Magazines Archives - 2012 January

Meet new consumer behaviours, mindsets to ensure customer loyalty
Story 6 - Special Report

Once considered an avenue for differentiation and customer engagement, customer loyalty programmes have quickly become an expected reward by the consumer. But that is not the only change that retailers are witnessing in today’s market. Jolene Klassen finds out more at the Retail Loyalty Congress 2011 in Bonn, Germany.

ALONG with the perception evolution of loyalty programmes, consumers emerging from the global economic downturn have also altered their purchasing behaviours, becoming less trusting of organisations and more willing to use technology to improve their shopping experience, experts revealed at the Retail Loyalty Congress 2011, held in Bonn, Germany, last September.

Acknowledging these changes in the market, the Netherlands-based loyalty solutions provider, Brand Loyalty International BV, which designs and provides an all-round solution for grocery retailers as an extension of retailers’ marketing programmes, put together a two-day congress at the Kameha Grand Hotel in Bonn, to highlight some of the issues and trends that impact customer loyalty, and showcase the solutions it has implemented with some of the world’s leading retailers.

Speaking with Retail Asia, Philip Spanton, managing director of Brand Loyalty, shared that the two-day congress was an opportunity to “get people out of their office into an environment” where they could explore some of the developments in the world of loyalty.

“This is about bringing together a group of like-minded people, to explore what’s happening in the world of loyalty, what technologies are changing and the best practices out there in the marketplace,” he continued.

Held on September 22 and 23, the congress’ organiser invited leading retailers from across the globe to attend a specialised workshop and masterclass session that explored social media and how to integrate social networks into loyalty strategies, and arranged two tours that introduced them to the two leading German retail stores: Metro’s ‘real,- Future Store’ and Rewe.

A full-day congress held on the second day featured a line-up of seven speakers who highlighted some of the industry’s best practices and successful programmes, as well as key trends that retailers and brands need to keep in mind when building loyalty.

Starting off the congress session was Graeme Codrington — co-founder and director of consulting firm TomorrowToday — who delved into the motivations behind the changes in customer behaviour. “[Consumers] have changed, maybe more in the past two to three years than they have in the past two or three decades,” he said.

Among the reasons why customer loyalty is much harder to achieve now than before, Codrington added, is the lack of trust that customers have developed as a result of the global financial meltdown in the US. “While it’s not your fault, there’s also nothing you can do about it,” he shared with attendees.

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