Maritz announced the sale of Bond Brand Loyalty to the Bond management team in an amicable buyout that is a result of divergent business strategies in play over the past several years.
Maritz will also continue its current offering of end-to-end loyalty agency and implementation services through its Maritz Motivation Solutions company.
“Bond Brand Loyalty has created a niche offering in the market and I am confident in the ability of the leadership team to take on the ownership role and continue to grow their business,” said Steve Maritz, chairman and CEO of Maritz. “The divestiture of Bond paves the way for Maritz to focus its resources and investments on full service, points-based loyalty marketing programs for large companies through Maritz Motivation Solutions, while freeing the Bond management team to pursue its own strategy and North American client base. We will continue to partner with Bond when it makes sense for our clients and our business.”
According to Bob Macdonald, president and CEO of Bond Brand Loyalty, “Our specialty is helping clients forge stronger bonds between their brands and their customers, focusing on building loyalty across the entire customer experience continuum. We design and implement solutions that address the fluid interplay between formal loyalty marketing programs, the customer experience at the front lines of the business, and the interaction with the brand in the marketplace through experiential marketing.”
Loyalty360’s Customer Loyalty Statistics 2015 edition states there are 3.3 billion loyalty program memberships in the United States, an average of 29 per household, and membership continues to grow year over year. In addition, the average number of programs in which consumers are enrolled continues to climb – from 10.9 programs per member in 2014 to 13.3 programs per member in 2015, according to the 2015 Loyalty Report. The growth of the loyalty market allows for significant opportunity for both companies.
“Premier brands such as Marriott, Southwest, and seven of the 10 largest U.S. banks trust Maritz Motivation Solutions to support their loyalty programs,” said John McArthur, president of Maritz Motivation Solutions. “Our clients and greater demand from the market are a strong impetus for Maritz to continue investing dollars, mind-share and other resources into our 30-year loyalty business, and delivering innovative technology, science-based people-focused strategies and the best rewards in the business.”
Barry Kirk, VP Loyalty Maritz Motivation Solutions, told Loyalty360 that the deal made perfect sense to both sides.
“This decision makes all the sense in the world for Maritz and where we’re headed with loyalty,” Kirk explained. “Our colleagues at Bond are extremely good at what they do, but it happens to be very different than what we do in the loyalty space. Their expertise for years has been more focused on brand development and experiential marketing, whereas obviously we’ve been leaders for decades in running large points-based programs for major brands and so this allows each part of the organization to now really move off and focus on what they do best.”
Maritz Holdings Inc. is a privately-held company. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.