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Posted by John Taylor on February 11, 2000 at 12:23:21:
In Reply to: Supermarket loyalty card schemes posted by Phil Cartwright on February 10, 2000 at 16:16:48:
I do not have any independent "formal" research to help you. Sorry. However, I have followed the Loyalty movement for the past several years. Incidentally, I recommend The Loyalty Effect, by Frederick F. Reichheld, published by Harvard Bsuiness School Press as an excellent theoretical framework for understanding how loyalty might work.
Personally, I shop at all the local grocery stores: whichever one is most convenient on a given day's route. I have no loyalty to one or another. And, I am largely price insensitive. When they started "clubs" I ignored them: the last thing I want is more cards to carry around.
Now, when the checkout person in one local store asks if I have my card, and I say "no', she/he takes one out of the cash drawer and runs it through the reader. They don't ask if I have one but forgot to bring it. They don't ask if I would like to join. I don't think the checkout people recognize me.
Why do they do this? They are giving me the benefits of "membership" without capturing any purchase data with my name. Clearly, the chain management has not communicated how the program is designed to work down to the checker level.
On the other hand, as a consumer, I am thinking about going back to this store because I perceive I've been getting a "good deal": benefits without membership. On the other hand, as a researcher I say this chain clearly does not have its act together. Has anyone else experienced this "benefits without membership" in supermarkets?
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