Mark Sage

Aimia Inc.

Loyalty Director at Aimia (incorporating Carlson Marketing). Marketer, technologist, burnt out developer, planner, innovator, newbie cyclist

Balancing big data with a big voice

0 comments 267 reads

Posted on 2012-05-08

Back in the day, loyalty communications were pretty simple.
You got a Welcome Pack when you joined and then periodic points statements after that. The statements may have contained some offers, and if you were really lucky, these may have been personalised in some way. Some people really pushed the boat out and sent individual mailings with specific offers, normally in response to a lack of behaviour, trying to get you back in-store.

Then email arrived and it became much cheaper to be relevant - or so we thought. In practice it just became much cheaper. Emails were sent, even if there wasn't anything particularly relevant to say and if you didn't like it... well you could always opt-out. So what happened to that dream of 1-2-1 marketing?

Quite simply, it's actually pretty hard to be relevant all the time.

Sure you can use analytical techniques to target customers who you think have a...

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Mutualistic Marketing - The Loyalty Cuckoo

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Posted on 2012-04-21

As everyone knows, many Cuckoos will lay their eggs within the nests of other species. This activity, known as brood parasitism, relieves the parent cuckoo from the investment of rearing young or building nests and so they have more time to spend foraging for food or producing offspring. It also lets them mitigate risk by distributing their eggs amongst a number of different nests - taking the phrase "not having all your eggs in one basket" to it's literal conclusion.
The word parasite can seem quite negative but it literally means "one who eats at the table of another" and it is just one type of symbiotic relationship. Another type of symbiotic relationship is known as Mutualism and...

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What we can learn from PayPal's shunning of skeuomorphic design

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Posted on 2012-03-22

Skeuomorph is an interesting word.

It's from the Greek for vessel/tool (skeuos) and shape (morphe) and is basically used to describe something which retains the design cues from an original product, even when these aren't necessary anymore. Examples would include digital music players which have the look and feel of a real-world device like a car radio or online calendars that present information in the style of a paper, month by month calendar.

In many ways, a Skeuomorph is positive as it allows us to transition from the old to the new; letting people understand how something works as it replicates the look and feel of the original. The example below shows how the iphone calculator look and feel is based heavily on the extremely popular 1977 Braun ET44 calculator, even down to the button colouring.

...

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If Apple did loyalty...

0 comments 463 reads

Posted on 2012-03-12

I was updating one of my Blackberry phone apps this week - something I'd been putting off for a while as I know from experience what a chore this can be.

Having managed to login, navigate the cumbersome menus and download the application, I was then prompted to re-boot my phone. After what felt like 5 minutes, but was probably closer to 2, my phone was rebooted and I was finally back in with my updated application.

I could say I've been spoilt with my Apple devices. Their app store just works. It's not the most beautiful application in the world, but it certainly sets the standard currently for how it should work. It also doesn't need a reboot after it's installed an update, which is why I'm updating numerous apps daily.

This difference all comes down to the user experience.

I'm reading the...

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Pinterest taps into the active lurker

0 comments 619 reads

Posted on 2012-02-27

Another week, another social network explodes onto the scene. Barely 2 years old and picture collecting social network Pinterest is growing rapidly and making headlines.

Despite being a simple concept - you essentially pin or bookmark pictures onto one or more boards - it is strangely satisfying. I'm by no means an avid user but there is something slightly voyeuristic about browsing image after image to see what takes your fancy. Whether its architecture, fashion, food, travel or technology, there is something for everyone.

I also think it taps into some basic needs in this current financial climate. While there is less money to go round and less desire to be seen flaunting it, people still like beautiful things. Pinterest taps into this, letting you like...

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Frictionless Loyalty - Two biggest loyalty launches this year

0 comments 719 reads

Posted on 2012-01-29

In the last couple of months, two new massive loyalty initiatives have been launched - and nobody really noticed.

Together they cover over 16 billion purchases and almost 1 billion people. They come from two of the largest brands in the world, one of which is rated number 8 in the top 100 Best Brands for 2011.

It's probably no real guess that these two brands are Facebook and Apple. However, what might be harder to pinpoint is the loyalty initiatives that they have launched.

Loyalty doesn't always have to mean points = prizes. Instead, loyalty can be defined as

Any activity or treatment that gets customers to make ongoing choices in your favour, all things being equal

Using this definition, I think you can define Facebook...

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Tesco profit warning - how much was Clubcard responsible?

2 comments 1,660 reads

Posted on 2012-01-22

If they say a picture is worth a thousand words then the following graph is no exception.

Using Tesco market share data from TNS/Kantar Worldpanel, there seems to be an interesting correlation between changes in their market share and changes in the reward value of Tesco Clubcard.

With declining market share in 2007-2008, Tesco implemented the Double Points Promotion which gave customers a huge lift in loyalty value and in response, Tesco didn't just stem the decline in market share, they lifted it 5.5% from 2008 levels.

In 2010 the double points promotion was changed to make it less generous, reducing reward deals from 4x...

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You and Yours (3 key loyalty trends for 2012)

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Posted on 2011-12-24

At this time of year, thoughts tend to be about you and yours. This however may be a continuing theme going into 2012 as I think loyalty marketing is going to become a lot more interested in "you".

This is more than just mass personalisation or segmented communications. I believe 2012 will be about individual engagement and empowerment as consumers provide more and more data, expecting increased control over it and better experiences being delivered because it.

You (and your data)

Back in 2006, Time Magazine named the Person of the Year as "You". Pointing out the cultural shift that social media had begun to bring, they recognised that it was democratising communications, with...

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When excluding customers adds value

0 comments 1,039 reads

Posted on 2011-12-10

I'm a loser. I've been a loser lots of times.

When I play poker, I very rarely win big and tend to be happy if I break even. When I was young and we'd play games like pass the parcel, I'd lose more times than I won. Losing is part of life and it's what makes winning feel that much more special.

When my kids play games like pass the parcel now, every wrapper has a gift in it. Everyone's a winner. Yay! Strangely enough they don't really play it that often.

If everyone is a winner then essentially no one is a winner. All it does is dilute the whole process to the point where taking part ceases to have value. Sure it's inclusive, but it doesn't take long to realise we don't want inclusive, we want exclusive. We want to be winners.

Imagine a frequent flyer programme where everyone was a winner. It didn't matter how many times you flew, you were top tier. I'd feel great with my Platinum frequent flyer card, with its exclusive benefits. Priority...

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