Aimia extends loyalty cycle with marketing

Loyalty management contributes greatly to customer satisfaction that ensures a market niche for any brand. Industry leader Aimia offers marketing solutions that transcend country, culture and language with cutting-edge data analytics enabling real-time customer engagement.

The foundation of the exchange is a thorough understanding of what customers value. "Rewarding customer loyalty appeals to a deeper level of human behaviour," says Rupert Duchesne, Aimia group CEO. "If you're continually accumulating wealth through a rewards programme, it locks you into a brand emotionally. This happens whether you're in Japan, China, Germany or the United States; loyalty works everywhere."

Aimia captured this insight with the use of intelligent algorithms. Moving early into loyalty analytics, the company started measuring consumer behaviour through frequent flyer programmes. Loyalty analytics fuelled the success of Air Canada's pioneering Aeroplan rewards programme. More than 4.6 million people use Aeroplan miles to engage with some 150 brands in the financial, retail and travel sectors.

Building on this success, Aimia is extending the loyalty cycle to retail stores, grocers, consumer product companies, financial institutions, oil firms and telecommunications firms. It is also reaching into the digital media space through coalition loyalty programmes such as Nectar, Britain's No 1, and Latin America's Club Premiere. Companies in coalition loyalty programmes broaden their base with a wide range of partnerships that build long-term value.

Investing about HK$380 million every year to continually harness loyalty analytics, Aimia has revolutionised the retail space with its Intelligent Shopper Solutions (ISS). Analysing the customer purchase history captured with every swipe of a rewards card, ISS helps vendors retain their customers with engaging offers as they shop. First implemented in Sainsbury's stores in Britain, ISS is at work in Coles Supermarkets in Australia, CVS Pharmacy in the US, Canada's Sobeys and Switzerland's Migros.

Aimia has succeeded in deploying ISS as a mobile phone application for Nectar members, who enjoy loyalty shopping in real time. Customisation is also within reach for television viewers, Duchesne says. The possibilities are endless, with ISS capabilities for shopper insight, promotional analysis, store planning, customer segmentation, member analytics, reward and partner optimisation and liability management.

With its equity stake in Cardlytics, a merchant-funded, transaction-driven solution offered in the US, Aimia is well positioned to capture the full spectrum of customer behaviour. Cardlytics feeds electronic banking patterns into the loyalty management loop.