Marketers tie-up with Multi-partner loyalty programs to boost customer confidence

We have seen the success of single loyalty programs with companies like Shopper’s Stop, Reliance, Tata, Future group and many more. Shopper’s Stop’s First Citizen loyalty program has given 80% boost to their sales, Pantaloon’s Green Card program accounts for 55% sales, Future group expects their loyalty program to generate 70% sales from lifestyle formats and Tata’s Nano bookings have been made by a large chunk of Clubwest members.

However, creating and maintaining single loyalty programs is an expensive proposition as it requires a heavy and fully functional IT backbone, dedicated manpower, marketing spends, etc. If not managed properly, loyalty programs may be unsuccessful.

The solution is to have such a loyalty program that can be used across multiple companies/ stores which in turn will give access to a wide consumer database allowing cross partner transactions. I-mint is such a multi - partner loyalty program that provides a single platform to thousands of merchants to interact with millions of customers. I-mint customizes LP’s for companies in different sectors according to their requirement and records transactions further analyzing the consumer behavioral patterns. This data is then shared with the respective partners thus enabling them to understand their consumer better and redesign their promotional activities.

Mr. Vijay Bobba, Founding CEO, i-mint states, “In current slowdown in global economy and a highly competitive market, reducing customer churn and increasing customer retention is more important than ever. In the retail industry, loyalty programs can cost from 1% to 1.5% of the revenue, and in other industries they cost between 2% and 5%. Ideally, no program gives instant results. It has been observed that it will be at least 18 months before an organization starts to see returns on a loyalty program, so patience is a virtue here.”

Furthermore, to manage a program, a company needs to do heavy investment in technology and manpower which further stretches the margins. In today’s scenario, it is critical to cut any additional costs. Though loyalty programs have proved successful even in recessionary times, it has not been completely optimized to its full value. Hence marketers are looking at realigning strategies to increase the efficiency of loyalty programs cost effectively along with offering something more comprehensive to their consumers.

Adding further, Mr. Bobba feels,” i-mint is the beginning of a new marketing era. It has, since its inception on 1st August 2006, has grown phenomenally to become India’s largest “Rewards Marketing Network” powered by technology. With our wide network, we are able to capture purchase behavior of consumers across several categories of spends, and hence, marketers can use this knowledge to create sustained demand for their brands. We plan to break new ground by expanding our network in as many sectors including entertainment, food & beverage, etc. We are here to empower the consumers and partners with the ultimate freedom of choice in the world of rewards!”

On the other hand the customer benefits by faster earn and burn velocity. For e.g. A customer who uses his ICICI debit/credit card to book tickets on makemytrip.com and flies Indian Airlines will earn points from three partners in only one transaction. Hence can redeem points faster.

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· i-mint was launched on 1st August 2006 as India’s first Multi Partner Rewards Program wherein Airtel, HPCL, ICICI Bank, Air India, Lifestyle, Monginis, Bookmyshow.com and MakeMyTrip.com joined hands to create a single rewards platform powered by sophisticated technology.

· On an average 4 crore i-mint points are redeemed every month

· Unlike a single brand loyalty program, the i-mint card does not restrict its members from shopping at a particular place or purchase a particular product. i-mint points can be earned at any of the partner or merchant’s outlets across 29 cities in India. The points accumulated from across partners can be redeemed for rewards such as electronics, holidays, jewelry, gift vouchers etc.

· i-mint gives its members an opportunity to earn i-mint points rapidly at the participating i-mint partners and merchants leading to faster redemption of rewards. Customers can locate i-mint affiliated merchants in their city:

o Through the merchant locator on the i-mint website (http://www.imintpoints.com/)

o Logging on to http://imint.zook.in/ on their mobile browser

o Sending an SMS with imint or or to 57575665

· Currently i-mint

o Has a consumer base of over 9 million members nationally.

o Is available in 29 cities across India

o Has a merchant base of over 3000 across several cities

o Is the only loyalty program to penetrate Business-to-Employee sector by launching co-branded cards for employees of companies like Infosys

o Has also, launched an e-referral website in partnership with Global Talent Metrics called STAR REFERRAL.