With all the excitement over the Facebook IPO, there has been talk about where the next social network of importance will come from. Chris Brogan made a point in this post that not everyone wants to be part of a social number numbering over 500Million people.

Just like simplifying might be a good keyword for 2012, smaller networks might be all the rage for the future as people identify more focused groups of people on networks that share their specific interests. Pinterest was one of the networks mentioned as a candidate for the next big thing and I turned to our Mystery Millennial to get her take on whether she uses (she does) and likes (she does) Pinterest.

Here’s her take on why Millennials like Pinterest.

Perhaps, if you are an outsider to this social media infused generation, the point of Pinterest and it’s uses might be lost on you. Let me share an account of what Pinterest means to me on a daily basis, yes daily, and maybe even persuade you to better understand how your brand could benefit from a significant presence on this unique social and artistic outlet.

First of all, as I mentioned earlier Pinterest has a place in my daily life, I get on at least twice a day and browse through both random categories and things of interest to me. I “repin” anything I feel so inclined to share or keep for my own benefit onto one of my own boards.

For me, Pinterest is a colorful, visually appealing, and endless flow of information doorways. All you have to do is reach for one that grabs your attention and open a world of information regarding whatever has piqued your interest. Not only has your attention been drawn, but most likely you will share this new information with your fellow pinboard followers.

The other way I use Pinterest is to save an item, picture, article, or product I want to be sure to log away for future use in what is becoming a virtual scrapbook. For example I have my favorite denim shop and dream pair of jeans listed in my fashion section for future purchases. I have my eye on them and this is how I keep them bookmarked along with multiple outfits I can refer to before doing some shopping. It’s almost like I keep a running shopping cart for when I see something I want for next season, or next paycheck.

I use Pinterest often alongside my Internet search engines to provide answers to my most random questions, like what am I cooking for supper, or what color should I paint my walls? The information and products on Pinterest truly can hold sway to my personal life and those around me.

I have changed up certain household products based on a product recommendation found on Pinterest, I have made purchases based on my findings on Pinterest and so have many of my friends. Wonderfully I have Pinterest on my computer, laptop, iPhone, and iPad, so it follows me wherever I go!

I cannot curb my enthusiasm for this form of information sharing for many reasons, and you will find many, many Millennials who agree with me. If you are promoting something and want the time and attention from myself and others like me, you might need to play a little on Pinterest.

Editor’s Note: Traditional marketing practice might be to “hole-up” with a team and a whiteboard and try to figure out what Millennial’s are thinking. A more effective approach is to just ask them. Thanks to our Mystery Millennial for her sharp insight on Pinterest.

Yesterday, we wrote about the Facebook IPO and how the offering was putting relationships at the center of the business world. The implications for marketers and how social loyalty evolves are significant.

The “Like” has become the “identifying word of an entire generation” and big brands are shifting their attitudes and budgets from traditional media to the web as they recognize that Facebook and Google are the platforms of the future. Just this week, Procter & Gamble announced they are trimming their annual advertising budget in favor of these more efficient platforms.

Evidence abounds in every corner that sharing can be a powerful tool for marketers to leverage. A Fleishman-Hillard study reported that Millennial women are ideal brand advocates as 46% access reviews written by other users, and one third are willing to recommend a product online following a positive experience with the brand.

As a dedicated loyalty marketer, I fully side with Zuckerberg on the importance of relationships. I also wince over the perils of sharing everything, and fret that technology development is outpacing our human capacity to cope with and adapt to new social tools. As much as we’ve read stories of faux pas committed by Facebook and Twitter users, I really believe that vast numbers of Millennials still do not grasp the long term implications of non-stop sharing.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines relationship as “the state of being related or interrelated”.  For most of us, this definition implies relationships are structured in terms of pairs, i.e. between husband and wife, brother and sister, friend and friend (BFF’s), or consumer and company. Sure, we all have relationships with groups (school, church, club) but those are not typically as transparent and personal as those that are paired. Most humans are wired to connect on an individual level,  and as social networks redefine a relationship from “one to one” to “one to many”, it may delight some while making others wholly uncomfortable.

Even the most enthusiastic and dedicated Facebook users register some concern that the reality of their lives is shifting from the natural to the ether. The Facebook employee writing a blog post in the Wall Street Journal this week quoted a friend who shared “I don’t want to be the people who, rather than living their lives and sharing their lives on Facebook, their lives are Facebook.”

As time goes on, the enthusiastic generation of Millennials will gradually expire and I expect there will one day be a Facebook Obituary section, with a person’s page memorialized and a “last update” made by a friend or family member. Instead of signing the guest book at the local funeral parlor, we’ll just click “Like” via the kiosk situated next to the casket.

In other words, life will continue to change, probably in ways we cannot imagine. Taking Facebook public is the just the beginning. To stay ahead in the marketing game, you had better keep your imagination alive and your mitochondria healthy. You’re going to need every one of them to stay on top of it all.

Facebook has filed for an initial public offering hoping to raise in the neighborhood of $10 Billion. The IPO would value the social network between $75 – 100 Billion. In US stock market history, this puts the launch ahead of Google in size, with only Visa, General Motors, and ATT Wireless coming out with larger first day totals.

27 year old founder Mark Zuckerberg stands to benefit to the tune of an estimated $21 – 28 Billion, dependent on how the market interprets financials showing a $1 Billion profit on Revenues of $3.7 Billion, 85% of which came from advertising. Facebook measurements are largely all bigger than life, as the user base is reported to have reached 845 million users globally. Many of these users are part of the Millennial generation and have grown up accustomed to sharing detailed aspects of their daily lives with their networked friends.

Amidst the eye-popping numbers, Mr. Zuckerberg’s business perspective, as shared in the company’s S1 filing, were especially interesting. He highlighted the importance of personal relationships as being “a fundamental unit of our society”, and made clear that a key objective for Facebook is to help “extend people’s capacity to build and maintain relationships.”

The letter went on to share Zuckerberg’s view on the future of our relationship society, that “the world’s information infrastructure should resemble the social graph – a network built from the bottom up or peer to peer, rather than the monolithic, top-down structure that has existed to date.”

Reading between the lines, it seems that we’ve taken another big step away from the command and control organizational structure of the 60’s and 70’s. If Facebook has its way, we are rapidly evolving towards a wholly populist world.  At first, it was “Me, Inc.”, then we became “Free Agents”, now it’s going to be every man or woman for his/herself. Hopefully it does not result in anarchy.

Facebook of course paints this evolutionary process in a highly positive light, pointing towards the resulting “stronger economy with more authentic businesses that build better products and services” as the result of this movement.

Ironically, the instant poll at the bottom of the article revealed 42% of the 1,500-odd people which had voted at that time stating they are spending less time on Facebook now than one year ago. Apparently, all of this sharing is tiring some people out.

Sharing, fatigue and anxiety may all go hand in hand as a blog posted by a Facebook employee chronicled the importance of Facebook to every aspect of Millennial life, but worried a bit about loss of privacy, stating that “Facebook also has made us paranoid”.

How the human spirit adapts to a non-stop world of sharing is the ultimate question that will be decided over the next few years. The outcome will not only impact the market value of a more mature Facebook in the market, but also how marketing in general and social loyalty in particular evolves in the digital age.

2011 began as a year with loads of promise for Loyalty Marketing. Top of mind for most program managers was the need to add value for members while keeping costs under control, and to better manage the financial liability associated with unredeemed points and miles.

Purchase behaviors exhibited by the Millennial generation were being adopted by broader segments of the population, and early in the year we estimated Consumer 2.0 to represent about half the US population, or 150 Million people.

With the old school orientation of most loyalty marketing strategists, cracking the code of Social Loyalty to engage, entertain and retain the business of Consumer 2.0 was one of the most intimidating challenges faced by the industry over the past 10 years.

So how did the industry fare in 2011 and what’s ahead for 2012?

On the liability management front, the year started out with more rumors floating about than during an American Idol contest. Solutions designed to unify consumer loyalty wallets and create uber currencies, some of which could be redeemed in real time point of sale transactions, as well as those promising unprecedented levels of consumer targeting via internet banking and credit card transactions, were receiving lots of attention. While we still wait to hear more from Free Monee and Swift Exchange, Cardlytics took a big step ahead by closing a $33 Million capital investment from Groupe Aeroplan.

Two highly viable solutions which loyalty marketers should consider not only as liability burn solutions, but as means to to add a new wrinkle to the value proposition are KULA Causes and LoyaltyShares. KULA Causes, which launched in fall 2011, introduced a new concept of Cause Related Loyalty marketing. The “currency of giving” enables loyalty program members to convert miles and points into donations to any of over 2 Million charities around the world. This is a concept which triggers consumer emotions and allows brands to heighten their quotient of corporate social responsibility in a financially efficient manner. LoyaltyShares is equally innovative, allowing loyalty program members to convert miles or points into shares of stock in the sponsoring brand. Converting liabilities into assets is a magic trick that any financially savvy consumer should like.

PointTunes.com and The First Club each introduced solutions that change the way digital content can be obtained by consumers through a rewards program. Improved customer experience and lower costs for program operators are key advantages.

Social Shopping became a reality as Zavee.com and ThanksAgain expanded their respective footprints and delighted consumers in their chosen market segments. Zavee has grown to boast over 500 brick and mortar merchants in their network across South Florida, while Thanks Again penetrated the airport frontier seeking to become a loyalty currency that travelers will aspire to collect before they fly.

“Gamification” took a big step forward during 2011 as both Badgeville and Bunchball proved that “gamification is not a fad”. Watch for much more in this space as game theory moves from a solution designed stimulate consumer engagement to one that can change consumer behavior across a full value chain.

As consumer research consistently supported the desire for immediacy and transparency of rewards along with improved customer experience and proximity to the loyalty “experience”, some important brands proved they were listening.

Early in the year, American Express played the social card as it touted Membership Rewards as a “social currency” and tested location based promotions with Foursquare. More recently, Groupe Aeroplan rebranded as Aimia, signalling a new era of competition among industry leaders.

In a year when many industries slogged along in a mediocre economy, Loyalty Marketers could barely keep up with all the change.

What will 2012 hold in store? I’ll have a look at trends to watch in a future post as the New Year gets started.

At Hanifin Loyalty we like to talk about what it takes to build customer loyalty, but we also pride ourselves in being good listeners. We listen to clients and we listen to customers. Like the old saw said “God gave us one mouth and two ears for a reason”. Maybe they should be used in that proportion.

We’ve been listening to Millennials lately and we’ve shared a series of posts from our “Mystery Millennial” giving our followers insight into how Generation Y perceives the marketing efforts of big brands and local merchants.

Today’s story highlights why our Mystery Millennial loves Toys R Us.

Toy shopping with my little toddler is so much fun these days.

She sits in the cart eying the shelves with the kind of awe that such an exciting place inspires in children; innocently free from greed at her age. I love to indulge her wonder, and am amazed at what holds her attention, i.e. the cheapest trinket in the store. Much to my pleasure that’s a purchase that makes us both happy!

On a recent outing to Toys R Us I signed up for their rewards program. I had heard good things about recent updates to the program, and decided it would be beneficial to try and save some money. My experiences at the store surprised me, and the loyalty they established with me was not what I was expecting.

The main reasons I now shop at Toys R Us are less financially based and more thanks to the customer experience in-store. I have been reminded what old fashioned customer service looks like and how that often has far more weight with my purchase decision than just saving a few dollars.

The smiles, help, and conversations I have enjoyed from the employees at Toys R Us (even from the shy tech dude at the game counter) have renewed my love for shopping in-store rather than online. On one visit, I was inconvenienced when a security tag was left on a shirt by accident. It’s embarrassing when the alarms go off as you walk out the door and I appreciated the way store employees handled the situation and truly tried hard to make me a happy customer.

I will continue to shop at Toys R Us and Babies R Us. Maybe it was the money-saving rewards program which brought me into the store to begin with, but my loyalty to this store in particular was won by the sense of welcome and good cheer that I received from the people that work there.

In my opinion, a rewards program gains true loyalty when the fact that you just saved money is over-shadowed by the pleasure it was to shop!

Editor’s Note: There is wisdom to be gained by listening to our youth! Millennial marketers should lend an ear.

I’ve been studying the Millennials for the past 5 years to see what makes them tick. My selfish motive is to better understand the Millennials in my own family, but apart from that, I am fascinated with how their perspective on and love for technology will change the way marketers construct loyalty marketing value propositions.

At the very least, we have to embrace digital channels to deliver offers and to support program servicing needs. Going a little farther, we should be delivering offers, promotions and triggering incremental purchase behavior in a way that benefits merchants and program sponsors without adding a “creep” factor to the lives of Generation Y. As we’ve come to learn, this group might be the quickest to disconnect upon noticing incoming creepiness.

At some point, I concluded that “studying” might be the wrong approach. Why not skip the removed, third party observations and take the bold step of talking with them. After all, everyone wants to be listened to and human beings, regardless of generation, love to talk about themselves.

I am lucky to have a Mystery Millennial who has agreed to share her experiences with brands, retail and otherwise, and to share her candid experiences with Loyalty Truth from as the mood strikes.

Here is a short tale of interaction with Urban Outfitters that makes a very clear point. Read it and let me know what lesson you take away.

Mystery Millennial Goes Urban Outfitter

I have a large purse, I do, and I love my oversized bag. It has been very useful for collecting the small pieces of my daily life that don’t have a specific home, like receipts. It sounds crazy, but I’m toting around hundreds of little papers recording my retail history over the last month or so, a persistent reminder that I have not been diligent with my record keeping.

The other day I had a shopping experience that left me particularly happy at the checkout counter. I was updating my fall wardrobe at Urban Outfitters and, while making my purchase, was asked if I wanted to receive my receipt by email! I believe my response was a bit generous for the situation, but my enthusiasm was genuine. I was more than happy to hand over my email address for the sake of not adding to my already embarrassing collection of paper waste in my possession.

To top off my delight I had my receipt easily accessible right where I record my budget- on my computer. There was no digging through the infinite abyss (my purse), organizing by date, trying to read crumpled receipts, etc.

In a day and age of marketers pursuing the pocketbook of Millennials, I would say this is a positive step by a big retailer. They might have been motivated by “green” causes or just have been mercenary in pursing my email address. Either way, they made a positive impression by not wasting paper, and saved me time as well as space in my purse.

Editor’s note: I’ve got to ask our Mystery Millennial if she shops at CVS Pharmacy and is a member of ExtraCare. The program has taken a lot of heat for its long paper receipts, only one or two of which would choke Ms. Millennial’s purse.

Loyalty Truth was treated with a big shout-out from Barry Kirk at Loyalty Expo in Orlando this week. Barry works with Maritz and has been quietly leading the way into the field of game theory and how “gamification” can be incorporated into customer strategies to increase engagement and build enduring brand loyalty.

I have great respect for Barry’s work and therefore was humbled by his recommendation of Loyalty Truth as a leading resource for marketers seeking independent and unbiased insight into this evolving space.  After three years at the keyboard the acknowledgment was appreciated, and caused me to revisit just who we serve with this blog as well as reaffirm the directions in which we are heading.

Our intention is that three groups will find value reading Loyalty Truth on a regular basis:

1. Brands interested in customer loyalty and lifecycle marketing
2. The supplier community which serves these brands
3. Financial interests seeking to decipher the entire landscape in support of investment decisions

You’ll notice that consumers, the focus of all our work, are not mentioned here. Though consumers would find some interesting program reviews and commentary here, we write in the marketer’s lexicon and I think it better to not mix the two. Check out this old post for more explanation on this point. Consumers are far from forgotten by our staff and in the very near term, we will introduce a destination site specifically designed for consumers seeking to make the most of their participation in today’s spectrum of loyalty programs.

Concerning future directions:

1. Consumer Behavior: We plan to continue on the course charted about 4 years ago when we shared our studies on Generation Y (the Millennials) and how we can create loyalty across this demographic segment. The difference is that we have expanded the conversation to recognize that the Millennials are part of a larger group, referred to as Consumer 2.0, estimated to be over 50% of the U.S. population at this time.
2. Everything Social: My Mom encouraged me to be social as a young person, but I never knew it would have these implications in business! Social Loyalty, Social CRM, Social Shopping, Social Location Marketing, Social “fill in the blank”. You get the idea. As the firehose of new ideas continues to spew forth, we are faced with one of the biggest challenges to separate wheat and chaff in recent memory. Keep reading here and we hope you find clarity and direction.
3. Global: As the brands, suppliers and investors we serve expand their interests and footprints to a global market, the business resources they seek are evolving. As a co-founder of the Customer Strategy Network (CSN), we have direct access into every developed loyalty market in the world and many that are emerging. Anyone can do desktop research, but few have the ability to speak directly to people living and breathing data-driven marketing in diverse markets. We’re not bragging, just feeling privileged to be part of this group that will continue to grow and expand. Among other things, CSN has a new website on the way which will underscore our collective direction.

You’ve got to focus to succeed in any task. The picture of the US Postal cycling team here reminds me of the focus needed to win in sport. We plan to hone our focus here at Loyalty Truth and bring you more value over time.

Let us know how we’re doing from time to time. Leave a comment, send me an email, or just give me a call.

Thanks.

Breakage is the classic crutch of loyalty marketing financial models. As I mentioned here in a recent post, attitudes towards breakage are changing, both from perspective of the loyalty supplier community and consumers.

Brands aren’t missing the boat on breakage, in fact recent moves by Delta Airlines and Points.com over the past two weeks signal additional recognition that the accrued value in loyalty programs is not a ’shiny object” to tease consumers with, rather it is truly an alternate currency that people expect to have liquidity and be able to convert for value.

Points.com announced that it is teaming up with Paypal to allow its Aeroplan® miles, American Airlines AAdvantage Miles® and US Airways® Dividend Miles® to convert into cash in member’s PayPal accounts. It’s one thing to flush your points for questionable value in the form of magazine subscriptions. I’m sorry, but I just don’t call that a good value proposition for most people.

It’s quite another matter to be able to convert miles into cash. In concept it’s a great enhancement for Points.com and a boon for PayPal. The crucial driver of success for the tactic will be the exchange rate set between the two currencies. At this point I’m not privy to the exact exchange rate but understand it will be distinct for each airline. Some consumers are already crying about lack of value and we’ll have to keep a watchful eye here. On the surface, it’s a great idea.

Frequent Flyers didn’t fare badly this week either. Delta Airlines announced that mileage no long expires in its SkyMiles frequent flyer program. This change could be viewed in two ways. The skeptic will contend that infinitely available miles will just make a seat capacity problem that frustrates most frequent flyers even worse. Additionally, it might seem to represent another step in making FFP’s tougher for the airlines to manage from a financial standpoint.

The optimist will opine that eliminating mileage expiration will spark brand affinity for Delta in the short term and, if combined with some additional redemption options (can Delta play in the PayPal arrangement or come up with some other ideas?) will increase customer engagement over a longer term.

I’ll weigh in as an optimist. With our estimates of Consumer 2.0 at or near 150 Million US consumers, brands that shift the emphasis of their rewards programs from breakage to engagement will come out on top. Consumer 2.0 wants attainable rewards on a more liquid basis. Conversion to cash through Social Shopping, redemption at point-of-sale, and Social Giving are all options that this group finds attractive.

It’s good for the industry and for the consumer when we witness brands encouraging engagement rather than hoping for breakage.

Social shopping is one of the new terms being circulated today among business people and consumers. Shopping has always been a social activity, so the name doesn’t define anything that we don’t understand intuitively.

Not so long ago, the term might have conjured up images of two friends going to the mall together, discussing stores, brands and products, and ultimately influencing – and helping with – purchasing decisions.

What does Social Shopping mean in 2011?

To understand the concept and gain vision on where this movement is heading, break down the thought into activities that make up a social shopping experience.

1. There has to be a purchase transaction at some point. The question is, does “Social”, as it is currently being used, refer to online, offline, or both?

2. Regardless of channel, “social” implies that a sharing of information takes place. We somehow recommend favorite products and brands to each other. We might even make a formal referral of a friend to brand.

3. There is probably a role for incentives in a Social Shopping network. Sure, the engine can run on Word of Mouth marketing, but referrals in particular need to be driven with incentive and there needs to be some value offered by merchants to ignite the movement of a social network of people towards their brand.

Given the components mentioned, I’m not sure I buy the introduction of shopping carts on Facebook pages as “Social Shopping”. In my book, F-Commerce is just one aspect of the equation. In fact, one could argue that F-Commerce is just good old e-commerce delivered through a new channel and facilitated by a new payment currency, in this case, Facebook Credits.

Social shopping is better defined as an eco-system where value for shoppers and merchants is generated as networked shoppers share opinions, recommendations, and make referrals to drive an increased share of their spend to the merchants participating in the network. Shoppers are provided incentive in the form of rewards (cash back or other means) and will continue to patronize merchants in their network as long as the merchants play the game.

The fruits of “search and discover” will be on display as shoppers will recommend merchants they want to see in-network and prune out those that jumped in, but don’t deliver satisfactory product or service. For merchants, the model is highly evolved from a new customer acquisition and retention standpoint and they can be assured that their marketing dollars are well placed and have measurable return.

To provide a tangible example of a social shopping scheme that works, have a look at Zavee.com. Zavee is designed to encourage shoppers to patronize a participating group of local merchants. Their tagline of Simple, Local, Social is an apt description of the value proposition for consumers and merchants.

Zavee merchants can create their own highly flexible promotional offers, with cash back awarded on purchases. Zavee pays out cash rewards to its shoppers on a quarterly basis. Merchants pay only on activity, which rationalizes the relationship between marketing expense and revenue, and obviously reduces risk to the merchant. There are no sign-up or ongoing maintenance fees for merchants, nor are there complicated changes to point-of-sale systems.

In fact, there is not even a membership card needing to be swiped as Zavee works on a registered card basis. Shoppers enrolling can register as many of their favored payment cards as they wish. From that point, smart shoppers visit the Zavee site to identify merchants, review the available offers, and then do what they do best – shop.

On the social track, Zavee shoppers leave reviews and comments about Zavee merchants on the web site. The remarks are relevant as only shoppers making a purchase with a merchant may comment on that merchant. That squeezes out the troll-like nature of some reviews seen on line today – both falsely negative reviews from competitors and falsely positive ones from the merchants themselves (or their publicists) – and spikes the timeliness, relevancy and reliability of reviews on Zavee for other shoppers.

To complete the value generated within Zavee, each purchase made by a shopper generates not only the cash back reward, but “Care Shares™”, i.e. a unit of value that can be accumulated by the shopper and given to benefit one of the local charities affiliated with Zavee in its network. Care Shares are triggered by shopping and funded jointly by the merchant and Zavee itself, giving rise to a new take on “Social Giving”, another term being tossed about today and with multiple implications.

Zavee is focused on serving the local merchant market. It is being piloted in South Florida and early results are positive. The Zavee model and bonusing engine could easily be adapted to serve an online community or a cross-channel set of  merchants, but Zavee is about connecting local shoppers with merchants within the community and creating value for all parties including charities. It might also represent a bridge between traditional loyalty marketing programs and the way Millennials wish to engage with brands as well as the way forward for coalition loyalty in the U.S.

Given the challenges that small-medium businesses have in today’s market, Zavee is a great asset for a business owner and a more much efficient step up from spending marketing dollars on the Yellow Pages and coupon packs where the investment is non-targeted, funded up-front and the results hard to measure.

People have always engaged shopping as a social activity. Now, they have a vehicle to shop, earn, share, and give all while supporting the local merchants that are vital to our communities and the fabric of our nation.

What do Marketers and Rodney Dangerfield have in common? Neither gets respect and each has resorted to self deprecating humor to deflect criticism – or to make a point.

The Marketer’s dilemma is that developing effective marketing strategy is not as easy as it appears. Sometimes, an awful lot of work is poured in to validating an assumption that we intuitively thought to be true at the beginning of a project. At the end of a planning exercise, observers can rightly ask “what was the big deal?”or “didn’t we know that from the start?” Because of this, consultants have been chided for being the folks that charge you to tell what time it is on your watch.

The temptation to shortcut the planning process is always there, but prudent business people know that working through a process or methodology is the best way to manage risk and ensure that all considerations for strategy are vetted. No matter how much work is done, the project should not be declared a wrap until one important step is performed at the end: a reality check to see if customers will “get” our message and understand the value offered in whatever marketing campaign is crafted.

A while ago I wrote about how Marketers Can Be Real Bozos, and whether it was a good or bad idea to use our own lingo in the ads we create.What happens when marketers go beyond using lingo and take aim at themselves to sell their own products?

Ford’s “No Nonsense” campaign for its F150 trucks took a direct shot at the marketing crowd, shouting in this ad that “we don’t need a bunch of donut eaters at a focus group” to tell us what we want in a pickup truck.

Bank of America has been promoting its Cash Back card product describing it as “Refreshingly simple. Rewards with no hoops to jump through” and reassuring customers that there are “No Hassle, no tricks, I know what I get, not like those other card reward programs”.

Someone convinced Ford and Bank of America that if self-deprecating humor worked for Rodney Dangerfield and Jerry Seinfeld, then it will work for them.

I wonder though if their respective marketing teams paused to take the acid test I suggested. If so, would BofA have criticized its other reward cards offers to benefit its cash back product? And, what does Ford think will happen the next time they go to recruit for a focus group (you know they still do them)?

The Ford campaign is funny and since I’ve never been a big fan of focus groups, we can let them off the hook. BofA on the other hand has to think longer term about its messaging. If all reward cards other than cash back are nothing more than “hoops and hassles”, they have just trained upcoming Millennials and other consumers who pay attention to their ads that cash back is the only way to get value from a card.

Maybe that reality check would not have been such a bad idea after all.