State of the Loyalty Industry: Bill Hanifin
By: Bill Hanifin
May 26
This week’s State of the Industry is by Bill Hanifin, Hanifin Loyalty. Here is a sneak peak: When I think about the State of the Loyalty Marketing industry today, I see a business that is somewhere between adolescence and adulthood. From the launch of American Airlines AAdvantage in 1981 to the GM MasterCard launch in 1992, our collective experience in two pillar industries is equivalent to children between 17 and 28 years of age.
It’s not a stretch to say that the vast majority of strategic thinking and program design evidenced in Loyalty programs today have been built by Boomers for Boomers. That’s right, we are the creators of the strategies for which we are also the target audience. Reminiscent of GM’s campaign to invigorate a troubled brand in the 1980’s by proclaiming “This is Not Your Father’s Oldsmobile”, we’ve built the “loyalty” car that we’re comfortable riding in, but we are learning that an increasing number of others don’t necessarily want to go along for the ride.
There is at least one group of consumers who are not sure they want to jump in our car and they are 80 Million strong, representing almost 25% of the U.S. population. Generation Y (the Millennials) are largely disconnected from traditional loyalty models, and it is not surprising given that some of the oldest in the group were born in 1981, the year AAdvantage was launched. To illustrate how the world has changed since then, in that same year IBM launched its first Personal Computer and Arnold Schwarzenegger was still walking around in a Speedo.
The benefits from investment in Loyalty Marketing programs have never been more evident. Creating a community of customers that are recognized and rewarded for their patronage is the precursor to understanding their preferences, needs, and desires. Loyalty works - whether in booming or troubled economic times.
State of the Loyalty Industry: Bill Hanifin
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