• by Seana Mulcahy , August 1, 2005

I ran out to a large supermarket chain the other day to get some last-minute necessities for company. As I was in line I realized I had a store affinity card. It hung next to several keys on my key chain alone. The woman in front of me began to fiddle, jingle, and clatter. I was shocked to find her feverishly going through a key ring of at least a dozen cards. I recognized at least three supermarket chains, a couple pet supply stores, and a whole host of others. Suddenly the express line wasn't so speedy. Instead of 10 items or less it should say less than 10 affinity cards.

I left still thinking of her array of cards. I decided to really look around and see who had them. I also asked a few friends and family members how many cards they had signed up for. I was so surprised to find out that my friends and family had at least four cards. It also seemed as if everyone I observed did too. I had to do a bit of research and see if this was the norm.

Depending on your age, you may or may not remember the first loyalty programs. In the 70s there were frequent flier programs, cigarette coupons, and good ole S & H green stamps. I remember going to the gas station collecting the stamps. My dad let me put them in a little booklet for safe keeping. I think I was saving up for a toy car or something. I thought it was the coolest thing. And dad, who wasn't much for marketing and advertising gimmicks, never missed a chance to get the stamps that were "owed" to him.

Shortly thereafter a whole host of frequent flier programs (FFPs) emerged. This was quite instrumental as airline advertising had pretty much been all image-oriented prior to that. Hotels and car rental companies quickly followed suit. Voila! Americans raced to rack up points to win free airline and car rental upgrades, extra nights stay, trips, etc.

So what does the loyalty landscape look like today? Well, quite similar to my supermarket experience; clutter, clutter, and more clutter. According to FrequentFlier.com: -There are more than 70 FFPs worldwide today.
-These programs boast 100 million members.
-Large programs such as American's AAdvantage, United's Mileage Plus, and Delta's Skymiles have about 20 million members each.
-The most frequent fliers tend to be enrolled in four to six programs simultaneously.
-The most popular reward is a free ticket to Hawaii and/or London.

Certainly the digital media and marketing space has adopted the concept on "loyalty." Whether it's willingly or unwillingly, we all have to consider some sort of exchange for prospects and customers. For instance, we ask ourselves, "How can I get my prospects to provide me with simple marketing data such as name, address, e-mail address, and buying preferences?" We constantly try and come up with ways to entice the user with some sort of a trade. We give away white papers, songs, ring tones, coupons, and the like. We struggle to stay creative, cut through the clutter, and establish ourselves as trusted marketers. Some of us hoop jump by clearly displaying opt-outs, privacy statements, and viral elements like send-to-a-friend.

Has the world gone crazy when it comes to loyalty programs? Do consumers live in a world of point accrual? Is this impacting our ROI by the constant need for data warehouses and the like? Do consumers even care about most programs? Are we wasting our time or is loyalty worth the price?