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The 13th annual COLLOQUY Loyalty Summit agenda is available now. It brings together inspirational speakers, educational sessions and MasterClasses that will provide you with solutions to your business challenges.

Take advantage of intimate networking opportunities with senior-level executives as they explore the latest advancements in loyalty programs, customer engagement strategies, marketing technologies and analytics.

Caroline LarsonBrewing Up Loyalty With

Caribou Coffee

Dave Zychinski and Mindy Heintskill

Walgreen's Evolution, Revolution and

Innovation Within Balance Rewards

Todd GulbransenHow Shell Uses Strategic

Partnerships to Rev Up Loyalty

Anna Miriam LorchMarriott Rewards:

Finding the Suite Spot With Gen Y

Phil LempertTrending in the Aisles:

5 Must-Haves for Retail Success

Daniel PinkTo Sell is Human: The New ABCs of Moving Others

For sponsorship opportunities please contact Joan Deno at 513-977-2297 or joan.deno@colloquy.com.www.colloquy.com/summit

Mike ScafidiDefining Engagement

Loyalty With Pepsi

REGISTER NOW

October 14–16, 2015Lansdowne Resort Near Washington, D.C.

2015

L O YA LT Y S U M M I T

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[0 2] E D I T O R ’ S L E T T E R

[0 5 ] N E W S B R E A K Top News Stories

[1 5 ] L OYA LT Y S T R AT E G I E S R E D U X What Loyalty Leaders Are Telling Us

[ 1 7 ] C O L L O Q U Y R E C O G N I Z E S July/August Winners Announced

[0 4] L OYA LT Y L A N D S C A P E 25 Loyalty Milestones Infographic

[0 6 ] C O V E R S T O RY Celebrate, Contemplate: Loyalty’s Heavy Hitters on Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Headed

[ T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S ]

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[ E D I T O R ’ S L E T T E R ]DENNIS ARMBRUSTER

25 Years and Still Cresting the Peak of Engagement: Walgreens, Marriott, Pepsi Join the Loyalty Summit

For most people, what makes a good day is a hot cup of coffee, a full tank of gas, a reviving snack and a good night’s sleep. What makes it a memorable day, however, is when the sellers of these products deliver them in ways that result in emotional connections.

You can learn firsthand how the experts at Marriott International, Walgreens, Pepsi, Caribou Coffee and Shell use data analytics and loyalty to foster customer intimacy at the 13th annual COLLOQUY Loyalty Summit. They will join several other industry leaders at the three-day event, Oct. 14 to 16, offering insights on how to capture share of wallet by first gaining brand affection.

This year is particularly special for us because it also marks our 25th anniver-sary. In July 1990, we published our first magazine and launched what became the longest-serving go-to resource for loyalty knowledge, from our publica-tions to the biennial COLLOQUY Loyalty Census to the annual Summit. Among our keynote speakers at the Summit this year is Daniel Pink,

best-selling author of “Drive,” “To Sell is Human” and “A Whole New Mind.” Pink will rewrite the meaning of selling in a presentation that shifts emphasis from problem-solving to problem-finding. In his presentation, “To Sell is Human: The New ABCs of Moving Others,” Pink will dissect the personas of the best salespeople and offer a sales vocabulary for messages that resonate.

Keynoter Phil Lempert, an expert in consumer behavior, marketing shifts and food trends – he’s known as the “Supermarket Guru” – will provide an exclusive first look at his 2016 “Food and Retail Trend Forecast.”

In July 1990, we published our first COLLOQUYmagazine and launched what became the longest- serving go-to resource for loyalty knowledge.

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We’ll also offer a series of Master-Class sessions:

• “Your Customer Experience May Be Killing Your Brand Loyalty.”• “Getting the Most Out of the Shopper Journey: The Big Five Insights Derived From 3,000 Loyalty Programs.”• “Rethinking the Future of Four Key Pillars of Retail: Customer- Centricity and Data.”• “Marketing in the Moments That

Matter, Are You Ready?”

The 13th annual COLLOQUY Loyalty Summit will take place at the Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Va., just outside Washington, D.C. To learn more, visit colloquy.com/summit.

Hope to see you there,

Dennis ArmbrusterEditor-at-Large

Editor-in-Chief: Lisa Biank FasigEditor-at-Large: Dennis ArmbrusterManaging Editor: Kate ShepherdStaff Writer: Karen BellsResearch Director: Jeff BerryGeneral Manager: Kurt AllenMarketing Specialist: Joan DenoSocial Media: Jeff StoermerCreative Director: Laura ZazanisAssociate Publisher: Jill Z. McBride

Contributing Editors: Steven Dennis, Ryan Lile, Graeme McVie, Bryan Pearson, Brian Ross, Gabe Zichermann

313 W. Fourth StreetCincinnati, OH 45202Telephone: +1.513.248.9184FAX: +1.513.231.0555Email: info@colloquy.comwww.colloquy.com

Celebrating its 25th year, COLLOQUY has served as a leading publishing, education and research practice, bringing together loyalty practitioners from around the world. A pioneer in the industry, COLLOQUY is the first publication dedicated expressly to the art and science of loyalty marketing and has since become the go-to resource for loyalty intelligence. Today COLLOQUY engages and educates loyalty marketers with its magazine, weekly e-newsletter and timely and comprehensive loyalty-marketing website, colloquy.com. In each issue of the magazine, the “COLLOQUY Recognizes” feature highlights excellence in loyalty. COLLOQUY delivers industry-leading loyalty benchmarking reports and educational workshops, webinars and speeches. The COLLOQUY Summit is the premiere annual loyalty event. Advertising, sponsor-ship and publishing opportunities are available via the COLLOQUY Network, a global partnership of loyalty service providers. COLLOQUY is an independently operated division of LoyaltyOne. To learn more, visit colloquy.com.

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His presentation, “Trending in the Aisles: 5 Must-Haves for Retail Success,” will provide insights on how to reshape retail strategy in the coming year.

Also during the COLLOQUY Loyalty Summit, we will present the fifth annual COLLOQUY Recognizes Awards at a lun-cheon on Oct. 15. These awards honor the torchbearers of loyalty marketing who inspire us all to work toward a valued goal. To read about all of 2015’s winners, visit our COLLOQUY Recognizes page.

A limited-attendance event that gathers the brightest minds in marketing, the COLLOQUY Loyalty Summit is a col-laborative setting where participants share the best practices and initiatives to inspire desired customer behavior. Other speakers include:

• Marriott’s Anna Lorch, senior director, strategy and customer relationship management.• Walgreens’ Mindy Heintskill, vice president of loyalty and personalized marketing, and Dave

Zychinski, director of loyalty. • Caribou Coffee’s Caroline Larson,

director of loyalty.• Shell’s Todd Gulbransen, manager of North American loyalty and cus-

tomer relationship management.• Pepsi’s Mike Scafidi, director of digital marketing.• COLLOQUY’s research director Jeff Berry will unveil results from

COLLOQUY’s latest study: “Cus-tomer Loyalty in 2015 and Beyond.”

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[ L O Y A L T Y L A N D S C A P E ]

LOYALTY TODAY

Today, loyalty marketing represents adynamic industry generating billions ofdollars in revenue. The look may change a bit, but the willingness of loyalty mar-keters to innovate and take risks ensures loyalty will be an integral part of business for years to come.

ONLINE TRAVEL SERVICES

The days of using an actual human travel agent have largely been replaced by online travel services, part of a fast-growing sector of loyalty marketing that COLLOQUY calls “emerging platforms.” Such services – Travelocity, Expedia, etc. – show no signs of slowing down.

SURPRISE & DELIGHT

FUEL REWARDS

TIERING GAMIFICATION

Co�ee juggernaut Starbucks pioneered the use of registered, store-branded gift cards as a vessel for loyal customers to pay for their frequent habit and accumulate rewards and special benefits.

SOCIAL MEDIA

COALITION PROGRAMS

Nearly everyone seems to have a smartphone in their hands or pockets at all times, prompting retailers such as Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts and Pinkberry to launch mobile apps that tie multiple consumer concerns – including loyalty programs – into one go-anywhere spot.

CPG

PROGRAMS AS PARITY

MOBILE APPS

PHILANTHROPY

RESTAURANTS

Coalition programs tap into the strength of numbers, letting consumers accumulate points through a variety of merchants andredeem them with any of those partici-pants. Popular in many countries for years – Canada’s AIR MILES has been flying high since 1992, for example – the trend finally made a splash this year in the United States with the launch of Plenti.

A new kind of shopper loyalty was born in the cavernous warehouses of members-only retailers such as Costco Wholesale and Sam’s Club, which sold steeply discounted merchandise in bulk to those in the club.

CREDIT CARDPROGRAMS

Once strictly a reward for booking flights, frequent flyer miles eventually became a currency of their own, used by phone companies to dry cleaners to mortgage firms and spawning special rewards consultants and agencies.

MILES AS CURRENCY

COBRANDED CREDIT CARDS

DRUGSTORESIt seems there’s a drugstore on every corner, and their loyalty programs are thriving. CVSwas an early entrant in the game, launch-ing Extra Care in 2001, and heavy-hitters Walgreens and Rite Aid also haverobust programs.

Who doesn’t like a surprise? Both scientific research and loyalty-program experience have shown that people enjoy unexpected benefits and “surprise-and-delight” occasions. Such surprises encouragemembers to spend more, to feel better about it and, importantly, to tell more people.

MEMBERSHIP WAREHOUSE CLUBS

Many companies have introduced a charitable option to their loyalty programs, allowing members to donate points, miles or rewards merchandise to nonprofits. Everybody wins in this scenario: Thecharity lands donations, the member and company gain a self-esteem boost, and the company raises its social profile and clears points o� the books.

While programs such as Fuel Rewards and Pilot Travel Centers’ program still attract loyal fans, gasoline is no longer king. A March 2015 LoyaltyOne survey of 1,000 American shoppers found they would prefer, for example, that grocers o�er discounts on food and merchandise instead of on fuel.

DAILY DEALS

Hoping to encourage incremental spending growth and create something for consumers to aspire to, loyalty programs began usingtiers – commonly denoted as bronze, silver and gold. But 2014 research by COLLOQUY found tiering often creates more confusion than loyalty, and brands must rethink the approach if they continue the practice.

In a “you’ve got chocolate in my peanut butter” moment, companies realized that consumers love gaming and they love loyalty programs … so why not combine the two? Many added gamification elements – trivia, contests, games of skill – that yielded fun for players and valuable data for the brands.

In 1990, COLLOQUY launched as the first publishing com-pany to specialize in the world of loyalty marketing. Through our magazine, newsletter, research papers, events and website, COLLOQUY represents a comprehensive loyalty pub-lishing, education and research practice.

INAUGURAL ISSUE

Eventually the bloom begins tofade, where loyalty is concerned, with programs seeming to reachparity. The rules and awardstructure seemed to be alikefrom program to program, andthe excitement was waning. Loyalty operators were forced to get more creative to stand out, with companies such as Marriott taking the lead.

PREPAID (STARBUCKS)

Recognition of the power of two carts pulling in one direction led to the cre-ation of cobranded credit cards, which partnered sponsor brands with issuing credit card brands to the advantage of both.

Neiman Marcus led the charge into store credit card loyalty with InCircle, launched in 1984. Eventually – but not for another eight years – other specialty and depart-ment stores such as Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy’s started o�ering reward points for charges on store credit cards.

2 5 LOYA LT Y M I L E S TO N E S

Social media began to grab the attention of seemingly everyone and every company, and loyalty marketing was not immune. Major firms such as Coca-Cola Co. began linking rewards and o�ers to actions such as posting specific hashtags, liking a brand on Facebook or sharing photos on Instagram.

In the world of loyalty marketing, trading stamps are ground zero. From the early 1800s with Sweet Home Laundry soap to Ovaltine’s Captain Midnight in the 1950s, these “collect-and-save” programs awarded coupons or stamps thatproducts’ fans could accumulate and redeem for goodies.

COLLECT-AND-SAVETRADING STAMPS

FIRST FREQUENT TRAVEL PROGRAMS

A sense of urgency became a primary motivator with the onset of “deal of the day” websites. Groupon, LivingSocial and many others o�er deep discounts on a single item for a very limited time – often only24 hours – and then push future o�ers to the collected emailand social media contacts.

Consumers’ obsession with staying in touch was a natural call for loyalty pro-grams, with AT&T leading the way in 1984 with its Opportunity Calling. Other telecommunications providers – phone companies, nascent Internet providers and more – joined the fray over the years.

GROCERY FREQUENT-SHOPPER PROGRAMS

TELCO

PROPRIETARY RETAIL CARDS

Modern-day loyalty took flight when American Airlines launched the AAdvantage frequent flyer program in 1981, ushering in a fleet of travel loyalty e�orts by airlines, hotels and rental car companies.

Credit card issuers began to see the potential of loyalty programs by the mid-1980s, with Discover, American Express, Citi and others putting formal programs on the market.

The National Restaurant Association predicts 2015 restaurant and food service sales of $709 billion, up 3.8% from 2014. Rest-aurants of every variety o�er loyalty programs – from fine-dining Chart House to quick-casual Qdoba. Even fast food chains are seeing the value, including Taco Bell and McDonald's. Rest-aurants also are increasingly tying social media actions to loyalty rewards.

Seeing the appeal of becoming food shoppers’ top banana, grocers introduced bar-coded loyalty cards that collect purchase information and personal information about the user in exchange for coupons, rebates or merchandise.

If there’s one constant in loyalty marketing, it’s this: Change is the name of the game. One day consumers are saving their Ovaltine foil tops for Captain Midnight rewards, and in what seems like the blink of an eye they’re engaging in digital loyalty games and amassing rewards via mobile apps. As we mark the 25th anniversary of COLLOQUY,we take a look at 25 developments that kept the loyalty industry moving forward. There’s no telling what the next 25 years will bring, but one thing is certain: It won’t just be business as usual.

Source: COLLOQUY, July/August 2015

A decade ago, consumer packaged goods companies lacked direct-to-consumer loyalty structures as well as the ability to track what individual shoppers were buying at retail outlets. This created an “invisible customer” dilemma, which Coca-Cola addressed in 2006 with its My Coke Rewards program. Other CPGs, such as Kraft and L’Oreal, followed suit.

I N F O G R A P H I C :2 5 L OYA LT Y M I L E S T O N E S

If there’s one constant in loyalty marketing, it’s this: Change is the name of the game. One day consumers are saving their Ovaltine foil tops for Captain Midnight rewards, and in what seems like the blink of an eye they’re engaging in digital loyalty games and amassing rewards via mobile apps. As we mark the 25th anniversary of COLLOQUY, we take a look at 25 developments that have kept the loyalty industry moving forward. There’s no telling what the next 25 years will bring, but one thing is certain: It won’t just be business as usual.

Click the image for a legibleinfographic and full descriptionsfor each milestone.

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At COLLOQUY.com, we report daily on news and trends of interest to marketers across all industries and around the globe. In case you missed them, below are the top news stories from the last couple of months. Click the links to read more of each story or here to visit the archive.

A news roundup from COLLOQUY.com

[ N E W S B R E A K ] HARLEQUIN LAUNCHES HARLEQUIN MY REWARDS FOR LOYAL READERS Members of the new Harlequin My Rewards program earn points for purchasing books or engaging in multiple online activities. Rewards include autographed books, signature gift baskets and Skype conversations with favorite authors. Read more.

WAL-MART CHALLENGES AMAZON PRIME WITH SHIPPING PASS

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. launched Shipping Pass, offering members free three-day shipping for a $50 annual fee. Read more.

FOOD RETAILERS FEAST ON IDEAS TO MEET CHANGING CUSTOMER DEMANDSThe Food Marketing Institute’s FMI Connect conference in Chicago June 9-11 was a chance for industry decision-makers to figure out how to stay one step ahead of grocery shoppers’ changing tastes. Read more.

RETAIL'S LEADING BRANDS, AND BRAINS, TIE A BOW ON ENGAGEMENTFrom Deckers shoes to Dunkin’ Donuts, Costco to Olive Garden, representatives from some of the world’s best-recognized brands shared their strategies of elevating the customer experience at this year's Customer Relationship Management Conference. Read more.

APPLE ANNOUNCES ADDITION OF REWARDS PROGRAMS TO APPLE PAYApple announced Apple Pay is adding support for rewards and store-issued credit and debit cards with iOS 9, making it easier for customers to earn rewards on everyday purchases. Read more.

DYSFUNCTIONAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES RISK BILLIONS IN RETAIL LOSSESThe mistreated customer who walks out the door in a silent huff places the most revenue at risk, according to a collaborative study of dysfunctional retail touch points conducted by LoyaltyOne and Verde Group. Read more.

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BY THE COLLOQUY STAFF

The traditional gift for a 25th anniversary is silver. We’d like to make it reciprocity.

Loyalty marketers can fill warehouses with the investments they‘ve made to better understand the person behind the purchase, to derive clarity from insights. Yet we seldom pause enough to reflect on how our actions define us, and our industry.

For our 25th anniversary as a leading researcher and publisher, COLLOQUY has gathered a select group of loyalty leaders and visionaries and asked them to share their own insights into the industry’s evolution. Many of these pioneers – from Don Peppers and Seth Godin to the loyalty marketers at Hilton Worldwide and Delta Air Lines – have witnessed the key events over the past 25 years, and many shaped them. We have gathered their responses and present them here, as our anniversary gift to the industry.

[ C O V E R S T O R Y ]

Celebrate, Contemplate:

Loyalty’s Heavy Hitters on Where We’ve Been,Where We’re Headed

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OurExperts

Jeanne Bliss, president of CustomerBliss and author of “Chief Customer Officer 2.0”

Emily Collins, senior analyst focused on customer-loyalty programs, Forrester Research

Bob Daly, senior vice president of FlexPerks Rewards and loyalty management, U.S. Bank

Steven Dennis, COLLOQUY contributor, president of luxury consulting firm SageBerry Consulting

Roger Dow, president and CEO, U.S. Travel Association

Bernie Feiwus, former senior vice president of marketing, Neiman Marcus

Seth Godin, author of several best-selling books, including “Linchpin” and “Purple Cow”

Phil Hawkins, head of loyalty operations, Coles supermarkets, Australia

Caroline Larson, director of customer engagement and loyalty, Caribou Coffee

Bryan Pearson, president and CEO of LoyaltyOne, author of “The Loyalty Leap”

Don Peppers, customer relationship expert, author, founding partner of Peppers & Rogers Group

Randy Petersen, editor and publisher, InsideFlyer magazine

Daniel Pink, author of five books, including “Drive,” host and co-executive producer of “Crowd Control”

Peter Sheahan, author of six books, including “Fl!p” and “Making it Happen,” founder/group CEO of the business engagement firm Karrikins Group

Simon Uwins, author of “Creating Loyal Brands,” former chief marketing officer of Tesco UK, Fresh & Easy

Mark Weinstein, global head of loyalty and partnerships at Hilton Worldwide

Karen Zachary, managing director, SkyMiles Global Program Management, Delta Air Lines

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Dennis, SageBerry: The notion that per-sonalization, in many cases, was the key to deepening loyalty.

Daly, U.S. Bank: Although the introduc-tion of airline frequent flyer programs is often cited as a critical turning point in loyalty, these programs weren’t jet-propelled until they introduced cobranded credit cards as a means to accelerate mileage earning. In fact, for many large airlines, credit card pur-chases account for more awarded miles than actual flying.

Uwins, “Creating Loyal Brands”: The first was the publication of “The Loyalty Effect” by Frederick Reichheld in 1996. This really crystalized how loyalty could be a business strategy, rather than simply a marketing tactic. The second was the development of the Net Promoter Score in 2003. It moved the focus of loyalty beyond spend and frequency to fostering advocacy.

Peppers, Peppers & Rogers: When frequency-marketing programs leaped the airline barrier and went into retail. I think the seminal non-airline

frequency program of the 1990s was the Tesco program in the UK. The Clubcard program was their secret weapon. That gave legitimacy to the idea that, ‘Hey, loyalty programs can be more than about airline mileage.’

Feiwus, Neiman Marcus: During the early 1980's, the retail land-scape was rapidly changing with retailers losing both brand and geographic exclusiveness. Therefore, customers had more choices, and it was a greater challenge to maintain their loyalty. Fortunately, technology had reached a point where loyalty programs were feasible.

: Describe what to you was a critical loyalty turning point.

: When and how did you know the concept of loyalty marketing had arrived?

Pink, “Drive”: When I looked in my wallet and realized that I had more – way more – loyalty cards than credit cards, bank cards and government IDs combined.

Dow, U.S. Travel Association: In 1985, we launched Marriott Rewards, when our competitors did not – thinking loyalty programs were too costly and would not work in lodging. We had a two-year head start and over 2 million loyal guests by the time they realized their costly miscalculation.

“For many large airlines,credit card purchasesaccount for moreawarded miles thanactually flying.” ~ Bob Daly, U.S. Bank

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Sheahan, “Fl!p”: When my local coffee shop owner handed me my 10-cup punch card and said that he wanted to thank me for my loyalty, and then punched the first nine immediately. In that moment I did not care how much his coffee cost com-pared to the retailer down the road. What I felt, in its purest sense, was loyalty.

Collins, Forrester: About five years ago when it became clear that the balance of power had shifted from companies to the customer. The rapid adoption of mobile and connected technologies gives consumers access to an incredible amount of information. As such, the consumer is in control, and traditional competitive advantages no longer hold water. Today, the relationship (with) customers determines business success.

Weinstein, Hilton: Rewarding loyal customers has been around forever, from the baker offering “buy 12, get the 13th pastry free,” to the sophisticated point-of-sale solutions at gas stations. When airlines and hotels launched loyalty programs, a two-way relationship was formed – the cornerstone of a program that transcends ‘do this, get that’ mentalities.

: What was the single most important event in loyalty, to you?

Bliss, CustomerBliss: The first airline loy- alty programs in 1981, followed by hotels, rental car companies and Neiman Marcus’ record-breaking first loyalty program. These were the first orga-nized efforts to embrace, understand and engage with customers beyond transactions.

Pearson, “The Loyalty Leap”: Digital com-munications changed pretty much every aspect of how we engage with consumers. But in terms of importance, I think it was recognizing the consumers’ critical role in establishing long-term brand success, and how loyalty can serve that.

Dow, U.S. Travel Association: When American Airlines launched AAdvantage, followed a week later by United launching Mileage

Plus. That marked the beginning of the loyalty scramble.

Larson, Caribou Coffee: Loyalty rules changed with the emergence of online retailers. Brick-and-mortar stores had to … evolve to provide better service, recognition, reasons to come back to them specifically – a loyalty program. Now, online retailers are creating their own loyalty programs, not based on points. Amazon Prime is a great example.

Zachary, Delta Air Lines: For Delta, it was transitioning from a model that rewards members based on the distance that they flew to one that rewards them based on their spend(ing). Shifting to this mod-el recognizes and rewards our members’ investment with Delta while continuing to provide great value to all frequent flyers.

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Godin, “Linchpin”: They miss the fact that companies don’t care. At all. That the whole thing has been industrialized and productized and turned into yet another profit center. They miss being missed. They miss humanity.

Hawkins, Coles: Put even more energy into measure, measure, then … measure!

Dennis, SageBerry: I would have pushed the redesign of Neiman Marcus’ InCircle program to be more remarkable.

: If you could do one thing over again, what would it be?

Dow, U.S. Travel Association: (I would have) included all of Marriott’s multiple brands in Marriott Rewards – which was only for Marriott’s full-service hotels – much sooner.

Godin, “Linchpin”: I’ll answer for the industry … The race to the bottom in email marketing, the incessant spam, the refusal to self-regulate. Marketers have ruined the greatest medium they’ve ever had.

Petersen, InsideFlyer: Seriously – nothing. I've been lucky enough to watch, wonder and be part of one of the most extraordinary chapters of the travel industry when it slayed critic after critic,

industry after industry and orga-nization after organization.

Sheahan, “Fl!p”: Change my be-havior as a consumer. Only now that I have become immersed in the industry have I become aware of the massive value I left on the table as a customer.

Uwins, “Creating Loyal Brands”: I would spend a lot more time early in my career understanding the emotional drivers of behavior.

Feiwus, Neiman Marcus: Create a lifetime tier in addition to the annual program.

: What do you think consumers miss/ don't see regarding the loyalty relationship?Bliss, CustomerBliss: Truly honor-

ing loyalty. I was recently charged $35 for replacing my lounge card by an airline with whom I have so many millions of miles that I have lifetime status at its highest level. These rules say, ‘We want you to be loyal to us, but we won’t be loyal to you in return.’

Pearson, “The Loyalty Leap”: How much they can influence change and improve the role that loyalty marketing serves. Just con-sider the potential power of a

well-connected brand ambassador – just Google “I Love Ikea” or “I Love Southwest.” What many companies miss is the oppor-tunity to give their budding ambassadors a platform.

Dow, U.S. Travel Association: Trying to join every program in a segment – spreading out their purchases vs. concentrating their spending on one or two, to gain the benefit of ‘high spender’ points/miles accelerators.

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: Build a loyalty starter kit. What three tools are essential?

Uwins, “Creating Loyal Brands”: Once customers share data with you, they assume you know everything about them, and that you have the intention and the capability to per-sonalize their experiences. But you can never perfectly know every-thing about them, or personalize everything. So it’s essential for the marketer to develop a proper two-way relationship with the customer to both manage expectations and maximize value.

Larson, Caribou Coffee: Many consumers don’t realize how complex systems are required to be to do a good job of engaging, recognizing and rewarding

guests. They think that all systems are built, integrated and easily flow-ing with information from one place to another. In reality, most systems are created piece by piece, over time, and sometimes in silos.

Peppers, Peppers & Rogers: They may think of (loyalty) as a company’s effort to secure their continued patronage, but I also think that consumers, unless really emo-tionally involved with the brand, are mercenary. They’re making economically rational decisions, and a lot are suckered into making loyalty program decisions based on upfront promotions.

“Many consumers don’trealize how complexsystems are required tobe to do a good job of engaging, recognizing and rewarding guests.” ~ Caroline Larson, Caribou Coffee

Pink, “Drive”: 1. A great product. Getting points for a mediocre hotel doesn’t help much. 2. Transparent process and rules. If someone under- stands how it all works, (he is) far less likely to complain and much more likely to be satisfied. 3. Simplicity. Anything companies can do to save people even a step can pay big divi-dends down the road. Dennis, SageBerry: 1. Deep customer in-sight. 2. A unified customer experience. 3. An amplified (remarkable) experience.

Daly, U.S. Bank: 1. A compelling and relevant customer-value proposition borne out of extensive data analytics and financial rigor. 2. Operationally

efficient program architecture that is delivered with consistency by exten-sively trained front-line personnel. 3. Flexible and scalable reward plat-form infrastructure.

Godin, “Linchpin”: 1. Build something I’d miss if you took it away. 2. Focus not on prizes or the transfer of value, but on recognition, on humanity, on peo-ple. 3. Care more.

Collins, Forrester: 1. Define an enterprise- wide loyalty strategy that links to the larger business objectives and focuses on the total customer relationship. 2. Customer insights … great loyalty strategies create an exchange of value between the company and the customer. 3. Technology to bring your loyalty vision to life!

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will eventually disappear. There will be a new, more engaging currency based in technology that’s easy to manage and understand. Members will have more latitude and control, making them more loyal consumers to the product, not the currency.

Zachary, Delta Air Lines: Absolutely! Next question?

Weinstein, Hilton: Being able to choose how you want to earn rewards is an important foundation of our program and allows members to experience various benefits depending on what type of trip they are with us for.

: Points and miles – here to stay?

Weinstein, Hilton: 1. A core product that members love. 2. Benefits that members value and you’re prepared to consistently deliver. 3. An ecosystem that empowers and enables a personalized relationship through two-way dialogue.

Pearson, “The Loyalty Leap”: Any tools that enable the company to use the data it collects to meet pre-established goals: 1. A platform to hear your customers in real time. 2. A system for sharing what you hear throughout the organization to reveal unexpected potentials. 3. The capa-city to deliver on the initiative’s promise.

Peppers, Peppers & Rogers: 1. The first tool is a mental model that loyalty is not the be-all, end-all goal of any loyalty program. You want customers to like you, to have an emo-tional commitment. Do not confuse a loyalty program with loyalty. 2. Adopt a business model that understands the more different your customers are in either their values or needs, the more useful the loyalty program is. 3. A program where I can redeem points for a variety of different things, maybe even with different companies. Why not let cus-tomers choose their rewards in advance, and earn their points toward them? They’d get insight into what really rings my chimes.

Pink, “Drive”: I sure hope so. I’ve got lots more to spend! Hawkins, Coles: While it may be fashion-able in 2015 to dismiss points as a cur-rency of influence, the current evidence suggests that this currency still does indeed have a ‘point.’ What may excite and incentivize one customer may be quite different to the next.

Larson, Caribou Coffee: Loyalty needs a type of currency, but I think points and miles

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: Coalition loyalty – a fad or here to stay?

: How would you describe loyalty in the year 2040 (25 years from now)?

Pearson, “The Loyalty Leap”: Here to stay. The pure ele-ments of the model may change a bit, but the idea of multiple parties contributing to a common pot still makes sense – especially where a richer data asset is created for the benefit of all the partners in the program.

Daly, U.S. Bank: Absolutely ‘here to stay’ in many corners of the globe. In the United States the jury is still out, but we’ll know in the next 36 months if (America Express’) Plenti and other aspiring coalition programs take hold. The odds are even as most U.S. households are already entrenched in many loyalty initiatives and may not see a compelling reason to join another.

Sheahan, “Fl!p”: There is still tremendous potential in the coalition model. Its ability to connect consumers to a brand and drive loyalty for reasons beyond discounting gives it an advantage over certain cash-back-only programs. (However) the evolving payments world poses a threat to the weaker coalition models.

Dennis, SageBerry: All about personalization and being remarkable.

Zachary, Delta Air Lines: Loyalty will continue to evolve but the basics – rewards, recognition – will always remain the core in a service business.

Peppers, Peppers & Rogers: Loyalty will be individu-alized. Aggregators will do things like your grocery shopping and other routine stuff. (So) consumers will be managing their relationships with vendors rather than vendors managing relationships with consumers. I wouldn’t be surprised if I see consum-ers offering their own loyalty programs to vendors.

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: What advice would you give a young loyalty marketer?

: Fee-based loyalty – on the way up, or out?

Petersen, InsideFlyer: Up. There’s empirical research in other industries that shows this is an acceptable variation of loyalty – Amazon Prime is a very interesting example.

Godin, “Linchpin”: Make something worth talking about.

Pearson, “The Loyalty Leap”: Ask yourself before embarking on any project, whether it involves a short-term promotion or a long-term loyalty initiative: Is this adding relevant value that the customer can readily appreciate? If not, start over. You have to demonstrate, genu- inely, that you care about the customer at every turn.

Uwins, “Creating Loyal Brands”: Just remember that despite all the labels – consumers, customers, employees, advocates, etc. – it’s just about people, and building relationships with them.

Peppers, Peppers & Rogers: Be in a position where you don’t have to buy your customers’ loyalty, you sell it to them. If a customer really likes me and wants to do business with me because I am always a step ahead of their needs, (then) the more invested they are in the relationship.

Feiwus, Neiman Marcus: I have seen several programs where, in an effort to entice customers, programs were so expen- sive that they could not be sustained.

: What is the biggest mistake a loyalty marketer can make?

: What does a customer loyalty strategy require to be remarkable, or a “purple cow"?

For an extended transcript ofall interviews, click here.

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[ L O Y A L T Y S T R A T E G I E S R E D U X ]

In our weekly e-newsletter, Speaking of Loyalty, we provide in-depth content including our Loyalty Strategies stories. We’ve pulled some of the best industry-leader quotes from these stories over the past two months. Click the individual titles to read more of each story or here to visit the Loyalty Strategies archive.

“You start with the customer voice in mind and you build it from there.”Glen MacDonell, managing director of loyalty and partnership marketing, Best Western International

Road H.O.G.S: How Harley-Davidson and Best Western Maximize Membership

“A lot of people have this idea that if I just shout often and loud enough, then people will listen. It used to be just, ‘Let’s show people what we have.’ But people don’t care about that anymore. You have to tell a story and show people what you’re about at a deeper level.” Alex McEachern, loyalty-marketing specialist, Sweet Tooth

Pinned, Liked and Tweeted Into a Social Stupor? 8 Tips to Refine the Social-Loyalty Link

“We’ve learned that companies tend to have greater alignment when it comes to identifying the major obstacles of their loyalty strategies. While focusing on the barriers isn’t intuitive, it is useful for teams to see a working exam-ple of provable alignment, should such challenges arise.” JR Slubowski, senior consultant, LoyaltyOne

Front-End Alignment: 4 Tips for Finding, Fixing Management Misunderstanding

“Data is often col-lected to reinforce what management wants to hear.” Earl Quenzel, partner with the mar-

keting agency Quenzel & Associates

Saluting Loyalty: Most Patriotic Brands Reveal Genuine Strategies

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“... an expert loyalty-program strategy can yield 5 to 10 cents per point on a regular basis. Despite this, the complexity of maximizing value often causes even savvy members to throw up their hands in surrender.”Ryan Lile, travel expert and consultant

Giving Frequent Flyers Credit: 3 Steps to Easing Complexity, Competition

“Digital-first means that to retain customer relationships that matter, a company’s dig-ital tools should eliminate customer experience friction, create uniquely remarkable moments and be rooted in a ‘treat different customers differently’ philosophy.” Steven Dennis, president and founder of SageBerry Consulting

Storing Digital-First Loyalty in Luxury

“Imagine if you could see a customer value over their heads. Imagine how much better you’ll treat those with the big numbers.”Peter Fader, professor of marketing at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania

Avoiding Jane Doh! Profiling in a Fluid, Mobile Economy

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Recognizes

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For 25 years, COLLOQUY has served as a leading publishing, education and research practice, bringing together

loyalty experts from around the world. From this unique vantage, the COLLOQUY editorial team chooses

the programs and initiatives that exemplify the most forward-looking strategies in loyalty today. Below is our

July/August set of winners. Click the logo to link to the winner's full report.

COLLOQUY RECOGNIZES BEST WESTERN INTERNATIONAL FOR LOYALTY PROGRAM PROMOTIONFor the hotel industry, summer is all about attracting family vacationers. Best Western International accomplished that goal in its summer 2014 campaign by partnering with Disney Media and singer-actress Zendaya, a favorite of kids and teens. The “Get Zapped With Zendaya Zweepstakes” included radio and television components along with social media and high-tech tools, such as virtual reality displays in hotel lobbies that allowed guests to take photos “with” the star. Almost a million people participated in the Get Zapped promotion, and 600,000 joined the Best Western Rewards loyalty program. Read more.

COLLOQUY RECOGNIZES THE BAVARIAN INN FOR INDEPENDENT LOYALTY PROGRAMIn what might be the only loyalty program where patrons earn rewards while visiting an authentic glockenspiel, the Bavarian Inn in Frankenmuth, Mich., created a program that rewards frequent visitors. The Bavarian Inn Perks Club features dollar-value certificates, dining discounts and special lodging rates, along with more personal perks, such as phone calls from the owners, special viewing areas for fireworks displays and table visits from the restaurant brass. Program membership grew by 27% in 2014 and the inn saw longer average stays among members than nonmembers, along with an 86.5% redemption of reward certificates. Read more.

COLLOQUY RECOGNIZES FLYBUYS/COLES FOR HEALTH & FITNESS ENGAGEMENT PROMOTIONAustralian coalition program flybuys, wholly owned by grocery chain Coles, already had a fitness emphasis and encouraged its loyalty members to track their activities through devices such as Fitbit, along with providing incentives to buy fresh produce. But to give the program a needed kick in the pants, it launched Move More in March, rewarding members for taking 10,000 steps per day, every day, in March – or smaller rewards for those who hit the goal at least 15 days. More than 6,000 participants hit at least one of the goals. Flybuys partner health com-panies also benefited with new memberships and awareness. Read more.

COLLOQUY RECOGNIZES FOODSTUFFS NEW ZEALAND FOR GROCERY LOYALTYNew Zealand grocery operator Foodstuffs, which owns the 135-store New World brand, was hungry to create a proprietary loyalty program that worked in con-junction with its existing flybuys and Airpoints third-party rewards programs. It invested heavily in its customizable Clubcard program, which it launched in the summer of 2014. The Clubcard has 375,000 members from an estimated target market of 400,000 people. Average basket size has increased by 8% for mem-bers, and the company estimates that higher levels of customer engagement since the launch of Clubcard contributed to $38 million in additional revenue in 12 weeks. Read more.

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