For loyalty programs to continue to be relevant to their members and make an impact on the challenges of the world around us, it’s critical to look beyond the points, perks and birthday offers.
For this reason, we have continued to research for insights on loyalty program members’ attitudes towards programs:
- solving problems in their lives (self-orientation) and
- solving problems in the world around their lives (selfless orientation)
For the first time in the annual For Love or MoneyTM research and 2023 edition, we explored eleven ideas on where loyalty programs can play their part to solve problems in the world around us and in members’ lives.
- To resell and recycle products
- Shop smartly to live within my means
- Help others less fortunate in my community
- Simplify my life
- Reduce my carbon footprint
- Live a healthier life
- Purchase more eco-friendly products
- Enjoy life more with joyful experiences
- Manage my mental health
- How to get the most from my purchases
- Shop more ethically
While the list provided in the research is not exhaustive and loyalty programs may not find relevance in the areas researched, the vision is for the insights to provide a stimulus for programs to look for ‘problems to solve’.
Importantly, 'problems to solve in the world around us' need to be relevant to the brand and their social and community purpose, the category they operate in and the customers (members) they care about.
The results from the research highlighted members’ top three problems to solve are focused on self-orientation:
- How to get the most from my purchases
Brands that have programs where it is possible to give members more advice, tips and guidance on how to get the most from their purchases have an opportunity to bring this to life in their programs and members are looking for this.
- Shop smartly to live within my means
Brands that have programs where it is possible to give members guidance on how to shop smartly and help them live within their means will be adding value to their relationship with members by helping them be smart with their shopping.
- Simplify my life
Loyalty programs that simplify their members’ lives will go a long way to being of more value to their members. This ‘value’ is not related to money. It’s about time (see the Currency of Time/ Functional in the Six Currencies of Collection).
While loyalty programs aiming to solving problems in the world around us is good in theory it needs more focus to make it a successful reality.
What consumers say they will do vs what they do, are often quite disparate (say-do gap) which reminds me of the David Ogilvy quote:
“Consumers don't think how they feel. They don't say what they think, and they don't do what they say.”
However, I say:
”Don’t give up on the ‘greater good for the world’ focus. Keep looking for ways to engage your loyalty program members through your program to solve problems in the world around us”.
As a case-in-point: Solving hunger one burger at a time
The Grill’d Relish Membership program has now donated 155,561 meals to those doing it tough through their ‘Eight and Donate’ program.
This is proof that a loyalty program can help to solve problems in the world around us, as part of its core proposition!
Oh, and to top that, their wider Local Matters community giving program (the ‘bottle tops into three jars’) has:
- Supported over 30,000 local community groups
- Given back over $7 million
At the end of each month the jar with the most tokens gets $300, and the other two each get $100 per restaurant – that’s over $80,000 a month!
The comprehensive For Love or MoneyTM 2023 report reveals the ranking of the 11 ideas to solve problems in the world around us and in our lives and goes deeper on these insights by gender and generations.
Have a happy loyalty day! (and let’s solve problems).
