engleski

The Influence of Marketing Instruments and Rewarding on Cardholders’ Behavior in Coalition Loyalty Programs

This thesis analyzes often advocated but rarely empirically investigated coalition loyalty programs ; where several vendors jointly participate in the loyalty scheme. Following the increasing importance of strategic aspects of networking and rewarding in loyalty programs, this thesis provides a set of novel and thought-provoking studies. This thesis shows there is little empirical support for the anecdotal evidence of the effects of promotions across vendors in a large Dutch coalition loyalty program. The majority of loyalty program cardholders do not significantly change their behavior in response to loyalty program mailings. However, cardholders respond to the process of rewarding whilst participating in the program. In anticipation of the reward, in few weeks before the reward redemption a cardholder increases his/her likelihood of purchasing and the amount purchased. Subsequently, increased purchase behavior carries over to the few weeks after the reward has been redeemed. The effects of rewarding occur across various customer types and reward options. Therefore, the positive effects of rewarding in loyalty programs are triggered by the reward redemption momentum itself. This thesis provides empirical evidence it is beneficial for firms to nurture their relationships with customers and to reward cardholder’s loyalty.

Loyalty programs; Coalitions; Reward redemption; Marketing instruments; Effectiveness

nije evidentirano