The diploma thesis deals with the analysis of a selected company Notino, s.r.o. which is a retail company selling perfumes and cosmetics in Europe. The analytical part analyzes in detail the company, its competitors and loyalty programs of competitors. Based on the theoretical and analytical part, a loyalty program is developed for the company with a comparison of costs and benefits of the program for the company. Also, the risks associated with the introduction of a loyalty program and suggestions on how to reduce their impact are summarized.

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Title The impact of gender and age on customer loyalty – a quantitative study of Swedish customers’ experiences of a loyalty program Authors Sara Follin & Viktoria Fransson Background Building customer relationships could be done by using loyalty programs; programs which involves activities for enhancing customer loyalty (Ou, Shih, Chen & Wang, 2011). To use loyalty programs as relationship marketing tactics has become popular and it is frequently used in the grocery retailing industry (Noble & Phillips, 2004). Customer loyalty differences might be influenced by customers’ gender and age (Kuruvilla, Joshi & Shah, 2009; Patterson, 2007). It is expected that females tend to be more loyal than males, and that older customers tend to be more loyal than younger generations (Patterson, 2007; Ndubisi, 2007). Purpose The purpose of this study is to describe the impact of gender and age on customer loyalty in the grocery retailing industry. Theory & Concepts Relationship marketing, Loyalty program, Customer loyalty, Gender differences in customer loyalty, Age differences in customer loyalty Methodology This is a descriptive study with a quantitative and deductive research approach. The research strategy was survey, and data was collected from 216 respondents through a questionnaire. Data was collected around the loyalty program Willys+, which formed the sample of this study. Conclusion Customers’ gender could be one variable influencing and impacting customer loyalty, however age is not. Gender impacting customer loyalty, could be explained by potential differences in how females and males choose to shop in store as well as by the fact that the majority of the members in the loyalty program were females. Loyalty among customers belonging to different age group did not have any significant differences.

L’objet de cette recherche est d’améliorer la compréhension de la construction de la fidélité en fonction de son objet : à la marque et au programme relationnel, en étudiant leurs antécédents et leurs effets sur l’attitude. Les recherches sur l’efficacité des programmes de fidélité soulèvent la question de savoir si ces programmes améliorent la fidélité à la marque ou la fidélité au programme (Bolton et al., 2000 ; Meyer-Waarden, 2007 et 2012 et Bijmolt et al., 2010). L’étude de l’influence relative des deux facettes de la fidélité sur l’attitude se fait à partir de la préférence, de l’intention et de la résistance des clients. La méthodologie retenue commence par une étude de cas dans la phase exploratoire (entretiens avec les experts), se poursuit ensuite par une étude qualitative auprès des clients adhérents à ces programmes. L’interaction entre la littérature et l’étude exploratoire a permis d’enrichir le modèle conceptuel intégral par des variables explicatives. Finalement, elle repose sur une étude quantitative réalisée auprès d’un échantillon de clients adhérents au programme de fidélité bancaire (153 en phase exploratoire et 284 en phase confirmatoire) via un access panel. La validation du modèle par équations structurelles (SEM) met en évidence le rôle important de la fidélité à la marque dans le maintien de la relation client. Le poids de l’influence de la fidélité à la marque sur le bouche à oreille est supérieur à celui de la fidélité au programme relationnel. De plus, elle a des effets positifs sur la part du portefeuille client ainsi que sur l’intention à la fidélité, à l’inverse de la fidélité au programme qui n’a pas d’effet sur ces deux variables. / The purpose of this research is to improve understanding of building loyalty based on its object: the brand and loyalty program, by studying their antecedents and their effects on attitude. Research on the effectiveness of loyalty programs suggest the question if these programs improve loyalty to the brand or loyalty to the loyalty program (Bolton et al., 2000; Meyer-Waarden, 2007 and 2012 and Bijmolt et al. 2010). The study of the relative influence of the two types of loyalty to the attitude is done from the preference, intention and resistance. The methodology starts with a case study in the exploratory phase (interviews with experts), then continues with a qualitative study of members of these programs. The interaction between literature and the exploratory study has enriched the conceptual model with explanatory variables. Finally, it is based on a quantitative study with a sample of members to loyalty banking program (153 in the exploratory phase and 284 in confirmatory phase) via an access panel. The validation of the structural equation model (SEM) highlights the important role of brand loyalty in maintaining customer relations. The impact of brand loyalty on word-of-mouth is higher than that of the loyalty to loyalty program. Moreover, it has positive effects on the customer share-of-wallet as the loyalty intention, in contrast to loyalty to the loyalty program that has no effect on these two variables.

<p><strong>Aim: </strong>The aim of this study is to investigate how retailer’s customer loyalty program can influence the channel power and what relationship between retailer with manufacturer can be created when channel power changes.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Method: </strong>A case study was adopted, and a qualitative research and face-to-face interview were used to collect the fundamental data.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Result & Conclusions</strong>: The results exhibit that the customer loyalty program implemented by retailer can increase its channel power (both in basic power and market power) and create a dominant relationship with high channel conflict with its manufacturer. Based on the research of the case company, I found a close relationship with cooperation and trust could be developed based on the customer loyalty program between retailer and manufacturer to create benefit for the both.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Suggestions for future research: </strong>Only adopted one case and one interview in the research is the main limitation. Additionally, the limited sample size limited the research in some generalizations. It is difficult to use only one case to represent the whole situation of the market. In the further, a larger sample size adopted in research can increases the reliability of researcher’s generalization.</p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><strong>Contribution of the thesis:</strong> The research discloses how retailer’s customer loyalty program can influence the channel power. The drawbacks of the dominant relationship which caused by channel power rising have been researched. How to develop close relationship and what benefit it can bring to retailer have also been investigated in the end.</p>

Aim: The aim of this study is to investigate how retailer’s customer loyalty program can influence the channel power and what relationship between retailer with manufacturer can be created when channel power changes.   Method: A case study was adopted, and a qualitative research and face-to-face interview were used to collect the fundamental data.   Result &amp; Conclusions: The results exhibit that the customer loyalty program implemented by retailer can increase its channel power (both in basic power and market power) and create a dominant relationship with high channel conflict with its manufacturer. Based on the research of the case company, I found a close relationship with cooperation and trust could be developed based on the customer loyalty program between retailer and manufacturer to create benefit for the both.   Suggestions for future research: Only adopted one case and one interview in the research is the main limitation. Additionally, the limited sample size limited the research in some generalizations. It is difficult to use only one case to represent the whole situation of the market. In the further, a larger sample size adopted in research can increases the reliability of researcher’s generalization.   Contribution of the thesis: The research discloses how retailer’s customer loyalty program can influence the channel power. The drawbacks of the dominant relationship which caused by channel power rising have been researched. How to develop close relationship and what benefit it can bring to retailer have also been investigated in the end.

Title: A quantitative study of the attitudes towards loyalty programs among students   Course/ course code: 2FE16E – Independent degree project of the marketing program with integrated method, 30 hp   Authors: Sjöberg, Amelie 880410; Svensson, Daniel 890329   Background: In today’s global market, companies strive to gain a competitive position and attract as many customers as possible. One of the most important factors within the retail industry is customer loyalty. Loyalty program have become a common tool for companies to carry out in order to attract and keep customers and make them loyal to the company. However, little research has been conducted to understand what attitude customers have towards the programs. Are they really that value adding and effective for customers as companies think they are?   Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to describe students’ attitudes towards loyalty programs within the grocery retail industry. To get an understanding of what offerings that are attractive within a membership in a loyalty program, as well as to see if a membership affects the behavior of customers.    Method: This quantitative study has been carried out by a deductive approach with questionnaires as the data collection method. The research design has been based on a descriptive design.                                                                                      Conclusion: The study found that students have favorable attitudes towards the usage of loyalty programs. Further, the attitudes toward offering segmented loyalty programs were also favorable from students. The study also found signs that indicated that membership inICA’s loyalty program, lead to an increase in frequency of store visits. Additionally the research also found that student’s value economical benefits as the most attractive offerings in a loyalty program, such as discounts and personally customized discount.                                                                  Keywords:    Attitude, loyalty program, frequency, segmentation, offerings, ICA.

Loyalty program, which is to encourage frequent purchasing and to maintain customer long-term relationships, has become a key marketing tool in various industries. The framework of the program is to provide reward incentives based on the cumulative purchases for certain products or services. Researches show that the cost of customer retention is approximately six times lower than that of customer acquisition. Although the importance of such program rises, few researches are made related to the topic. Thus, this study is aimed at exploring the relationships between loyalty effort requirement and reward incentives in order to provide better and more efficient loyalty programs for enterprises. The effects of effort requirement on consumer preferences towards loyalty program rewards are evaluated. In addition, monetary cost acts as moderator is added in to examine the moderating effect. A 2x2 between-subject experimental design with approximately 259 sampling subjects is adopted in the study and the results are analyzed by One-Way ANOVA aided by SPSS software. The results of this study are as follows: (1) Increasing the effort requirement of loyalty programs will increase consumer preference for hedonic rewards rather than utilitarian rewards. The reason for this is that long streams of effort required for loyalty programs may serve as reasons to justify and reduce the guilt for hedonic rewards selections and consumptions. (2) When monetary costs are added to loyalty programs, no matter at low or high effort requirements, consumer preferences for hedonic rewards will decrease and in contract, preferences for utilitarian rewards will increase. (3) When monetary costs are added to loyalty programs, increasing the effort requirement of loyalty programs will not increase consumer preference for hedonic rewards. This may due to the strong monetary costs effect on the sampling subjects that ends up easing the effect of result one. Four marketing implementations for this study could be drawn. First, utilitarian rewards are more appropriate as loyalty program incentives than hedonic rewards. Marketers could provide more utilitarian rewards in loyalty programs as incentives to attract more participants. Second, as loyalty program effort requirement increases, hedonic rewards could be added in the reward mix to attract consumers. Third, loyalty program, which provide rewards by accumulative effort rather than money expenditure, may serve as a justification for hedonic rewards consumption. Thus, hedonic rewards could serve as promotion tool for high effort requirement loyalty programs. Finally, when monetary costs are added to loyalty programs, marketers could weight more utilitarian rewards in reward mix regardless effort requirement levels.

Even though penalty policies have been adopted as airlines marketing strategies, little academic literature is found. Popular industries which were investigated for penalty policies include cell phone, credit card, hotel, airlines, bank, college, retail store, restaurant, and day care service companies. Notwithstanding the penalty policies commonly adopted in the airline industry, literature for airlines penalty policies is difficult to find and no literature exists to examine the impact of penalties based upon actual data from airlines. This study is the first research to investigate the impact of the penalty policy of airlines concerning the re-purchase behaviour of penalized customers by the actual data collected in the airline company. In this study, a total of 200 cases of data were collected from the airport authority and an international airline company in South Korea. The collected data were reviewed and categorized by demographic factors of customers including gender, and age; by the relationship with the airlines such as customer membership status of the airline loyalty programme; and by the results of the penalty resolution process such as whether the penalty was waived, the reasons for complaints concerning penalty charges, and the results of customers’ repurchase behaviour. To identify the reasons for customer complaints concerning imposing a penalty, all cases of complaints were reviewed and categorized. Attributes of the penalty and concept of perceived justice theory composed of distributive, procedural, and interactional justice were used to understand which factors play a key influential role in customer re-purchase behaviour. According to coding the table, the categorized data were coded and tested by parametric analysis (logistic regression model) in SPSS 20 program and ANOVA. As a result of the research, the customers’ loyalty programme membership status has been shown to positively influenced the re-purchase behaviour. The factors concerning penalty amount and severity (related to distribution justice) negatively affect customer re-purchase behaviour. The other factors are indicated as not significant to customer re-purchase behaviour. This study suggests that the valuable idea from the impact of penalty for the re-purchase behaviour should be considered by airline executives who should build more effective penalty policies. Especially, imposing a penalty amount is considered as one of the most significant factors affecting the perception of fairness and customer intention to raise complaints. In addition to the penalty amount, the airline loyalty programme membership status has to be considered as a key factor to maintain customer loyalty where penalties have been imposed.

Loyalty programs are one of the tools that serve to create customer loyalty. The aim of this thesis is to determine whether loyalty programs of perfumeries and satisfaction with their impact on customer loyalty. The theoretical research summarizes the available knowledge about consumer behavior, loyalty and loyalty programs. The parfumeria market analysis in the Czech Republic and the content analysis of the MML TGI provide sufficient information about the established loyalty programs and the target group of perfumeries. The practical part, in the form of a questionnaire survey, examines in particular the advantages of the loyalty program and customer satisfaction. Based on the results of the work are in the final part recommendations for more effective loyalty program.