A loyalty program without a set of communications to make it work is like having a beautiful tenor serenade an empty forest. Just as the quality of a tenor’s voice can be incredibly moving, a well-planned
communications strategy will fuel your loyalty program.
Did you know that once upon a time lobster was food for the poor only suitable for peasants and prisoners? On the New England beaches, lobsters would wash ashore in piles. It was considered “trash food.” Today, it is usually the most expensive item on a menu. It is considered a delicacy. So how did lobster achieve the American Dream? The advent of the American railway system and canning gave the lobster its first lucky break. The inland population, unaware of the association between lobster and poverty, began to gobble up canned lobster. Restaurants began to serve it up to satisfy coastal tourists. Seeing others enjoy lobster in restaurants encouraged people to try it for the first time. During WWII, lobster was not rationed and prices skyrocketed. Serving lobster became a demonstration of wealth.
Now, in 2015, not only is the lobster supply substantially less than it was 400 years ago, but our perception of lobster, as something edible, has achieved a 180. So what does the rise of a shellfish have to do with loyalty communications strategy? Somewhere in themidst of this story, lobster was the beneficiary of two principles of consumer behavior: “scarcity” and “social proof.” These are only two of many psychological principles – or heuristics – that have the power to influence what we do and when we do it. An understanding of these principles and how they can be applied in loyalty communications is critical to managing the customer lifecycle. By activating the right heuristics at the right time, through personalized loyalty communications, it is possible to influence consumer behavior and maximize customer lifetime value.
There are seven loyalty campaigns that every loyalty program should include in a lifecycle communications strategy. Each campaign is designed to influence a specific type of behavioral response from loyalty program members, based on where they are within the customer lifecycle.
These seven campaigns are:
> The Invitation
> The Welcome
> The Statement
> The Motivator
> The Celebration
> The Referral
> The Win-Back
For each of these campaigns, there is one psychological principle that is of paramount importance to the success of the campaign.