Neil Rogers was the original “shock jock” in South Florida radio. Not being a fan, I was in a clear minority as he stacked up top ratings year after year before retiring in 2009.
Part of Mr. Roger’s shtick was living in the gray area of FCC regulation, and he was reminded from time to time [...]

Trendy business buzzwords aren’t any fun until you form an opinion and seek feedback to get to the substance of the issue.
Customer Engagement is one of those terms that is being mentioned more frequently than Kim Kardashian was during the Super Bowl. It’s the 2010 version of “what’s hot, what’s new, what’s next?”
The question is, [...]

Loyalty Marketing has had its most notable successes in high frequency transaction environments. Think airlines, credit cards, gaming, hotels, and retail.
Where the sales cycles are extended or the opportunity for transactions less frequent, there have been fewer examples of success. Think insurance, subscription businesses like newspapers, cable, and wireless, and health care.
A revelation of Loyalty [...]

Data driven marketing programs which unite tangible rewards and special benefits are meant to change behavior. And the outcome of the behavior change should render a business benefit for the company sponsoring the program and create feelings of affinity and goodwill from the people whose behavior changed towards the sponsoring outfit.
Practitioners call the resulting schema [...]

“While not every business needs a Loyalty Program, every business does need a well planned and executed Customer Strategy.” This is one of the loyalty mantras that I share on Hanifin Loyalty and the statement represents a guiding light on the path to innovation in the next wave of Loyalty Marketing.
For some businesses, building a [...]

“P” as in Profitability, that is.
Part of the challenge in playing the Loyalty Marketing game is that we, as strategists and solutions providers, tend to confuse the issue for our clients through our own marketing-speak. We spend too much time battling over semantics and definitions when all our clients really care about is increasing their [...]

Designing strategic marketing plans, I take comfort in using a proven planning methodology as I am assured of covering every aspect needed to create and launch an effective Customer Strategy. In other words, I am always sure to thoroughly vet client project objectives, customer needs and behaviors, the proposed value proposition to engage the group, [...]

If we were playing a word association game, tossing out “Loyalty” to the crowd would elicit responses “Points” or “Miles”. In a similar way, ask what business problem Loyalty is designed to solve and most people would respond “attrition” or “retention”.
Obviously, historical perspective on Loyalty Marketing programs equates the strategy to a Hammer, a [...]

Having a well planned and executed Customer Strategy should be the litmus test for the efficacy of today’s corporate marketing department. Think you can live without it? Then ask yourself why companies are putting more choice in consumer hands each day and striving to gain perspective on customer preferences via blogs and communities.
Whether a Loyalty [...]

“While not every business needs a loyalty or rewards program, every business does need a thoughtfully created and well executed Customer Strategy.” This snippet of dogma clipped from the Hanifin Loyalty LLC site is backed up by many examples in the marketplace. It emphasizes the importance of forming marketing strategy with your customer’s best interests [...]