Is The Anti-Loyalty Program A Fun Way To Get Competitor Intelligence?
Written by Evan SchumanApril 15th, 2010
A UK coffee retailer had an unusual idea, something he called a Dis-Loyalty Card. It was designed to take customers coming into his shop and to reward them for leaving and visiting that shop's direct rivals.
What if instead of a disloyalty cardboard card, this approach became a disloyalty mobile app? Instead of forcing the rival store to do anything, the phone's GPS (geolocation) kicks in and confirms that the consumers are where they claim to be when they click an icon for that rival retailer.
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4 Comments | Read Is The Anti-Loyalty Program A Fun Way To Get Competitor Intelligence?
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Our Comment SPAM system is getting very aggressive these days and has been blocking legitimate comments. If you post a comment and don't see it appear within 2 hours or so, can you please send a heads-up to customer-service@storefrontbacktalk.com? Ideally, please include the time you posted the comment. That will allow us to try and hunt for it. Thanks! P.S. We're working on fixing the system, but we don't want to lose any valuable comments in the meantime.
-Christine
April 15th, 2010 at 2:46 pm
What a smart way to find out how much your competitor’s are doing in terms of pricing and new offerings! Very smart indeed.
April 16th, 2010 at 2:22 pm
Um…couldn’t you just walk into your competitors’ stores yourself?
Showing off your confidence: valuable. Engaging your customers: valuable. Paying a whole slew of your customers to gather information that you could pay one intern to gather: big ‘ole waste of money.
April 16th, 2010 at 2:50 pm
Not so sure. First, you’re not PAYING your customers per se, other than offering them discounts and coupons that you’d likely be offering to your customers anyway. The intern presumably has to be paid. But there are a lot more customers and if you have many rivals and lots of stores with each one, this could make some large-scale efforts practical. The app could organize this constantly updated information, to allow you to consistently keep your prices lower (but only a little lower) and get you an instant heads up to some new offering or change that they’re pushing. And it includes pictures and possibly video of new offerings.
Perhaps even more importantly, you’ve made your customers into an army of loyalists. Talk about a loyalty program!
April 16th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
I’m not sure about the long term benefits of this program for each customer. I don’t know if I want to lose another 10 customer visits for each time this is completed… I think it should be blended into a comprehensive loyalty program. Phase one, drink 10 cups here; phase two, drink 10 cups at competitors; phase three drink 10 here; phase four, buy coffee and pastry here…
The value of this particular visit concept cost too much over time. the idea is to show your strength in product and pricing in the market to you customers, not to continually shove business out the door. Once each customer completes this task, then it no longer serves the purpose of showing your brand and product excellence, it’s just losing business. But it is certainly a innovative idea that needs to be supported by other concepts.