The Curious case of plastic cards
SERVICES MARKETING ASSIGNMENT
THE CURIOUS CASE OF PLASTIC LOYALTY
Loyalty programs have emerged as a 5000 crore rupee market in the county. There are numerous players who are trying to take advantage of this boom and these people are unfortunately not the retailers. They are the loyalty management companies and are having a ball. The marketers unfortunately fail to understand the basic flaw behind loyalty programs. This paper tries to address this issue.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF PLASTIC LOYALTY
“Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it.” – Peter Drucker
Loyalty marketing especially in the form of loyalty cards is the big in-thing these days in the marketing space. One is handed a ―plastic card‖ even by the smallest of retail stores these days. However, it is puzzling and one fails to understand how exactly these cards help one rather than help make one’s wallet feel a bit heavy and full.
APE THE WEST BUT UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT
I was puzzled as to what aspect has to go into this paper on services marketing when I struck on this idea to decode what exactly a loyalty card means to a customer. I got into a retail store to buy a pair of socks and on the purchase, the manager at the billing counter handed me a shiny purple coloured card with the store’s name embossed on the card. I gleefully accepted the card because I had been a regular shopper at the store and felt that he was going to reward me for that. But then, after I accepted the card, the silliest of things happened. The manager merely noted down my name and phone number in a big book of his. Now, that gave me a shock. Jeez, someone making a database in a 1000 page notebook? You must be kidding. We live in the 21st century, mate. I thought maybe since these guys are Baniyas, they were having some sort of attachment to their Red Book and hence adapted this strategy in their database also. I tried to convince myself with the Red Book logic and
THE CURIOUS CASE OF PLASTIC LOYALTY
Loyalty programs have emerged as a 5000 crore rupee market in the county. There are numerous players who are trying to take advantage of this boom and these people are unfortunately not the retailers. They are the loyalty management companies and are having a ball. The marketers unfortunately fail to understand the basic flaw behind loyalty programs. This paper tries to address this issue.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF PLASTIC LOYALTY
“Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it.” – Peter Drucker
Loyalty marketing especially in the form of loyalty cards is the big in-thing these days in the marketing space. One is handed a ―plastic card‖ even by the smallest of retail stores these days. However, it is puzzling and one fails to understand how exactly these cards help one rather than help make one’s wallet feel a bit heavy and full.
APE THE WEST BUT UNDERSTAND THE CONCEPT
I was puzzled as to what aspect has to go into this paper on services marketing when I struck on this idea to decode what exactly a loyalty card means to a customer. I got into a retail store to buy a pair of socks and on the purchase, the manager at the billing counter handed me a shiny purple coloured card with the store’s name embossed on the card. I gleefully accepted the card because I had been a regular shopper at the store and felt that he was going to reward me for that. But then, after I accepted the card, the silliest of things happened. The manager merely noted down my name and phone number in a big book of his. Now, that gave me a shock. Jeez, someone making a database in a 1000 page notebook? You must be kidding. We live in the 21st century, mate. I thought maybe since these guys are Baniyas, they were having some sort of attachment to their Red Book and hence adapted this strategy in their database also. I tried to convince myself with the Red Book logic and