Verified Document

Royalty Programs And Data Mining Term Paper

Loyalty Programs Popularity of loyalty programs is increasing, both in terms of the number of programs offered by merchants and in participation by customers. Yet, it seems that both groups remain ill informed of how the programs actually work and the true benefits and costs. This paper explores the reality of loyalty programs and concludes that they can be beneficial for all parties provided that they fully understand what the programs accomplish.

Do Loyalty Programs Work?

Research suggests that the demand-side success of loyalty programs is less than promised. It is difficult to change established patterns of repeat-purchase behavior and competition quickly develops counter responses that mitigate the impact of the program. However, it is possible to reap advantages from loyalty programs such as maintaining customer loyalty and brand share, improving accessibility and brand awareness, and offering incentives expected by customers.

Customers are apt to join the programs of the brands they buy if they desire rewards for their loyalty. However, the program must reinforce the value proposition of the brand instead of just building loyalty-program equity. Improved accessibility and brand awareness can result from obtaining more shelf space and promotions from retailers, taking advantage of opportunities to converse with customers and selling brand extensions to customers. Further, there is a huge me-too pressure to offer programs to consumers and, once a company introduces them, customers may react negatively if the programs are discontinued.

3.0 Benefits to Merchants and Consumers

Despite popular percption, increased sales from loyalty programs is unlikely. In October, 1999, the consulting firm McKinsey and Company conducted a study of consumers in sixteen product categories and found most loyalty programs did not increase sales. And, McKinsey and Company discovered that customers who enjoy benefits without increasing spending typically constitute up to fifty percent of all loyalty program membership. So, one may wonder if...

The answer is yes, with the following possibilities:
Customer retention: Even if customers spend no more than they would have without a program, a loyalty program may keep them from doing business with a competitor.

Maintain spending habits: Loyalty progams can induce customers to keep their current level of spending.

Rewarding customers: Making customers feel appreciated can be a powerful tool for maintaining customer spending and loyalty.

Information gathering: One benefit of loyalty programs is finding out what your customers -- individually as well as collectively -- want and to selectively market products based on buying habits.

Data mining aids in the exploration and analysis of large volumes of information by using automatic means to discover meaningful patterns and rules. For example, direct-mail catalog company Fingerhut uses data mining to segment millions of U.S. customers into groups who exhibit similar purchasing characteristics and then tailors mailings of the 130 different catalogs that it sends to customers each year. Data mining's biggest contribution has been in cutting costs but allowing companies to focus promotions s on the customers most likely to buy.

All customers can benefit from loyalty programs through rewards, special treatment and/or specialty offers and discounts. As many as half of all members of loyalty programs are free riders, enjoying benefits without spending more at the store that provides them.

This group receives more and gives nothing in return.

4.0 Costs to Merchants and Consumers

Loyalty programs are very expensive for merchants. There are establishment costs such as advertising and promotional activity, enrollment costs, IT hardware, database creation and maintenance costs, servicing costs, management costs, editorial and production costs of loyalty magazines, the direct costs of rewards, and the opportunity costs of spending money on a loyalty program instead of on other…

Sources used in this document:
Uncles, Mark D., Dowling, Grahame R., and Hammond, Kathy, "Customer Loyalty and Customer Loyalty Programs." University of New South Wales School of Marketing Working Paper 98/6, University of New South Wales Web site. 27 Nov. 2004.

Beal, Barney. "Getting Loyalty Programs Right." CRM News 14 Jul 2004. TechTarget. 27 Nov. 2004. <http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/originalContent/0,289142,sid11_gci992695,00.html>.

Stebbins. Kathleen., "Club Cards Actually May Cost You Money." Reno Gazette-Journal 4 Aug. 2003. RGJ.com. 27 Nov. 2004. <http://www.rgj.com/news/stories/html/2003/04/08/38911.php>.
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Enforcement Policy Offshore Oil and Gas Exploration
Words: 2694 Length: 8 Document Type: Essay

Enforcement Policy Offshore oil and gas exploration is one of the most capital and human resource intensive industries. Significant health and safety (H&S) risks are associated with working in offshore oil and gas fields. Dermatitis, inhalation of hazardous substances, mental and physical health, isolation, injury, and loss of life and common H&S risks associated to offshore operations. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) is the federal regulatory body that regulates

Aid to Dependent Corporations the Government of
Words: 948 Length: 3 Document Type: Term Paper

Aid to Dependent Corporations The government of United States is incurring heavy revenue loss on account of the corporate sector subsidies and other special rebates. The friendly policies of the government aimed at promoting a positive business climate are sadly being exploited. In their interests to evade tax, businesses today are taking undue advantage of the favorable federal policies. In this regard I feel that our governments tax policies and corporate

Oil to What Extent Would
Words: 12170 Length: 29 Document Type: Multiple Chapters

If Nigerian local content law is not complied with Requires licensee to submit a detailed programme for recruitment and training of Nigerians (Nigerian Local Content Policy) 2.3. History of the LCL The Local Content Law was signed into law in April 2010 by acting President Goodluck Jonathan. In brief, the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Local Content Development Bill 2010 places "…obligations on upstream oil companies in the areas of finance, community

Chad Guinea Promises Superior Transparency
Words: 6550 Length: 20 Document Type: Research Paper

S., France and publicity, Chad was able to renegotiate more favorable contracts with the Bank, expropriate over $450 million in taxes from the private Consortium firms which they claim they had already paid, under the threat of replacement with Chinese firms. Global oil prices spiked, and Chad cleared over $1 billion in revenues in the last year of the Bank's project in 2008. Much of this increased income coincided at

Underestimation of Revenues: Review of Revenue Estimates
Words: 3322 Length: 10 Document Type: Term Paper

Revenue Estimates: Underestimation of Revenues Although the United States has an excellent budget policy, she is yet to reach maximum efficiency with regard to revenue estimation. When it comes to public budgeting, ours is a picture that is far from the ideal. There has been a consistent pattern of underestimation of revenues in federal, state, local, as well as agency budgets. This trend may not be desirable for a recovering

Nanotechnology Is the Predictable Capability
Words: 6153 Length: 15 Document Type: Term Paper

It is very hard to map the intricate brocade of a human mind onto such a machine with a reasonable resolution, but the formation of artificial intelligence or machine intelligence is anticipated to offer an approachable challenge. It maybe a device with full Turing-test interactivity which is capable of fulfilling our wish or would be an interlacing dense layer of memory around a shifting model of existential realty, and

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now