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INTERNSHIP PROJECT REPORT On LOYALTY PROGRAM Of Under The Guidance Of Mr. Bhushan Parate Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd. (Landmark Group) Submitted By – Name: Nitish Dhawan Batch & Section: 2012-2014 (SSB2), IIPM, New Delhi Student ID: DL1214SSIIPM-PGPSUP11344(AHM-7-AA-33705)

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Page 1: loyalty program retail mba report @lifestyle

INTERNSHIP PROJECT REPORT

On

LOYALTY PROGRAM

Of

Under The Guidance Of

Mr. Bhushan Parate

Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd.

(Landmark Group)

Submitted By –

Name: Nitish Dhawan

Batch & Section: 2012-2014 (SSB2), IIPM, New Delhi

Student ID: DL1214SSIIPM-PGPSUP11344(AHM-7-AA-33705)

Area of Research: Marketing

Internship Duration: 6th Apr 2013-6th june 2013

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The beatitude, bliss and euphoria that accompany successful completion of any task

would be incomplete without the expression of gratitude to the people who made it

possible with their every bit of help. As success in any work is credited to hard work, but

without a proper guidance it may be out of one’s reach, so with reverence and honor I

acknowledge all those who helped me in carrying out this project successfully.

I avail this opportunity to express my profound sense of sincere and deep

gratitude to Mr. Bhushan Parate , Lifestyle (Landmark Group) who guided me with

his valuable help in channelizing my effort in the right direction during the course of the

project.

I appreciate the co-ordination extended by my friends and also express my sincere

thankfulness to the entire faculty members of Indian Institute of Planning &

Management, Delhi, giving me the opportunity to do this project/study and also assisting

me for the same.

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TABLE OF CONTENT

• Title page

• Completition certificate from the company / organization

• Acknowledgements

• Table of contents

• Company Profile

• Executive Summary

• Introduction

• Loyalty program (Project)

• Literature Review

• Research and analysis

• Recommendations & Conclusion

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COMPANY PROFILE

Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd.

Lifestyle International (P) Ltd, part of the prestigious Dubai based Landmark Group, started its operations in India with the launch of the first Lifestyle store in Chennai in 1999. In little over a decade’s time, Lifestyle has established itself amongst the leading retail companies in India.

Positioned as a youthful, stylish and a vibrant brand, Lifestyle Departmental stores offers its customers not just the ease of shopping but also an enjoyable shopping experience. Each Lifestyle store brings together five concepts under one roof – Apparel, Footwear, Children’s Wear & Toys, Furniture & Home Furnishings, Beauty & Fashion Accessories - offering a convenience of a one-stop shop and a wide choice of national & international brands.

Home Centre by Lifestyle is a one stop destination for Furniture, Home Décor and Soft Furnishings that truly represent style, comfort and individuality. Home Centre uses a unique ‘Concept Room’ display model to give customers a practical idea of how each piece of furniture would look in a particular room.

In keeping with the Group’s tradition of making every shopping experience rewarding and memorable, The Inner Circle – Landmark Group’s Loyalty program allows members, to enjoy exclusive benefits and privileges such as reward points and exciting offers. The Inner Circle is today recognized amongst the leading Loyalty Program in the country with an ever increasing base of customers. The card is accepted across all Landmark Group Stores in India including Lifestyle, Home Centre by Lifestyle, Max Fashion, Bossini, Spar Hypermarket, Polynation Food Court & Gloria Jean’s Coffees.

Lifestyle and Home Centre offer a truly international shopping experience, a fact borne by numerous accolades:

Lifestyle International Pvt Ltd recognized amongst India's Best Companies To Work For (42nd position) by The Economic Times and The Great Place To Work Institute 2013

Lifestyle receives Most Admired Fashion Retail Destination of the Year at the Images Fashion Awards for two consecutive years 2011 & 2012

Lifestyle awarded Most Admired Retailer of the Year, Department Store Category at the Images Retail Awards 2012, 2011 & 2008

Images Most Admired Beauty Products Retailer of the Year: Department Store Chain at Images Beauty & Wellness Awards 2013

Retail Supply Chain Excellence Award – Express Logistics & Supply Chain Conclave & Awards 2012

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Home Centre awarded Most Admired Retailer of the Year, Home and Interiors

Category at the Images Retail Awards 2009 & 2010 ‘Reid and Taylor’ Retailer of the Year award for the year 2006 for Lifestyle. Lycra Images Fashion Awards for the ‘Most Admired Large Format Retailer of

the Year’ in 2006 for Lifestyle ‘ICICI – KSA Technopak Award for Retail Excellence’ in 2005 for Lifestyle ‘Most Respected Company in the Retail Sector’ by Business World – IMRB in

2003 and 2004 for Lifestyle

MISSION: Lifestyle shall strive to provide ultimate Value and satisfaction to its customer in terms of quality control with price.

Through excellence in technology break Through Management enterprise Through Total Quality Management.

To make it a preferred organization for both present and future employees, suppliers, customers, shareholders related agencies and society and large and continue its march towards progress and retain its front line positions.

VISION:

Lifestyle shall deliver every time, everywhere, and everything for every consumer of India in a profitable way.

Lifestyle India shares the belief that the potential stakeholders and customers shall be provided by executing and creating future developments in the leading consumption space to the economic development.

MOTTO:

“Customer Satisfaction is our real motto

CORE VALUES:

Confidence in ourselves. To be a leader, both in thought, business and in innovation. Respect every individual and be humble in our Conduct. Leading to purposeful thinking. To be open and receptive to new ideas, knowledge and information. To build long term relationships. Simplicity and positively in our thought, business and ideas.

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To be flexible and adaptable, to meet challenges

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Marketing theory and practice has become more and more customer centered, and

managers have increased their emphasis on long-term client relationships because

loyalty, stronger relationships and therefore longer customer lifetimes likely are

associated with a greater degree of cross-buying, a more significant level of transactions

and therefore higher profits. This makes Customer retention rates and customer share of

category purchase as important metrics in customer relationship management. To

maximize these metrics, many firms use relationship marketing instruments, and loyalty

programs or frequency reward programs. But these programs along with being beneficial

are also highly costly. Thus it is important to find out whether these loyalty programs are

influencing the buying behavior of customers or not and if they are influencing then how

impactful is there influence.

Definition of Loyalty card program: The loyalty program provides gratification to those

who require rewards for purchases and avoids additional costs for those who would buy

even without them. Loyalty card program is an integrated system of marketing actions

that aims to make customers more loyal by developing personalized relationships with

them. Relationship marketing focuses on the customer, in the sense that the firm seeks to

create long-term business relations with existing prospects and customers.

Retailing is one of the oldest business activities in India. But until the liberalization and

deregulation of the Indian economy in the 1990s, it was dominated by small one-man

retail units.

Today's customers have more choice, are better informed and are more demanding of

value and return for their spending money. They look not only for the products and

services that meet their needs at the price they are willing to pay, but for the merchant

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that recognizes, appreciates and rewards their patronage. Now a day’s all big apparel

retailers have started the loyalty program with different benefits in order to satisfy

customer needs and wants

Top retail players like lifestyle, pantaloons ,shopper stop ,Globus have adopted loyalty

card and The loyalty program is used as a tool for retaining a customers now a In India

the retailers plays vital role in selling goods to the ultimate customer and day by day

number of retailers are increasing tremendously and ultimate end users are being

confused and customers keep on changing the retail store

The questionnaire survey was taken from 150 customers randomly and most of them

have purchased before at lifestyle. The loyalty program at lifestyle plays a vital role in

retaining a customer and nearly 75% of the customers are using the membership card for

more than two year’s Satisfaction level in shopping experience, services, quality and

discount are very high

69.8% of customers who’s using lifestyle membership card for more than 2 years

says that the current loyalty program is excellent.

INTRODUCTION

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The word retail is, in fact, derived from the French word retailer, which means – “to cut off a piece or to break bulk.”A retailer may be defined as a dealer or trader who repeatedly sells goods in small quantities.

Retailing is the business where an organization directly sells its products and services to an end consumer and this is for his personal use.By definition whenever an organization be it a manufacturing or a whole seller sells directly to the end consumer it is actually operating in the Retail space.The growth in Indian Retail segment was mostly attributed to factors like increasingdisposable income, favorable demographics, changing lifestyle, growth of the middle classsegment, high potential for penetration into rural markets, and progressive FDI normsIt is an Industry which is heavily dependent on consumer spending. In this ecosystem consumers play the most important role.Retail sales are generally driven by people’s ability (disposable income) and willingness (consumer confidence) to buy goods and services.

"Retailing is one of the oldest business activities in India. But until the liberalization and deregulation of the Indian economy in the 1990s, it was dominated by small one-man retail units.However since the past five years, it has become more structured and formalized and is moving towards international standards. Today, the organized retail sector is an industry

Retailing may include subordinated services, such as delivery. Purchasers may be individuals or businesses. In commerce, a "retailer" buys goods or products in large quantities from manufacturers or importers, either directly or through a wholesaler, and then sells smaller quantities to the end-user. Retail establishments are often called shops or stores. Retailers are at the end of the supply chain. Manufacturing marketers see the process of retailing as a necessary part of their overall distribution strategy. The term "retailer" is also applied where a service provider services the needs of a large number of individuals, such as a public utility, like electric power.

Shops may be on residential streets, shopping streets with few or no houses or in a shopping mall. Shopping streets may be for pedestrians only. Sometimes a shopping street has a partial or full roof to protect customers from precipitation. Online retailing, a type of electronic commerce used for business-to-consumer (B2C) transactions and mail order, are forms of non-shop retailing.

Shopping generally refers to the act of buying products. Sometimes this is done to obtain necessities such as food and clothing; sometimes it is done as a recreational activity. Recreational shopping often involves window shopping (just looking, not buying) and browsing and does not always result in a purchase.

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ISSUES IN RETAILING: How can we best serve our customers while earning a fair profit?

How can we stand out in a highly competitive environment where consumers have too many choices?

How can we grow our business, while retaining a core of loyal customers?

Retailers can best address these questions by fully understanding and applying the basic principles of retailing, as well as the elements in a well-structured, systematic, and focused retail strategy

EVOLUTION OF INDIAN RETAIL:

Informal retailing Sector Typically large retailers

Greater enforcement of taxation mechanisms

High level of labor usage monitoring

Formal Retailing Sector Typically small retailers.

Evasion of taxes

Difficulty in enforcing tax collection mechanisms

No monitoring of labor laws.

TYPICAL CHANNEL OF DISTRIBUTION

MANUFACTURE RETAILER

WHOLESELLER FINAL CONSUMERA retailer sells to consumers through multiple retail formats

Web sites

Physical stores

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Retail consumer markets today include high rates of personal expenditures, low interest rates, low unemployment and very low inflation. Negative factors that impact retail sales involve weakening consumer confidence.

One of India’s major retailers with presence in following two segments:Lifestyle Retailing : Pantaloons, Central, Fashion Station, aLL, MeLa.Value Retailing :Big Bazaar, Food Bazaar.

Retailing is the world’s largest private industry:

Retail is the world’s largest private industry with global retail sales of roughly USD 8 trillion. Retailing is also one of the biggest contributors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of most countries and also one of the biggest employers. (Source CII McKinsey Report titled “Retailing in India, the Emerging Revolution”)

In India, however, the retail sector has seen a high level of fragmentation with a large share held by unorganized players.

BOOMING OF APPAREL RETAIL INDUSTRY

In india the retailers plays vital role in selling goods to the ultimate customer and day by day number of retailers are increasing tremendously and ultimate end users are being confused and customers keep on changing the retail store

The apparel retailers try to adopt change with new fashion and promotional activities to ultimate customers now a day’s many franchise apparel retail store are being increased and so that number of stores are increasing easily and retaining a customer by apparel retailers are becoming very difficult and in order to retain customers now top apparel retail giant like pantaloons, lifestyle, globus, shopper stop, Westside and many more apparel retailers try to retain customer using various customer program because relationship with customer is more important or else they may move easily to other retail stor

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LOYALTY PROGRAM

“Loyalty is one of the great engines of business success”.

The word loyalty has different explanation and it all refer to way of Services. It is important to define exactly: what is meant by loyalty in the context of Business Development and Retention.

Several broad definitions exist, including the following:• “The commitment of customers to a particular brand or company”

• “The extent to which your customers continue with key loyalty behavior whenCompetitors offer more attractive prices, products, and/or services”

• “Faithful to any person or thing conceived of as deserving fidelity... characterizedby or showing faithfulness”

For this report, loyalty is defined as follows: “Loyalty is a positive belief,Generated over the course of multiple interactions, in the value that a company and

Its products and/or services provide, which leads to continued interactions andPurchases over time.”

Loyalty should not be confused with customer satisfaction. Although loyalty is builton satisfaction, organizations can have satisfaction without loyalty. CustomerSatisfaction is an “opinion measure” about company performance and howCustomers feel their needs were met in past interactions or by past purchases,Whereas customer loyalty is a results measure that includes expectations of futurebehavior.

For example, 75 percent of consumer wireless customers are “satisfied” with theircurrent service, but 72 percent would be willing to switch to a competing provider.Thus, when designing a rewards program to build loyalty, it is critical to thinkabout how to encourage true long-term customer loyalty and not just fleetingcustomer satisfaction.

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LOYALTY PROGRAM BASICS

Companies typically have several goals when launching loyalty programs, all ofwhich are focused on generating greater profits from the program’s members.These goals include

• Improving knowledge of the customer

• Leveraging that knowledge to increase the sales of undersold and/orhighly profitable products/services

• Increasing customer retention and purchase frequencyThe most common type of loyalty program begins when a customer enrols. Fromthat point forward, the organization accurately tracks information about that “member,” captures the member’s purchases, credits points to the member based on the rules stored in a loyalty “engine,” categorizes the member in tiers or groups based on the member’s value to the organization, and enables the member to redeem points for products or services when various point levels are attained. The specific types of behaviour that are tracked and rewarded are unique to each industry/company and are typically linked to the organization’s profitability drivers.

BENIFITS OF LOYALTY PROGRAM:

“Greater Customer Knowledge”

A loyalty program enables a company to gain detailed knowledge about its customer base with the customer’s consent; customers actually want to provide transaction and detailed profile information to ensure that they receive the full benefits of being a member of the program. In some market segments—such as business-to-business—companies already possess significant knowledge about their customers. As a result, these firms will not see customer knowledge as an important component of a loyalty program’s value.

However, for most business-to-consumer companies, gaining this level of intimate customer knowledge is a critical benefit of a loyalty program. In such B2C industries, loyalty programs enable companies to match their faceless customer purchase data (what was bought, when, at what store) with specific customer profile information, which can then be used to create targeted marketing promotions or redesign services around high-value customers’ needs.

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The loyalty program helps to get a good relationship with customers because without responding or not providing any special benefit the may don’t think to come again for purchase to the particular store so Customer Relationship Management makes it very useful

CRM is not just a technology, but rather a comprehensive customer-centric approach to an organization’s philosophy in dealing with its customers. This includes policies and process, front-of-house customer service, employee training, marketing systems and information management. Hence it is important that any CRM implementation considerations stretch beyond technology, towards the broader organizational requirements.

Managing the customer experience, maintaining a more reliable data base, improving service operations. Fostering customer loyalty, embracing the characteristics of high performance marketing and other related subjects. The loyalty program gives a good benefit’s to apparel retailers to do more and more service to customer

INCREASED CUSTOMER RETENTION

A well-honed loyalty program improves customer retention rates, by increasing amember’s “switching costs,” which are costs a member would bear in order toswitch to a competing provider.

These costs can include decreased service and the time and resources required to build a new relationship. The higher a member’s switching costs, the more likely that member is to remain loyal.

Most loyalty programs today do not create high enough switching costs formembers. For example, airline industry frequent-flier programs all provide virtually the same product (a seat, perhaps with a few extra inches of legroom) and the same membership benefits (separate customer service number, priority boarding, priority upgrades, and bonus miles).

If gold-tier members on one airline want to switch to a competitor because the competitor just added nonstop service on their favorite routes, all they have to do is fax the competitor their last frequent-flier statement, and they will immediately be made gold members of the competitor’s frequent-flier program. Because the products and services these two airlines and their loyalty programs provide are virtually identical, the members can switch to a competing carrier at virtually no cost to themselves.

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However, if the first loyalty program offered a unique set of benefits that thecompeting carrier could not easily duplicate, it would be much less tempting formembers to switch. Companies use their loyalty programs to create these switchingcosts, by• Leveraging in-depth member profile and transaction data to create unique offersand product/services that a competitor, which does not know as much about themember, cannot match

• Providing targeted service consistently across all channelsBy using the personalized data provided by their loyalty program, companies cancreate a win-win relationship with their members that cannot easily be replicated bytheir competitors.

Businesses are quickly learning that being the best is no longer enough. Every consumer demands the highest quality goods or services at the best prices, conveniently delivered to them through whatever means and at any time they choose. So the retailers have to do everything to meet those demands. At the same time, invest time and resources to hire and train the staff to be courteous, friendly, helpful and trustworthy when facing customers.

Today's customers have more choice, are better informed and are more demanding of value and return for their spending money. They look not only for the products and services that meet their needs at the price they are willing to pay, but for the merchant that recognizes, appreciates and rewards their patronage.

Given this wide acceptance and popularity of reward & recognition-based loyalty programs, merchants have leveraged, and continue to employ, programs to compliment their traditional efforts in responding to a variety of challenges.

Now a day’s all big apparel retailers have started the loyalty program with different benefits in order to satisfy customer needs and wants

ATTRACTING, RETAINING AND GROWING CUSTOMERS

A) Customers are becoming harder to please.

B) Companies seeking to expand profits and sales have to spend considerable time and resources searching for new customers.

Suspects are people or organizations that might conceivably have an interest in buying but many not have the means or real intention to buy.

Prospects—customers with the motivation, ability, and opportunity to make a purchase

Customer churn—high customer defection

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Two main ways to strengthen customer retention:

Erect high switching costs.

Deliver high customer satisfaction.

C) Most companies now recognize the importance of satisfying and retaining customers.

D) Satisfied customers constitute the company’s customer relationship capital.

Acquiring new customers cost five times more than the costs involved in satisfying and retaining current customers.

The average company loses 10 percent of its customers each year.

A 5 percent reduction in customer defection rate can increase profits by 25 percent to 85 percent depending on the industry.

Customer profit rate tends to increase over the life of the retained customer..

TOP PLAYERS IN APPAREL RETAIL STORES ADOPETED LOYALTY PROGRAM

Lifestyle : The Inner Circle (TIC)

Pantaloons : Green Card (GC)

Shopper Stop : First Citizen (FC)

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM

To know at what extend the loyalty program pulls customers to purchase apparels at

lifestyle and to know the satisfaction level of customers whether loyalty program increase

the sales of LIFESTYLE

OBJECTIVE

To know the loyalty program adopted by lifestyle and other apparel retailers.

To know how lifestyle retain customers using loyalty program.

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LIMITATIONS

The study was taken on at NCR region

The survey was taken only 150 customers

LIFESTYLE MEMEBERSHIP CARD (TIC-The Inner Circle)

INITIAL STEPS :

• Informing the Customer about the loyalty program• To become a member

-Filling of form -Enrollment payment

• While filling the form various customer details like -Name -Address -Date of Birth -Phone No. -e-mail id -Income -Relationship Status etc. are collected to form the customer database.

-New Enrolment of memebership card’s cost- Rs300(INR)

-Gift and discount vouchers are provided eith new enrolment of card:

Code-250Rs discountVan Heusen Rs500 discount (minimum purchase of Rs4000)Planet M- buy worth of Rs500, get 100Rs offFringe- 20%off on all servicesFour Fountains- Rs400 gift card ( Rs 400 discount is applicabler on any 60min therapy)Auchen Hyper mkt- Rs100 discount ( minimum purchase of 499rs)

-Classification of memebership:

-Silver: Shopping upto 15000rsOn 100rs purchase, customer gets 2Points

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Reedemed at 166points, customer gets Rs100 discount

-Gold: shopping above Rs 15000rsOn 100rs purchase, customer gets 3PointsReedemed at 166points, customer gets Rs100 discount

-Platinum: Shopping above 65000rsOn 100rs purchase, customer gets 4PointsReedemed at 166points, customer gets Rs100 discount

One point value is 60 paise (for all silver, gold & platinum)

BENEFITS SILVER GOLD PLATINUM

Out store offers YES YES YES

Birthday Bonus Points - 100 200

Exclusive billing counters YES YES YES

Exclusive sales preview (Jan, July-2days) YES YES YES

Assisted shopping(calls, texts) YES YES YES

Exclusive Store Promotions YES YES YES

Exclusive Discount Vouchers - YES YES

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COMPETITOR LOYALTY PROGRAM STUDYThe other major players in apparel retail store are

PENTALOONS SHOPPERS STOP

PANTALOONS MEMBERSHIP CARD

-New Enrolment of memebership card cost- Free of Cost

-No gift vouchers provided with enrolment of memebership card.

-Classification of membership:One StarThree Star- shopping more then 7999INRFive Star- shopping more then 199999INRSeven Star- shopping more then 399999INR

-Classification of points:One,three,five and seven star (On 100Rs purchase, customer gets 4points)

-One point value is 25paise

- Reedemed at 200points, memebership card holder gets voucher of 50Rs(INR)

FEATURES ONESTAR

THREESTAR

FIVESTAR

SEVENSTAR

Green card discounts (instant discount on purchase)

No 3% 5% 7%

Complimentary parking yes yes yes yes

Complimentary home drop of altered apparel yes yes yes yes

Exclusive sales preview (Jan, July-2days) yes yes yes yes

Exclusive billing counters no yes yes yes

Complimenatry home delivery no yes yes yes

Assisted shopping(Calls,Sms,EmailText) no no no yes

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SHOPPER’S STOP MEMBERSHIP CARD

-New Enrolment of membership card cost- Rs300(INR)

-GV/DC with new enrolment

-Classification of memebership:

Classic Moments: shopping upto 10000rsOn 100rs purchase, customer gets 1Point

Silver Edge : shopping upto 40000rsOn 100rs purchase, customer gets 2Point

Golden Glow: shopping above 40000rsOn 100rs purchase, customer gets 3Point

-Redeemed at 100points, customer gets 70rs in his card.

-One point value is 70paise.

BENEFITS CLASSICMOMENTS

SILVEREDGE

GOLDENGLOW

Extra reward points on preferred brands - 1% 2%

Regular updates Yes yes yesExclusive cash counters Yes yes yes

Free parking (2hrs) Yes yes yesHome delivery of alternations No no yes

Out-store offers Yes yes yes

Exclusive sales preview (jan, july- 2days) Yes yes yes

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LITERATURE REVIEW

LOYALTY PROGRAMS: BUILDING CUSTOMER LOYALTY TO BUILD

PROFITS

“Loyalty is one of the great engines of business success”

Frederick F. Reicheld, author of the loyalty effect

Today’s successful readymade garment retailers recognize the importance of customer

retention in their efforts to grow operational profits. to achieve this, more and more

retailers are implementing loyalty programs as a competitive marketing strategy to build

long-term relationships with customers, allocate marketing rupees based on the

customer’s value and derive as much as revenue as possible from them over a lifetime. of

course, loyalty is more than a business strategy. It is an ongoing, two-way relationship

based on respect, trust and commitment – a relationship in which the customer feels all-

important. A successful loyalty program builds and nurtures such a relationship by

accomplishing two critical tasks. the first is to gather information that will help retailers

understand their customers’ tastes, needs and expectations. The second is to offer

recognition and rewards (loyalty card, rewards card, points card, advantage card, or

club card) that are relevant to their customers as a reward for their loyalty – and as a

trade for the personal and transactional data that starts the loyalty cycle and keeps it

going. by tracking members’ transactions, companies can identify the various segments

of their customer base to create strategies that keep their customers coming back for

more.

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CUSTOMER INFORMATION IS KEY: Effective loyalty programs generate

incremental spending – more rupee spent, more frequently, from customers whose needs

and expectations are understood and met. with 80% of retailers’ business being generated

from as little as 20% of their customers, identifying and understanding their needs and

expectations of this 20% is crucial. by gathering customer information, retailer can make

intelligent marketing decisions that will keep their best and most profitable customers

more loyal. they can also leverage this thinking to increase sales the under-performing

segments of their customer base. the most valuable loyalty programs to retailers are those

which utilize advanced technology to collect data at the point of sale, track valuable

information about customer purchase behavior, and provide access to rich database

reports and analysis that can be used to increase the effectiveness of retailers’ marketing

campaigns. what customers expect:

today’s consumers are more savvy and sophisticated than ever. they expect loyalty

programs to offer:

easy participation

instant rewards

flexible rewards

fast accumulation of rewards

rewards claimed at any participating establishment

special offers

instant win opportunities

membership cards

greetings on special occasion

gifts

coupons/vouchers

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

1. RESEARCH BACKGROUND

Research - Quantitative

Research design - Descriptive study

Data collection - Primary Data

Sample area - Chennai

Sample size - 150 customers

Sampling design - Non-probability technique

Sampling Technique - Convenience sampling

Research approach - Survey method

Research instrument - Questionnaire

Sampling tool - Structured Questionnaire method

Statistical package - SPSS

Analytical tool - Percentage, cross tabulation

2.RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research method is an academic activity and as such as the term should be used

in a technical sense. This research comprises of defining and redefining problem,

formulating hypothesis or suggested solution; collecting; organizing and evaluating data;

making deduction and reaching conclusion; and at last carefully testing the conclusion to

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determine they fit the formulating hypothesis. By this way proper methodology is an

essential step in conducting research study.

3. RESEARCH DESIGN

A research design is the arrangement of condition for collection and analysis of

data in a manner that aim to combine relevance to research purpose with procedure. The

research design adopted for this study is descriptive type. The objective of such a study is

to answer “who, what, where and how” of the subject under investigation. It is used

because of its extensive flexibility, scope and convenience. A descriptive research study

is basically concerned with narration of particular individual or group with specific

predictions.

3.1 IMPORTANCE OF THE DESCRIPTIVE RESEARCH

To describe the demographic characteristics of certain group.

To estimate the proportion of people in a specified population who behave in a

certain way.

To make specific predictions.

To determine whether certain variables are associated.

RESEARCHKNOWN DATA UNKNOWN

DATA

3.2 RESEARCH APPROACH

The survey method was adopted for collecting the primary data. Survey research

is the systematic gathering of data from respondents through questionnaire.

3.3RESEARCH INSTRUMENT

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The data for this research was collected by survey techniques using interview

method, guided by questionnaire.

4. SAMPLING

Sample denotes only a part of the universe / population. The sample represents the

population and is having the same characterizing as the population.

5. SAMPLING METHOD

Non – probability sampling

This type of sampling technique gives no assurance that every element has some

specifiable change of being included. It is clear that for the non – probability samples,

there is no way of calculating the margin of error and the confidence level.

5.1 CONVENIENCE SAMPLING

Sampling refers the method of selecting items to be observed for the study. The

samples have been selected for the study based on the convenience of the researcher. The

method used here is convenient sampling, where the samples are selected based on the

convenience of researcher.

5.2 SAMPLING SIZE

Sampling size is the number of items to be selected from the universe to constitute

the sample. In this study, a sample study of 150 has been chosen.

5.3 SAMPLING AREA

This study was undertaken at lifestyle NCR

5.4 PERIOD OF STUDY

The study was undertaken between May 2011 and July 2011

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5.5 DATA COLLECTION DESIGN

A marketing researcher has to make a plan for collecting data which may be primary

data, secondary data or both.

5.5.1PRIMARY DATA

The primary data was obtained by administering survey method, guided by questionnaire

to collect information from customers. The questionnaire are both open and Closed ended

questions

These methods were adopted since the data which is required is highly focused on

customer satisfaction

5.5.2 SECONDARY DATA

The secondary data are collected through various sources like

1. Secondary data are collected through internet related to industry, company,

competitors, etc

2. Review of articles being published on the topic in various magazines and

newspapers

3. Data are also collected from the company brochures etc

5.5.3 QUESTIONNAIRES:

The best way to collect the data is to personally administer the questionnaires. The

advantage of this method is, the data can be collected from the respondents within a

short period of time. Any doubts that the respondents might have on any question could

be clarified on the spot.

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RESEARCH

STUDY ON LOYALTY PROGRAMME BY APPAREL RETAILERS TO RETAIN CUSTOMER

1. PERSONAL INFORMATION:Name ________________________

Gender: ○ Male ○ Female

Age: ○ (<18 ) ○ (19 – 25) ○ ( 25 – 40) ○ (40 – 60) ○ (> 60)

Occupation ○ Student ○ Self employed ○ Govt job ○ Other

Marital status ○ Single ○ Married

Monthly income ○ (20k) ○ (21k – 35k) ○ (36k-50k) ○ (above 50k)

2. Have you purchased earlier in lifestyle?○ yes ○ no3. Do you have lifestyle membership card?○ yes ○ no>If yes since how long you’ve been a member of lifestyle membership card programme?○ (0-6 months) ○ (6 months – 1 year) ○ (1-2 years) ○ (more than 2 years)4. How frequently do you shop in lifestyle?○ As per needs ○ monthly ○ once in 3 months5. In a year how much do you purchase in lifestyle?○ Less than 8000 ○ 8000 - 20000 ○ 20000-40000 ○ above 400006. How satisfied are you with the purchase you made in lifestyle - rating scale?(5-higly satisfied 4-satisfied 3-nutral 2-unsatisfied 1-highly unsatisfied)

PARTICULAR 5 4 3 2 1

Overall shopping experienceQuality

Service

Discounts

Home Delivery

7. All problems and queries are solved and answered satisfactorily at the TIC desk?○ Strongly Disagree ○Disagree ○Neutral ○Agree ○Strongly Agree8. Do you receive periodic and proper updates regarding offers and promotions (mail/sms/calls) from lifestyle?○ yes ○ no

9. What do you think about the current loyalty program?

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○ Excellent ○ Good ○ Average10. Would you recommend your friends to get enrolled in to the membership program lifestyle?○ Yes ○ No ○May be/can’t say11. Do you hold privilege cards of any other retailer? If yes, which one?○ Shopper stop ○Pentaloons ○Westside ○Other

ANALYSIS

1. PURCHASED BEFORE AT LIFESTYLE Since there are many apparel retailers at NCR we should know whether customers have purchased before or not at lifestyle

PURCHASED BEFORE AT LIFESTYLE

PURCHASE FREQUENCY PERCENT

YES 141 94.0

NO 9 6.0

TOTAL 150 100.0

INFERENCE:From the above table we conclude that 94% of the customer have purchased before at lifestyle.

2. HOLDING LIFESTYLE MEMBERSHIP CARD

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This helps to know how many respondents are card holders:

HOLDING LIFESTYLE CARD FREQUENCY PERCENT

YES 100 66.7

NO 50 33.3

TOTAL 150 100.0

INFERENCE: From the above table we conclude that nearly 66.7% of customers are holding LIFESTLE card and other 33.3% are not having green card

3 .FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE AT LIFESTYLE:

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FREQUENCY OF PURCHASE FREQUENCY PERCENT

AS PER NEEDS 102 68.0

MONTHLY 9 6.0

ONCE IN 3 MONTHS 39 26.0

TOTAL 150 100.0

INFERENCE:From the above table it is concluded that nearly 68% of customers are purchasing as per need at LIFESTYLE an remaining 26% are purchasing once in 3 months

4. SATISFACTION LEVEL ON OVER ALL SHOPPING EXPERIENCE This helps to know the satisfaction level of customers at LIFESTYLE

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INFERENCE:From the above table we come to know that 93.3% of the customers are highly satisfied in the overall shopping experience at lifestyle

5.SATISFACTION LEVEL IN QUALITY AT LIFESTYLE. This helps to know about the satisfaction level on quality because quality is more important in apparels and it helps to decide for next purchase.

INFERENCE: From the above table we come to know that the satisfaction level in quality of goods and services in which 85.3% of customers are highly satisfied and only 2% of the customers are not satisfied in the quality

6. SATISFACTION LEVEL OF CUSTOMERS AT LIFESTYLE: The serves is an important factor at retail because if the retailer does not

provide a best serves then the wont come back so we should provide better serves so

we should know the satisfaction level

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OVER ALL SHOPPING

EXPERIENCE FREQUENCY PERCENT

SATISFIED 10 6.7

HIGHLY SATISFIED 140 93.3

TOTAL 150 100.0

QUALITY FREQUENCY PERCENT

UNSATISFIED 3 2.0

SATISFIED 19 12.7

HIGHLY SATISFIED 128 85.3

TOTAL 150 100.0

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SERVES FREQUENCY PERCENT

UNSATISFIED 8 5.3

NEUTRAL 62 41.3

SATISFIED 43 28.7

HIGHLY SATISFIED

37 24.7

TOTAL 150 100.0

INFERENCE:

From the above table we come to know that 24.8% of customers are highly satisfied

and 41.3% of the customers are in neutral level

7. CURRENT LOYALTY PROGRAM

This helps to know how effective is current card program at LIFESTYLE.

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CURRENT LOYALTY PROGRAM

TOTALUSING GREEN CARD EXCELLENT GOOD AVERAGE

YES 91.3% 64.6% 41.0% 66.7%

NO 8.7% 35.4% 59.0% 33.3%

100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

YESNO

INFERENCE: From the above table we come to know that 91.3% of the customers using green card says that the current loyalty program is excellent.

8. HOLDING OTHER LOYALTY CARDS

Now a days many apparel retailers have started providing membership card this helps to know how many customers are using other loyalty card

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HOLDING OTHER PRIVILAGE CARD

TOTAL

MONTHLY INCOME

SHOPPER STOP PENTALOONS GLOBUS WESTSIDE OTHER

20000 18.8% 14.3% 7.7% .0% 16.7% 14.0%

21000 - 35000 16.7% 9.5% 15.4% 14.3% 16.7% 13.3%

36000 - 50000 29.2% 34.9% 46.2% 85.7% 33.3% 37.3%

ABOVE 50000 35.4% 41.3% 30.8% .0% 33.3% 35.3%

TOTAL 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0% 100.0%

<20K21K-35K36-50KMORE THAN 5OK

RECOMENDATIONS

SUGGESTIONS FOR TIC(lifestyles) AFTER COMPARISION TO OTHERS

Exclusive billing counters should be also placed on second and third floor.

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Complimentary home delivery should be given to membership holders as given

by competitor pantaloons.

Complimentary home drop of altered apparel should be provided to membership holders.

New enrolment of membership card should be free, no need to give discount vouchers of vanheusen and code as customer may carry different brand loyalty which may restrict them to avoid membership.

Complimentary parking (atleast of 2hr/day) should be provided to membership holders which can increase your walk-ins.

Fulfilment of minimum criteria of 15000rs shopping for Gold membership to be reduced to 10000rs shopping.

CONCLUSION

I conclude that today many retailers are selling apparels so retaining customer is very difficult and its not very easy we have to pull customers for repeated purchase. The loyalty program plays a vital role in pulling customers to purchase apparel by updating its policies.

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