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Tactical use of rewards to enhance loyalty program effectiveness

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  • Danaher, Peter J.
  • Sajtos, Laszlo
  • Danaher, Tracey S.

Abstract

A key member benefit for participating in a loyalty program (LP) is the rewards earned for points accrued. One popular reward structure is a catalog of many diverse items. The rewards among this broad selection are likely to differ in their appeal due to their intrinsic differences and customer heterogeneity. Prior research has shown that after redeeming a reward, LP members are more motivated to increase their purchase volume/frequency and share-of-wallet within the program, thereby becoming more active. In this study, we fit a hidden Markov model to a 4½ year longitudinal data set of points accrual and reward redemption activity for about 4500 members of a large coalition LP. Our analysis reveals three latent states — active, hyperactive and inactive. We then investigate the likelihood of LP members transitioning between these states across successive time periods, and examine the reward categories and marketing effort associated with these transitions. Subsequently, we use our model to optimally promote particular reward categories to encourage LP member migration to managerially desirable states or prevent them sliding into a less desirable state. Our proposed optimal reward strategy potentially increases the estimated proportion of LP members in the hyperactive latent state from 35.7% to 40.1%, with a resultant increase in sales revenue for retailers and service providers in the LP of 7.7%. We find that rewards which are more fungible have the strongest influence on increasing points accrual activity.

Suggested Citation

  • Danaher, Peter J. & Sajtos, Laszlo & Danaher, Tracey S., 2020. "Tactical use of rewards to enhance loyalty program effectiveness," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 37(3), pages 505-520.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ijrema:v:37:y:2020:i:3:p:505-520
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ijresmar.2020.02.005
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Bombaij, Nick J.F. & Gelper, Sarah & Dekimpe, Marnik G., 2022. "Designing successful temporary loyalty programs: An exploratory study on retailer and country differences," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 1275-1295.
    2. Alina Nastasoiu & Neil T. Bendle & Charan K. Bagga & Mark Vandenbosch & Salvador Navarro, 2021. "Separating customer heterogeneity, points pressure and rewarded behavior to assess a retail loyalty program," Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Springer, vol. 49(6), pages 1132-1150, November.
    3. Gabel, Sebastian & Guhl, Daniel, 2022. "Comparing the effectiveness of rewards and individually targeted coupons in loyalty programs," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 98(3), pages 395-411.
    4. Bombaij, Nick, 2021. "Effectiveness of loyalty programs," Other publications TiSEM 095c506d-5b5c-4ea3-9b41-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.
    5. Bies, Suzanne M.T.A. & Bronnenberg, Bart J. & Gijsbrechts, Els, 2021. "How push messaging impacts consumer spending and reward redemption in store-loyalty programs," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 38(4), pages 877-899.
    6. Stourm, Valeria & Bradlow, Eric T., 2023. "Cross-reward effects in a coalition loyalty program: The impact of a point currency devaluation," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 276-293.
    7. Tamaddoni, Ali & Seenivasan, Satheesh & Pallant, Jason I. & Skiera, Bernd, 2023. "Investigating the effect of status changes in review platforms," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 40(1), pages 189-209.
    8. Dariusz Dudek & Marcin Lipowski & Ilona Bondos, 2021. "Changing Energy Supplier on the Market with a Strong Position of Incumbent Suppliers—Polish Example," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(13), pages 1-16, June.
    9. Bies, Suzanne, 2022. "Examining the effectiveness of activation techniques on consumer behavior in temporary loyalty programs," Other publications TiSEM ade86df3-4846-4318-938f-a, Tilburg University, School of Economics and Management.

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