Inside South Africa’s Loyalty Landscape: A Conversation with Amanda Cromhout

Paula: This show is brought to you by Phaedon and the Tally Platform, the power behind the world’s biggest and most beloved loyalty programs.

Paula: Formerly known as ICFnext, Phaedon works with many of the world’s leading brands to create standard customer experiences that drive emotional loyalty and lead to true bottom line impact.

Paula: Trust Phaedon to help you forge unbreakable bonds with your customers, and future-proof your brand.

Paula: Phaedon, driving brand love is what they do.

Paula: To learn more, visit www.wearePhaedon.com And to help with the spelling, you can find a direct link in the show notes for this episode.

Paula: Hello and welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, a show for loyalty marketing professionals.

Paula: I’m Paula Thomas, the founder and CEO of Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV, where we feature insightful conversations with loyalty professionals from the world’s leading brands.

Paula: Today’s episode is hosted by Charlie Hills, Chief Strategy Officer of MandoConnect, a UK-based agency that uses smart data to create brilliant partnerships and rewards that really work.

Paula: Enjoy.

Charlie: Hello and welcome to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Charlie: As Paula mentioned, I’m Charlie Hills, the Chief Strategy Officer of MandoConnect.

Charlie: Today’s guest really needs no introduction as I’m sure all our listeners know Amanda, the CEO and founder of Truth.

Charlie: Based in South Africa, Truth is a boutique consulting business specializing in customer centricity and customer loyalty programs.

Charlie: Today, we’re going to be learning about Amanda’s favorite books and loyalty programs, and most importantly, all about the new research report, The Truth and Brand Mapp Loyalty White Paper.

Charlie: It’s the only study of its kind in South Africa, which is a renowned mature loyalty market.

Charlie: I hope you really enjoy our conversation today.

Charlie: Hello, and welcome to the podcast today.

Charlie: I’m so excited to have you on.

Charlie: I feel like I’m in professional hands today.

Charlie: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty.

Amanda: Oh, Charlie, thank you, thank you.

Amanda: It’s always a pleasure to be here, whether I’m on this side of the mic or the other.

Charlie: I know it seems so funny, two hosts kind of interviewing each other today, but hopefully it’ll be loads and loads of brilliant content today, because we’re both very comfortable with the format.

Charlie: So we’re going to talk about your brilliant new research on today’s podcast.

Charlie: But before we get into that, I want to kind of take a step back and think about that broader world of loyalty, leadership and everything that really matters to us on this podcast.

Charlie: Now, it seems slightly silly asking you this question when there’s a picture of the book in the background, but could you please share with our listeners and audience, what’s your favourite book about life, leadership or loyalty?

Amanda: Yeah, look.

Charlie: Gosh, really?

Amanda: Obviously, I’d love to say Blind Loyalty, so I’ll leave that one just hanging.

Amanda: But apart from Blind Loyalty, I absolutely love Robin Sharma and his book, The Forms of Wealth.

Amanda: So the title of the book is The Wealth Money Can’t Buy.

Amanda: He talks about the eight forms of wealth.

Amanda: And I just love it.

Amanda: It’s a real personal leadership book.

Amanda: And then I’ve moved from reading his work to Joe Dispenza, which is a little bit deeper, and he talks about just trying to find supernatural.

Amanda: So it’s more around, I tend to, my reading preferences are more around self-leadership rather than pure business.

Charlie: Nice.

Charlie: I love this question.

Charlie: We’re getting such interesting answers from all our guests, from sort of really detailed micro books on kind of bits of loyalty right up to kind of hire how to live a better life type stuff.

Charlie: And we’ve even had poetry and all sorts of things answered.

Charlie: So that’s a really great recommendation.

Charlie: Hopefully, that’s a really good kind of library set for our audience.

Charlie: And on a personal level, I do really recommend Blind Loyalty as well.

Charlie: For those of you that haven’t read it, check it out.

Charlie: It’s a really, really useful, really easy to read, digestible format as well with lots of kind of key takeouts and topics within it.

Charlie: So do check it out.

Charlie: Which brings us on nicely to our sort of our next question that we always like to ask, which is about your favorite loyalty program.

Charlie: What stands out for you at the moment?

Charlie: It might be in the South African market that we’re going to come on to talk about, or it might be anywhere in the world.

Charlie: Who’s doing things you admire at the moment?

Amanda: Do you know what?

Amanda: I’ve been watching for a while and I really admire from an industry point of view, BILT, BILT Rewards.

Amanda: I just think the concept that they’ve created, the business or the consumer problem that they’ve tackled and the way they’ve done it and the way they’ve expanded so quickly is mightily impressive.

Amanda: So that’s my favorite sort of industry one to watch.

Amanda: And then from a South African point of view, I’d be shot at dawn if I name one brand.

Amanda: So when I go through the results of the white paper, some are really impactful brand names that have been on this show, and that really stand out and I admire them all.

Amanda: I really do.

Charlie: Well, that’s fantastic to hear.

Charlie: We get that from a lot of our guests actually in research.

Charlie: I’m far less biased.

Charlie: I tend to do a whole list of all the ones I think that are interesting.

Charlie: I did a really fascinating podcast.

Charlie: Gosh, it must be about a month ago now with V Group, who’d applied loyalty principles to engaging seafarers for the shipping industry, and I thought that was fantastic.

Charlie: It’s a little bit in that same ilk as BILS, taking loyalty principles and just applying them in a brand new way in a brand new sector.

Charlie: That’s a really great case study.

Charlie: I’m sure everyone who’s listening knows it, but if you don’t, go check it out.

Charlie: It’s a really good program.

Charlie: What about your background in loyalty marketing?

Charlie: I’m sure our listeners know you as a co-host, but as a host, we often don’t get the chance to really talk about it.

Charlie: What’s your background in loyalty marketing and what do you love about this industry?

Amanda: So I’m born and bred in it, really.

Amanda: So I joined the, I went straight from university to the British Airways Graduate Marketing Program.

Amanda: And literally from day one, it was the executive club.

Amanda: So heart and soul, financial cards, co-branded, project director of One World.

Amanda: And then I started my overseas career with BA where general manager of South Africa.

Amanda: That’s what brought me to South Africa.

Amanda: And just everything we did was around the executive club.

Amanda: And then I looked at Africa, Middle East and India marketing, and it was all executive clubs.

Amanda: So the frequent flyer industry has been the heart and soul of what I did.

Amanda: But I think, as I mentioned, One World, that was the real eye opener to what it takes to get into almost a business requirements document for five global airlines coming together.

Amanda: The complexity of that was amazing.

Amanda: Like I still to this day refer to the BRD for One World.

Amanda: And then I was with, then I left, I left, I’ve been in and out of the UK, but then I came to live in South Africa because I married Theo, my South African husband, and there, when we settled here, I started working for Walworth’s, which is a very renowned loyalty business in South Africa, a retailer like Marks and Spencer’s.

Amanda: And I headed the loyalty and customer and analytics division.

Amanda: So I had the background of airline and retail.

Amanda: And then I broke free and started my own business.

Amanda: It just was a natural place to go.

Amanda: And there’s a shortage of real expertise in this market.

Amanda: And what I love about it, Charlie, is I really am drawn to the commercial side of it.

Amanda: I’m not a creative marketer.

Amanda: I fully respect the creative side, but it’s just the commercials.

Amanda: We can play in marketing sense, but actually, at the end of the day, we can pull it straight back to the commercial bottom line.

Amanda: And that very much appeals to me and my kind of personality.

Charlie: That’s really nice, actually.

Charlie: And it’s so attributable, isn’t it?

Charlie: I think when you look at the return on investment, you can really track and measure the impact of loyalty programs and the reach that they now have as well.

Charlie: I think that’s been one of my favorite developments in the last sort of five or ten years, is actually seeing it escalate up and actually sit at the top table rather than in sort of siloed divisions.

Charlie: I mean, I obviously know you started in travel and you’d gone to retail.

Charlie: I know Woolies is a consumer.

Charlie: So in the British market, we would have had Woolworths and Pick and Mix was how we grow up.

Charlie: It was one of our sort of favorite shops.

Charlie: You’d go there and then you’d buy the single of the week at the same time.

Charlie: What other sort of sectors?

Charlie: Because I know at Truth you work across multiple sectors, don’t you?

Charlie: What are some of the other interesting sectors you’ve seen recently?

Amanda: Look, the banking sector in South Africa is extremely sophisticated from a loyalty point of view.

Amanda: We see it year on year either at the International Loyalty Awards or we see case studies actually on this show and showcasing some incredible.

Amanda: When I interviewed Kelly from Kapitek, I had so many companies phoning me afterwards or messaging me saying, wow, the complexity of that industry.

Amanda: I think financial services really, if it’s done well in loyalty and rewards is incredibly impressive.

Amanda: We also see here the wellness industry.

Amanda: You’ve got the Goliath, the vitality program that’s known globally but was born and bred here.

Amanda: What they do and the results they produce changing wellness, changing life longevity effectively.

Amanda: Then Virgin Active Rewards, born and bred here that’s now just gone global.

Amanda: I’m really enjoying the breadth rather than it just being retail, just being travel, those traditional sectors.

Amanda: But we’re starting to see the breadth of how it can impact industries in a really meaningful way.

Amanda: In financial services, and we see it in the white paper we’re going to talk about, it’s the sector that actually makes the biggest difference in terms of which programs can’t you live without, financial services.

Charlie: Yeah, it’s interesting because in the British market, it’s a bit more of a, I wouldn’t describe it as a laggard sector because it’s really significant on what they do in the experienced space and the cash back and the card linked office space is really interesting.

Charlie: But it’s not one of our exemplar sectors, like our big explosion sector has been in leisure in terms of restaurants and coffee shops.

Charlie: And actually what we’re seeing happen in there, an explosion of programs and then sort of smaller retail and lifestyle programs as well.

Charlie: So I love looking at the other reports from around the world and seeing what we can learn.

Charlie: I’m hoping lots of financial services brands in the British market are listening to this and are going to actually hop over and have a look at the report and see what’s going on in the South African market because it definitely needs an injection of fresh energy over here.

Charlie: Are there any particular ideas or innovations that you’ve seen that have really stood out to you across those sectors?

Amanda: I think across those particular sectors, what we’re seeing is the ability to get complete change of behavior driving the rewards process.

Amanda: It’s not just a transactional piece.

Amanda: So in the financial services sector, Utopia is that the bank-wide relationship is rewarded.

Amanda: I don’t feel like many other countries are getting this right.

Amanda: We hear a little bit in Canada with RBC or I think in Europe, there are a couple of good programs, but most of the programs here in South Africa, and of which there are many, are managing to get this bank-wide impact measured and then rewarded.

Amanda: It’s not just the bank card swipe.

Amanda: So that sounds really quite dull, I guess, but for those of us who are commercial nerds, we absolutely love that because it’s so measurable.

Amanda: And also what’s happening a lot here, but we’re seeing it globally, is one of the things I speak about a lot, if people ask me about trends, is fun.

Amanda: Like at the end of the day, there’s so much seriousness in our lives, there’s so much seriousness in our consumers’ lives.

Amanda: Like we’ve got to drive a bit of fun.

Amanda: Loyalty can’t be another serious pillar in our life.

Amanda: Like go and check your balance, go and do X, Y, Z.

Amanda: So we are seeing some great work.

Amanda: And again, I had the pleasure of Loyalty TV, obviously Let’s Talk Loyalty podcast on gamification.

Amanda: Some of the examples coming out of the South African market, but obviously we see it scaled globally, are super.

Amanda: Like loads of fun, but loads of commercial results attached to it.

Amanda: So they’re the kind of trends that we’re seeing come through.

Amanda: We don’t talk about gamification in the white paper per se, but it’s definitely something that’s very prominent here.

Charlie: Yeah, it’s something I’m really, really passionate about.

Charlie: And I think the technology has finally caught up.

Charlie: I think that’s in large part the capability of the industry to do is what’s driven it.

Charlie: There’s a consumer demand.

Charlie: But finally, all the platform providers have really good gamification modules that are quite simple to execute.

Charlie: Although I do wonder when spin to win is going to saturate.

Charlie: I’m looking forward to the kind of next one.

Charlie: I feel like most programs have run some sort of spin to win.

Charlie: And I think it’s that clever kind of intersection of gamification and impact that’s really, really powerful and loyalty at the moment.

Charlie: So yeah, I’m quite looking forward to that.

Charlie: Although I’m still not entirely sure about joyalty.

Charlie: I know that’s what lots of people are calling it.

Charlie: But I think I keep defaulting to gamification as well, rather than joyalty.

Charlie: So yeah, we’ll check that out in the paper as well.

Charlie: I know you have got that specific content on it, but hopefully I’m sure it comes through in lots of the case studies that you talk about.

Charlie: Now, as everyone knows, I’m a massive white paper nerd, write them, read them, always looking at them, always referencing them as part of our insights engine.

Charlie: And I do think that yours is one of the best.

Charlie: I think it’s the ninth edition, if I’ve got that right.

Charlie: So please tell our listeners and our audience a little bit about the paper, because I’m sure they’re mostly familiar with it.

Charlie: But there might be one or two who don’t know it.

Charlie: What’s it called?

Charlie: Who do you do it with?

Charlie: And how do you approach it?

Charlie: I think it’s, is it 35,000 sample of?

Charlie: So it’s a really chunky piece of research.

Amanda: Yeah, thanks, Charlie.

Amanda: Yes, we are in our ninth edition.

Amanda: So it spans 10 years, because there were some years where the research finished too late in the year to produce a white paper.

Amanda: So ninth edition, so we have a beautiful longitudinal study.

Amanda: We can refer back, we can really see the trends, but we can’t do this alone.

Amanda: So Truth with the Loyalty Minds, but the research is done by an incredible study.

Amanda: It’s called the Brand Mapp Study by a company called Y5, and they’re in their 10th year.

Amanda: So their second year, they came knocking at our door and said, we’ve got a great opportunity.

Amanda: The data we’re sitting on is so rich.

Amanda: Partner with us.

Amanda: So it’s a joint partnership.

Amanda: And we, as exactly as you said, there’s over 35,000 people in what they term the economically active consumer.

Amanda: So that’s 10,000 rand.

Amanda: So that’s about $500 household income per month is economically active and anything below that they call a mass market consumer.

Amanda: Then the mass market base is around 8,000 consumers.

Amanda: So you’re looking at 42,000 consumers, huge numbers, which therefore is representative of over 22 million South Africans when they extrapolate the data as a representation of the country.

Amanda: So that’s a third of the country effectively represented through the data, but it’s 100% of the tax-paying consumer base.

Amanda: So the relationship with Brand Mapp allows us to, A, look at a lot of loyalty measures, but we then can cross-pollinate it with they, we actually, loyalty is only about 10 of the questions they ask, and the study is over 220 questions.

Amanda: So if I look at the data and think of something else, we can go and search in the lifestyle data or the media consumption data or any other imaginable question through the Brand Mapp data.

Amanda: And then what comes back to me is raw data, and we slice and dice it and apply the loyalty lens and get writing to produce.

Amanda: I actually call it a book now.

Amanda: It’s no longer, it’s the same size as a book in terms of its height and so on.

Amanda: And it’s, I promise you, it’s a work of art as much as producing a book book.

Charlie: I know they are.

Charlie: And I think the design principles now are so great as well, aren’t you?

Charlie: You don’t just right now, you have to think about the design, the presentation of the data, how you bring it to life in multiple formats.

Charlie: And I was lucky enough to see an early draft of the paper as well to prep for the interview so I can really see how it’s involved to the final thing.

Charlie: So, yeah, everybody download it from the website.

Charlie: It’s beautiful as well as fascinating.

Charlie: So, I mean, that’s a really chunky study.

Charlie: And I love that cross-pollination versus the lifestyle data as well, because I think it’s so important.

Charlie: Loyalty doesn’t exist in isolation for our consumers, for our industry, but even for our clients.

Charlie: You know, it is part of the entire kind of brand piece.

Charlie: Now, I know you split the story of the paper into four sections, don’t you?

Charlie: I think you’ve got usage, winning brands and sectors, preferences, and then sentiment.

Charlie: It would be great to sort of walk our listeners through the kind of, you know, the high fives, like one of the really kind of standout pieces for you.

Charlie: But don’t tell them everything, because we want them to download and read it.

Charlie: But what are the bits that really stand out for you in those four sections?

Paula: This show is brought to you by Phaedon and the Tally platform, the power behind the world’s biggest and most beloved loyalty programs.

Paula: Formerly known as ICF Next, Phaedon works with many of the world’s leading brands to create standard customer experiences that drive emotional loyalty and lead to true bottom line impact.

Paula: Trust Phaedon to help you forge unbreakable bonds with your customers and future-proof your brand.

Paula: Phaedon, driving brand love is what they do.

Paula: To learn more, visit www.wearePhaedon.com and to help with the spelling, you can find a direct link in the show notes for this episode.

Amanda: Yeah, thanks, Charlie.

Amanda: The headline stat is usage.

Amanda: What I’m very proud of of this white paper is we don’t ask which loyalty programs are you a member of or how many programs you’re a member of.

Amanda: It’s which programs are you using, and therefore how many programs are you using and how many South Africans are using programs.

Amanda: So it’s an active usage, claimed active usage.

Amanda: So 82% of South Africans use loyalty programs.

Amanda: It’s a phenomenally high number.

Amanda: Last year it was 76%, but 82% are actively using loyalty programs.

Amanda: So, you know, and I often say if we’re doing a media interview, how many marketing activities get a four out of five response rate over the long term?

Amanda: It’s just unheard of.

Amanda: So it’s really showing the importance of loyalty in South Africa.

Amanda: That doesn’t change much across the different demographics apart from younger customers use less and mass market customers use slightly less as well.

Amanda: But male and female, pretty much the same, which we’ve seen over the years normalise, there used to be a gap.

Charlie: We still see that gap in Europe and in the British market, actually.

Charlie: We still see a lower usage in the male audience.

Charlie: There’s obviously some interesting things happening in the South African market that are a little bit different.

Amanda: Yes, and it changed over COVID actually.

Amanda: I think when the lockdown experience forced dads and husbands and boyfriends and males to actually do more of the shopping, I guess, more chores and so on.

Amanda: And it hasn’t changed since, so it hasn’t kind of reverted back.

Amanda: So we’re hanging on to that.

Charlie: Great.

Amanda: We are seeing more usage versus last year.

Amanda: So 35% of South Africans say they’re using loyalty programs more.

Amanda: And they are overall are using 10.3 programs on average.

Amanda: So I saw a stat in the Comar Global Report that came out recently saying 10.7 programs or the number of memberships I hold sort of in my wallet equivalent.

Amanda: But that’s not necessarily saying active usage.

Amanda: So we’re saying 10.3 active usage of programs.

Charlie: Yeah, it’s really high.

Charlie: It’s much higher than the British study that we do.

Charlie: It’s great actually to see that kind of propensity to engage.

Amanda: It’s incredible.

Amanda: And it’s gone up over the years, you know, over the years we’ve seen that go up gradually.

Amanda: But this year particularly we’ve seen a higher lift.

Amanda: So and then we do see slightly less for mass market customers, but to be expected, you know, if you have less disposable income.

Amanda: And then we asked the question of those consumers, so it’s only 18 percent, if 82 percent do say they do use loyalty programs.

Amanda: But why don’t you use loyalty programs?

Amanda: And this is probably my favorite question for us as loyalty practitioners.

Amanda: And the top two responses haven’t changed for the last few years.

Amanda: It’s basically it takes me too long to earn enough rewards for it to be meaningful, or I just don’t spend enough, basically the same similar things.

Amanda: And that’s where we can kick in to advice to the readers around, there are ways to get consumers feeling excited, there’s ways to get people going on their journey, and don’t just rely on a baseline earn rate or whatever the solution is.

Amanda: So those kind of trends, that’s interesting, apart from the usage numbers which have changed, but the other trends haven’t changed much.

Amanda: They’re stable, which strategically makes sense.

Charlie: Yeah, totally, especially over such a long period of time as well.

Charlie: We tend to see sort of gradual, gradual changes, but then sometimes like when you get the pandemic, for example, you see a significant shift, but a kind of gradual move is key.

Charlie: What about in that sentiment and preferences or in the winning brands and sectors?

Charlie: Are there any bits that stand out for you from there, from those sections of the study?

Amanda: So we asked the question over which brands you use, and this is like an industry leaderboard, like we see huge competition, we see the anticipation of all the South African brands waiting for this.

Amanda: So the winner this year across all customers, mass market or economically active is Clicks Clubcard, which is similar to a Boots, I would say.

Charlie: Okay.

Amanda: It’s advantage.

Amanda: And they, but by a long shot, they have a good margin versus the competitors, so to speak.

Amanda: And over the nine years that we’ve been tracking it, they’ve been first for five times.

Amanda: This is their fifth time.

Amanda: So they regained first position.

Amanda: They were slightly off last year behind Checkers Extra Savings, which is a huge grocery program, a brilliant grocery program that has just slipped back to number two.

Amanda: But interestingly, we ask a different question as well.

Amanda: So that’s like the most claimed usage.

Amanda: The other question we ask is, if you could only choose one program, only one, which would it be?

Amanda: And this question evokes, like it just creates a different response because we cross-pollinate it with making sure the customer or the respondent is actually using that program.

Amanda: And the top 10 response is typically about 70 or 80% financial services.

Amanda: And hence my earlier comment about the importance of the financial service programs in this market.

Amanda: So for the third year running, we have Discovery Vitality as the program I can’t live without.

Amanda: And in the mass market, Capitec Live Better, which is a very successful, very big banking program.

Charlie: Interesting, because we see a definite correlation between size and national kind of appeal of program.

Charlie: But what we tend to find is when we ask about people’s favorite, favorite program, we then get into those smaller, more niche programs that actually people are like, oh, actually, it’s my running club program, or it’s my local copy shop that I can’t live without.

Charlie: And the big ones kind of drop off.

Charlie: So it’s really interesting to see FS and kind of insurance come up in that space.

Charlie: Anything in the preferences or sentiment kind of sections of the paper that came out or that really stood out?

Amanda: Interestingly, from actually what the benefits should be, very little change, so still dominated by cash.

Amanda: Birthday always, always, so it doesn’t change.

Amanda: And so we need to listen to that.

Amanda: So birthday rewards has remained in the top five.

Amanda: I talk about this quite often and consumers are saying the same thing.

Amanda: Older customers skewing towards travel, again, nothing surprising there.

Amanda: Younger customers, more interesting, like the ability to donate to charity or early access to sales or online free delivery.

Amanda: So more variety, but more interesting, but also cash still remains as the number one.

Amanda: What we are seeing in the sentiment analysis is how loyalty programs, how the respondents are saying loyalty programs are changing.

Amanda: It makes me change my shopping behavior.

Amanda: So 77% are saying loyalty programs influence my grocery brand choice.

Amanda: A huge number following from that, like 51% saying it changes my grocery, my fuel.

Amanda: Did I say fuel earlier?

Amanda: My grocery brand choice and then the fuel brand choice.

Amanda: So it shows that it’s having an impact.

Amanda: It does make me choose a different brand.

Amanda: And then the other question we ask is, does it make you shop more?

Amanda: And some claim that, yeah, a loyalty program makes me shop more, which seems a bit counterintuitive, but hopefully shop more in one particular brand.

Charlie: Yes, rather than just overall.

Charlie: Yeah, we see similar functional impact metrics as well.

Charlie: We also look at emotional metrics like appeal and emotional connection and stuff.

Charlie: And actually we’ve seen a real increase over the years in that impact of loyalty programs.

Charlie: I always wonder if it’s because consumers like them or just because actually brands are investing and they’re making them better so that they’re more effective and they work better and then we’re tracking them.

Charlie: It’s probably a bit of a virtuous circle, I reckon, in that space.

Charlie: So you limit your poor respondents to one response, but I’m going to give you three.

Charlie: What were your three favorite takeouts from the whole paper?

Charlie: And you might be repeating something you’ve already said, but for our listeners, what do you think the top three things they should take away from it are?

Amanda: Without question, one of the most powerful impacts was we asked, in the rest of the brand map study, they asked, what are the three things, not the three things, but what are the things that keep you awake at night?

Amanda: And the third thing was the rising cost of living and fuel costs, grocery and fuel costs, behind, and I don’t know if you’d get this in other markets, behind crime and corruption.

Amanda: Nothing to South Africa.

Amanda: So the third thing that keeps South Africans awake at night is rising food and fuel costs.

Amanda: And then we asked, well, how are you overcoming that?

Amanda: What are you doing to help yourself overcome that?

Amanda: The first thing is I’m cutting back on how much I spend on clothing.

Amanda: The second thing is I’m eating out or going to movies less.

Amanda: And the third thing is I’m using loyalty programs more.

Amanda: So the third tool effectively is loyalty programs.

Amanda: So that’s a real…

Amanda: We’ve been hearing this from the brands and we’ve been hearing this from consumers for years, but it’s the first time I think we’ve managed to correlate the data to get that exact tie in.

Amanda: So that’s the first thing is loyalty programs are helping the South African consumer get through their monthly expenditure shortfalls effectively.

Amanda: The second thing is, like, as I said earlier, is some things just haven’t changed and we must continue to respect it and build around it when we’re building programs, is cash is still king.

Amanda: And South Africans prefer the use of a card to a digital solution or loyalty app, which we’re not seeing in other markets.

Amanda: So the card still remains almost doubly attractive as digital solutions.

Amanda: And that’s a little bit to do with the fact that you can get to so many stores and there’s no coverage or there’s no Wi-Fi available, which is damn frustrating.

Amanda: Although there’s alternatives like producing the card via WhatsApp, a quick ask for the card and it comes through.

Amanda: So some things haven’t changed.

Amanda: And actually in other important facts like, I hate points expiry, it still remains there as a real issue for us to watch out for.

Amanda: And then the final thing is, I think it’s just re-cemented the fact that South Africa is an extremely mature loyalty market.

Amanda: You know, 82% of South Africans are using loyalty programs.

Amanda: Still, usage is on the up year on year versus other years.

Amanda: And not only are we seeing that through The Truth and Brand Mapp White Paper, but if I look at the work I do on the International Loyalty Awards last year, how South African brands were so much more dominant in the awards winners and the finalists.

Amanda: This year, they’re in virtually every category they can be in, in the finalists.

Amanda: We’ve just finished the judging, so I can’t give anything away to be announced in May.

Amanda: But we certainly saw the South African brands in the finalists list that’s been issued.

Amanda: So the maturity of this market is, it just keeps growing.

Amanda: Like it’s mature, but still growing and more impactful.

Charlie: Yeah, there’s a lot of innovation, isn’t there?

Charlie: I think that’s one of the things I looked at as I read through the paper.

Charlie: There’s so much change and some of it’s macro and some of it’s kind of micro, but it feels like it’s constant optimization, which is really, really nice to see.

Charlie: So yeah, I thoroughly recommend our listeners check it out.

Charlie: Now, I realize I’ve grilled you on the research and I’ve asked you about all of the four sections and your top three takeouts.

Charlie: But is there anything else you think you’d like to share with our listeners at this point?

Amanda: What’s interesting in the White Paper, what we’ve never asked before is something I’ve been tracking from a personal point of view that I’ll come on to in a minute.

Amanda: But globally, I’m hearing everyone talk about, and you as well, as a contributor to Blind Loyalty, did a whole chapter on the power of loyalty to really drive sustainability.

Amanda: So I wanted to uncover this in South Africa, but we’re not seeing it at all.

Amanda: Asking outright, the responses, no, like I have no interest in the correlation between the two.

Amanda: I don’t even think about it.

Amanda: When we ask what social causes, again, this is another brand map question outside of the loyalty questions.

Amanda: What social causes matter to you?

Amanda: Sustainability was right down at the bottom.

Amanda: Like it hardly made a blip on the graph, but education was number one.

Amanda: That makes sense if I think about the economic situation of South Africa and undoing the wrongs of many, many, many decades ago.

Amanda: But education remains the first social cause.

Amanda: What’s super interesting when we dug even deeper, is how South Africans want to contribute towards the social cause of education.

Amanda: Number one was the My School Program, which is an award-winning loyalty program.

Amanda: It’s based here, but won global awards.

Amanda: Then it states overtly, I want to use my loyalty program to contribute to educational causes.

Amanda: Then there’s another educational loyalty program called School Days that’s also mentioned.

Amanda: Loyalty is creeping in, even though the consumer very clearly said there’s no connection between loyalty and sustainability, but there’s definitely a connection between loyalty and education, which is more important to us than sustainability.

Charlie: I think that’s such an interesting reflection of how trends change and a really great example of what loyalty programs can do to make a difference.

Charlie: It’s one of the things we talk at Mando a lot with our clients as well.

Charlie: It’s short term versus long term.

Charlie: You need to think about where you’ll be in five years, 10 years.

Charlie: If you’re not doing solid, really fabulous things now in society, charity, also in a sustainable way, then actually where will you be in five to 10 years?

Charlie: Consumers might not be asking for it now, but they absolutely will be.

Charlie: So great to see those programs called out.

Charlie: And also really nice to see in the winner’s calls at the International Loyalty Awards.

Charlie: And I’m sure there’s probably one other thing you’d like to share as well.

Charlie: I’m going to roll us right back to where we started the interview with that wonderful picture of Blind Loyalty and the Blind Loyalty Trust that you have.

Charlie: Would you like to share with our readers a little bit about it and how they can get involved?

Amanda: Thanks, Charlie, yes, no conversation would feel complete without talking about the Blind Loyalty Trust.

Amanda: So many of you may know about it, but effectively, since we’ve launched it with the enormous help of the loyalty industry, we are reversing blindness for hundreds of individuals, which is just, it really is changing someone’s life through the loyalty industry, either buying the book, 100% of the profits go to the trust or the Blind Loyalty Bracelets that so many loyalty professionals are wearing around the world, or contributing, and we’ve just launched the campaign, Run or Walk for Vision, where we have a leaderboard across loyalty companies around the world by pulling your teams together, walking as a team effort 4.2 kilometers and contributing to Run Walk for Vision.

Amanda: We are reversing blindness.

Amanda: I’m appealing to everyone listening to this.

Amanda: Have a look at blindloyalty.co.za, and please join us.

Amanda: Join us, join us, that’s reverse blindness as an industry.

Charlie: Oh, wonderful.

Charlie: It’s such a phenomenal initiative.

Charlie: I remember Berkson and I very first found out about it.

Charlie: It’s been great.

Charlie: We’ve been big supporters of it ever since.

Charlie: So please check that out.

Charlie: And we will add the notes in for that as well in the show notes.

Charlie: I’m sure some of our readers might have more questions.

Charlie: What’s the best way for them to get hold of the research?

Charlie: And if they have any more questions for you to get in touch with you.

Amanda: Yeah, so I’m not difficult to get hold of at all.

Amanda: But the white paper is available on truth.co.za, right bang and central on the home page.

Amanda: And you can reach me on any one of many websites.

Amanda: So we’ve got a big website, amandacromhout.com or blindloyalty.co.za, Blind Loyalty being the Trust, the Blind Loyalty Trust, or Instagram amandacromhout or LinkedIn.

Amanda: So any of the above, I’ll respond.

Charlie: Wonderful.

Charlie: And we’ll pop all those links in the show notes as well, for anybody that just wants to kind of click straight through.

Charlie: So all that’s left for me to do is to say thank you so much.

Charlie: What a fabulous episode, a brilliant, brilliant study, some fantastic book recommendations, and a really lovely kind of snapshot of what loyalty looks like in South Africa.

Charlie: What a great market.

Charlie: Thank you for the episode today.

Amanda: Thanks, Charlie.

Amanda: Always a pleasure to chat to you.

Amanda: Thank you.

Paula: This show is sponsored by Wise Marketer Group, publisher of The Wise Marketer, the premier digital customer loyalty marketing resource for industry relevant news, insights, and research.

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