I mentioned in the recently published case study of Zions Cash Rewards that one of the toughest aspects of the loyalty business is the dearth of publicly shared information on program performance.

The most useful insights are gained through hands-on experience while managing a program, and much of what I have learned can only

Take the Marketer's Survey!

be shared on a summarized basis due to confidentiality agreements with clients. It’s just plain tough to find unbiased information on reward program trends, performance, and consumer preferences in the marketplace.

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council has conducted many research initiatives in various fields of marketing and soon, new insights into measuring the effectiveness of rewards programs will be available. The CMO Council has launched a new authority leadership program sponsored by Ricoh/IBM InfoPrintSolutions in association with other partners to “evaluate the degree to which loyalty and rewards investments and programs are contributing to business performance in today’s recessionary environment”.

I am proud to have been named as a member of the Faculty Board for the project and invite you to take part in the survey to help advance the loyalty marketing knowledge base available to practitioners.

There are two surveys in which you can participate:

• The Marketer’s Survey is designed for executives and those with influence over the strategic direction and execution of their company loyalty program. The survey takes only a few minutes to complete and is well worth the effort. The CMO Council does a wonderful job of collating and interpreting results to deliver value to the industry.

• The Consumer Survey seeks input on preferences and trends on loyalty programs from (guess what?) a consumer viewpoint. Change hats and offer up your best take on what is working and what is a bust.

Early responses to the Consumer Survey include these findings:

• The highest participation rates are in Supermarket and Airline programs, while Health & Fitness clubs and Internet/Cable providers ranked among the lowest in participation.
• “Discounts and savings” currently ranks as the most key benefit of loyalty and rewards programs, while “receiving too much spam email and junk mail” ranks as the biggest detractor.
• More than half of the survey respondents say that they have given up their loyalty or rewards club membership because of poor product or service experiences with a brand.

I’ll wait to express opinion until the survey is completed, but can say these early indicators will spark some healthy debate among sponsors, suppliers, and advisors to the industry.

If you are directly involved in the management of your company’s loyalty program, please take a few moments and complete the survey.

One of the challenges in the Loyalty Marketing business is that few organizations share tangible results.

I still am occasionally asked the question “Does Loyalty Work?” and wish I could point to more specific evidence in public forum as an answer. Telling people that you are restricted from disclosure due to confidentiality agreements meets ethical standards, but is frustrating.  And, the information shared at conferences is typically sanitized in case competitors are listening.

The dearth of proprietary data shared by program sponsors makes continuous improvement in our sector a bit problematic. That’s why Hanifin Loyalty is fortunate to be able to share the results of Zion Bank’s merchant funded rewards program launched in 2005 in a new case study published on our web site.

Merchant Funded Rewards models represent the innovation of choice among today’s card rewards programs in North America. It’s not a big surprise as “Pay for Performance” affords benefits to participating merchants, card issuers, and cardholders alike.

At the same time, merchant funded programs have proliferated so quickly, almost exclusively centering on online shopping, that banks are challenged to differentiate their offers.

Zions Cash Rewards is unique in that it centers its value proposition on an extensive brick and mortar network of everyday spend merchants which brings high relevancy and interest to the bank’s cardholders.

Documenting this case study would not have been possible without Cynthia Smith, SVP & Director, Bank Card Products and Services Zions Bancorporation and Kelly Passey, EVP, Access Development. Thanks to them both and to their organizations for supporting this effort.

I hope you will download and enjoy this detailed Case Study which shares results of the collaboration between Zions Bank and Access Development to achieve success.