Money can't buy loyalty

In this article Steve Hastings, Isobel, and Mark Price, Waitrose, argue that trends in society have made retailer loyalty schemes unlikely to work, and that most points-based loyalty schemes are futile.

Money can't buy loyalty

Steve Hastings IsobelMark Price Waitrose

Something is wrong with the loyalty industry. The assumption that you can buy love is fundamentally misplaced. Giving people points for purchases only results in 'cupboard love', not real devotion.

Yet real devotion and the behaviour it leads to are the proper focus for marketing.

Perhaps if loyalty schemes were renamed love schemes, then trying to bribe people with points would be lower down the list of priorities. Understanding more about what consumers need, desire and feel would be altogether more pressing. It is now easy to set...

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