There’s no denying that South Africans love loyalty programmes and the various benefits on offer. Some of the country’s top brands know this, and have built tailored solutions for their customers.
As costs grow and discretionary income becomes more elusive, these value driven programmes present a unique opportunity for brands to engage their customers. The questions to address are why create such a programme, and how to achieve this?
Why loyalty programmes work for customers
Recent data confirms South Africans’ appreciation for the extra value a brand can create for them through a loyalty programme. The 2021 Truth & BrandMapp Loyalty Whitepaper shows that 74% of economically active South Africans were using loyalty programmes, belonging to an average of 8.7 different programmes across brands. Other key findings indicate that there is more adoption by men than ever before, and across all demographics the most favoured benefits were cash back (67%), discounts (48%) and travel/flight discounts (35%). This not only proves active participation, but growth of these programmes’ general popularity.
Consumers’ expectations of brand are only getting higher, and these same consumers are notoriously disloyal if their expectations aren’t met. As prices continue to rise across a variety of goods, every rand will be spent with greater intention and, when choosing where to shop, loyalty solutions become crucial to creating the right perception in the current climate.
How can loyalty programmes work for brands?
Loyalty and rewards programmes have created an enormous amount of value not only for consumers, but the very brands that own them. If executed well with a relevant offering for consumers, this will bring value back to the bottom line.
Some of the most used programmes are expectedly those in retail/grocery sector – Pick n Pay/Smart Shopper; Clicks/Club Card; Dis-Chem/Benefit; Checkers/Xtra Savings) – all serve multiple core functions of brand building. Created with a great value proposition and tangible benefits, these loyalty solutions aid brands in building on a more ‘consumer centric’ positioning, improving brand equity, creating more tailored direct marketing, and building rich first party data to leverage for more personalisation.
What can my brand take away from this?
While retail, banks and travel brands have historically led the loyalty conversation for some time, this does not prevent brands across categories from creating their own solutions. To assess if a loyalty programme will or won’t work for you, ask yourself (and your agencies) the following questions:
- How can we create relevant, tangible value for our customers?
- How do we communicate what this value will be?
- How does this loyalty programme position our brand for the future?
While not every channel is optimal for every brand, loyalty programmes present some phenomenal opportunities for more brands to create and communicate value in new ways.
Jordan Major is a senior strategist and writer who believes in the power of collaborating with culture to connect brands to their customers. In his role at RAPT Creative he works alongside the creative studio to ensure all work is informed by insights and data to ensure that the work is executed holistically in unique territories and across the relevant channels. His Twitter handle is //twitter.com/JordanMajor.
