Posted by Christopher Stevenson
There is a gas station and convenience store called Kwik Trip about a half mile from my house. I stop by most days to grab a quick cup of coffee (which is pretty good for a gas station), but it's also common for me to make a run on Saturday morning or on my way home from work to get eggs, butter or milk. Surprisingly, their prices on these essentials are as good or better than many of the big grocery stores in the area. The store is clean and the staff is friendly, saying things like, "See you next time!" when I check out. There's another convenience store directly across the street from Kwik Trip, but with all the good things Kwik Trip offers, I don't see a reason to switch, and based on the amount of traffic in the parking lot, many others agree.
This weekend I ran to the store to get a gallon of milk. When I checked out, the woman behind the counter asked if I belonged to their Gallons for Gallons club. I didn't. She gave me a punch card with dancing cows on it and explained that if I buy 10 gallons of milk or orange juice, I get a dollar off my next purchase.
Now, I already have a Costanza wallet , but I'm not opposed to adding another punch card if it will save me some money, so I took the card. But two things struck me as wrong with Kwik Trip's plan.
First, the punch card is a half inch longer than a standard credit card. It won't fit into a man's bi-fold wallet, so it will be relegated to my jacket pocket or the back pocket of my jeans. How hard is it to make sure a punch card is the same size as a standard credit card? (My completely uneducated guess is that that accounting department told the marketing department that they'd have to sell 10 gallons of milk to make up the print costs and one dollar discount, so the card had to be large enough to accommodate that many punches. Never mind design.)
Second, why does Kwik Trip need to add a punch card program? They already have the best local prices on milk. They offer good service and competitive gas prices, and they have a strong competitive position in their markets. It seems like a needless expense with questionable benefit.
Why isn't Kwik Trip putting their energy toward leveraging and communicating their strengths rather than developing some arbitrary and badly designed loyalty card program? Is the average milk buyer going to choose Kwik Trip over a competitor because they know they can save one dollar after spending $20 on milk? Probably not. Will new customers try Kwik Trip so they can join Gallons for Gallons? No. So, what's the point? There's no competitive advantage, but there's significant expense in the execution.
It's a challenge I think many marketers face. They're charged with improving loyalty and building business; a loyalty program seems like an easy solution. The problem is that many loyalty programs are ill-defined, ill-conceived, and poorly adopted. (Just because someone has your card in their wallet doesn't make them loyal.) How do you know if a loyalty program is a good fit?
