Firstly - if you haven’t read the Choice material, you should.

Here are some top of mind thoughts - I’d love to know what you think.

Loyalty Card Review or simply supermarkets?

Firstly (and I know this is being a bit trite) but headlining your article as a Shopping Loyalty Cards story and then only really reviewing two supermarket programs in detail and anecdotally looking at a couple of other larger programs seems a bit disingenuous.

I used Choice a lot when I was having kids and I didn’t expect them to do reviews of prams or cots and only look at the two major brands… If it’s a review of Supermarket Points Based Loyalty then call it that!

The reason this is important is that the media (and now Choice) can be guilty of not relating the loyalty market to a total consumer point of view. Supermarkets are important but a large amount of discretionary spending takes place in other retail segments - holidays, transport, insurance, fashion etc.

Picking one segment and then using this to say ‘loyalty programs don’t offer anything’ is simply wrong. Saying - ’supermarket programs in their current form offer low earn ratios when used without any related offer’ is a bit more correct. But it would have been a short report then!

I take on board that they also looked briefly at Myer, Priceline and a couple of others but this story was all about having a close look at the big two supermarkets (in my opinion).

We have over 650 loyalty programs in the Perkler database, ranging from membership entitlements and pure discount programs through to points accumulation. Each one of these types of programs, across multiple retail segments, is the consumer reality. This breadth of the industry simply isn’t addressed by Choice.

And that’s okay, just be clear about it when you are using the loyalty market to get publicity!

The maths of loyalty

The part of the report focused on the maths around earning points and the time taken to earn vouchers and flights is spot on (as you’d expect). I think Choice have always done an excellent job of breaking complex consumer interactions down to the simplest form to helppeople.

I guess what I also expected to see here is the linking of bonus deals and related programs that make this point generation more attractive. Phil Hawkins from FlyBuys certainly touched on this in the press that he did, and in fact Choice acknowledge the existence of these deals in one of their tables without then bothering to add those scenarios into their top line equations.

Under ‘What you get for your loyalty’ they say “You’ll earn more points and rewards sooner if you pay with an affiliated credit card, use your card at other program stores during the same week, do only one weekly shop, spend more or make use of bonus point promotions” Exactly. So where is the modelling to show how this affects the assumptions they made?

I think it’s a shame that Choice didn’t look into this. It could alter the story by a fair amount.

What those mean retailers really want!

This was the part of the story I found the most bewildering. Not because any of what was said was wrong, but because it seemed so naive. The report makes constant references to supermarkets and other retailers trying to trap consumers into giving away information, get them to shop exclusively at their stores and discriminate on discounts.

I would have thought that all of these tactics are widely known and accepted by consumers. Maybe I’m wrong, tell me if I am, but part of the loyalty dynamic is that consumers accept that the retailer is collecting information about them in exchange for a benefit!

So when I see “Discount Discrimination” in a story that is critical of programs not offering enough, I don’t get it.

I also think “Discount Discrimination” is “Tailored Benefit” something we’ve been trying to push programs to get better at. If it is a loyalty program, why should the guy who doesn’t buy as much get the same offer, even if we live under the same roof?

And Finally

I’ve only really touched on a few of the points here. I may be too close to this market now but I guess my overall feeling on the story was, yeah - so what?

The gaps in analysing the broad range of programs, investigating the relative worth of bonus shopping days and hidden member benefits like those you find in affiliated programs left me a bit underdone on this one.

From what I can tell, Choice got good press on this one so good luck to them - whether it helps anyone understand the loyalty market and how they CAN save I’m not so sure on.

But there’s always perkler.com for that

PS: no retailers were involved in the drafting of this response - not even our clients

- Take Perkler Shopping With You

Possibly the biggest development we’ll be bringing in 2010 is the optimization of Perkler for mobile. That isn’t to say the website will become less useful, but to say we will be developing variations of the current Perkler site for use on your phone, so you can take us with you. This could include a few different additions including applications for a number of mobile platforms and the development of a Perkler mobile site.

- Exclusive Discounts

With more and more loyalty programs becoming a part of the Perkler community, the opportunity for exclusive offers is truly beginning to present itself. We’ll be working hard with our partners throughout 2010 to bring exclusive, Perkler-only perks your way.

- Bigger, Better

All the while we’ll be increasing the number of programs and perks in our database to improve our status as the one-stop loyalty program shop. There’s no program too small, and hopefully we’ll be finding a few of those great, valuable local programs for you!

See you there!
Graham

My mum always loves a good read, if yours does too keep your eye on the Borders Shortlist and Angus & Robertson A&R Rewards. A&R Rewards you need to make a purchase before you can become a member. If you aren’t already then you’re probably better off signing up for the Borders Shortlist. Free, online registration and they send an email once a month (usually in the third/fourth week). Discounts are consistently 20-30% off. This week’s offer is 25% off one non-fiction book.

Candles are also a great idea, and we’ve got another free email signup for you. This one’s with Dusk, pretty much the only decent candle store if you ask me. Go to their website and signup for the dusk candle club. Immediately after joining you’ll receive a 10% off voucher for your first ONLINE order. So get your shopping done early and snag a great bargain: Sign up now

It’s tough to find dad a present that isn’t socks or jocks, or just the same old thing that you get him every year. Give him some excitement this year by getting him a RedBalloon adventure. They’re normally pretty costly, so you’ll have no problems saving on this one. Use your Presidential Card to make the purchase and you’ll receive a $30 discount on any purchase of $129 or more. Nice! Don’t forget to enter your voucher code at the checkout. All the details. The same discount is applied for MBF’s In2Life program.

For all your christmas shopping you can save 5% with your Presidential Card or QRI Lifestyle card by pre-purchasing gift cards. What’s also kinda cool (I asked FlyBuys but they didn’t get back to me) is that you can still earn QANTAS Frequent Flyer points when you make your purchase with a WISH gift card at Woolworths. Sweet, huh?

If you’re in to the hamper market, let’s face it… we all are, you can usually save 10% by ordering through your motor club or by using your credit card. At the bare minimum you’re gonna get some bonus points for it. Confirmed discounts are available through RACQ (usually the other big motor clubs are reciprocal so be sure to check out RACV, NRMA, RACT, RAC, and AANT), ANZ Frequent Flyer Credit Card, Westpac Instant Offers, ANZ Rewards Credit Card, St. George Instant Benefits, Bank of Queensland Q-Rewards.

You can also save up to 20% on Hampers with a National Pharmacies Membership. Simply view the Christmas Catalogue.

Shopping for kid’s toys is always a bit of a hard one to find discounts on. Save 20% by buying online with your Presidential Card at GR8 Toys. Save 10% at Entropy using your QRI Lifestyle card. Sign up to the Australian Geographic Newsletter and receive an in-store coupon. We’ll try to nut this one out and bring you some more great bargains from the free programs out there

Decorations: Keep an eye out for great offers from Myer and David Jones in their monthly instant offers. Failing that you’ve got National Pharmacies with some great low-cost and discounted decoration options that are up to 20% off.

Christmas Entertainment: Reading Reel Club, Hoyts Movie Club, Cine Buzz weekly emails include an exclusive member offer for a discounted movie.
Christmas Entertainment: AMF Bowling AMF Roller club - 10% off everything. They usually include discounted school holiday offers, it’s free to join. Thursday night is cheap bowling night, too

We’ll be sure to add the latest benefits here as they come… Also, you can do your own search from our home page: Search Now!
-Me

Dan and I have been doing a number of pitches lately - The Incentive Show and a range of investor meetings.

In each pitch we give the example of how at Perkler we are working hard to connect loyalty information (the kind of stuff marketing managers invest a LOT of time and money in) to the point of purchase.

A classic ‘fail’ we highlight is the program that sends out the traditional Sale PostCard. Look, this kind of collateral looks great, has simple messaging but we always wonder what the take up is.

Our mantra is “Isn’t this material better off on people’s phones rather than their fridge?”. It’s what we are building our mobile platform for and it seems to make perfect sense to us.

Perkler ranting aside, yesterday when I got home I remembered that I had an outstanding Snowgum voucher. I love this program and they are really active. My Dad is in town and it’s his birthday next week so I thought I’d use my Snowgum points to get him a tshirt. So I went looking for the voucher.

I found it eventually - check out how that beautifully designed marketing collateral ends up! It’s there, on my fridge, somewhere

Snowgum nearly lost a sale because my fridge is messy - crazy!

I hope this makes our point about linking this material much close to the purchasing point so it doesn’t get lost in amongst a consumers ‘real’ life!

Jus

been a while (I think I say that every time…).

Our launch has gone really well and we are building a great community of people who love perks! Thought you might like to know a little bit about yourselves:

• 68% of you are female
• The average age of the female Perkler is 40
• The average age of the male Perkler is 43
• On average you have 15 loyalty memberships in your virtual wallets

Our top 10 cities that site visitors come from are:

1. Sydney
2. Melbourne
3. Brisbane
4. Canberra
5. Perth
6. Adelaide
7. Hobart
8. Cranbourne
9. Nerang
10. Richmond

So there you go - it’s early days but there are plenty of you around (and we look forward to plenty more).

Don’t forget- every new member who joins before the end of October we are giving away a free Yoga Pass from our friends at yogapass.com.au!

More soon,

Justin

Pictures from the event (facebook): Incentive Show Photos

More about the Incentive Show: Incentive Show 2009 Homepage

-Me

At first even we were a little dubious - our take on loyalty is that it is consistent spending over a period of time that gives maximum benefit, but with full faith in the programs out there we headed into central Sydney to the QVB and went shopping.

The results were pretty extraordinary. With no TV magic (really)!) we saved $187.00 in less than an hour. The brands were Oxford, Esprit, Kathamandu, Krispy Kreme and Wagamama.

Each of these stores had great specials on and all of the goods were things we actually needed (well, I didn’t need that Oxford knit but is was nice).

So overall we were very happy with our little adventure. You can see it here. ACA Shopping Spree

The story on ACA was the most popular of the night, so we were asked back to rank our favourite cards the following week. This is an interesting ask because programs are so different and people find value in different ways, but in the end we applied some key criteria to come up with a list. The criteria (loosely) were:

* Instant Benefits rule over accrual

* Local and multiple redemption locations are good

* No or low fee entry is a bonus

The winning card was Show Your Card and Save which is not only the largest in the world but offers significant discounts at thousands of locations.

Other cards to make it to our final list were FlyBuys, Qantas FF, Woolworths Everyday Rewards, David Jones Amex, ANZ EDine, Krispy Kreme, Myer One, Virgin Velocity and Accor Advantage Plus. You can see our reasoning here.

You can also see the full video here. ACA Best Cards

Though naturally it was exciting to get national TV coverage for Perkler as part of our launch week what was the most exciting was the response. The fact that we were the most popular segment, and that hundreds of thousands of hits to the site resulted proved for us that there are plenty of people out there trying to use loyalty better!

This post started just before launch yesterday and was a nice retrospective on two years of work coming to fruition…

Then all hell broke loose!

As the starting point for our launch we engaged the fantastic Magnum PR. In reality we ‘hoped’ that they would get us some national TV coverage. They stepped up to the plate and delivered the big boys - A Current Affair.

While Dan and I were in Sydney filming Adam and Graham got to work preparing for a much bigger first night hit than we planned. As it turned out the ACA story lead to over 300,000 hits on the site from an extraordinary number of unique users. I’m not sure how anyone is meant to prepare for that!

So the reality was that the publicity was excellent, the site didn’t cope and we went into major server meltdown.

While the melted server has shown us that demand for the site is extraordinary, and provided us with a nice PR angle “demand crashes site…” we just want people in there using the service so they can get full value from their programs and we can get to work building this community.

So with the help from some friends we are rebuilding the back-end and getting it firing on all cylinders.

What has been interesting about the whole process is the response of our members. I’ve just emailed well over 500 new registrations. People who came to the site and signed up but have found the site slow and even unworkable.

So far I’ve had one complain back - and fair enough. Overwhelmingly our new members have got back to me thanking me for the contact, congratulating us on the site and remaining eager to get in there and play when we’ve beefed it up.

An amazing response and one that makes us happy to be in such a great business!

Roll on Perkler!

Those following Dan or I on Twitter (@JustinBarrie and @BigHittingLama) would know that we’ve just been overseas for a market validation trip to the UK. 

As winners of the Australian Final of the Technium Challenge we were lucky enough to be taken over to Swansea to compete in the global final. A week long cultural tour introduced us to all that the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) are doing to support businesses (and encourage them to enter Wales as a base) and also gave us a look around a range of cities and towns like Cardiff and Aberystwyth.

We didn’t win the global final - we tell our families we can runner-up - but the experience was excellent.

The WAG have some very interesting support packages including running the 11 Technium Centres - incubators that allow companies an “easy-in easy-out” approach to setting up an office. The WAG also have a very vibrant Finance arm - Finance Wales and strong Angel Community - Xenos. All very interesting stuff.

The second half of our week was down in London. We had three days chocked full of meetings with interested investors, potential strategic partners and most interestingly some really high-quality retailers.

We learnt from brands like French Connection and the Arcadia Group (representing fantastic brands like Miss Selfridges, Dorothy Perkins and Top Shop that the idea of Perkler very much translates to the UK market. We were pleased that with very little adjustment it could become a very successful export market for us.

We also learnt that the expectations of retailers in the mobile space in particular seems to be significantly more advanced than here in Oz or even than in the US (where we were last year). Most of the meetings focused on how the Perkler mobile platform can be extended to really enhance loyalty offerings which was really exciting for us and our future product runway.

Overall I’d say that the UK retailers were very focused on loyalty stopping being a “met too” industry and really looking for ways to really reward loyal customers. Particularly interesting was their desire to link loyalty directly to ‘live’ performance of a particular physical retail location on any given day. Using the loyalty program to drive customers in when times are slow. Very very interesting notion.

On the investment front there seemed to be a fairly buoyant mood. The Australian Government should probably take note of some pretty good initiatives like the London Technology Fund which combine the best of private venture discipline with a softer government approach - we were very impressed. The WAG also had a range of funding options that were very attractive to the right business at the right time.

So the trip was extremely valuable for us in terms of understanding where to after Australia, but also in re-confirming that we need to focus on the Australian launch (only weeks away) and get it right here. And that’s exactly what we are doing.

Negotiations are fairly advanced with a couple of really good brands here at home, and Adam is working bloody hard to get the new version of the site up and ready for solid QA next week ahead of the launch.

For the launch itself we have appointed Magnum PR to lead off our campaign. We are really excited about working with the guys and know that a sustained campaign (combined with our product offering real value to consumers and retailers) will result in some great commercial partnerships and, most importantly, a big intake of members getting value from Perkler.

So back to work - but more regular posts now that we are back in Oz. Don’t forget to follow our community manager Graham on Twitter as well @perkler. 

Last thing to report is that whilst in London we were lucky enough to score Centre Court Wimbledon tickets on Ladies Quarter Final day. The seats were amazing and we ended up right next to the members. I can assure you all (because I know you’re wondering) Sir Cliff Richard’s tan is quite extraordinary!

Justin

Q: How many AAdvantage Awards were claimed in 2008?
A: The number of awards claimed in 2008 in each AAdvantage mileage redemption category were as follows:

MileSAAver® and AAnytime® Awards: 2,858,222
Upgrade Awards: 769,527
Product Redemptions: 407,074
Special Mileage Awards / Other Airline / Other: 780,533
Total Redemptions - 2008: 4,815,35

It’s pretty interesting to see that most miles (60%) are redeemed for flights using American Airlines even though there are 20 leading airline partners that members can redeem their points with. Total redeemed on Flights is an astounding 92%.

All flights within continental US are worth 25,000 points flying AA. A flight from New York to Los Angeles on American Airlines is worth around $382. Meanwhile, if we compare this with a 25,000 point merchandise reward we are looking at getting $250 worth of value for our 25,000 points. It certainly seems that AAdvantage members are making the most of their points.

-Me