Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. I’m Paula Thomas, the Founder of Let’s Talk Loyalty. Today’s episode is hosted by Tom Peace, Managing Director of The Loyalty People, a strategic consultancy with a laser focus on loyalty, CRM, and customer engagement.
The Loyalty People also runs a free global community for anyone working in the loyalty industry. If you’re working in loyalty marketing, make sure to join Let’s Talk Loyalty every Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday to hear the latest ideas from loyalty experts around the world.
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Tom: Hi, I’m Tom Peace, Managing Director of the Loyalty People and presenter of Let’s Talk a Little Loyalty. Welcome to this week’s short summary show. In this week’s episode of Let’s Talk a Little Loyalty, I review the original podcast where Paula was joined by Isobel Finlayson, Sustainability Lead for Mando Connect.
Paula and Izzy share their ideas, insights, and research on practical ways that loyalty marketers can help sustainability, which has become an urgent and important focus for businesses and one that loyalty marketers can play an important role in supporting. I’m going to summarize some of the examples of global best practice in sustainability discussed in the original podcast, where as Izzy actually discusses eight specific tactics you can consider implementing to leverage the power of your loyalty program.
Sustainability is a major challenge for loyalty programmes, as members look for brands that align with their personal beliefs. According to Mando’s “What Brits Want from Loyalty” report, 44 percent said they want programmes to reward sustainability and environmentally friendly behaviours. But you must get this right, any greenwashing will cause significant damage.
Izzy and Paula talk very candidly about some of the initiatives that are really working in the marketplace. And the first of these are the brands that offer conscious choices for customers to make small but positive choices that make a little difference. Which all mount up to make a significant change.
Airlines, retailers and cosmetic brands seem to be leading the way in this area. Izzy obviously is very passionate about recycling and talks about the challenges of getting the older generations to engage with this. Fast fashion is an area where this is becoming particularly prevalent as brands look to offer the opportunity to recycle clothes or resell to other people.
Izzy also talks us through how 39 percent of customers thought supporting environmental causes mattered and brands can provide this as a benefit with their loyalty program through points donations to sustainability charities or increased tiered benefits within the structure. This is a fairly simple solution to implement, but it does mean that every member needs to align to the one partner charity, and people like choice.
Izzy and Paula discuss the need for choice and how brands can develop this through charity aggregators such as Toucan, or by offering the member a choice of a few charities where they can make their donation. Carbon offsetting is one particular sustainability goal that many brands see as a strong way to engage with customers.
This can be a really good way to show a quantifiable and credible way to support sustainability. However, this is becoming a bit me too, and can be difficult for some brands, such as airlines and energy companies, where their business focus is misaligned with the carbon reduction in the eyes of the consumer.
Contrary to a general sustainability cause, some brands focus on specific ethical initiatives aligned to their business. In the UK, the coffee shop Pret donate all non sold food to homeless people and go further with pledges and investment in eliminating homelessness in the UK. Sustainability and ethical causes have become extremely important for loyalty programs and this original podcast is a real must listen.
You can find the main show at www.letstalkloyalty.com, which first aired on the 30th of June, 2022, episode number 234. Thanks for listening. I hope you enjoyed my summary show. All the best and speak to you soon, Tom.
Paula: This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights, and research. The Wise Marketer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which is already certified over 500 executives in 38 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.
For more information, check out thewisemarketer.com and loyaltyacademy.org
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