Mary Pilecki

Premium loyalty programs charge a fee for access to membership or a program tier. These can be one-time fees (REI — $30 once for a lifetime) or monthly/annual fees (Amazon Prime, Walmart +). In recent weeks, we’ve seen several new premium loyalty programs or tiers announced: Sweetgreen announced a two-tiered program in April with a […]

As brands contend with rising media costs, changing consumer behavior, and, for some, lackluster sales results, they continue to invest in consumer loyalty programs and technology solutions to help them engage and retain consumers. In fact, 53% of B2C marketing decision-makers plan to increase their spend on loyalty technology this year. But economic uncertainty adds […]

We’ll let you in on a secret: Cometeer coffee keeps Forrester’s B2C marketing research team running. When our colleague evangelized the innovative coffee company in a team meeting last year, the brand quickly found its way into many of our team members’ daily routines — and it’s not just because we like really good coffee. […]

As one of the most popular loyalty programs in the world, the stakes for the Starbucks Rewards program are high. Today, the program boasts nearly 29 million active members, and over half of Starbucks sales are driven through the program. Starbucks Rewards members collect “stars” for every purchase they make, redeemable for free drinks, food, […]

Loyalty marketers, the scope of your job just expanded. And before you panic, it’s a good thing. Loyalty marketers have conventionally focused their efforts on customers post-purchase: increasing customer retention, enrichment, and advocacy. But brands and customers alike have faced unprecedented challenges over the last few years, including a pandemic, supply chain issues, and social […]

Use your loyalty program to collect consumer data and boost B2C sales this holiday season.

Today, brands leverage loyalty programs to acquire and retain customers, particularly those they lost during the height of the pandemic. But loyalty programs are a symbiotic relationship: Consumers look to programs for better experiences and cost savings, especially in light of the current economic crisis. As both customer and business needs change, programs are evolving […]

We all know that there is a big difference between working hard and working smart. And specifically for marketers, the status quo often makes working smart impossible — functional silos inhibit internal efficiencies and negatively impact the overall customer experience. Some of today’s biggest marketing silos are technology-based — different platforms for different functions. Let’s […]

Loyalty programs, rife with first-party data, are seemingly a salve to the challenges posed by the forces of data deprecation. But even loyalty marketers struggle to effectively collect and use data. Whether it be a lack of respect for customer privacy, data sets saturated with useless information, or an inability to make customer insights actionable, […]

Despite the heat wave across the United States, summer is quickly coming to a close. In just a few weeks, kids around the globe will be back in the classroom for a new year of learning. Loyalty marketers, you might consider joining them! Since early 2020, concerns for health and safety, supply chain issues, and […]

Last week, consumers in the United States woke up to a grim statistic from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index: Consumer prices rose 7.9% in February, the highest rate of annual inflation in 40 years. This rise is not unexpected if you’ve read the news headlines over the past couple of months. […]

Globally, we’re seeing a proliferation of brands that are investing in loyalty — whether for the first time or to revamp their existing strategy and programs. In fact, 83% of the brands we surveyed for our new Forrester Wave™ evaluation on loyalty service providers are increasing their investment in loyalty by 5% or more this […]

Have you noticed the growing link between commerce and loyalty? Forrester has, and we’ve set out to explore it. Our first deep dive was into promotions and offer management tools, which we define as: Software that helps businesses personalize, distribute, automate, and track promotions, incentives, and other offers across digital and physical touchpoints. We included […]

A loyalty program is a great way to collect zero-party data. Read how your loyalty program can be a powerful tool in the post-cookie world.

Emotion metrics can be a measure of a customer’s actual loyalty. But only when they're placed in a larger context of customer loyalty metrics. Read more.

Hi there! Mary Pilecki here, reintroducing myself as your Forrester analyst covering loyalty marketing. During the 10 years I’ve been at Forrester, I’ve worn a few different hats: financial services analyst, research director for our customer insights and B2C marketing teams, and, perhaps most importantly, unofficial “snack drawer fulfillment manager” back when we were still […]

Another undifferentiated loyalty program focused on cookie-cutter transactional rewards and lacking in customer insights. Does it sound familiar? Programs like this saturate the market even when retaining customers and earning their loyalty is more important than ever. Our data shows that even though nearly 90% of US online adults belong to a loyalty program, only […]

Marketers today must understand and use myriad technologies to support omnichannel ad strategies and deliver moments-based marketing. But the landscape of 7,000-plus options is overwhelming and rapidly evolving, especially as new privacy regulations and tech giants such as Apple and Google limit access to consumer data. We just published some research to help marketers keep […]

Walmart Takes The Lead In The Race To Fix Healthcare With New Health Supercenters As healthcare clinics start to reopen, many patients continue to put off necessary care. For some, cost is a major barrier to care. While the hurdle is not new, rising unemployment and financial uncertainty make it harder, if not impossible, to overcome. At the same time, providers also face a dire financial situation. Primary care is expected to […]