Evolving travel industry marketing and loyalty programs

As part of their travel industry marketing strategies, many leading loyalty players start by clearly defining success metrics and articulating the consumer behaviors they want to drive to deliver on those value drivers; only then do they design a travel loyalty program to incentivize those behaviors.

Program elements defined by your financial, customer, and brand priorities

• Loyalty ambition: What is our primary business goal for our loyalty offering?
• Business value driver: What key metrics will we use to define and quantify the success of the new offerings?
• Targeted segment: What customer segments will we target to maximize value generation?

Program elements defined by the beliefs and behaviors of current and future customers

• Desired behaviors: What customer needs and behaviors along the path-to-purchase must we influence?
• Loyalty features: What new customer loyalty program features will best serve our loyalty ambition and unlock business value?

Program element defined by your capabilities, assets, and partnerships

• Go-to-market approach: What channels and partners will we leverage to effectively bring the offering to market?

A successful portfolio of compelling benefits and interactions can differentiate one customer loyalty program from the rest. Determining what consumers care about and offering benefits across the spectrum of functional, enjoyable, compelling, and intrinsic value can drive short-term purchase intent while building long-term emotional brand connection.

Travel loyalty program portfolio elements include:

• Rewards: Offer points, cashback, or other immediate benefits for spending with the brand.
• Experience: Gamify the purchase experience or offer exclusive sales and engagement opportunities.
• Lifestyle: Hold events or provide access to content that embodies customers’ hobbies and life choices.
• Identity: Build a community of like-minded customers to engender a collective identity.
• Vision: Entwine your customer loyalty program with causes that align with your mission and that your customers care about.

Engage members across the spectrum using a range of rational and emotional benefits, some of which could be delivered through various partner models.

Loyalty programs cannot feel like a “bolt-on” to the customer experience—they should be thoughtfully integrated into travel and hospitality companies' marketing, adding to the experience itself. This can require a deep understanding of the customer journey—from the first purchase through to dormant activity and re-engagement—and the lifetime experience of a customer.

Engaging employees and partners can enhance their emotional connections to the brand and encourages them to deliver the best experience to customer loyalty members. This model can work best when customers, employees, and partners align on a set of shared values.

Employee ecosystem

Employees are the human face of your customer loyalty program. Creating loyalty differentiation and driving impact can require brands to engage employees in the delivery of their loyalty offering.

• Education and empowerment: Teach employees about the loyalty program, and empower them to deliver an enhanced experience to elite members.
• Rewards: Reward employees with cash, loyalty program perks, or other incentives when they deliver loyalty to your customer (e.g., sign up a new member).
• Participation: Create a pathway for your employees to participate in your loyalty program, either through a specific program designed for them or through enhanced access to the customer-facing program.

Partner ecosystem

The partner ecosystem can elevate the equity of the customer loyalty program by ensuring seamless delivery and making members feel cared for across their entire journey, not just in their direct interactions with a single brand.

• Capability partners: Integrate with technology, service, and data providers that enable end-to-end delivery and management of the program.
• Business model partners: Operate upstream or downstream within the same value chain (e.g., credit card providers, retailers) and help to unlock new revenue streams.
• Experiential partners: Share similar consumers and/or operate horizontally across the same customer journey.

Creating loyalty differentiation within travel and hospitality companies' marketing and driving impact requires brands to extend beyond traditional channel partners to provide consumers with more holistic offerings.

Programs that are “living”—meaning continually enhanced and supported by a cross-functional operating model and an adaptable technology platform—can create the best outcomes for both consumer and brand.

Delivery mindset principles:

• Data-driven: Guide and deliver loyalty enhancements by leveraging a fact-based, continuous test-and-learn methodology.
• Cross-functional: Construct the right operating model to coordinate efforts across functions and create seamless delivery of customer experiences, no matter the touchpoint.
• Customer-oriented: Align loyalty objectives and features to deliver on evolving consumer needs, behaviors, and expectations across physical and digital touchpoints.
• Continuously reprioritized: Balance consumer needs, business priorities, and execution ability to prioritize, develop, and scale customer loyalty program features.