. In Vietnam, Capillary Technologies came together with one of the largest investment groups to launch innovative new features for the nation’s largest and most successful coalition loyalty program that saw revenue growth of over 53% during COVID. This winning strategy is a breakthrough even for markets that are in a fairly nascent stage in their digital transformation journeys such as Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

 

Single technology accelerators are at the very heart of ensuring that the customer experience offered by conglomerate loyalty programs optimizes omnichannel value for all parties involved. Ultimately, however, it is the customer that is benefitting the most from reaping the highest value rewards for everything that they desire from the conglomerate’s e-commerce offerings at one go. The ease of a single sign-up and the customization of rewards is the best, so far, in terms of multi-brand loyalty but the sky’s the limit for tech and marketing teams to come together in mapping the road ahead in 2022 and beyond.