Online retailers have a uniquely difficult challenge in building relationships and creating customer loyalty. Without a store-front to rely upon, most online retailers lead with product selection and price to attract first time buyers.
This leaves many to rely on ad words and keyword search as their only acquisition funnel. Generating repeat business, building trusted relationships, [...]

Will MyTeamUSA  (U-S-A! U-S-A!) attract loyal Olympics fans?
Does anyone remember the launch of the Discover Card? When introduced in 1985 as “the card that pays you back”, it really felt different from Visa and MasterCard. Forget the card’s super high interest rate—I was getting cash back on every purchase!
Times change and now the cash back [...]

My Dad taught me the value of money. Cash is King and all that.
A dollar is a dollar, that can’t be denied. And, those dollars are increasingly hard to come by with the demands of business pressing harder on most over the past two years.
With my mind on cash and flipping through the latest issue [...]

A small firestorm over the efficacy of Loyalty Marketing programs broke out over this past weekend thanks in large part to an article written by Joanne Kaufman for the Wall Street Journal.
Ms. Kaufman recounts a telling tale of how her own household purchase behavior adapted to take advantage of rewards programs from Duane Reade to [...]

Just a few months ago, on these very Loyalty Truth pages, I gave kudos to Caesars Atlantic City and its Total Rewards loyalty program.
During some trying times for the economy in general, and Atlantic City in particular, Caesars AC was making some smart moves to get its loyalty program members back to the casino.
Last week, [...]

Editors Note: Jim Kuschill is a patient man. Patient enough to have architected one of the world’s leading loyalty marketing software platforms while Chief Technology Officer of Frequency Marketing. DIRECTV got his goat and the following is worth a read, especially if you’re the person responsible for customer experience or customer service at your company.

I [...]

I need to do some consumer research. Do minor consumer revolts against good sense constitute a leading indicator of good times returning, or confirm that the economy is still struggling with frustration leading people to make irrational choices?
Whatever the answer, it seems a minor groundswell is taking place in the restaurant business with new chains [...]

A celebrity endorsement—for a loyalty program?
The pros and cons of using a celebrity spokesperson in advertising have been long established.

The pros? A celebrity draws attention
The cons? A celebrity draws attention—away from your product or service

What’s more, as we recently saw with golfing legend you-know-who, there’s the potential downside of aligning your company with a celebrity [...]

I’ve been in way too many meetings lately where I have been asked the question “Is Social Media just a fad that will soon blow away?”
Fortunately, I’m well schooled in responding to skeptics since, for the past dozen years, I’ve been answering the classic question in my core business, “Does this Loyalty stuff really work?”
I [...]

For me, the most compelling question to arise from the tawdry Tiger Woods scandal isn’t whether his wife will leave him, but whether his corporate sponsors will.  In particular, the management consulting company Accenture.
We’re not talking energy drinks or golf shoes here, Accenture is a starched white collar Fortune Global 500 firm that, excuse the [...]