By Adam Posner, The Point of Loyalty
For the first time in our ongoing customer loyalty and loyalty program research study – For Love or Money™ 2022 (10th edition), we identified and benchmarked the Collection of Six Currencies loyalty program members care about.
Designing a meaningful and desirable loyalty program proposition for members is based on any or all of the Collection of Six Currencies.
Money matters. But it’s not all about money
The For Love or Money™ 2022 research reveals Money (financial benefits – “show me the money”) is the number one currency members care about.
Surprisingly (for me) Choice as a currency (“let me choose my rewards”) ranked number two from the loyalty program members’ point of view.
I believe choice (without going down the ‘choice overload’ paradigm) is a critical currency to consider when designing a program proposition. Providing some control to members, provides a more meaningful interaction for members and leads to insights on preferences.
Memory (experiential benefits – “Add moments of magic to my life”), Time (functional benefits – “Save me time. Make life easy for me”) and Me (Personal benefits – “Show me you know me. Make me feel special”) all ranked equal third.
The Currency of Us (Social benefits – “Connect me with community and causes”) was seen as the least important to members of loyalty programs.
NOTE: This does not mean it is not important. In my (humble) opinion, community connections and programs with a cause or charity connection are an important benefit layer to consider for all programs.
To blend or to focus
Moving from a transactional interaction with your members to an emotional connection means finding the right blend of currencies or focusing on one.
This will depend on your program objectives, category of business, customer buying behaviour (current behaviours vs behaviours to change), brand purpose and positioning and ultimately the loyalty outcomes you are seeking.
The Six Currencies are influencers of the three B’s of The Loyalty Peak – Behaviour, Belief and Belonging.
While I am not about to analyse the 1000’s of loyalty programs and their propositions based on the Six Currencies, have a look at these three as promoted on their websites
- IKEA Family covers all the Six Currencies in their program proposition. As a member I have seen the ‘Personal’ currency come to life although without tiering there is less of the “make me feel special” aspect which a tiered program overtly does – once you reach a higher status tier.
- Ritchies (Where the Community Benefits) is more focused on the Currency of Us with over $52 million paid to local community charities and causes through their program proposition.
- Adore Society has a solid blend of the Six Currencies. While the Us currency is about community connection, there is no cause or charity connection as part of the proposition.
A powerful framework for developing program propositions
After developing this framework and utilising it with many clients to develop program propositions, I believe it provides a powerful platform for loyalty program managers to build new programs as well as assess their existing program propositions.
It can also be used to ask your loyalty program members what they care about!
Have a happy loyalty day!
