Voices: the CMB Blog

When the 820 consecutive home game sell-out streak ended on April 10^th at Fenway Park (just two games into the 2013 season), the Boston Red Sox found themselves in a unique situation…Red Sox brand loyalty was no longer just a guaranteed thing.Since the Red Sox won the World Series in ’04 and again in ‘07, brand loyalty has come easy to the team – the fans were just there, happy to support their world champions.  But after a rocky end to the 2011 season and a weak 2012, loyalty has waned and the organization actually needs to re-build that loyalty again.

So where do they start?  Obviously on the field actions play tremendously into brand loyalty of any professional sports team. If the team is winning, fans will come to cheer them on and if the Red Sox continue their already hot start to the 2013 season that may help to re-build the loyalty all in itself.  But besides just winning games and acquiring new and exciting players to drive fans into the ballpark - what have the Sox done to keep Red Sox Nation committed and coming back to the brand?

• Commitment to the brand’s heaviest users:  A new loyalty program has been put in place for the brand’s repeat purchasers (i.e., the devoted season ticket holders who come to game after game). Enrolled into a tiered loyalty program, they can earn points towards rewards (such as throwing out the first pitch at a game) every time they scan their loyalty card at the ball park or make a purchase at a concession stand. By committing to their heaviest users and brand advocates, the Red Sox are aiming to keep their best customers happy. 

• In-Game Promotions:  To show fans they are valued and appreciated, the Red Sox put promotions in place at food stands around the ballpark for the start of the season, including Kids Eat Free and $5 Beers. Even with high ticket prices, these promotions might drive both new and old fans into the ballpark and provide them with a great customer experience once they are in the door of friendly Fenway Park.

• Rebuilding brand trust:  Maybe most importantly, the Red Sox have campaigned to bring trust back to its fans. The Red Sox have always had brand loyalty— even in the 86 year stretch without a World Series win – but trust kept those fans believing that soon their suffering would be over. After the 2012 season, many fans were left feeling that the team had quit on them and weren’t committed to winning.  To combat this mentality in 2013, commercial, print advertisements and billboards showcase players with the message that “What’s Broken Can Be Fixed” and “162 Ways to Restore the Faith.” New manager John Farrell has also promised to do everything he can to help the team win.  However, while this assurance and transparency with the fans is reassuring off the field, the team now must follow through with this commitment on the field to truly gain back the trust.  

Professional sport teams are a unique brand; sometimes no matter how much loyalty the Red Sox organization might try to create – advertising, loyalty programs, promotions, none of it will matter without a competitive team on the field.  However, it’s times like this when the Red Sox can show their dedicated fans they really are valued. They must maintain their brand advocates and deliver on their promise of a committed ball club in order to keep Red Sox Nation faithful even when the League Standings on the Green Monster might show the Red Sox slipping a few games behind the dreaded Yankees. 

Jen Golden is a Senior Associate Researcher at CMB. She’ll never forget the first time her Dad took her to her first Sox game and she saw the Green Monster for the first time – her brand loyalty for the team has never wavered since.

Interested in joining our team? We're hiring, check out the opportunities here on our Career page.

The Mobile Wallet is a hot topic for those in the retail, technology and financial services industries. As you may know, mobile wallets allow customers to pay at store checkouts with a tap or wave of their smartphones. In our recent Consumer Pulse study of 1,500 smartphone users, we learned that half are unaware of Mobile Wallets.

To drive adoption, retailers and technology providers will need to overcome a lack of awareness and fear of new technology, all while offering a clear advantage over more traditional payment methods. As shown below, loyalty programs provide a key leverage point to drive Mobile Wallet adoption.

Click to see larger version

Download our latest report on the Barriers and Opportunities for Mobile Wallet and learn more about what will drive (and block) adoption, and who has the advantage as we enter the next leg of the mobile wallet race.

Judy is VP of CMB's Travel & Entertainment practice and loves collaborating with clients on driving customer loyalty.  She's the mom of two teens and the wife of an oyster farmer. Follow Judy on Twitter at @Judy_LC

Originally Published on Loyalty360

Shoveling snow, grocery shopping, folding laundry, some daily activities just don’t scream fun…but maybe they should.  We’ve all heard about gamification–using game design elements to drive desired behavior while making life a little more enjoyable. While the day you get points for unloading the dishwasher may be a long way off, gamification is being used to drive member engagement in many loyalty programs.  To spur some creative thinking, I’d like to present some ‘games’ currently offered by loyalty programs. 

 But first, a quick review of the different game mechanics that can be used to dial up the fun:

1. Points and levels: Keep track of game progress and link to a benefit

2. Appointments: Ask members to visit at a certain time to get a benefit

3. Progress: Show members what percentage of a task they’ve completed

4. Countdowns: Limited time to complete a task adds to add urgency

5. Sharing: Gain status/points for social behavior

6. Leader Boards/VIP lines: Publicly celebrate high achievers

7. Loss Aversion: Force members to complete a task or lose the benefit

Here are some recent examples of travel and hospitality brands that are creating more rewarding and fun loyalty programs through gamification; hopefully this list will encourage you to think about all the ways you can make life a little more fun for your customers.

• The enduring popularity of Jeopardy, bar quizzes, and games like Trivial Pursuit, should leave no doubt that people love trivia games.  The InterContinental Hotels Group’s (IHG) trivia game—Win it in a Minute—awards correct answers with free miles, and capitalizes on the universal desire to prove how smart we are. And it’s proving a smart move—the VP of loyalty programs reported that in the first two weeks of the “Win It in a Minute” promotion IHG has seen 100,000 game plays and has handed out more than 100 million Priority club points.

• Leave it to Caesars Entertainment to take a different spin on loyalty. Having a huge amount of guest data means Caesars can reward their loyalty members based on projected spend, rather than past behavior, as well as present customized offers in real-time to their guests. They also offer Reward Credits through gaming (of course) but also through social gaming by playing Caesars Interactive Facebook games like Caesars Casino.  Total Rewards Members can also use the Social Rewards program to engage with the brand on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to earn even more credits.  These twists on the typical points based approach are making the Total Rewards an even more effective loyalty driver.

• I hadn’t harbored any ambitions to become a “mayor” using the Foursquare app until I heard about their partnership with Starwood—Starwood Preferred Guest (SPG) members vie to become “SPG Mayor” by checking into any of the Starwood’s hotels. Along with bragging rights, the Mayor gets to share travel tips and tricks with the rest of the community, as well as additional points and rewards. It’s a simple but effective way to harness the appeal of location-based mobile technologies and our competitive natures, while showcasing the brand’s most loyal members.

• TripAdvisor has employed many strategies from the gaming industry – and they seem to be reaping the benefits of rewarding participation. The popular trip review company grants their contributors badges and titles, like Senior Reviewer, and the approach seems to be paying off for all involved:  TripAdvisor has benefited from more postings (as the ‘competition heats up’) and the traveler can assess a reviewer’s trustworthiness based on their volume of reviews. 

What do these programs have in common? They align with the brand and the way their customers experience that brand.  They embed fun, competition, achievement, status and rewards to increase member engagement.  It may sound simple, but gamification is a strategic choice and you’ll need to ask the questions:

• Why are you adding game design elements to your loyalty program?

• How does it benefit members? Will they enjoy it?

• What are your business goals?

• What actions do you want members to take?

• Which members are most likely to participate?  How valuable are they?

• What metrics will you use to measure your effectiveness?

To incorporate game mechanics into your loyalty program you need to start with the end in mind, ask what’s your vision of success? And think about the most important behaviors you’re trying to motivate. What actions link to those behaviors?

Building customer loyalty is hard work. But while you’re delivering the brand promise, fulfilling customer expectations and enlisting your promoters…stop to have some fun.  At this (and any) time of year, your members, particularly those who live in the frozen Midwest and northeast, will probably love to play along!

Judy is VP of CMB's Travel & Entertainment practice and loves collaborating with clients on driving customer loyalty.  She's the mom of two teens and the wife of an oyster farmer. Follow Judy on Twitter at @Judy_LC

In Orlando for the Loyalty Expo March 20-22? We'll be there too, stop by our booth!

Originally Published in Loyalty Management Magazine

Recent articles on the “new economics” of loyalty programs and the choices program managers face may be important to read, but many of them leave me bewildered. These articles warn that in the new loyalty environment, credit card companies will play an increasingly disruptive force as members seek reward currency that offers them more options. They encourage executives to restructure the currency to ensure its dominance, and some authors argue that cash-strapped firms should divest their loyalty programs to generate revenue for the company. 

I agree that if you manage a mature program, with a point or mile-based currency, you need to ensure your program offers a relevant currency with a competitive “earn and burn” structure. This currency and the associated promotions are table-stakes; a requirement for both acquiring and retaining valuable customers. But ask yourself this question: is a loyalty program where your primary focus is on the currency (and its economics) really supporting your customer loyalty strategy? 

In our opinion, real loyalty—the kind that spurs evangelization, incremental trips/purchases, paying a price premium—doesn’t come from delivering points. Your customers don’t buy from you because you give them points. They choose to buy from you because of the distinct value provided by your brand. The key problem with enhanced focus on program currency is that points and miles don’t reflect your brand or its unique value proposition—and won’t engage your passionate customers. 

So how can you ensure that your loyalty program IS supporting your loyalty strategy? 

Relevant communications: Reflect your knowledge of your members’ behavior and preferences in your program communications. I fly out of Boston: why does American Airlines regularly send me promotions on flights out of Chicago? 

Build out ‘soft benefits’ that reflect the brand: Consider why your loyal customers are passionate about your brand—why they choose to spend money with you and not your competitors—and incorporate supporting elements into your program. You can ramp up these “connective tissue” benefits as customer value increases. 

Consider ‘unpublished’ surprise and delights: Instead of revamping the loyalty program and listing all benefits on the web site, invest in delivering valuable customers an item they’d value on a one-time basis. The benefits are clear: you create good will with your most valuable customers. You’re also not raising the bar, adding to the arms race or increasing expectations. And, in today’s connected world, some of these “private gestures” will support positive comments on social-media channels. 

A few brands whose published loyalty programs reflect their brand value and underscore their unique selling proposition:

One hotel chain that excels at the special touches is Kimpton Hotels. The small boutique chain’s unique, fun, and socially conscious brand promise infuses everything, from their rooms to their website, to their loyalty program—InTouch, and their elite loyalty program Inner Circle. Their InTouch program offers traditional perks like free nights, but the preferences of loyalty members also get recognized—the hotels customize amenities (like pillow, newspaper, mini-bar) based on guests’ stated preferences. The rewards are more valuable for the Inner Circle members—those who stay 15 times within a calendar year—they include direct access to the CEO along with the more typical complimentary upgrades. 

While hotels have multiple touch-points for sharing their brand with their guests, retail stores can face more of a challenge. But Neimen Marcus’ five tier InCircle program clearly demonstrates an understanding of why loyalty program members choose to shop with them. The program’s benefits reflect their unique brand proposition and reflect the store’s deep understanding of their target customer —affluent shoppers who value luxury and a high-end shopping experience. Neimen’s rewards include perk cards which can be used for dozens of services including alterations, in store dining, monogramming and shoe repair. Rewards highlight exclusivity as well as the more traditional point based rewards. 

With truly vast amounts of data, Amazon could be content with offering suggestions based on previously purchased or viewed items—it’s no small thing to show your customers you know what interests them. But Amazon’s rewards program goes beyond the data warehouse, and while Amazon Prime isn’t free, the free or reduced shipping, and access to content, the Kindle lending library, where Kindle owners can borrow and read books for free, are powerful reminders of the value of the brand and strong motivators to encourage frequent shoppers to return again and again.

Judy is VP of CMB's Travel & Entertainment practice and loves collaborating with clients on driving customer loyalty.  She's the mom of two teens and the wife of an oyster farmer. Follow Judy on Twitter at @Judy_LC

Late last month, the Boston Celtics were struggling along in the middle of the NBA standings. They weren’t great and they weren’t awful, but they were predictable—predictably middle of the pack. But star point guard Rajon Rondo was having another terrific year, racking up triple-doubles (achieving double digits in scoring, rebounds and assists) at twice the rate of his closest rivals. He was the Celtics top performer and the key to what limited success they were having. So when Rondo went down with a season ending knee injury on January 25th die-hard Celtics fans went from disappointment to outright depression.Then something surprising happened.   

Prior to Rondo’s injury the Celtics had looked tired; they suffered from low energy and lack of enthusiasm for moving beyond their very ordinary performance.  After the injury they looked like a bunch of kids bursting through the door on the last day of school.  What happened? They were playing the same game, but had changed (out of necessity) the way they were playing it.  Skills that had been lying dormant suddenly came to the fore.  They were energized, they were playing much better defense and they were moving the ball much more effectively on the offensive end of the floor.  The Celtics went on a tear, winning 8 out of 9 games over the next 3 weeks, and potentially changing the entire trajectory of their season. 

So what does this have to do with research?  Maybe a lot.  Ongoing tracking programs like customer experience and brand health tracking are especially susceptible to becoming “tired” – continuously delivering the same things over and over, with diminishing returns.  One of the biggest challenges facing Celtics Coach Doc Rivers was figuring out how to pull his team out of the middling rut they’d gotten comfortable in.  In his case, the team was forced to change due to their star player’s injury.  Fortunately, customer insights folks don’t need such a dramatic trigger.   

Here are three things you can do to breathe new life into tired tracking programs, and “up your game”:

Introduce “Deep Dives”  Incorporating “deep dives” into your program is a great way to get more and more useful insights into critical issues, without the time and cost of a separate project.  A few examples of potential deep dive topics:

• Product enhancements
• Customer decision drivers
• Competitive comparisons
• Internal performance comparisons

Integrate your tracking data with data from other sources:  Tracking measurement alone (no matter how well designed) isn’t capable of informing all of the insights your internal clients need.  “Connecting the dots” between the measurement and other business data can help you deliver new, more useful insights.  I’m not talking about a “millions of dollars and thousands of lives” IT initiative here. You’ll be surprised how much useful insight you can get by focusing on a specific business issue with data sets that you can readily get your hands on.

Put insights directly into users’ hands in a way that helps them act:  If your internal customers are using dashboards or portals to view tracking results, do those tools really help them take action, or are they really just data dashboards.  A dashboard needs to tell the end-user 4 things, customized to their roles and responsibilities: they need to know where they stand; what will have the highest impact on key business goals; they also need the need the tools to prioritize and plan actions, and show whether the actions taken are really working.

So, has your customer experience or brand health tracking program grown “tired?”  If so, what will you do to up your “game?”

T.J. is CMB's Chief Strategy Officer and General Manager of our Tech Solutions Team. His twin boys are enjoying a re-energized Celtics above.