State of the Loyalty Industry: Phil Rubin
By: Phil Rubin, CEO and President, rDialogue
July 07
The Bar Is Low…But It’s Always Open: It’s Time To Improve Loyalty Marketing
“80% of Success is Just Showing Up” – Woody Allen
Everyone with an appreciation for loyalty marketing gets the 80/20 principle, as observed and cited by Vilfredo Pareto. As we look at the landscape of loyalty programs out there, this principle is in full effect as most loyalty programs out there are of the “so what?” variety.
Yet there has never been more opportunity for connecting with customers and building business. The key is for marketers and those of us in the industry, to keep raising the bar, which heretofore has been set quite low.
This is not meant to be an indictment of the industry but rather a reflection of its youth. As my friend and colleague Bill Hanifin noted in his State of the Industry piece a few weeks ago, we are only post-adolescent in terms of age.
Coming on the heels of the deepest recession in at least a few decades, marketers have an unprecedented opportunity. Customers are in play. There has been research published recently supporting the idea that brand loyalty has declined. Clearly this is partly due to economic conditions but it’s our conviction that it is also because “loyalty marketing” has been on autopilot for too many, for too long.
How many industries are there, whether retail, credit cards, travel or telecom, where there are a bunch of me-too programs? How many programs can you think of that are truly breakthrough? That are truly “on brand”? And let’s not forget the most important questions: Are they meaningful and valuable for customers? Are they truly generating incremental revenues and profits?
So as we consider the state of the industry, let’s look at opportunities for us to grow and improve what we do – for our stakeholders and most importantly, for customers.
State of the Industry: Phil Rubin
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