How To Leverage Shifting UAE Consumer Trends Through Behavioral Loyalty Programs

Posted on July 21, 2022 by Keerthana Tiwari

The sweeping and large-scale impact of pandemic has caused consumers to reduce their outlets for spending. While some of this scaling back is caused by limited financial flexibility, a lot of it is because customers don’t have many avenues to spend. Travel has taken a back seat and work-from-home culture has taken precedence further lowering down overall spending power. Given the current scenario, there is one thing that your customers do in abundance – spending time on the internet. In a time like this, marketers must leverage the fact that since consumers are hooked to their gadgets, their customer engagement strategy needs a total makeover.

In our last blog on emotional loyalty where we talked about how brands can emotionally engage with consumers, today we will look at behavioral loyalty and how it can delight consumers’ in-between transactions by closely observing customer behavior. Simply put, Behavioral loyalty is the ability of brands to retain loyal customers by adopting strategies to reward members’ non-transactional behavior.

Through behavioral loyalty, brands can (a) segment customers based on high or low engagement frequency, and (b) reward customers based on key elements like purchase behavior, occasional purchasing, engagement levels, user status, participation in customer feedback and more. As we move ahead, we will describe how behavioral loyalty has leveraged the shifting UAE consumer trends.

The current UAE consumer landscape

In 2019, the UAE’s retail market was valued at $55 billion, according to market reports site Report Linker. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the country was witnessing rising per capita income and was gearing up with its growing tourism industry, increasing population of foreign workers, extravagant Dubai Expos and a large number of development projects.

But 2020 brought a major change to the economy due to the pandemic driven changes like closure of offline stores. And UAE was no exception. A study by Mckinsey showed that 95% of the consumers in UAE changed their shopping behavior. People were willing to explore different stores for their regular products and started experimenting with other brands. This forced a lot of brands to revisit their loyalty initiatives and strategies to remain relevant.

2021, however, started well for UAE market given there was an incredible pent up demand. The country is geared up to splurge again albeit, cautiously. The rapid vaccination drive (UAE being one of the most vaccinated country) will definitely help drive footfall back to retail stores. Retailers’ challenge however would be to retain their loyal customers and adopt strategies to ensure customers don’t churn or migrate to other competing brands. In such a situation, adopting behavioral loyalty elements can act as a lever to build a mutually rewarding relationship between the retailers and consumers.

How marketers can benefit using behavioral loyalty

1) The shift to online shopping: In the Consumer Pulse Survey conducted by Mckinsey, 54% UAE respondents have responded that they have tried a new digital shopping method during the Covid lockdown. Many UAE customers are therefore warming up to digital methods, and are realizing the ease behind getting what they want in just a few clicks.

Marketers’ perspective: Brands can get much closer to consumers by building an omnichannel loyalty program. This further gives the brand endless opportunities to delight their customers by rewarding desirable behaviors. For instance, customers can unlock bonus rewards when they link their loyalty accounts to their online purchases. Customers can be incentivized higher when they pick-up online orders against getting them delivered. Those who engage more by writing reviews or visiting specific pages or watching videos can be rewarded using a behavioral loyalty program.

2) Brick and mortar stores rule the roost: Thanks to the fast and vast vaccination drive in the country, UAE is one of the first countries to open up its malls post the lockdown. And consumer trends too point out that buyers regain the touch and feel experience of offline stores, especially for goods like clothes, footwear and electronics. With appropriate guidelines in place for restaurants, consumers are feeling more confident and safe to dine-out,

Marketers’ perspective: Customers visiting stores once they have reopened can be incentivized when they ‘check-in’ into the stores. Customers can be offered options to pre-order and pick up items during ‘lean’ hours. These socially desirable behaviors can be rewarded using the loyalty programs. Premium tier customers can be given options like assisted shopping or options to visit stores in specific slots with limited number of other customers in stores.

3) New found love for local: In 2020, the global supply chains were affected and many international goods could not reach store shelves. This is when consumers shifted to local brands products. A report by NielsonIQ suggests that across the globe people are gravitating to home-grown heritage. This has especially been true for perishable goods like dairy products and meat.

Marketers’ perspective: Loyalty programs can be tweaked or enhanced to ensure that customers earn more when they add local brands to their cart. Customers are increasingly looking for relevance and would shop more with businesses that are committed to social causes like promoting local businesses.

4) Ease of payments: With the surge in ecommerce platforms, UAE consumers are also expecting top-notch digital payments services. Since 2020, there has been a spike in the use of cash on delivery, and over time buyers have drifted to using digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Wallet.

Marketers’ perspective: Consumers in UAE are looking for flexible payment options. So, it is important that the ecommerce platforms of brands seamlessly integrate all of the commonly used payment options. To ensure that consumers get the extra benefit, retailers can provide special offers across the various payment options.

5) The coupon and discount hunt: UAE is the third-richest country with respect to GDP per capita. But the country’s economy did not escape from the effect of the pandemic, which affected household income and spending. The drop in income has resulted in UAE consumers becoming price conscious, and buyers are seeking ways to save through discounts and offers. Talkwalker claimed that many international brands are being associated with deals and discounts.

Marketers’ perspective: When consumers are looking for great deals and value, it’s a good idea to include personalized deals in loyalty programs. This makes the customer feel special and would stick around with the brand for a long time. The hunt for coupons can be packaged into a game to keep customers engaged ‘in-between’ transactions and to reward engagement with the brand on digital channels.

Implementing behavioral loyalty programs creatively

Behavioral loyalty programs in UAE can be shaped creatively depending on the products. In fact, Capillary’s loyalty program enabled one of the leading fashion retailers in UAE to get a boost in their overall average transaction value. Our loyalty program triggers bonus points to customers when they shop on specific days of the week, thereby encouraging more store check-ins. This program also incentivize customers with additional benefits for buying from multiple categories.

Our loyalty experts share some more ways where retailers from different sectors can adopt behavioral loyalty at the right time and reward customers:

A customer who buys a pair of running shoes may not revisit the store for at least 6 months. However, retailers need not wait that long to engage with the customer. To encourage the customer to regularly use the product, customers can get access to content that help customer with their running basics, posture and nutrition. Customers who consume the content or are able to maintain a streak of consecutive workouts can unlock badges that they can share on their social media pages.
In an apparel store, if the customer has purchased a shirt, the brand can delight customers with personalized offers on pants or other accessories to pair with the shirt, encouraging more store check-ins and purchases
Loyal customers entering their regular aisles in a supermarket can find QR codes across their favourite products and can avail exclusive offers and discounts.

Consumer relationships with brands are likely to change and evolve post pandemic. Innovation will be the driving force. While agile marketing strategies will help brands thrive during changes, levers like behavioral loyalty programs can up the ante on customer engagement. To know more about how changing consumer behavior can be the gear for your loyalty program, get in touch with our experts and chart a new customer loyalty strategy for your brand today.

Vietnam, the Emerging APAC Brand Loyalist Market to Watch Out For

Posted on July 20, 2022 by Capillary Marcom

While about only a decade ago, Vietnamese consumers were fairly unbothered by brands building consideration, there is now an upsurge in those who wish to be rewarded for repeat purchases. With a growing GDP rate at over 7.5% for an 80 Mn+ population, rising middle-class income is the biggest driver of brand loyalists in this country. Most are paying higher attention to international brands entering the market since the country of brand origin is an important factor. But this is closely followed by value-driven pricing strategies and discounts. Vietnam is, after all, a low-income economy. The rise of the conscious Vietnamese shopper in the aftermath of the pandemic points towards the trend of buying less, but with attention to better quality at a reasonable price.

From purchasing products, the Vietnamese have now undergone a permanent mindset shift to purchasing brands. And there’s no looking back.

In fact, one study reported that now over 40% of Vietnamese shoppers prefer retail brands that offer loyalty cards built upon a multi-tier points system that rewards every purchase. The ability to redeem points upon the next purchase drives better consideration and recall for brands overall. It comes as no surprise, then, that to retain Vietnamese consumers, the largest brands across key retail sectors are competing quite actively for higher engagement. Innovative loyalty programs customized to meet the personalization needs of different customer groups are proving the most useful tools while capitalizing on this emerging APAC market of brand loyalists. And the emerging brand loyalty in Vietnam is only refining the way forward for the CRM ecosystem, at large, which will continue to adapt to changing preferences over time. AI and tech optimization are central to the digital transformation of Vietnamese businesses at large.

3 Types of Loyalty Programs Ruling in Vietnam

1. Coalition Loyalty Programs

Vingroup is one of the fastest-growing companies in Vietnam. By setting trends in the local market and introducing new international standards of products and services, it promotes a modern way of life among the Vietnamese. Vingroup created a respected and well-known family of brands operating in several different industries, from real estate to tourism. It was apt for the company to envision a singular coalition loyalty program to bring its offerings under a single source of truth. The company innovated to become the first ever in Vietnam to envision and successfully activate such a program. Based upon the customer value proposition of enabling ease of earning and burning, the VinGroup Card was launched in 2016. It enables customers to take advantage of redeeming points and special coupon codes or rewards across Vingroup’s varied services.

Online and offline store flexibility of redemption was also enabled simultaneously. The accumulated points can be redeemed directly at checkout without any hassle. The card itself is upgraded from blue to red or VIP after a customer demonstrates their loyalty over time. The VIP card unlocks greater benefits encouraging consistent repeat purchase. Special privileges ensure that the local market specificities are all taken into account while improving Vingroup’s brand esteem and customer relations at once. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved, including the varied brands across sectors that come together under the program.

2. E-Wallet-Loyalty Integration in Apps

Another major trend that’s taking precedence over traditional vouchers is loyalty apps. With the pandemic, Vietnam’s internet economy grew stronger. E-commerce revenue reached a swooping $53 Bn in only the first quarter of 2022. This marks a radical shift in consumption to online from offline, and brands who wish to best engage their consumers through their own apps must factor in their loyalty programs as a prerequisite for their marketing efforts. While still at a nascent stage, there is a lot of untapped growth potential with the activation of e-wallets. Mega supermarket brands like VinMart – the largest consumer goods franchise in Vietnam – achieved a high 61% popularity for its unique loyalty card offering, VinID. This can be attributed to the unique proposition of VinID which allows consumers to convert points into money while buying their groceries and other essentials through the VinID app. What’s more, is that the coalition program benefits are activated across related Vingroup services such as VinMart using this single app that also enables refunds at the consumer’s convenience and reduces overall shopping costs significantly. It goes without saying that VinID has one of the most efficient loyalty marketing strategies in Vietnam.

It must also be noted that while VinID has competitors in Vietnam – e-Mart, CitiMart and Mega Mart – it is a market leader in terms of brand loyalty. The strategic advantages of offering multiple benefits across varied services beat all else. Thus, while considering a loyalty program, large conglomerates must, in particular, adopt an integrated approach.

3. Omnichannel, Multi-Service Loyalty Applications

Vietnam’s insurance market is one worth delving into when it comes to the final brand loyalty driver – omnichannel communication. Maintaining consistency in both marketing design and messaging across multiple consumer touchpoints is crucial while activating loyalty within the existing tech stack. Prudential Vietnam, a leading insurance provider across varied sectors, decided to open up this multi-channel loyalty avenue through PRUrewards. To enjoy the loyalty program, the customer needs to log in to his PRUonline account, then go to the PRUrewards tab to view his points, as well as, gifts and discounts from the program. Customers can access the loyalty program through the website as well as mobile applications on iOS and Android. While rewarding its most loyal customers with additional benefits was the key to this omnichannel loyalty application, the major driver of customer retention was the flexibility offered.

Insurance is already a very challenging industry in terms of attracting consumers in the first place. With PRUrewards, the company innovated to link non-insurance services with unique rewards across travel, food, and other industries. After joining the program, customers can engage by earning points and redeeming various rewards offered by well-known merchants such as Lazada, CGV, Grab and many other merchants. All members receive points based on various earning rules like annual premium, birthdays, new year anniversary and membership anniversaries. The system will automatically calculate all earned points. Thus, Prudential made a dull buy-like insurance delightful and exciting for its customers thereby increasing loyalty significantly.

Vietnam moving ahead in the brand loyalty direction…

While Vietnam is culturally unique in terms of buying habits that showcased a certain conservatism in the past, the digital boom of the pandemic in terms of online commerce has changed the game. Brand loyalty is now a crucial metric when it comes to determining the long-term success of enterprises and the right program can genuinely reduce customer churn like nothing else. Get in touch with our experts at Capillary Technologies to learn more about how our loyalty program software works for your business.

A Comprehensive Guide to the Growing Demand for Airlines Loyalty

Posted on July 13, 2022 by Aprajeeta Singh

Do you know Hawaiian Airlines’ loyalty program as of 2022 offered 24.78 USD/100 USD spent to its frequent flyers? Also, Alaska Airlines reserves its second spot by offering 24.65 USD to its frequent flyers. And this brings them brand loyalty like no one’s watching. Now, let us reveal the true story here. Hawaiian Airlines is successfully running its airline business, contributing 1.7% of the domestic market share to US airlines as of December 2021, even post-pandemic.

In 2002, when United Airlines filed for bankruptcy, its Frequent Flyer Program (FFP) was the only money-making business it had. Frequent Flyer Programs (FFPs) helped United Airlines make a whopping revenue of $5.3 billion revenues in 2019! Now imagine if a core airline loyalty program – FFP is capable of making the airline business survive, think of the revenue it can generate for airlines in today’s AI/ML world. In this blog, we will cover everything about airline loyalty – starting from its definition, the need, the challenges, some of the reigning airline loyalty programs and why now is the best time for airlines to venture into airline loyalty programs.

What is airline loyalty?

Airline loyalty talks about the loyalty programs run by airlines to transform their existing customers into loyal customers. Just like discounts offered to shoppers in any shop, airlines provide benefits to their regular flyers for choosing them over other airlines. However, airline loyalty is more than just airline miles and rewards; at Capillary, we call it creating memorable experiences for flyers.

From searching for a flight to booking, boarding, traveling, landing, and, reaching the final destination – it’s the entire customer journey that offers different touchpoints for airline brands to interact with the customers. Since no two passengers are similar, a common approach of making every customer engaged wouldn’t work in the long run. Instead, you need to understand the choices of your flyers & address their needs distinctly. Even when hundreds of passengers are going on each flight regularly, engaging with them on a personal basis needs time and thorough planning for which brands must have a robust marketing strategy.

The inception of airline loyalty

The tradition of making your flyers loyal to the airline brand was started by United Airlines in 1972 with the name ‘Frequent Flyer Program (FFP). Further, in 1979, Texas International Airlines adopted FFP full-fledged by using actual mileage tracking of passengers & rewarding them based on the miles covered in the air. This legacy of FFP was further followed by many airlines including Western Airlines, American Airlines, Delta, Continental Airlines, Air Canada, and many others. FFPs were designed to reward frequent flying customers. It was based on simple math; the more customers fly, the more points they will get & higher conversion rates the airlines will have. The core airline loyalty program – FFP, was based on an earn & burn scheme. The greater will be the distance or miles covered; the greater will be the counter of points, and customers can burn them on the next flight to earn more.

With the growing customer demand, airlines further partnered with associated businesses like cab services, restaurants, lounges, etc., to create unmatchable experiences for their customers throughout their air journey. The earned rewards & offers from FFP programs could now be used to shop for food items at airports, book car rentals, and take flight tickets using exclusive travel credit cards. Ancillary services benefited airlines & associated partners largely in creating a profitable & comforting ecosystem for travelers. Do you know that Frequent Flyer Programs have dedicatedly gained so much popularity in the airline industry that the term then and even today is interchangeably used for airline loyalty programs?

Are FFPs enough to make the airline industry bloom?

Though FFPs gained much fame in the airline industry, airline loyalty programs are much more than FFPs. Since FFPs can benefit the company as long as they offer flying services, the recent COVID-19 pandemic was an eye-opener for the airline industry to factor in a situation where airlines had to stop flying services for some time. This was the situation of existential crisis for the airline industry. And that’s the time when airlines figured out the need to widen their scope of the customer loyalty business. Besides contingencies like the pandemic, there are other reasons that have now made airlines shift away from the routine FFP approach & refurbish airline loyalty programs. Let’s take a look at the three callouts:

1. Loyalty programs matter more to some travelers than others:

Mark it as a fact. The low-frequency travelers often overlook loyalty programs as they continually seek cheaper flights from any airline. Even if they signed up for a loyalty program, they must be opting for 3-4 programs at a time & they keep switching between them. High-frequency business travelers rank loyalty programs as the second factor when choosing flights over safety & punctuality. That’s why core FFPs alone can’t bring larger outcomes to airlines.

2. Airlines need customized loyalty programs:

Every user’s journey is unique right from the purpose of traveling to surfing flights, budgeting, booking patterns, choosing preferences, and thinking of travel ideas. So, even if you mark an ideal customer journey with your flyers, you can miss plenty of touch points with just a single earn and redeem loyalty program. Some of your flyers may prefer a complimentary spa session before a late-night flight, while other ones may like to have warm food instead. Existing airline loyalty programs miserably fail to engage with this massive variety of customer preferences. Hence, the need for personalization in the loyalty programs that traditional FFPs won’t offer.

3. A dire need for brand advocates:

Your regular flyers can be the best tool to put your airline marketing in shape. It is vital to conduct timed surveys to ask your customers if they prefer to be your brand advocates & share their experiences with others. Airlines often sign celebrities as brand ambassadors to build credibility but in today’s social media age, counting on testimonials from regular flyers can work wonders for your airline brand.

Why is airline loyalty a priority for airlines now?

When people choose to travel with your airlines, they trust you. More than ever before, in the post-covid era, you need to ensure safety for your passengers. When your customers know they are traveling safely with all precautionary measures & treated as per their individual preferences, they won’t be skeptical about choosing your flight next time. Free goodies are still widely preferred by people as they often rake up points in their cart to claim free coffee, complimentary spa lounge services, & even free flights. Though different airlines have different mile reward & redeem systems based on their brand rules, these perks are capable of engaging flyers.

If your airlines widen the scope of airline loyalty programs from FFPs to partner bundling, points to cash conversion options & give personalized promotions – you can grow your customer engagement rate. Your flyers may need to shop something from the airport, play games to kill boredom, or upgrade their seats – the reasons could be many but as an airline brand, you must factor in all these requests in advance integrating real-time information and airline services, you can help your customers find the solution to the ongoing situation. Recently, Deloitte conducted a proprietary survey of 2572 air travelers who took at least 1 flight in a year with their most preferred airlines. And, here’s what figures tell –

Flyers often travel for business or leisure purposes. Hence, they are looking for comforting experiences in either of the cases. Loyalty programs are meant to make this journey convenient & hassle-free for flyers unlocking access to an exclusive airline experience. Here, partnering with travel & hospitality businesses and enabling your customers to use their loyalty points to access these VIP services can help you find an edge. You can also add perks of traveling with your flight rather than your competitors.

Besides the COVID-19 pandemic, the environmental & climatic change that we’ve witnessed in the late 2020s worldwide has made businesses and travelers mindful of their choices & preferences for that need. As a result, industry leaders, business owners, and individuals are discussing sustainability goals and taking action in support. Shai Weiss – CEO at Virgin Atlantic, shares the vision of airline with sustainability in his TED talk about how their airlines is paving the way to fulfill the pledge of net-zero emissions by 2050. Your brand too can take a step towards airline sustainability or any other cause you support. Futuristic loyalty programs & loyal flyers often prefer airlines that not only support global causes but also work towards them. All airline businesses sooner or later adopt these trends to offer personalized experiences to their flyers. However, given that the trends keep changing and the technology is constantly evolving, airlines must open new dimensions to stand out in this competitive world.

And the 5 best airline loyalty programs are…

SkyMiles by Delta Air Lines – Delta flyers can earn miles while traveling on Delta as well as via their partner airlines like Aerolíneas Argentinas, Aeroméxico, Air Europa, Air France, China Airlines, China Eastern, Czech Airlines, Garuda Indonesia, Kenya Airways, KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, and many more. For its members, miles never expire; they can shop on SkyMiles marketplace or opt for upgrades anytime they plan to travel.
Rapid Rewards by Southwest Airlines – With some 3900 flights and no blackout dates, Southwest’s Rapid rewards can be used on care rentals, hotel stays, & of course, flight upgrades with no expiration timelines.
AAdvantage by American Airlines – American Airlines has more than 1000 partner companies, and their AAdvantage flyers can redeem miles while opting for flights, hotels, upgrades, and even shopping for retail products at 1200+ stores like Sephora, Adidas, Walmart, Groupon, Macy’s, Eddie Baver.
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club – Virgin Atlantic’s flying club members can spend miles with their host partners like eBay, Tesco, Delta, and many more. The best part is the redemption of reward travels & discounts on the Virgin Holidays.
Mileage Plus by United Airlines – United Airlines lets its travelers access thousands of destinations across the globe with their 30 partner airlines. From enjoying cruises to having fine dining & shopping experiences, flyers can use their reward points for everything.

Airline loyalty: The runway to future

Clearly, customer loyalty has become the lifeline for the airline industry.

Even if an individual travels only once a year, using the partner programs, co-branded credits, digital wallets & marketplace shopping – airline brands can stay connected with their flyers throughout the year. The profits of investing in airline loyalty can bring to your business is no longer a debatable topic – Capillary’s value-driven loyalty framework enables brands to measure how much topline revenue can a loyalty program generate for your brand in a particular stage. This novel approach to airline loyalty programs, upcoming trends & access to insightful customer data can drive more flyers to your business. If you would like to relook at your existing airline loyalty programs, connect with our loyalty and engagement experts to revive your FFPs & transform them into the most engaging airline loyalty programs.

Conglomerate Loyalty is Becoming the Largest Grosser in 2022 & Beyond

Posted on July 1, 2022 by Aditi Aggarwal

Encapsulating value, convenience, and privilege with higher customer retention and stakeholder return, multi-brand conglomerate loyalty programs are thriving in the here-and-now.

At the outset, it’s interesting to note that the potent value proposition of conglomerate loyalty is a direct outcome of the rampant digital transformation of all major retail conglomerates during the pandemic. Their businesses came together in offering their most valued customers better incentives on every purchase. According to the Global Worldpay (FIS), 80% of customers now favor signing up for programs that allow for point redemption across major retailers at once. Enabling rewards for different categories and brands under a singular sign-up, individual businesses made higher profits even as brand loyalty decreased. Moreover, the teaming up of complementary brands meant envisioning new customer engagement strategies that revived the conglomerate loyalty program like never before.

Single hub, multi-brand loyalty for maximum value

Customer satisfaction grew most with increasing cart size and order value across those brands, in particular, that prioritized personalizing their communication through efficient CRM and analytics frameworks. They acted upon centralizing rich customer data towards a singular source of truth before setting up sophisticated tech stacks that could cater to customizing rewards. As a result, businesses within the conglomerate were able to better connect with customers who showed high affinity towards multiple brands, at once, over individual purchases. Thus, while brand loyalty suffered from consumers’ fickle-mindedness, conglomerate loyalty improved overall. In fact, with the growing preference for cutting down on retail expenditure in the aftermath of the lockdown’s spending reprioritization, this trend thereby became the most profitable for large corporations in 2022.

This is only the beginning. It is expected that, over the next three years, conglomerate loyalty programs will redefine the CRM ecosystem by optimizing both topline and bottom line effectiveness for disparate business divisions at once. A good example of innovation powering growth within the conglomerate loyalty sphere is Wipro’s single hub loyalty program in their largest serviceable market, the Middle East. Designed in 2021, Wipro, the retail giant, successfully managed to bring all its businesses within one unique umbrella of rewards and recognition. They implemented the tech solution of automating personalized promotional campaign creation, execution, and management for a massive customer base of 100K+ generating a total annual revenue of ~$9 Bn in the region. Initially, their key challenge was that each business within the conglomerate ran its loyalty programs in silos, making them less impactful on the whole. Moreover, with no customer profiling, testing and optimization, the company was sending out confusing communication that saw a fair bit of duplication.

Wipro’s decision to, then, orchestrate a common loyalty program completely changed the game in terms of unifying and optimizing their campaign strategies and budgets for all stakeholders involved.

They deployed SAP Hybris and Oracle Eloqua to implement the centralized CRM framework that built loyalty up to 100% higher in terms of business impact. The biggest advantage of Wipro’s conglomerate loyalty program, however, is the reduction in real-time campaign setup and personalized content creation time from 24 to 2 hours. This is essentially what led to the program’s success and escalation to other markets this year.

Redefining CRM through effective program management

Streamlining CRM through messaging that avoids duplication in favor of serving unique customer needs is the high point of any well-designed conglomerate loyalty program. It ensures that varied demographic, as well as psychographic or behavioral attributes, are factored in while designing a common set of rewards and recognition for multiple brands. In doing so, the customer is reassured that her preferences are taken care of without having to opt for multiple different programs with their time-consuming sign-ups and monitoring of points earned over time. Effective program management is an essential part of this process for the conglomerate that spontaneously fulfills customer expectations as they change. The data sources that, therefore, merged into one from across brands to make sure that customer profiles get richer.

Thailand’s Central Holding Group – a well-known conglomerate spread across merchandising, hospitality, restaurants and retail – facilitated a 1Card loyalty program. It allowed varied corporations under their investment to benefit equitably from reduced customer churn. Sales increased significantly by 20% for the Group, as nearly 7.2Mn customers were able to redeem coupons and discount codes across many brands at once.

One-to-one marketing communication was the winning CRM strategy as high-paying, high-value customers were delighted by personalized offers they could not resist over time.

The accumulation of points from across services acts as a lever with which to entice buyers in the long haul with birthday messages and refer a friend add-ons. The flexibility of, then, significantly lowering the overall purchase amount for many different products through high points redemption is one that is sustainable to build equity. Moreover, Central Group’s 1Card members receive rewards after every purchase that they could use on the very next one, increasing affinity for the brands. A great user experience aided the conversions as is always the case with any successful conglomerate loyalty program.

Taking other markets by storm…

Similarly in other major markets, conglomerates are launching unique loyalty programs tailored to the cultural and personal needs of their customers. In India, the landscape is reaching a mature stage with JIO, ABFRL and other leading groups investing heavily into singular programs for their diverse retail offerings. In Vietnam, Capillary Technologies came together with one of the largest investment groups to launch innovative new features for the nation’s largest and most successful coalition loyalty program that saw revenue growth of over 53% during COVID. This winning strategy is a breakthrough even for markets that are in a fairly nascent stage in their digital transformation journeys such as Japan, Indonesia and the Philippines.

Single technology accelerators are at the very heart of ensuring that the customer experience offered by conglomerate loyalty programs optimizes omnichannel value for all parties involved. Ultimately, however, it is the customer that is benefitting the most from reaping the highest value rewards for everything that they desire from the conglomerate’s e-commerce offerings at one go. The ease of a single sign-up and the customization of rewards is the best, so far, in terms of multi-brand loyalty but the sky’s the limit for tech and marketing teams to come together in mapping the road ahead in 2022 and beyond.