Hi there, this is Zsuzsa Kecsmar, 
CMO and Co-founder of Antavo. 
And I'm Jörn Roegler, the VP of 
Strategy and Insight at Antavo. 
If you look at loyalty programs, there 
are basically two types of loyalty programs. 
One is done by brands, 
And the other is done by retailers. 
Though there might not be too much difference 
on the outside, but actually from the motives 
and the deep loyalty strategies that are used, 
there is a difference between the two. 
Jörn, what are the motives that are 
different for brands and retailers while they're 
thinking of their customer retention? 
Well we'd have to see that brands and retailers 
operate slightly different business models. 
So a retailer really is faced 
with customers with a higher frequency. 
Take the example of a fashion client or a 
fashion retailer. A customer might come, 
buys a coat from one brand, then a little later buys 
a handbag from a second brand, 
come back again, buys shoes from a third brand. 
So a retailer has three transactions where each 
of the brands only has one transaction. 
So a retailer is facing much more frequent interactions 
with a customer. Many more transactions. 
On the other hand, they
might not have these transactions at all,
because their market is 
very much competitive right? 
This is what you want to say? 
I was gonna go there but yeah you're right. 
So the nature of retail also means that 
it's much more competitive because it's easier to 
copy the model of a retailer. Because anyone 
has access to these brands and hence re-sell them. 
And it has to be done. 
It doesn't even have to 
be done locally anymore. 
Emergence of e-commerce mobile shopping etc. 
You can have retailers from all over the 
world that now compete for a local customer. 
So the retailer needs to 
really differentiate in the moment 
where the transaction is being considered. 
Yes, the customer needs to make a choice 
for this retailer and against another retailer.  
If we look at a brands 
the situation is a bit different. 
Brands - by the very nature of what a brand is - 
are already differentiating through design, quality, 
price points, even through matters 
of sustainability and such. 
Ok. So the point is that what we know about 
retailers is that they want to differentiate themselves. 
And brands, they are OK 
with differentiating themselves by nature. 
What they want is to give something 
more to their customers, 
to engage their customers and to 
drive word of mouth 
so it might add up as one more 
differentiating factor to their brand. 
So they can spread the word about themselves. 
Yeah. Brand loyalists have more value to 
a brand than just buying things. 
If you take the example of luxury, just 
the pure fact that wealthy people or celebrities 
are wearing a certain brand creates 
this aspiration in people that they don't 
have the means yet to afford a brand but just 
the very nature of the fact that the brand 
is recognisable creates aspiration. And just these 
people that want to have the brand but 
they can't afford it yet is powerful 
in itself because they talk about it. 
It makes it a status. 
So, with justifying a luxury type price point comes also 
from the fact that a lot of people aspire 
to wear this brand. 
So if you are the one lucky enough to afford it, 
then it differentiates by that recognition in itself. 
So engagement even from people 
that can't buy is valuable. 
That's clear. 
So that are the motives behind why a brand 
and a retailer wants to run a loyalty program. 
And what do you think about how actually the 
loyalty program looks like which is run by 
a brand or a retailer. 
How are they different? 
There's no clear rule here, 
on trends or the direction in which it 
goes would say that retailers tend to have 
programs that are a bit more transactional focused 
so the incentives are more on buying and purchasing. 
Likewise the rewards are going to be rewards 
that make a transaction easier and cheaper. 
So they will tend to see more vouchers 
in there but very much also purchase related 
services, like free shipping or a 
stylist advise in a shop. 
Shopping assistance, extended return
rights to purchases.
Which makes this retailer more attractive 
compared to the next-door retailer. 
A brand will have programs with 
much more long term elements, so encouraging 
customers to consume content to engage on social 
media. But also to create content and to 
participate in the life of a brand. "Come to 
a fashion show" or "Help select the 
new look for the next collection spring-summer". 
Yeah to inspire the new collection, 
to get invited to get inspired by 
the new collection, or to participate 
in these thematic campaigns that 
are valid for the brand. 
So for example if the brand supports body 
positivity, then there can be an entire campaign, 
which is part of the loyalty 
program, built to support this. 
Exactly. For brands, being 
talked about is just incredibly important. 
So understanding your customers and giving 
them what is relevant to them, 
which encourage them to then go out, talk 
about the brand, promote the brand, very important. 
There's one last aspect I wanted to
mention, just because it's emerging in the market.
Brands are also now beginning more and more to
look for ways to get to the customer directly. 
So they build their own retail channels to 
brands on their own websites their own flagship stores 
We've seen it. It's a trend 
that is increasing not decreasing. 
So what they also want to do 
with loyalty programs is to support this. 
So they want understand more about their 
customers, because that gives them an additional 
angle to start their own retail business, to start 
their own retail operations. So they will copy some 
elements of what's proven and works in retail, 
bring it into their brand program to prepare 
their push into direct to consumer. 
Also there are those upcoming brands who are 
starting from e-commerce and starting from 
scratch selling directly to the consumer, like 
MVMT. Or there is a company, 
D1 Milano, they're both great in a way that 
they kick off their presence immediately with 
a loyalty program, which supports just what you 
said. Because they know that that's a 
differentiator and it supports that 
customers should buy through them, 
and not through a retailer. 
You can even see it as an 
element of the brand in itself by 
launching out and having a very clear statement 
that "from day one we are recognising our 
loyal customers and we give back". 
Which is not about just profit maximisation, 
we're benefiting from each other. 
That can be a powerful element in brand in itself 
at launch and differentiate that way. 
Wonderful. So this was the difference between 
having a loyalty program for your brand 
and having a loyalty program for a retailer. 
I hope that this cleared up some 
things and it was useful. 
Read more about the topic below and we 
hope to see you next time too! 
Bye-bye! 
Bye!
