Brands better keep members of their rewards programs happy. A new study from Colloquy finds that customers who participate in loyalty-building efforts, like MyCokeRewards and the Best Buy Reward Zone, are 70 percent more likely to actively recommend a product, service or brand than the general population.
The New Champion Customers: Measuring Word-of-Mouth Activity Among Reward Program Members study polled more than 7,000 consumers in the U.S. and Canada. Of those who participated in reward programs, 55 percent described themselves as brand champions. The majority of this group (68 percent) said they would recommend a program sponsor’s brand during the course of the next year.
Marketers would be wise to better leverage their underutilized loyalty-marketing database, per the study. They “should find brand champions buried within their program memberships, and build relationships that reward them for positive W-O-M activity,” said Colloquy editorial director Rick Ferguson in a statement.
When asked why they actively they engaged in W-O-M activity, respondents said: to tell manufacturers what I think (73 percent), to get smart about products and
Services (68 percent), to be the first to discover new items (68 percent), to get free product samples (63 percent) and to share my opinion with others (61 percent).
Colloquy partner Kelly Hlavinka said in a statement:“W-O-M champions crave a deeper relationship with their favorite brands ad are searching for ways to provide feedback.”
