back to article Tie me customer down, sport

Women are more loyal than men. Or at least, that is what women told the Ipsos Mori 2010 consumer customer loyalty survey. The study found that three out of five British adults are loyalty scheme members; 67 per cent of women belonged to at least one, compared with 57 per cent of men; and about 68 per cent of women are loyal to …

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  1. relpy
    Pint

    It's Friday Beer Time!

    "Men are more loyal to their local than women"

    Please don't tell the wife...

  2. The First Dave
    Boffin

    @Author

    "it is worth knowing that it will work better on women than men"

    Was any correction done for the relative number of women versus men that actually use Supermarkets for the weekly shop?

    Was any comparison done of something that both sexes do relatively equally, or was the whole report total rubbish?

    1. Marvin the Martian
      Linux

      Lost in supermarket loyalty

      What does it even mean to be loyal to a supermarket?

      I regularly go to four locations of three chains, two of which do loyalty thingies. Am I loyal to two, to three, or disloyal to all? I get a different balance of products at each, so they're like three different tools in my toolbox.

  3. Fluffykins Silver badge

    A neat summary

    In one article you have managed to gather together most of the things I find really offensive about being marketed at.

    The special offers that aren't actually special. the mindless email reminders - "oh, we haven't heard from you for a long time" (Maybe, just maybe, it's because I didn't have the need or desire to contact you!)

    If I want something, I'll go out into the marketplace and have a look.

    If I've done business with a company once, I generally know who they are, what they do and how to reach them and I'm perfectly happy to leave it at that.

    Having a company ramming itself down my throat is usually a very good reason to look elsewhere. If they are prepared to be that irritating at the time they should be trying to impress me, just how badly would I be treated once I'd been suckered in and the need to impress was less?

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Take Heed Profiteers

    "......By analysing purchasing behaviour you can spot lapsed customers who could be resuscitated back to profit."

    Any company who does this to me will forever loose my custom. I don't need you to tell me what to buy or where to buy it from. More and more people will fall into line as they become annoyed a being "targeted" in this manner.

    Heavily advertised products/services really loose their appeal, unless of course your feeble of mind or easily sucked in and follow the heard (e.g. apple).

    <let the bile flow>

    1. Fluffykins Silver badge

      nyaah nyaah

      Got my bile in first!

      I heartily agree with you, though.

  5. gribbler
    WTF?

    So negative...

    It always amazes me how negative the comments are on this site to any articles discussing business practices or processes.

    Pretty much all of us work in some sort of profit making business, it's important to understand how these work and how you can improve them because (this is the key bit) if my company isn't doing this and their competitors are doing it successfully then my company is going to take a hit. If my company takes a hit then (sooner or later) so do I.

    Then there's the professionalism bit. I work on web projects, if I don't understand the business side of this then how on earth am I going to educate the business idiots I work with (because they mostly don't understand this stuff)? Just because you don't like something doesn't make it rubbish. I don't like being marketed at, but I can assure you that it works and as long as it does I'm going to need to understand these essential business techniques so that my company can make more money and I can demand a bigger share of it.

    1. Fluffykins Silver badge

      The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

      It always amazes me how positive comments are, amongst people in the marketing industry, about practices which many people find objectionable or intrusive.

      Pretty much all of us are at the receiving end of some sort of profit making business, it's important to understand how we view them and how the owners can improve them because (this is the key bit) if your company isn't doing this and their competitors are doing it successfully then your company is going to take a hit.

      Then there's the professionalism bit. You work on web projects, if you don't understand the user's side of this then how on earth am you going to educate the business idiots you work with (because they mostly don't understand this stuff)? Just because we don't like something doesn't make it rubbish. You don't like being marketed at, and I can assure you that it doesn't work with me and as long as it doesn't you'r going to need to understand these user preferences so that your company can make more money and you can demand a bigger share of it.

      ------------------

      I can assure you that I didn't buy my car from one particular garage purely because I was marketed at.

      I can assure you I earmark companies sending useless and claptrap promotions as 'not preferred'

      I can assure you that I have an 0871 phone number I give out where I can't avoid providing one.

      I hope you don't generate Flash advertising: I can assure you that the actions of a few mindless advertisers with irritating and intrusive animated web adverts (Including Mercedes who I would have expected to know better) are the reason I run Firefox and AdBlock Plus. Of course, minimalist adverts with lots of white space definitely never have worked, do not work, never can work. Just ask Google.

      1. Marvin the Martian
        Thumb Up

        I'm with Fluffykins here.

        I understand sites need to make money, so I don't have a problem with adverts. I've never felt compelled to push one, though, so the profiling hasn't worked yet.

        But moving adverts drive me absolutely crazy. So first just blocked all GIF images, but the last few years it's not possible anymore; so it's ABP + NoScript for me, reluctantly --- that's what marketers might get to understand. Not yet, it's still a low hanging fruit phase of profiling.

  6. Cowardly Animosity
    Thumb Down

    title goes here

    [quote] It is worth remembering, however, that despite your enthusiasm for supporting customer loyalty, not every customer is worth keeping.

    “There are those customers that habitually switch, chasing the lowest possible price. So by spotting the trends and identifying them, you can let them go, instead of offering them a discount or spending marketing budget on them,” says Vile. [/quote]

    Or you could just give us what we want!

    Oh, and my date of birth is utterly irrelevant, and asking for it will lead to me rapidly exiting your website, never to return.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Yeh ... but ....

    If a scheme offers money off for snagging relatives, then I know I'm paying over the odds in the first place.

    Also, women may be more loyal, but we reserve the right to change our minds about that :-)

  8. Mike Shepherd
    Thumb Down

    "How difficult is it to capture a date of birth and send a relevant offer each year?"

    I don't mind an infrequent e-mail from a supplier, to remind me that they exist and to tell me what they're up to.

    Intruding on my private life is another matter. My birthday concerns my family, not colleagues or acquaintances. It sure as hell doesn't concern suppliers.

    Perhaps these "marketers" send out their private greetings in the same way: "Happy Birthday. Many Happy Returns. Do not reply to this message as the sending address is not monitored. Click this link to update personal details or if the addressee has died". Do these idiots really believe that people are thrilled to get birthday greetings that they know are from a machine?

    1. HaplessPoet
      FAIL

      The Birthday Campaign

      The only people interested in Birthday emails are under 16 or over 80!

      Most women over a certain age (and no-one has any idea what that is) deny having birthdays at all, and certainly don't want emails reminding them!

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    huh?

    "Unless your business is a pub or a bar, that is, because men are more loyal to their local than women."

    Do you mean "than women are" or "to their women" ?? Or both?

  10. Someone Else Silver badge
    FAIL

    We don' need no steenkin' titles!

    "How difficult is it to capture a date of birth and send a relevant offer each year [...] ?"

    Not bloody difficult enough, as this is a key piece of info data and ID thieves need to swipe one's identity. Unfortunately, the Twitterati are all too willing to give up this key identity attribute to just about anyone who asks. For me, if you ask I'll be happy to tell you either:

    30 Feb 69

    -or-

    Bugger off!

  11. Moyra J. Bligh

    Great

    a tutorial in stalkvertising.

  12. Equitas

    Some companies

    don't understand either the nature of what they're selling or the sort of customers they're selling to.

    At the selling end they are clearly employing dimwits who may or may not have accountancy qualifications but clearly have no knowledge of either the sharp end of the business or the business of the customers they're dealing with and marketing persons who are equally ignorant of real life.

    Amongst other things, I run a small caravan site. I bought a new mower last year -- £5500 or thereabouts. There's no use chasing me to buy another this year -- I hope the machine bought last year will do at least five seasons and at that price it certainly ought to. We run a builder's merchant account -- and very valuable it is to us. However it's valuable not because we always get the keenest prices, but because 1) goods outwith the capacity of our own vehicles are delivered, 2) plumbing parts are top quality and, although the range is limited, it includes quality items we've found it impossible to source elsewhere, 3) staff know their stuff and are genuinely helpful, 4) it's possible to send someone else to collect the goods without payment difficulties and 5) if there's a problem it can be sorted out in two shakes of a lamb's tail without hassle -- they know us and we know them. Price is not the only consideration. But in the nature of things, we're a small customer. It's not impossible that spend one year might be as low as £500 -- and the next year as high as £10,000. Of course, even in the latter instance an accountant might say "customer not worth having!"

    That pattern of dramatic variations in spend from one year to the next is repeated in purchasing for other business enterprises for which I authorise expenditure. Few sales organisations seem to be run by people who understand either the nature of small businesses or the concept of a replacement cycle.

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