LEADING THE WAY
IN LOYALTY
IT’S NO SURPRISE THAT SUCCESSFUL BRANDS HAVE LOYALTY PROGRAMMES THAT
REFLECT THEIR POPULARITY. KATY CHANCE LOOKS AT WHAT MAKES THEM TICK.
“W
e are such a diverse
country that ‘one
size’ does not fit all
when it comes to
loyalty programmes,”
says Steve Hoban,
general manager of Pick n Pay’s Smart Shopper
programme, the largest in South Africa in terms of
membership at more than 10 million.
Smart Shopper was launched in 2011 and
started out as a points-based scheme. “In 2013, we
refreshed the programme, after listening to our
customers, by introducing instant in-store savings,
which offer an extra 10% cash off hundreds of
items in store and cash-off vouchers; creating
partners for customers to spend their points with;
launching a mobile app; and introducing till slips
that showed customers their rewards balances. In
40 R E WA R D S & L O YA LT Y S A
2014 we personalised the programme further by
introducing our Just For You voucher programme.”
Partnering with diverse brands is popular too,
particularly in the banking and financial services
sector. FNB’s eBucks Rewards is a “multi-partner
programme” that, says programme CEO Johan
Moolman, “aims not to sign up as many partners as
possible, but rather attract the right partners who
will add value for our members”.
Indeed, the days of going it alone are over.
Programme owners are increasingly partnering
with brands that have good brand equity and appeal.
The premise is people want to accumulate rewards
in the shortest time possible, and relationships with
partners give them that opportunity.
With some retail partners, customers can “double
dip”, as is the case for people using their Standard
Bank cards at Clicks (a partner) where they can
benefit from both the Standard Bank UCount and
the Clicks ClubCard programmes. So-called double
dipping is also possible though eBucks’ partnership
with Dis-Chem.
eBucks Rewards was launched in October 2000
at the height of the dot.com boom, to underpin
the bank’s early adoption of a digital strategy.
It was revamped in July this year to focus on
creating added value for FNB and RMB Private
Bank customers, by rewarding them for positive
banking behaviour.
“We feel it is an ongoing necessity to revise our
offerings to ensure longevity of the programme,”
says Moolman. “For a programme to succeed it
needs to offer real value to its membership, either
catering solely to a single demographic, or, like
eBucks Rewards, be varied enough to reward
members across a wide variety of demographics,