Winning with Subscriptions, Memberships, and Loyalty

The Challenge

Immersing in the relationships people have with subscription, membership, and loyalty programs to equip the marketing and sales teams of a leading tech company for meaningful conversations across fourteen distinct advertiser categories.

A tech client wanted to help their breadth of customers optimize their affinity programs and maximize the lifetime value of existing members. To accomplish this, they needed to understand the impact these affinity programs have on retention, growth, and lifetime value.

The Approach

We started by hosting discussions with the people using these affinity programs to deeply understand their lived experiences and how those shape the feelings, language, and thoughts they have around these programs.

We then scaled and fielded a highly informed survey among 8,000+ people, covering the ins and outs of affinity programs across 14 different categories. Determined to leave no stone unturned, we explored various dimensions of loyalty, the different types of people who engage, and what it all means for the health of any affinity program. Lastly, we quantitatively diagnosed the mechanics that affinity programs use to deliver emotional and experiential benefits.

The Impact

We delivered a ‘choose your own adventure’ narrative that allowed our client to customize the content and provide strategic recommendations and guidance to their customers.

Recognizing that affinity programs are not all built the same and, importantly, that consumers have different goals and expectations within different categories, we developed a single, cross-category equation that quantifies any affinity program’s health.