#370: Loyalty Insights from Poland (Short Summary Show)

Paula: Welcome to Lets Talk Loyalty, an Industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals. I’m Paula Thomas, the founder of Lets 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.

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Tom: Hi, I’m Tom Peace, managing director of the Loyalty People. I’m presenter of. Let’s Talk A Little Loyalty. Welcome to this week’s short summary show. On behalf of Let’s Talk Loyalty, this week my let’s Talk a little loyalty podcast showcases Paula’s interview with Tomasz Makaruk, CEO of i360. Tomasz is an amazing guy with a wealth of experience in loyalty marketing.

Tomasz is also a Harvard scholar with a PhD in marketing and creates a variety of blogs and other expert opinion, which you can find primarily on the I 360 website. You could say that to lives and breathes loyalty. The Polish loyalty market is a fascinating environment with around 130 different programs.

There is one major coalition partner called Payback with 10 program partners involved, and a myriad of other programs all fighting for attention. It’s a very congested marketplace. Presently, the majority of programs are points based or offer driven, but there is an emerging trend towards cashback style programs, which is the most dynamic segment of loyalty in Poland.

Poland has very successful programs, especially in retail and travel, but it is very interesting to hear that Poland also has a lot of program closures, perhaps because of the congested nature of the loyalty space there. According to Teash, one of the main reasons for program closure is actually economic challenges where brands exit the market or close business, or interestingly grow so quickly that loyalty is viewed as a cost and not an investment.

Tomasz is research also shows that the younger generation are highly engaged with loyalty, with the highest penetration rates recorded in the youngest part of the population. 85% of university graduates are members of at least one program. This is interesting because it’s not the case in other parts of the world where program penetration is down overall, and especially in the younger demographic.

Tomasz goes on to explain that discount based programs and reward catalogs are still very popular in Poland, and this is driven mainly by the fact that although Poland is growing economically, the individual purchase power of the population is still relatively low. The average income is circa $1,300, roughly a fifth of that in the us.

For this reason, programs have evolved to give strong value back to the customer and the most valuable programs thrive. Many programs have a product catalog of products that can be redeemed to points, and although in recent years this has been digitized, it is still a very popular mechanic. The last point I’d like to highlight from Tam’s interview is that the Polish market is very digitally savvy.

Perhaps this is driven by the proliferation of programs so that it is vital to have a strong digital customer experience. 74% of polls engage with the loyalty program through a digital solution, which is far higher than other countries. And as a nation, they are very tech savvy. There are some very interesting trends in this interview from a highly evolved loyalty marketplace.

I’d highly recommend listening to the main show, which can be found at www dot let’s talk loyalty.com, and first added on the 16th of February, 2022. Episode number 1 97. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoyed my summary Show all the best and speak 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 has 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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