در مورد تاثیر کارت های وفاداری در فروشگاه وفاداری: آیا رضایت مشتریان با طرح پاداش مهم است؟

Most customers hold several loyalty cards of competing retailers. Past studies looking into the impact of card ownership on store loyalty showed mixed results. We postulate that loyalty cards are effective only when customers value the rewards associated with them. We investigated to what extent the satisfaction with loyalty card rewards affects the effectiveness of loyalty card programmes in the food retail sector. From the analyses of survey data within the framework of store choice models, we confirm that loyalty card owners are more store loyal. More precisely, we show that when holders are satisfied with the reward scheme of the loyalty card programme, they are more loyal and less price sensitive than unsatisfied card holders.

Loyalty schemes are part of defensive marketing strategies which aim to retain existing customers. They are common practice in many industries such as the airline (frequent flyer programmes) and food retail industries. Retailers use loyalty cards to identify and to reward their customers for their loyalty. More precisely, loyalty cards enable companies to acquire knowledge about and develop a better relationship with their customers. In this research, we are mainly interested in the success of loyalty programmes. We investigate to what extent customers’ satisfaction towards loyalty card rewards affects the effectiveness of loyalty card programmes in the food retail industry. In the next section, we briefly present the well-known store loyalty concept and synthesize the studies evaluating the effectiveness of loyalty programmes. The third and fourth sections propose, respectively, the research hypotheses and methodology. We then present our results. The paper is concluded with a discussion of the results, formulation of some managerial recommendations and research tracks.

The main objective of this research was to investigate the link between customers’ store loyalty and their satisfaction with the rewards provided by retailers’ loyalty cards. Our results show that customers satisfied with the rewards are more loyal to the store, i.e. they allocate a higher proportion of their budget and patronage frequency to the store than unsatisfied customers. As far as attitudinal loyalty is concerned, the effect is somewhat less significant (p=0.0545). In line with previous research (Taylor and Neslin, 2005; Meyer-Waarden, 2006a), we show that loyalty card holders are more loyal to the store than non-holders. The less loyal customers are those who do not hold the available store loyalty card. They are followed by customers who visit stores that do not offer loyalty cards. The loyalty card not only affects the share of wallet and the share of visits but also the customers’ store preference. Nevertheless, we must qualify this result because of the self-selection effect mentioned above. Several authors indeed state that there is a self-selection effect according to which only good customers adopt store loyalty cards (Meyer-Waarden and Benavent, 2003; Demoulin and Zidda, 2006). Our main contribution consists of demonstrating that even if the customers joining the store loyalty programme are already good customers, the loyalty scheme is a tool that enables the store to reinforce their loyalty when they are satisfied with rewards provided by the card usage. This result may clear up mixed previous results about loyalty card effectiveness. Indeed, loyalty card effect on customers’ loyalty depends on how they value the loyalty scheme rewards. No study has so far considered the fact that loyalty card membership is not a sufficient condition for store loyalty. However, Mauri (2003) mentioned that a high percentage of loyalty card holders are not card-loyal, i.e., they do not use the card every time they shop. She stressed the important role of promotional inducements which make customers loyal to their card (Mauri, 2003). We demonstrate here that customers who positively value the rewards are more loyal to the store. In addition to being more loyal to the store, customers satisfied with the card scheme rewards are less influenced by holding competitive loyalty cards. Previous studies show that customers holding competitors’ loyalty cards are less loyal to the store (Mägi, 2003; Meyer-Waarden, 2006a). It may even off-set the effect of the store loyalty card. We show here that among customers holding competitive cards, those who are satisfied with the focal store rewards are more loyal to the store than unsatisfied customers. Consequently, loyalty programme rewards are a competitive arm that can be used to cancel the effect of competitors’ loyalty cards. Our results additionally show that customers holding the store loyalty card are less price sensitive than non-holders. Similarly, Bolton et al. (2000) demonstrated that members of the company's loyalty programme are less sensitive to competitors’ price advantages. We do not content ourselves with comparing loyalty card holders with non-holders. We also show that customers satisfied with loyalty card rewards are the least sensitive to prices. They are followed by unsatisfied customers and customers visiting stores with no loyalty card. The most price sensitive customers are those who did not subscribe to the store loyalty programme when available. The latter customers could be considered as casual shoppers. For instance, they occasionally visit the store to take advantage of special offers. Satisfied customers are less price sensitive because they consider loyalty card rewards as an advantage in such a way that the company offer is perceived as better than competitors’ offers. Loyalty card rewards increase the value of the company's offer. The price is no longer the only financial criterion used by the customer to evaluate the company's offer. In addition to the rewards satisfaction, we find other store loyalty determinants. These determinants are the store format, the distance between the customer's home and the store and the overall store satisfaction. Customers are more loyal to hypermarkets and large supermarkets than to discounters and they are less loyal to convenience stores than to discounters. These results are similar to Drèze and Vanhuele's (2003) results, according to which, convenience stores and hard discounters have a limited format that leads to variable consumer behaviours. Our study differs from past research in several aspects. First, we conducted our analyses at an individual level. We focused on behavioural and attitudinal measures specific to stores’ customers. Second, we looked at the loyalty to the various stores visited by each customer. We did not stick to a specific store chain. This enabled us to consider several loyalty programmes of different designs. Third, we measured loyalty with two behavioural variables and an attitudinal variable, i.e., the store chain preference. Our results are very similar whatever the loyalty measure considered. Finally, we considered in our model other variables that are not related to loyalty schemes, such as the store format, pricing strategy, store location and size, and the overall level of satisfaction. The effect of loyalty card membership and the reward satisfaction are used in addition to these store choice determinants.