Today with the customer being spoilt for choice every brand manager worth his salt wants to maintain loyalty to his brand. With every customer keen on trying out options and exploratory shopping being more the norm than an exception, customers are prone to brand-shifting for no other reason than just to try out a new brand. In such cases what are the options available with brand managers for keeping the customers hooked on to their brands?

The answer, then, lies in offering the customers a customer loyalty programs. With the help of a customer loyalty program the brand manager is able to distinguish his brand from that of the rivals. In a recent survey conducted the 45% respondents said they were more likely to buy a brand that offered a loyalty program than the brand which does not. This clearly indicates that customer look forward to getting returns for their loyalty towards a brand. Many marketers feels this is justified because after all loyalty is a two-way street. Like the customer who is training the brand manager in his preferences and likes and dislikes, the brand manager is also responding with related offers, customized promotions, etc.

Customer Loyalty Program Steps

This typically follows the attract-engage-retain- learn-relate pattern. After you attract the customer with extra-ordinary message, your brand better have some value-add to offer to the customer for him to be engaged with it. Once the familiarity is built, the customer starts relating to the brand. The next step is to learn from your customer’s transactions with the brand. And the final step is to use the learning to go back to your customer with customized targeted messages.

Flow Chart To Follow

This requires considerable amount of time and effort. The brand manager needs to understand that is a strategic initiative and not a tactical one. This initiative will start showing with results after some time (typically 2-3 years on). Many brand managers have neither the time nor the patience for this. This is not something that can paraded during the annual performance appraisal and hence they are not keen on starting something like this.

Yet, this is one initiative that yields returns like no other, and, especially, in the long run. In that case, how does one sell the idea of a customer loyalty program internally? Knowing very well that, this is not going to yield returns immediately, while asking for an investment in the present financial year?

Now, that's a topic for another article. Keep a watch out for the same.