Purpose

The purpose of this research is to identify how a reward programme name (“loyalty programme” (LP) versus “customer club” (CC)) influences the type of central rewards expected and their impact on loyalty to the retailer.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors conducted a survey followed by an experiment.

Findings

Central rewards from programmes called LP are equally hard and soft, whereas central rewards from programmes called CC are mainly soft. Providing customers with central rewards increases satisfaction with the programme and loyalty to the retailer, but only for programmes called LP.

Practical implications

Loyalty managers are advised to pay particular attention to the consistency between the type of rewards they offer and the reward programme name that carries them. Contrary to the name LP that leads to me-too programmes, the name CC offers more flexibility to choose the rewards, providing opportunities to stand out from competing programmes.

Originality/value

By building on a new and original theoretical approach, this research is the first attempt to investigate the effect of the reward programme naming decisions on customers' evaluations and responses.

中文翻译：

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称之为客户俱乐部！奖励计划的名称如何影响计划的有效性

目的

本研究的目的是确定奖励计划名称（“忠诚度计划”(LP) 与“客户俱乐部”(CC)）如何影响预期的主要奖励类型及其对零售商忠诚度的影响。

设计/方法论/途径

作者进行了一项调查，然后进行了实验。

发现

LP 计划的中央奖励同样是硬奖励和软奖励，而 CC 计划的中央奖励主要是软奖励。为客户提供集中奖励可以提高对计划的满意度和对零售商的忠诚度，但仅限于称为 LP 的计划。

实际影响

建议忠诚度经理特别注意他们提供的奖励类型与奖励计划名称之间的一致性。与导致模仿计划的 LP 名称相反，CC 名称提供了选择奖励的更大灵活性，提供了从竞争计划中脱颖而出的机会。

原创性/价值

通过建立在新的、原创的理论方法的基础上，本研究首次尝试调查奖励计划命名决策对客户评价和反应的影响。