Month: January 2011

I’m sure many of us own loyalty cards to one store or another whether it be a clothing store or a food store. I have noticed that many stores offer perks with these loyalty cards in order to keep customers coming to their store. Other stores may offer things such as stamp cards so that for every time you visit their store and purchase an item, they will give you a stamp and after a certain number of stamps you can redeem them for a reward. A common example of this is at bubble tea stores where you can get a free drink after purchasing ten drinks (stamps). This seems to work well for small items such as snacks and food where it will be easy to purchase food items frequently and therefore make it easier to earn stamps. Stores such as Starbucks, offers cards that once registered, enables you to perks such as free syrups and coffee or tea refills and a free drink on your birthday.  🙂

Loyalty cards such as this one are a great way to keep customers coming back to your store if they feel that they are benefiting from free perks that other stores are not offering. Since some people might buy Starbucks drinks once a week or even once a day, they may decide to load a card and keep coming back for more. However, I don’t think that this works as well for clothing stores because not everyone buys clothes frequently and some people enjoy shopping at a of variety stores making it harder for these cards to appeal to these customers so the target market would be people who are frequent shoppers and have already developed brand loyalty.

Other examples of stores that offer loyalty cards or discount cards include Shoppers Drug Mart, Safeway and Save On Foods. For the groceries stores, they can expect most customers to buy groceries there for a lifetime and it is to their benefit that they sign up for these cards because some offer special discounts or promotions for card holders and after collecting a certain number of points you can redeem them for gifts. It’s always nice to know that every time you buy something you are working towards a reward for yourself one day even though it may take a long time to accumulate points so it encourages more shopping there. If a company establishes a loyalty card program for their customers, it may benefit both the company and the consumer because the company may get more business and the consumer may feel like they are getting extra value added to shopping at those stores. In the long run, establishing loyal customers will greatly benefit a company because they will be in the customer’s evoked set of stores. Some people may even feel a fulfillment of their psychological needs because they own a certain card to feel cool. Of course, all companies should do sufficient market research to see if they’re suitable for such a program.

Great my blog is due in three hours and I still can’t think of anything to write about… sigh…

As I was on the bus to UBC this week, I noticed a bus stop ad from Tim Hortons. It was advertising for their new breakfast ham sandwich and the ad featured the sandwich and the caption above it that said “Happy Hamuary” and “Hickory Smoked Ham”. From this caption I deduced that this product rolled out this January and although the caption is a bit cheesy, it was memorable enough to me that I proceeded to share what I saw with a friend or two. Later on, I realized that this would make a great marketing post (since I didn’t have any other ideas…)! For many people, seeing this ad on an early morning might entice them to try this sandwich and after repeat exposures to the ad (assuming you commute along that route frequently or see other similar ads) they may eventually pursue this sandwich. Although many other fast food restaurants serve similar breakfast sandwiches such as Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts, Tim Hortons tries to distinguish their sandwich by saying that it is made with hickory smoked ham and also it’s “new”. They are also trying to diversify their breakfast sandwiches and wish to appeal to consumers who may prefer eating ham over their other options at Tim Hortons. I think loyal Tim Horton’s customers may try this sandwich if they have previously bought breakfast sandwiches before, enjoy the appeal that the product is “new”, or they just like hickory smoked ham. I think I’d try this since I’m easily persuaded by food advertisements… 🙂

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