Ken Lonyai

Can Loyalty Save Your Town?

December 5, 2012

FROM RETAILWIRE:
Social tools present the potential to level the playing field between local merchants and their national competitors. In fact, local merchants should be able to do much better, with their proximity to their communities providing an advantage in tailoring messages. What do you think of the potential of social media tools to drive loyalty across local retail communities?      [more...]

Bill makes a good case for localizing loyalty, but I don't fully agree with the statement "...the potential to level the playing field between local merchants and their national competitors." National competitors that create effective loyalty programs have a bunch of resources to make it work. Where will that come from in a local consortium? An obvious answer might be a local or regional chamber of commerce, but I don't believe that they have the skills or manpower to make a loyalty program stick.

It seems like something that will peak quickly and fade as users expect more than the local aspect to drive interest and utilization.