When building a loyalty program, many retailers and other marketers start with the most natural customer segment – customers who use the merchant’s private label credit card (PLCC) or co-branded credit card. These are the folks who already have an affinity for the retailer, and whose data is already in the merchant’s credit portfolio; in addition, retailers get a revenue stream from their issuing banks, so there’s even more reason to support credit card programs with a loyalty program.
But....