What does artificial intelligence mean for loyalty marketing?
The one-to-one relationship aspect of true loyalty marketing isn't possible to create at scale, nor even sustainable at present levels, without the disciplines ...
Can social loyalty be taken too far?
Some of the digital communications habits we've adopted aren't always "better," and some habits we've picked up in customer loyalty marketing are also showing l...
Three key words for loyalty marketing
At the beginning of each year, Hanifin Loyalty traditionally selects three words to define the course of loyalty marketing over the next 12 months. Here's a sum...
Inside the minds of the Millennials
In pursuit of business process improvement for consulting and marketing agency Hanifin Loyalty, the company sought out tools to help manage social media marketi...
Millennial marketers should throw out their lists
Though pundits write articles centered on Top 10, seven or five lists of recommendations, BrainTrust panelist Bill Hanifin had a revelation that the key to reac...
Just how engaged can store employees be?
According to Paul Hebert, a lead consultant at Symbolist, a common definition of an "engaged employee" is hard to come by. "It's kind of like 'quality' - you kn...
There’s a link between employee engagement and customer loyalty
In the February issue of Direct Marketing, one part of the feature story, "Fickle About Loyalty," that begs attention was the statement that customers may not b...
The three most important words for loyalty marketing in 2014
Setting annual goals can be a precarious venture. So BrainTrust panelist Bill Hanifin has elected to forecast the most important trends and areas of change in c...
Are Loyalty Programs More Important During the Holidays?
Studying the Maritz Loyalty Marketing 2013 Gift Buying Survey may prompt retailers to make some quick adjustments in their loyalty programs to prepare for the r...
Promos Face a ‘Push’ or ‘Pull’ Future
At the Retailer Roundtable in Portland, ME last month, Alex Rampell, CEO TrialPay, questioned how 'offers' should be driven and insisted the model has to change...
BrainTrust Query: What Does It Take to Become a Loyalty Marketing One-Percenter?
Loyalty in retail has been built on rewarding accumulated points. The benchmark for this deferred discount has been one percent, but that's changing based on th...
BrainTrust Query: How Can Retail Industry Conferences Be Made Better?
What was the last conference you attended where you were riveted and inspired? Arsenal Montreal for C2-MTL, the result of a vision from Cirque de Soleil's Presi...
BrainTrust Query: In the Loyalty Marketing World, Time is Treasure
As the saying goes, people have three principle assets to contribute to an organization or cause, their "time, talent, and treasure." Too often, the "treasure" ...
BrainTrust Query: Why I’m Done With Foursquare
After over 1,100 check-ins, 39 badges earned, and over 200 friends gathered on Foursquare since 2009, Bill Hanifin is going to walk away for a bit. What's the n...
BrainTrust Query: Lack of Loyalty Program Engagement = Opportunity
"While the average U.S. household has enrolled in more than 18 programs, they are active in only 8.4." While that statistic from the 2011 Colloquy Loyalty Censu...
BrainTrust Query: How Should Loyalty Programs Extend Digitally?
New communications channels can be easily plugged into a loyalty program. But the question remains, which channels are the right ones to connect and how do mark...
Can Loyalty Save Your Town?
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...
BrainTrust Query: Enter Perka, Exit Punch Cards
For a generation, local merchants have been limited to using newspaper ads, coupon mailers and punch cards to attract and retain customers with innovations in p...
BrainTrust Query: Walgreens Enters the Loyalty Game
The long awaited and much rumored loyalty program from Walgreens reportedly will launch on September 16. Called Balanced Rewards, the loyalty card will utilize ...
BrainTrust Query: What It Takes to Innovate
Innovation is an objective that often floats aspirationally to the top of planning processes at the outset, but becomes suppressed, diluted and minimized as the...