A study of
1500 US consumers between the ages of 18 and 65, was conducted by the Marketing
Store in partnership with research vendor IPSOS. The report was published
August 26, 2014. The study was titled “Living Loyal” and it focused on customers who participated in
loyalty programs for travel and retail. The categories considered for this
study included hotels, retail women's apparel, supermarkets, airlines, and
retail sporting goods. For more detailed
information, the report can be found on the internet.
There were
general findings from the study that support current knowledge about the retail
market. In particular, the study found that customers have on average 10
loyalty cards. Of equal importance was the finding that nearly 2/3 of the
customers indicated that being loyal to a brand is not particularly important.
One of the
key findings of the study was that men and women approach loyalty from a
different perspective. One of the most important aspects of investigating men
and women separately was the strategic implications that can be drawn from the
differences when it comes to designing loyalty progams.
The study
found that men see loyalty primarily as a matter of honor or commitment. Loyalty
from a man's point of view relates more to the organization than to individuals.
It's as if the man is signing up to join a team. Men often use logos on their apparel as a way
of identifying themselves with a privileged group (those who wear products with
the same logo) thus demonstrating their loyalty.
Women on the
other hand, attached loyalty more to individuals within organizations. Women
appear to look for highly personalized communications with an individual or
individuals within the company. While trust is not a concern for men, trust and
devotion are particularly important for women.
When these
differences are considered, the loyalty programs for men should aim at
identification of the brand with some sort of membership that would suggest
some type of exclusivity. On the other hand, the loyalty program for women
should be designed to create some form of one-to-one communication between the
company and the individual.
The bottom
line is that loyalty programs that include both men and women must consider the
way that men and women view loyalty. Even
though many companies see the marketplace from a unisex perspective, genetics
and chemistry demonstrate that differences do exist between sexes. The
companies that recognize these differences and develop their loyalty programs with
these differences in mind will win.
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