(1)

After reading Yeqi Yang’s blog post on “the trouble of loyal cards“, I disagree with her thought that Tesco should stop using membership cards . In fact, I believe that membership cards have became a unique point of parity in any brands. Just as Yeqi said, almost all supermarkets have membership cards. Therefore, if any of these groceries stores decides to discard them, it all of a sudden creates a disadvantage among their competitors. As a result , that particular store will be eliminated immediately during the consideration process in  “Consumer journey model” ,  giving the fact that they do not gain any vouchers and cash backs upon purchases anymore.

I do agree with Yeqi that there is a need for companies to differentiate themselves in order to sustain consumers’ loyalty and interest.  I think stores should start following the footsteps of a points system in airplane mileage, where you can redeem goods from headphones to a free plane flight with a certain amount of points.(gain points depending on the location you travel) In that way,  it not only creates a point of difference among competitors,  it also provides a legitimate reason for consumers to become your newest VIP.

(2)

Sources:

blog post: https://blogs.ubc.ca/yeqiyang/2014/10/08/the-trouble-of-loyal-cards/

consumer journey model : (here)

(1): (here)

(2): (here)