外部市场调查out-market-research

引言

无论大小公司都必须开展市场调研才能想出一个有效的营销策略。市场调查目的就是研究顾客购买习惯和收集市场信息。他们找到信息然后分析确定客户的期望。市场调查是必要的,因为公司机构的目标应该是以市场为导向,满足客户的需求。
满足客户的愿望和需求营销导向同时也会给公司带来改变。这意味着他们可以应对外部因素和市场变化，比如消费者支出模式的变化等。对于一个企业来说，如果他们以营销为导向,开展相应的市场调研,确定目标市场的需求，那么建立一个良好的营销策略是很容易的。
 
Chapter 1
Introduction

It is necessary for organizations to carry out market research before they can come up with a good quality marketing strategy no matter how big or small the company is. Market research is when an organization studies their customers buying habits and gathers information about the market. The information they find is then analysed to determine the expectations of customers. Market research is necessary because organizations should aim to be marketing orientated and meet the wants and needs of their customers.
 
As well as meeting the wants and needs of customers marketing orientated companies welcome change. This means they can react to external factors and changes in the market like changes in consumer spending patterns. It is a lot easier for an organization to put together a good marketing strategy if they are marketing orientated and have carried out the appropriate market research to identify the wants and needs of their target market. It is essential for an organization to satisfy its customers. Meeting customer needs will improve the organizations reputation amongst its customers which will result in a higher profit and could make potentially make customers loyal to the brand.
 
In 1995 Tesco introduced there Clubcard. This was the first customer loyalty card introduced in the UK and there are now 13 million Clubcard members. (MIS Quarterly Executive Vol.8 No.2/June 2009, Leveraging Multichannel retailing: the experience of Tesco.com)
 
Loyalty programs are not just used by companies to offer benefits to regular shoppers and reward customers for their loyalty. Every time a customer uses their loyalty card in store organizations record what products that customer has purchased to find out their specific wants and needs. If the research shows that a product is more popular with customers in a certain area then an organization could introduce offers to meet customer needs. Therefore loyalty programs are used as a form of market research.
 
The majority of major retailers in the UK now offer loyalty programs. Therefore the purpose of this research is to examine the benefits and drawbacks of these programs to both organizations and customers to see weather actual loyalty can be obtained through one of these programs. There must be major benefits of Loyalty programs otherwise they would not be so popular. However not every organization like Asda does offer a loyalty program so the purpose of this research is to determine whether they are worth investing in.
 
If the majority of customers who shop in an organizations store own loyalty cards is the company able to process all of the information they have gathered. A loyalty card will also only show the retailer what a customer spends in their specific store and not their general buying habits. A customer may buy their weekly shopping in Tesco and use their Clubcard yet may buy meat from another supermarket or from a local butcher. If Tesco knew this they could introduce offers to encourage customers to buy meat in their store. The Clubcard however would not provide Tesco with this information. Despite this Tesco could use their Clubcard to identify changes in consumer buying patterns. A customer can however own as many loyalty cards as they want which means they can supply information to many different organizations.
 
When customers sign up to a loyalty program they have to provide name, address, age group and often email address allowing the organization to contact them regularly with offers. With this information the organization offering the scheme can understand what kind of person is buying certain products. This helps them segment the market and identify the target market for any product.
 
This research is important and of value because organizations will benefit from it if they are considering investing in a loyalty scheme. This research will also help companies understand the advantages and disadvantages of loyalty programs and identify ways they can make the most of the large amounts of data they gather from customers. This research will also be off interest to customers who have signed up to loyalty programs and people involved in business.
 
There are many aims and objectives of this research. The first aim is to understand what loyalty actually is and the importance of loyal customers. Is it actually possible for an organization to obtain loyalty with a customer? If so can this be achieved through one of these programmes? Also is it possible to measure just how loyal customers are?
 
The second aim is to study the history of loyalty cards and programs and find out which organizations along with Tesco where first to introduce loyalty cards and gain an understanding of how rapidly the trend has grown since both in the UK and internationally. This information will help organizations understand how loyalty cards became so popular with retailers.
 
The third aim of this research is to find examples of how the information gathered from customers using their loyalty card in store has benefited organizations when they determine their marketing strategy. This research will determine whether it is possible for a retailer to process all the information provided by loyalty programs considering how popular they are with customers. Is there any reason why a major retailer like Asda does not offer a loyalty program when a lot of its direct competitors do? This study will also help identify how organizations can benefit from loyalty kiosks.
 
The fourth aim of this research to understand whether loyalty programs really benefit customers or whether it's just organizations that get the main benefits. In a lot of cases customers have to spend a lot of money in the retailers store to gain loyalty points and money off products. Despite this organizations can use loyalty programs to determine which products are popular with customers and introduce offers. Therefore being part of a loyalty program could benefit the customer without them really realising it. This study will also help identify how customers can benefit from loyalty kiosks.
 
The final aim is to investigate the different types of loyalty programmes organizations offer and the advantages and disadvantages of the various programmes. This information will hopefully help organizations determine which type of loyalty scheme is most appropriate for them to invest in.
 
All the aims of this project will be achieved by gathering information obtained through secondary research. A large proportion of this research will be gathered from the academic journals. Research will also be gathered from relevant information found in books, articles, newspaper reports and case studies. Previous literature will be reviewed and critically analysed. After this the research methods will be described and results of this research will be discussed, analysed and related back to relevant theory shown in the literature review. The study will then be concluded showing any limitations. The main lessons learnt from this study will be described showing what future research should be conducted.
 
Chapter 2
文献综述 Literature Review

What is loyalty? Can it be purchased?
The word loyal is defined in the oxford English dictionary as being “true to obligations of duty and love” although it is hard to imagine the average consumer feels this way about the supermarket where they buy their groceries. (Uncles, Dowling and Hammond 2003) argue that it is not possible for a consumer to have an emotional attachment towards a brand of tomato soup.
 
Even if customers are not loyal many retailers may have their personal information stored in their computer database. (Rowley 2000) understands that it is very difficult for supermarket to encourage actual loyalty and claims that “the very technology that supports innovations such as loyalty cards may serve to undermine the concept of loyalty.”
 
Many people believe that true loyalty is not actually attainable through loyalty programs and that the main purpose of these programs is to provide management with information. (Jenkinson 1995) strongly believes this and claims that:
 
“The customer's loyalty is simply not for sale. It cannot be bought for ever by company's ordeals. Real brand loyalty results from an emotional bond created by trust, dialogue, frequency, ease of use and a sense of value and added satisfaction. Loyalty is the reflection of a customer's subconscious emotional and psychological need to find a constant source of value, satisfaction and identity.”
 
(Jenkinson 1995) does make a valid point but it is still possible to obtain loyalty through loyalty programs it's just not very easy. (Stone et al 2004) believe that customers are unlucky to become loyal to an organization just from being part of one of these schemes. However they understand that a scheme could produce information that could help an organization find ways to offer suitable rewards to meet the needs of customers which is likely to lead to loyalty amongst customers. (O'Brien and Jones 1995) extend this theory and understand that the only way an organization can obtain loyalty through a loyalty programme is if the organization offers rewards that are of value to the customer. They claim there are 5 elements that determine value. (see appendix)
 
Even though loyalty can be obtained through loyalty programmes it is necessary that every employee at the organization is fully committed to the program. Therefore as well as any initial financial investment there also needs to be an investment in staff training when an organization introduces a loyalty card. (Omar 1999) understands this and believes that a loyalty program will not be successful unless everyone within the organization is committed. This includes the cashier who simply smiles and asks a customer if they own a loyalty card. (O'Conner 1996) shares this opinion and understands that customers will come back to a store and become loyal customers if employees are friendly.
 
As well as being fully committed to their loyalty program organizations need to be sure that customers are not just signing up to their loyalty program just for the sake of it. (Omar 1999) understands that some customers may sign up to a loyalty scheme just to get the discounts and may not be actually loyal to the organization. It is important that Organizations are aware of this when starting up a loyalty program.
 
Even though (O'Brien and Jones 1995) have already shown that an organization can obtain loyalty through a loyalty programme if they offer rewards that are of value to the customer there are also many other factors that can affect how loyal customers are. (Wright and Sparks 1999) have identified that it is possible to achieve customer loyalty through a number of means. This includes where the store is located and how easy it is to access. Also the loyalty of customers very much depends on the quality and price of the goods being sold.
 
(Bellizi and Bristol 2004) understand that a consumer that is part of a lot of loyalty schemes is more likely to be affected by other factors and judge a supermarket on the speed of its checkout lines and it's variety of fresh produce. (Gounaris and Stathakopoulos 2004) extend this theory and suggest that customer loyalty is something that can be influenced by a combination of 3 factors. These are the reputation of the brand and the amount of choice available in the market, social influences and recommendations from peers and the degree of risk aversion from the consumer themselves.
 
According to them these influences can create four types of loyalty:
 
缺乏忠诚度 No loyalty

Covetous loyalty: This is when a consumer has a strong attachment to a brand possible due to social influences yet there is no purchase. Many customers may be interested in premium brand products but choose to buy a less expensive alternative to save money.
Inertia loyalty: This is when a customer purchases a certain brand due to habit or convenience but has no emotional attachment to the brand itself. A customer may choose one supermarket over another simply because it is closer.
Premium loyalty: This is what every organization should aim for. It is when a customer regularly buys a company's products due to a high attachment to the brand.
However customer loyalty is obtained it is important not to under estimate the value of having loyalty customers. Every organization should be aiming to encourage loyalty. (Omar 1999) understands the importance of customer loyalty and points out that a store is likely to be unsuccessful without loyal customers because they are likely to buy more products and will be willing to pay more. They are also more likely to recommend the organization to friends and family which will bring in new customers.
 
Organizations usually have to spend a lot of money on promotions to try and attract new customers to a business. It costs a less money for an organization to obtain customers then it does to attract new ones. Also once customers are loyal to an organization they are less likely to be interested in the promotions other companies are offering. (Christopher and McDonald 1995) therefore understand that by retaining customers an organization could stop new companies from wanting to enter the market. (Halowell 1996) has also found evidence to show that there is a definite connection between the loyalty of customers and the amount of profit an organization makes.
 
(Oliver 1997) correctly sums up customer loyalty by defining it as.
 
“A deeply held commitment to re buy or re patronize a preferred product/service consistently in the future, thereby causing repetitive same-brand or same brand-set purchasing despite situational influences and marketing efforts having the potential to cause switching behaviour.”
 
(Whyte 2004) suggests that loyalty programmers may just create customer loyalty for short amount of time that may not result in full commitment. This however isn't true because there are major differences between loyalty schemes and incentive schemes. (Hirshman and Goldstucker 1978) understand that loyalty programs are more long term and can help an organization improve its reputation amongst customers and establish a relationship. This is definitely true as general incentive schemes are likely to be short term promotions or offers to make customers interested in a specific product or just to draw their attention to the brand.
 
Loyalty programmes are therefore a lot more expensive to run then simple incentive schemes but a lot more beneficial at the same time. Loyalty schemes can even help organizations come up with appropriate short term offers and promotions which can be directly issued to the target market. (O'Conner 1996) has identified that incentive schemes are usually a final resort for organizations if their loyalty scheme fails.
 
Even though (O'Brien and Jones 1995) have already shown that an organization can obtain loyalty through a loyalty programme if they offer rewards that are of value to the customer it is still very difficult for an organization to measure how loyal its customers are. (Omar 1999) identifies that Store loyalty is a function of customer satisfaction. This is definitely true as satisfied customers are more likely to keep coming back to the store and become loyal customers. However (Omar 1999) goes on to suggest that a number of variables can be used to determine how loyal a retailers customers are. (See appendix)
 
The variables listed above could definitely be used to measure the satisfaction of customers. Despite this customers may appear to be satisfied and still decide to shop somewhere else if they are attracted by promotion. Therefore it is very difficult for an organization to measure actual levels of loyalty.
 
忠诚计划的历史和忠诚卡 The History of Loyalty programs and Loyalty cards
Organizations have been aiming to encourage customer loyalty for a long time and the introduction of loyalty cards has definitely helped them achieve this goal. Loyalty cards are now very popular both in the UK and internationally. (Sharp and Sharp 1997) have identified that since loyalty cards have been introduced, they have been used effectively by organizations to increase levels of satisfaction amongst customers. Further research will be conducted to show examples of this.
 
Today the majority of retailers now offer loyalty schemes. (Rowley 2007) is aware of the popularity of Loyalty schemes and identified that they are now “an established feature of the retail and services landscape.” (Uncles, Dowling and Hammond 2003) suggested that competitors are likely to copy a loyalty scheme if it appears to be successful. This seems fairly understandable as organizations are often influenced by the activities of the competition. O'Malley (1998) realises that there is a chance customers may begin to expect a reward every time they visit a store as loyalty cards have led to them being bombarded with promotions and money off vouchers for products they regularly buy.
 
The above literature suggests that the introduction of loyalty cards is the only reason for organizations being so obsessed with obtaining the loyalty of customers. It is obviously a major factor but (Omar 1999) has identified that loyalty schemes have been growing in popularity for a lot longer than this and suggests that “such a remarkable shift to loyalty-building activity has been made possible because the cost of recruiting each consumer into a loyalty scheme has fallen substantially in real terms since the early 1970s.”
 
(Omar 1999) also believes that the popularity of loyalty schemes may lead to their downfall by understanding that the majority of loyalty schemes are now run in pretty much the same way. He is therefore able to identify that the differentiation these schemes provided when they first became popular is slowly being lost. This could well be the reason why Asda have chosen not to invest in loyalty scheme even though the majority of their direct competitors have.
 
(Omar 1999) even suggests that: “loyalty cards could start a more sophisticated round of mark-down wars which held the high street stores to ransom in the late 1980's and early 1990's.” However this seems unlikely.
 
忠诚项目为何有利于公司 How loyalty programs benefit the organization:
(Walters and Hanrahan 2000) have been able to identify the numerous benefits for organizations that use loyalty programmes to store the purchasing details of their customers. Loyalty schemes can help an organization decide where it places its products and how they allocate their space in store. They can also use the information they have stored in a database to introduce in store promotions and offers on products where they have identified interest from customers. Loyalty programmes can also more importantly help an organization find out who its target market is.
 
Tesco have had a lot of success since launching their very successful Clubcard scheme. (Uncles, Dowling and Hammond 2003) have identified that Tesco have been able to use their Clubcard to aid brand extension. Tesco have definitely shown that they understand the importance of customer loyalty. (Turner and Wilson 2006) were however able to identify Clubcard is not the only reason for Tesco's loyal customers and major market growth.
 
It is necessary for an organization to know who its target market is and offer rewards to the right customers. (O'Brien and Jones 1995) understand that it is important for organizations to consider the value of their customers. If they fail to do this an organization may waste time and money satisfying the customers of less value whilst the greater value customers are not satisfied and loose loyalty as a result. An article by (Media Week 2009) suggested that loyalty schemes with the most members may not be the most successful ones. The article described how “today's loyalty efforts are more concerned with the quality of membership and not just the quality.” This makes sense as organizations are aiming to obtain loyalty and therefore don't just want customers to sign up for loyalty schemes just to get the discounts.
 
It is still difficult to understand how a retailer is able to process all the information provided by loyalty cards considering how popular they are with customers. (Uncles, Dowling and Hammond 2003) identify that a popular loyalty scheme is likely to gather a lot of unnecessary data which is of no use to anyone. (Omar 1999) therefore suggests that “any loyalty scheme must be driven by a database to ensure that it adds a significant new element rather than being simply another promotional activity.” (Omar 1999) makes a very valid point although organizations are still dealing with a very large amount of information..
 
Loyalty cards have become increasingly popular within the last few years due to advances in technology like the growth in computer memory capacity (O'Connor 1996) believes that it is therefore now possible for an organization to track, identify and respond to the buying behaviour of customers. Also with this information a retailer can contact customers through direct mailing.
 
(Passingham 1996) argues that not all customers who shop in a retailers store will sign up to a loyalty scheme so some of the data that is being stored may be inaccurate. Loyalty schemes also don't provide retailers with information about customer buying habits outside of that specific store. However a large proportion of regularly shoppers are likely to be part of the organizations loyalty scheme so this is unlikely to be a serious concern of organizations as they will still be able to get an overview of the buying habits of specific groups of customers.
 
One of the main reasons that customers may refuse to sign up to a loyalty scheme is because they are worried that the organization may give out their personal information to third parties. (Sarathy and Robertson 2003) have identified that customers may be concerned about their privacy when it comes to loyalty schemes due to recent corporate mismanagement scandals. However customers will be less likely to worry about this if they are attracted to the rewards being offered by the scheme.
 
The following research by (Schriver 1997) which was carried out just as loyalty cards were becoming popular in the UK. He was able to identify 6 factors that surprisingly made consumers less loyal today than in the past. He also identified that the 6 factors can increase consumer doubt leading to more complaints and a lower level of loyalty as well as greater price sensitivity.
 
How loyalty programs benefit customers
(Potter 1998) identifies that customer's deserve to be treated well by organizations. This is true as they are unlikely to come back and re visit a store if the experience they received was not a pleasurable one.
 
It is clear that loyalty cards benefit organizations but how much do they benefit customers. (Schultz and Bailey, 2000) believe the rewards that customer receive are simply given to them as compensation for the information they provide. This section proves that this is not entirely correct and that loyalty programs can benefit customers. Despite this (Uncles, Dowling and Hammond 2003) have identified that the main reason organizations invest in loyalty schemes is because they expect the program to benefit them. This is because the main aim of any business is to make a profit and being marketing orientated and meeting the needs of customers is the main way of achieving this aim
 
Rowley (2000) has identified that loyalty style kiosks are becoming an increasingly popular way for organization to encourage loyalty amongst customers in the USA. She describes how the kiosks themselves are placed at the front of stores and she is able to identify that they offer a lot more benefits then simple promotional leaflets. By offering one of these kiosks organizations are therefore likely to increase the satisfaction of their customers. This is because they are likely to feel valued as they get to choose their rewards instead simply being given a voucher they could potentially discard. Omar (1999) has already identified that loyalty is function of customer satisfaction.
 
Despite customers receiving points every time they use their card in store (Omar 1999) believes that a number of schemes are purely set up to provide retailers with a database so that they can advertise their products directly to customers via emails. This is definitely a valid opinion. Therefore research will be carried out to find examples of how organizations have used their schemes in order to contact target groups of customers directly.
 
If customers don't benefit from an organizations loyalty scheme the business is unlikely to be successful (Dowling and Uncles 1997) point out that this may make customers frustrated resulting in them losing loyalty.
 
忠诚项目的不同种类 Different types of Loyalty Programs:

There are many different types of loyalty programmes which can be used by organizations offering a wide variety of products and services. There is no single type of loyalty programme that is guaranteed to be successful. A study from (Wanswink 2003) showed that brand managers believe that all loyalty programmes can have an impact on the buying behaviour of customers. The study also showed that the most cost-effective loyalty programmes were the low and moderate ones.
 
However another study by (Gordan and Mckeage 1997) showed that loyalty programmes are more likely to be successful if the organization is offering a product or service that the customer considers to be high involvement because of the financial, social and physical risk involved.
 
American express also offer a club yet they charge a fee to join. Although this could prevent customers from joining the loyalty programme (Shiffman and Kanuk 2007) can see a benefit of this by suggesting that “this increases the customer's investment in the relationship which may lead to greater commitment and increased usage loyalty”
 
Some companies reward loyal customers by giving them points so they can gain more goods or services from the organization. This kind of point system is very popular with hotel chains and airlines. (Shiffman and Kanuk 2007) believe that this could act as an exit barrier because customers would have to give up the points if they started a new relationship.
 
Chapter 3
方法 Methodology

Now that the relevant literature has been reviewed further research has been conducted to examine the benefits and drawbacks of loyalty programs to both organizations and customers. The purpose of this research was too help organizations who offer loyalty cards identify ways in which they can make the most of the information they gather whilst benefiting organizations that don't currently offer a scheme by helping them identify if loyalty schemes are beneficial or not. Customers who are part of loyalty programs and people involved in business will also benefit from this research.
 
Several aims and objectives of this research were established before the research was carried out. The first aim was to find out what loyalty actually is and whether actual loyalty can be obtained through a loyalty scheme. After this the history of loyalty cards and loyalty programs were researched to identify how rapidly the trend grew in the UK and internationally. This was followed by research into the benefits of loyalty programs for both organizations and customers and research into the different types of loyalty programs in which customers can sign up for.
 
In the end all research that was conducted was secondary and not primary. This was partly due to insufficient funds as it would cost a lot of money and take a lot of time to arrange interviews with members of the major organizations that were studied. There were also plans to hand out questioners to people in supermarkets although these never went ahead due to ethical reasons. Despite there being some limitations of this study all the information found from the secondary research did relate to the aims and objectives and therefore will be of benefit to the reader.
 
The research process consisted of examining several articles, various figures and company websites in order to achieve the aims and objectives. The majority of this research was taken from journals, newspaper articles and from The Grocer magazine. A number of case studies were also examined during the research process.
 
An article in the Grocer from the 18th April 2008 entitled “Service with a smile” was examined because it described some of the various ways organizations could encourage loyalty amongst customers. However one of the main purposes of this research was to identify if loyalty can be obtained through loyalty schemes. Are loyalty schemes able to reach large groups of shoppers? Another article in The Grocer from the 6th February 2010 entitled “retailers need to work harder to increase loyalty card appeal” was examined in order to answer this question.
 
Research was conducted to find out how many loyalty cards are currently in operation in the UK and internationally. This will help gain an understanding of how rapidly loyalty schemes have grown in popularity over the last 15 years. A number of sources where found which featured sections that showed exactly how popular loyalty schemes were on a national and global basis in different years and the relevant figures are shown and analysed in the results section.
 
One of the sources used is an article from (University Of Minnesota 2009) entitled Leveraging Multichannel Retailing: The experience of Tesco.com which describes how Tesco have grown to dominate the UK market. Figures were also taken from a case study in a book by Omar (1999) entitled Retail Marketing. An article from Media Week entitled “the brave new world of loyalty marketing” featured results from a state by state analysis by the COLLOQUY Loyalty Census which describes the popularity of loyalty cards on a global scale and by how much this has increased since 2007.
 
Several major organizations were researched to find out which loyalty schemes had been successful and the reasons for this. Most major organizations now offer a loyalty program. How do independent retailers encourage loyalty? An article in the Grocer from the 5th February 2010 entitled “Independent chains seek to win loyalty with card schemes” helped to answer this question.
 
Organizations value the customer's loyalty and their purchasing activity data. However a lot of money is spent on loyalty schemes and therefore research was carried to find out whether loyalty schemes are worth investing in. An article from the BBC written on the 17th February 2003 entitled “The cost of Nectar loyalty” explains why this may not be the case. Dispute this many organizations have benefit from loyalty schemes and Tesco is definitely an example of this.
 
A lot of research was therefore based around Tesco as they currently dominate the UK market. Page 17 of the Walters D, Hanarahan J (2000) book entitled Retail Strategy described some of the major benefits loyalty club members at Tesco receive. The article by the (University of Minnesota 2009) was also examined again because it described why Tesco had been so successful. Page 94 of this article described how Tesco were able to manage customer relations and use their ClubCard to aid direct marketing.
 
Why Asda do not offer a loyalty scheme? The answer to this question can be found in the results section. The answer was taken from an article in the Grocer from the 7th November 2009 entitled “Why Asda rejected launching its own loyalty card scheme” explains exactly why. However another article in the Grocer from the 20th February 2010 entitled “Is Asda paying the price for not joining the loyalty club? Suggests reasons why this decision made by Asda may have been a mistake
Asda are owned by Wal-Mart which is a major American retailer who currently has the 2nd largest database in the US behind the US government. Therefore it was important to understand whether they were able to process so much data. Page 240 of the Shifman L and Kanuk L (2007) book consumer behaviour provides an example of how they have benefited from this data.
 
Research was also carried out on Sainsbury's who are currently part of the Nectar loyalty program. An article in the Grocer from the 10th February 2010 entitled “Sainsbury's hails Nectar as number one loyalty card” describes how the number of people signed up to the program has grown within the last year. It was also important to understand how Sainsbury's have used the information their loyalty scheme has provided to meet customer wants and needs and how this differentiates from Tesco's approach. Another Article in the Grocer from the 28th September 2009 entitled “Sainsbury's coupon scheme to hit back at Clubcard” was therefore examined. Research was carried out on Nectar and a report in the Daily Telegraph published on the 11th may 2009 entitled “Nectar finances hit by its own success” was examined.
 
There are several different types of loyalty programs and it's not only loyalty card providers that benefit from information provided by customers. A case study from (Brook 2004) was examined which revealed how data recorded at the box office can help arts venues gain an understanding of the behaviour of their customers. In 2009 WH Smith replaced there long running Club Card with an email focused loyalty scheme. .A report from brand republic written on the 18th August 2008 entitled
 
“ WH Smith replaces Clubcard with email focused loyalty scheme” explains the reasons for this change which can be found in the results section.
Another main aim of this research was to find out if customers benefit from loyalty schemes. An article from the BBC on 8th February 2010 entitled “Who wins with supermarket loyalty cards?” describes how organizations get the main benefits from loyalty schemes and provides examples of this which are shown in the results section.
Despite this it's is important not to discard the opinions of customers. Therefore research was conducted to see what they really think about loyalty schemes. A study by (Turner and Wilson 2006) showed how many Club Card owners enjoyed the returns of the program. The same study also showed how many Club Card members where loyal to Tesco. The COLLOQUY Loyalty Census study in the article from Media Week also showed identified people's attitudes to loyalty schemes and whether they believed loyalty programs were more important during the recession. Figures from these studies are shown in the results section. Research was also conducted to identify weather customer make the most of loyalty schemes. An article in the Grocer from the 18th June 2007 entitled “Shoppers discard discount vouchers” was therefore examined.
 
Some customers are unsure about signing up to loyalty schemes as they don't trust organizations with their personal information and consider them to be an invasion of privacy. Therefore research was conducted and an article from the BBC written on the 19th November 2004 was studied entitled “do loyalty cards invade our privacy.”
 
It is widely believed that both organizations and customers can benefit from loyalty kiosks. Research was therefore conducted to try and gain a further understanding of how loyalty kiosks work and how useful they are. A Journal by Rowley (2000) entitled “loyalty kiosks: making loyalty cards work” explains the process customers at Sainsbury's go through when using loyalty kiosks to obtain rewards and also shows a typical sequence of rewards that customers may be offered. Another article was found from the wise marketer written on the 4th November 2008 entitled “How loyalty kiosks can help retail relationships”. This article was examined because it described ways in which organizations can benefit from loyalty kiosks.
 
Chapter 4
结果分析 Results and Analysis

Can loyalty be obtained?
There are many theories that suggest it is possible for an organization to obtain customer loyalty through a loyalty scheme. However there are also a lot that suggest that customer loyalty simply cannot be bought. (Wright and Sparks 1999) suggest that there are a number of factors that affect the loyalty of customers. An article in the Grocer from the 18th April 2008 entitled “Service with a smile” supports this theory suggesting that organizations can improve customer loyalty by offering a variety of in-store services. “From bill payments to dry- cleaning, ATMs to book exchanges, by offering your customers reasons to pop in to your store other than to top up on the usual grocery lines, you're bound to notice an increase in profits.”
 
The article therefore proves that it is possible for an organization to obtain loyalty by making the customers experience more pleasurable. Despite this further research needed to be conducted to find out whether an organization could obtain a customer's loyalty through a loyalty scheme. An article in The Grocer from the 6th February 2010 entitled “retailers need to work harder to increase loyalty card appeal” suggested that not all shoppers are using loyalty cards when they make purchases. This trend occurred with young men and people who use baskets. "Often shoppers are also worried about holding up the queue. Supermarkets need to make the process easier, simpler and faster in order to encourage shoppers to use loyalty cards more."
 
The article did however prove that organizations can obtain loyalty through loyalty schemes by describing how customers with loyalty cards visited the stores more regularly and spent on average 25.7% more every time they visited. However one limitation of this study is that it is difficult to establish weather this is actual emotional loyalty or what (Gounaris and Stathakopoulos 2004) identify as Inertia loyalty. This is when a customer's always visits a specific store due to habit or convenience. Therefore this study failed to identify weather it is actually possible to measure how loyal customers are.
 
A study by (Turner and Wilson 2006) showed that 70% of Club Card owners said that they were loyal to Tesco. This supports (O'Brien and Jones 1995) theory that it is possible for an organization to obtain actual loyalty providing they offer rewards that are of value to the customer. It is also vital that every employee within the organization is fully committed to the program. Another limitation of this study is that due to lack of contact with customers it was impossible to determine whether customers who were part of loyalty schemes with other stores felt this same level of loyalty.
 
The History of Loyalty Cards and Programs and how the trend has become more popular
A case study from a book by Omar (1990) entitled Retail Marketing described how Tesco were the first UK retailer to introduce and Loyalty card in 1995 and showed that by 1999 just 4 years later there were an estimated 40 million loyalty cards in circulation in the UK. This shows that the trend of storing the buying habits of customers grew rapidly.
 
(Uncles, Dowling and Hammond 2003) suggested that competitors are likely to copy a loyalty scheme if it appears to be successful which is exactly what happened. However another limitation of this study is that it was impossible to arrange interviews with managers of major retailers. This made it difficult to identify the intentions of organizations when they first launched their loyalty schemes.
 
The Majority of UK retailers now offer loyalty schemes. A study on Tesco by the (University Of Minnesota 2009) revealed that there are now 13 million Tesco Clubcards in circulation. This study was carried out in June and since then the figure is likely to have increased as customers will be looking for ways to save money in the current economic climate.
 
Since launching their Clubcard it is clear that Tesco have had a lot of success as they have grown to dominate the UK market. Until recently the Clubcard was still the number one loyalty card in the UK. However a recent article in the Grocer from the 10th February 2010 entitled “Sainsbury's hails Nectar as number one loyaltycard” suggested that due to a major investment the Nectar card has now become more popular then the Tesco Clubcard with 16.8 million members. “Over one million new Nectar card holders have signed up in the past 12 months alone to take advantage of the benefits.”
 
Loyalty programs are not just popular in the UK. An article from Media week entitled “the brave new world of loyalty marketing” featured results of a study by the COLLOQUAY Loyalty Census Showed. This showed that globally 1,807 billion people were part of a loyalty program in 2009 showing a 24% increase from 2007.
 
The study also showed that loyalty scheme's have now become much more popular with young adults from 18-25. 58% of young adults are now open to loyalty schemes and are happy to receive any promotions or offers aided from these schemes that may benefit them. This figure is 32% higher than the amount shown when the same study was conducted in 2007. This proves that the popularity of these schemes is growing rapidly especially amongst young people. It was however difficult to find any current figures on popularity of loyalty schemes in and other countries around the world.
 
All the above data proves that the amount of loyalty cards in circulation has dramatically increased over the last few years both in the UK and internationally. O'Malley (1998) was therefore right to suggest there is a chance customers may begin to expect a reward every time they visit a store.
 
How loyalty programs benefit organizations
Until recently the Tesco ClubCard scheme was by far the most successful loyalty scheme in the UK since its launch in 1995. An article from (University of Minnesota 2009) entitled Leveraging Multichannel Retailing: The experience of Tesco.com describes how Tesco have grown to dominate the UK market. Page 19 of the article explained how Tesco had used their loyalty Scheme to aid direct marketing. When Tesco launched their pet insurance they were able to segment the market and promote this insurance to customers that had recently purchased cat litter and dog food.
 
This evidence supports (O'Conner's 1996) view that it is now possible to track, identify and respond to the buying behaviour of customers. It also shows that retailers like Tesco can definitely use the vast amount of data provided by loyalty schemes to their advantage.
 
Sainsbury's have not been as successful as Tesco with their loyalty scheme. However an article in the Grocer from the 28th September 2009 entitled “Sainsbury's coupon scheme to hit back at Clubcard” explained how Sainsbury's had recently responded to the Club Card and made their biggest investment in customer loyalty since 2002 by offering customers coupons at the till based on past purchases taking full advantage of the Nectar Card database.
 
It has already been identified that in February 2010 a few months later the Necter card had overtaken the Tesco Club card as the UK's most popular loyalty card. This therefore proves that the multi million pound re launch brought Sainsbury's success and that loyalty schemes are worth investing in.
 
Despite this a report in the Daily Telegraph on the 11th may 2009 entitled “Nectar finances hit by its own success” showed that Nectar had made a £28.5 million loss due to customers not cashing in on points earned in the stores that are part of the Nectar group. As well as Sainsbury's, Homebase, Argos and Amazon are also part of the Nectar group.
 
Not all organizations have benefited from loyalty schemes. An article from the BBC written on the 17th February 2003 entitled “The cost of Nectar loyalty” explains why loyalty schemes may not be worth investing in. Simon Walker a KMCG consulting partner believes that loyalty schemes are expensive to run because it costs a lot of money to maintain databases, mail customers and issue cards. He suggested that "The benefits of the loyalty card are treats which seem less important during a downturn when people want low prices not prizes." Therefore organizations like Asda may have made a wise decision when deciding not to invest in a loyalty scheme.
 
Asda is one of the only major retailers in the UK that doesn't offer a loyalty scheme. The lack of appropriate contacts made it impossible to arrange an interview with anyone at Asda. However an article in the Grocer on the 7th November 2009 entitled “Why Asdarejected launching its own loyaltycard scheme”explains that Asda did consider a loyalty scheme but they did not feel that the change in both cost and strategy could be justified. The article suggests that the organization rewarded every customer regularly with low prices instead of just the customers that spend the most.
 
Asda CEO Andy Bond stated that "You can't buy loyalty with plastic points," The article supports (Omar's 1999) view that the differentiation these schemes provided when they first became popular is slowly being lost. The article also supports his view that some customers may just be signing up to loyalty schemes purely to get the discounts. Despite this the article does point out that Tesco's rise to success in the 1990's was partly due to their Clubcard.
 
Another article in the Grocer on the 20th February 2010 entitled “Is Asda paying the price for not joining the loyalty club?” Identifies that Asda's decision may have been a mistake. Asda's market share dropped over the festive whilst Club card activity helped Tesco increase sales and the Necter card become the number one loyalty card in the UK. This may perhaps encourage Asda to invest in a loyalty scheme.
 
Asda are owned by Wal-Mart which is a major American retailer who currently has the 2nd largest database in the US behind the US government. (Uncles, Dowling and Hammond 2003) identify that a scheme with millions of active members is likely to gather a lot of unnecessary data. Despite this Page 240 of the Shifman L and Kanuk L (2007) book Consumer Behaviour described how Wal-Mart decided to place beer next to nappies in one of their stores when they found a lot of customers who bought nappies also bought beer. This is an example of where they have been able to put their large database to good use. This also supports (Omar's 1999) view that “any loyalty scheme must be driven by a database to ensure that it adds a significant new element rather than being simply another promotional activity.”
 
It is widely believed that organizations get more benefits from loyalty kiosks then simple promotional leaflets. An article from the wise marketer written on the 4th November 2008 entitled “How loyalty kiosks can help retail relationships”. Describes the reasons for this and the ways in which organizations can benefit from these kiosks. By offering a loyalty kiosk an organization can find out the identity of the loyalty card holder straight away whilst freeing up customer service operatives and enabling card replacements if a customer loses their loyalty card.
 
The Article also identifies that processing paper enrolments can cost a lot of money and can sometimes be inaccurate as the person processing the enrolments may make a mistake. “Loyalty programme sign-up kiosks can help retail marketers to plan, establish, execute, and maintain a loyalty programme that's easy for consumers to join and use, and simple and affordable to manage and operate.”
 
There is enough evidence to suggest that organizations can benefit from loyalty programs despite them being expensive to run. This research has also identified that companies can definitely benefit more from loyalty kiosks.
 
How loyalty programs benefit customers
One of the main ways of establishing weather loyalty programs benefit customers is by gaining an understanding of the opinions of customers. Despite not being able to talk to real customers face to face it is likely that a typical customer will constantly be searching for value for money due to the current economic climate. The COLLOQUY Loyalty Census study in the article by MediaWeek showed that 27% of young adults aged between 18 and 25 were seeking to join loyalty schemes during the recession to help improve their financial situation. However in reality the budgets of young adults may not be significantly stretched during the recession. Therefore they are unlikely to be benefiting as much from these schemes as they think they are.
 
A study by (Turner and Wilson 2006) showed that 85% of Club Card owners were satisfied with the returns from the Club Card with 70% of Club Card owners being loyal to Tesco. This is however unlikely to be the case with every organization as a lot of loyalty schemes are more focused on providing the organization with data. Page 17 of the Walters D, Hanarahan J (2000) book entitled Retail Strategy described some of the benefits loyalty club members at Tesco received. (See appendix)
 
It is clear to see that Clubcard members are treated extremely well and provided with a number of benefits that are not available with other loyalty schemes. Tesco understand how important it is to meet customer wants and needs as loyalty is a function of customer satisfaction. This is probably why such a high percentage of Clubcard owners say they are loyal to the organization. This evidence supports (O'brian and Jones 1995) view that an organization can obtain loyalty through a loyalty programme is if the organization offers rewards that are of value to the customer.
 
Tesco have been very successful since launching their Clubcard and have grown to dominate the UK market. (Turner and Wilson 2006) were however able to identify Clubcard is not the sole reason for Tesco's loyal customers and major market growth and that a number of other factors have contributed towards this.
 
There are however several loyalty schemes that don't really benefit customers that much. An article from the BBC written on the 8th February 2010 entitled “Who wins with supermarket loyalty cards?” describes how organizations get the main benefits from loyalty schemes suggesting that customers need to buy a lot of products in order to get a meaningful discount. David Kuo of the Personal finance website The Motley Fool claimed that 80% of the profits made by supermarkets come from 20% of their customers. He suggested that "It puts the power back in the hands of the supermarkets,”
 
The article supports (Schultz and Bailey, 2000) view that the rewards that customer receive are simply given to them as compensation for the information they provide. It is understandable that organization should benefit from a loyalty scheme considering the amount of money they may have invested. However in order for a scheme to be successful it is important that customers have the perception that there are major benefits of being part of that program.
 
Not all customers make the most of the loyalty schemes they belong to. An article in the Grocer from the 18th June 2007 entitled “Shoppers discard discount vouchers” was examined. The article explained the results of a research study carried out by London-based JD Marketing on behalf of personalised marketing specialist Pay By Touch. 75% of people questioned said that they frequently forget to redeem coupons. The study also showed that customer's find carrying paper coupons around with them an inconvenience. 88% of people suggested that they would rather use a more convenient discount method such as a loyalty kiosk. This shows that loyalty kiosks benefit customers a lot more as well as benefiting organizations. It was therefore important to examine how loyalty kiosks benefit customers.
 
A Journal by Rowley (2000) entitled “loyalty kiosks: making loyalty cards work” describes the stages customers at Sainsbury's go through when using loyalty kiosks. (See appendix)
 
This shows that loyalty kiosks are very easy for customers to use meaning they are more likely to make most of these kiosks and benefit from them as a result. The journal also describes some of the possible rewards customers may get to choose from. (See appendix)
 
This shows that customers get to choose from a variety of rewards and can therefore find one that is appropriate. This proves that loyalty kiosks definitely benefit customers and as result are likely to increase there loyalty to a store. Lack of contact with customers made it impossible to establish exactly what customers think of these kiosks and this is perhaps something that should be examined more in depth.
 
Some customers are unsure about signing up to loyalty schemes as they don't trust organizations with their personal information and consider them to be an invasion of privacy. An article from the BBC written on the 19th November 2004 was studied entitled “do loyalty cards invade our privacy.” Within the article home secretary David Blunkett suggested that loyalty card's store a lot of personal information and compared them to the state ID cards that the government believes should be compulsory by 2013.
 
The article explains that loyalty schemes are voluntary, only store basic data and are governed by the 1988 Data Protection Act. Brain Sinclair Loyalty Management UK's client services director disagreed with David Blunkett's claim and explained that “Not only do we not collect information on what brand of toothpaste you're buying but to be honest, we don't care.” This therfore proves that even though loyalty scheme's may not perticually benifit customers that much they are unlikely to be an invasion of privacy.
 
The different types of Loyalty Programs
A lot of this study was based on loyatly card providers. However it is important to remember that there are many different types of loyalty schemes. A case study from (Brook 2004) has shown that data recorded at the box office through sales has helped arts venues gain an understanding of the behaviour of their customers. The study showed that 7% of households in the UK had attended performances including 30% in London. Despite this the results showed that there was an even spread of customers throughout most of the UK except in the highlands of Scotland. The arts venues could therefore use this information to aid direct marketing and try to encourage loyalty amongst customers.
 
Despite the success of the Tesco's Club Card and the Nectar card organizations may benefit more from other types of loyalty scheme's instead of just simply offering a loyalty card. In 2009 WH Smith replaced there long running Club Card with an email focused loyalty scheme. A report from brand republic written on the 18th August 2008 entitled“WH Smith replaces Clubcard with email focused loyalty scheme” explains that by offering an email focused loyalty scheme WH Smith's are now able to provide customers with extra benefits and more offers via email. WH Smith's will be hoping that this change will improve customer loyalty.
 
It's not only the major retailers that should be aiming to encourage loyalty amongst customers. Independent retailers will also want customers to visit their store on a regular basis. An article in the Grocer from the 5th February 2010 entitled “Independent chains seek to win loyalty with card schemes” describes how independent retailers are also beginning to introduce their own loyalty cards to obtain the loyalty of customers and compete with major organizations. However the article explains that there is currently only one Independent chain that runs its own loyalty scheme. This is Jempson's which runs four Budgens in Sussex. Since creating the scheme the organization has seen a 30% sales increase. This proves that it is not only major organizations that can benefit from offering a loyalty program. This may also encourage other independent retailers to introduce loyalty schemes.
 
The information above shows that when it comes to loyalty schemes there is not one type of scheme which is guaranteed to be successful. However a successful loyalty schemes requires a major financial investment and it is therefore vital that everyone within the organization is committed to that scheme.
 
Chapter 5
总结Conclusion

Can loyalty be obtained?
In conclusion it is definitely possible for an organization to obtain customer loyalty. Research has shown that Tesco have been able to use their Clubcard to encourage customer satisfaction and loyalty. However in most cases it is likely that this isn't actual emotional loyalty. Customers may always visit a specific store due to habit or convenience and may not be attached to the organization.
 
It was impossible to establish weather customer loyalty can be measured. Further research therefore needs to be conducted to identify whether customers can gain an emotional attachment to an organization or if the kind of loyalty they have towards a store is simply what (Gounaris and Stathakopoulos 2004) identify as Inertia loyalty.
 
Another major limitation of this study is that all research conducted was secondary. A lack of contact with customers made it difficult to indentify there true feelings and perceptions. The study by (Turner and Wilson 2006) was purely based around Tesco. This made it impossible to determine whether customers who were part of loyalty schemes with other stores felt this same level of loyalty
 
Research has also shown that organizations are much more likely to encourage loyalty amongst customers through a number of other means including convenience, location, quality and price. This is because not all customers are part of the loyalty scheme and some may frequently discard the vouchers they receive. It is therefore vital that organizations provide customers with a pleasurable experience as loyalty is a function of customer satisfaction.
 
The History of Loyalty Cards and Programs and how the trend has become more popular
Research has identified that the amount of loyalty cards in circulation in the UK has dramatically increased since Tesco first launched their Club card in 1995. Since then the majority of retailers in the UK have started introducing loyalty cards because they have recognised that storing the buying behaviour of customers in a database every time they visit the store will help them to introduce appropriate offers distributed through direct marketing that meet the wants' and needs of customers. Lack of contact with managers of major retailers made it impossible to identify the intentions of organizations when they first launched their loyalty schemes. Therefore further research needs to be conducted.
 
Research has shown that not all loyalty schemes are the same and different organizations are willing to invest different amounts into their loyalty schemes. Until recently the Clubcard was still the number one loyalty card in the UK. A major investment made by Sainsbury's paid off as the Nectar card recently became more popular with 16.8 million members.
 
Research has also indicated that the popularity of loyalty cards has increased internationally as well as in the UK. This is demonstrated by a 24% increase in loyalty card ownership on a global scale since 2007. The popularity of these schemes is growing rapidly amongst people of all ages especially young people.
 
Another limitation of this study is that it was impossible to find out the popularity of loyalty schemes in different individual countries around the world. Therefore further research needs to be conducted to identify this.
 
How loyalty programs benefit organizations
A large part of this study was based around the ways in which loyalty programs benefit organizations. A lot of research was based around Tesco as the Clubcard has been the number one loyalty card in the UK for several years. Research has shown that Tesco have been able to use their Clubcard to aid direct marketing. When they launched their pet insurance they were able to segment the market and promote this insurance to customers that had recently purchased cat litter and dog food.
 
During the recent festive period Clubcard activity helped Tesco increase sales and the Necter card became the number one loyalty card in the UK. This shows that loyalty programs can definitely benefit organizations. Asda therefore may be paying the price for not investing in a loyalty scheme. Research has also identified that companies can definitely benefit more from loyalty kiosks.
 
Even though the Nectar card recently became the number one loyalty card in the UK, not all customers are cashing in on points resulting in Nectar making a £28.5 million pound loss. Loyalty schemes are expensive to run and therefore may not benefit every organization. Asda do not offer a loyalty scheme as they would rather reward every customer with low prices.
 
Another limitation of this study is that lack of appropriate contacts made it impossible to arrange an interview with anyone at Asda. More research needs to be conducted to gain a further understanding into why Asda chose not to invest in a loyalty scheme when a lot of their direct competitors did.
 
How loyalty programs benefit customers
One major limitation of this study is that it was impossible to talk to real customers and hear their opinions on loyalty schemes. However secondary research was conducted into the various perks Clubcard owners receive and the opinions of customers. This research proved that customers do get some benefits from loyalty schemes. In order for a scheme to be successful customers need to have the perception that there are major benefits of being part of that program.
 
Research has also shown that some customers forget to redeem coupons. This means that they are not making the most of loyalty schemes. This is partly because they consider carrying paper coupons an inconvenience and would rather use a loyalty kiosk.

The results section describes how loyalty kiosks work and there main benefits. However it was impossible to establish exactly what customers think of these kiosks and this is perhaps something that should be examined more in depth.
 
The different types of Loyalty Programs
Research was conducted into the different types of loyalty programs in order to gain an understanding of how they work. In 2009 WH Smith replaced there long running Club Card with an email focused loyalty scheme to provide customers with extra benefits and more offers via email. During this study little research has been conducted into email focused loyalty schemes. Therefore the benefits and drawbacks of these schemes need to be research in more depth.
 
A case study from (Brook 2004) has shown that data recorded at the box office through sales has helped arts venues gain an understanding of the behaviour of their customers. Independently retailers have also benefited from loyalty schemes. Jempson's which runs four Budgens in Sussex saw a 30% sales increase due to their scheme.
 
This information proves that it is not only the major organizations that can benefit from offering a loyalty program. The research has also identified that any loyalty scheme can be successful providing it is implemented properly and employees are committed to that scheme.