Ian Giles

As ThinData's Vice President, Loyalty Strategy, Ian plays a lead role in developing enterprise-wide plans that cost-effectively help ThinData clients establish, strengthen and sustain profitable relationships with their customers.

Ian has an impressive 15 year track record of successfully configuring loyalty-building strategies that span traditional and digital media. At the same time, he has a rare depth of experience developing integrated campaigns by drawing from strict disciplines such as consumer behaviour, direct marketing, marketing analytics, usability, database marketing and loyalty marketing.

Ian has directed large-scale cross-media campaigns for clients in several complex industries including: Retail, Hospitality, Consumer Package Goods, Pharmaceutical, Media, Manufacturing, Telecommunications, Financial Services and Software.

Loyalty Marketing

At every conference, roundtable and seminar I present, I hear a common theme from the most senior marketers across every industry: more than ever, marketers are being held responsible for having loyal customers. At the same time, senior marketers share with me that they feel that several factors are making it far more challenging to develop and truly optimize cost-effective loyalty strategies. These factors include:

1) The increased number of online and offline channels – which adds another layer of complexity and required sophistication;

2) The intense competition for share of “customer mind” (for example, in the U.S., a person will belong to an average of 14 programs but will only be active in five); and

3) The compressed timeframes in which marketers are called upon to demonstrate loyalty program effectiveness and return on investment.

So, my contribution to the CMA blog and marketing community is to provide practical insights that will help senior marketers establish, increase, sustain and measure true customer loyalty.

To begin with, I’ve captured in one diagram the major topics and disciplines that professional marketers draw upon – often in isolation – in constructing customer loyalty programs.

In future blog posts, I’ll share stories, tools and advice that will help you harness the power of loyalty marketing. I’ll examine the various elements identified in this cluster, how they interact and how the grouping of these elements varies according to conditions such as target audience, budgets, timetables, technology and industry.