Gartner Research

How to Design Loyalty and Retention Marketing Programs That Engage Consumers

Published: 04 April 2022

Summary

Loyalty and customer relationship leaders often overestimate the potential impact of transactional rewards programs on meeting customer retention targets. Loyalty efforts must incorporate both transactional and attitudinal loyalty elements to build resilient customer relationships.

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Overview

Key Findings
  • Marketers often conflate transactional rewards programs with customer loyalty, missing opportunities to offer benefits and experiences that build on attitudinal loyalty and lead to more resilient customer relationships.

  • Understanding how customers view brand loyalty reveals opportunities to both differentiate programs and measure their impact on customer retention as a whole.

  • Comprehensive loyalty programs, with aligned metrics and KPIs, can better capture shifts in consumer behavior and meaningfully reward true fans for their brand advocacy.

Recommendations

As a loyalty and customer relationship leader responsible for retention marketing, you should:

  • Establish retention marketing objectives that incorporate both business goals and consumers’ needs from

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Analysts:

Consumer and Culture Insights Team

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