The Logic Group Blog

An individual, specialised in a certain field, would probably perform better when part of a group or a team with the same expertise. When a charity organisation launches a new campaign, often the catch phrase used is “together we can make the difference”. In group sports, like rugby, people play different positions, each of which require different skills. If the coach can successfully coordinate these different skills, the unit has the potential to become greater than the sum of its parts. But does the same apply to Loyalty programmes?

Loyal customers are the Holy Grail of the supply world; finding them is the topic of a mountain of business manuals.  But when we stop to think about it, is it really loyal we want?  The dictionary definition of loyal is ‘faithful to one’s friends, country or government.’  Honourable?  Yes.  Emotional?  Yes.  Maybe even a little old fashioned.  But in today’s aggressively consumerist world, these are notions which hardly seem to apply.

 

Take the example of banks/building societies and supermarkets: at first glance, recent research that we carried out on behalf of loyalty scheme consultants, the Logic Group, shows that banks/building societies and supermarkets seem to be doing rather well in the customer loyalty stakes.  Two-thirds 66% of the British public said they feel loyal to their bank or building society and 60% said the same of their supermarket.

Brussel Sprouts, hated them. These evil little green things just wanted to ruin a perfectly good dinner. After the joy of Christmas morning, playing with toys (I am talking about my childhood here, and yes, I can still remember it) and finally getting the “GET TO THE TABLE” call. Crackers pulled, reading the jokes (yes, still the basis of my humour till today) and putting on funny hats – laughing with grandparents. And then dinner is served, and it’s like the uber Sunday lunch! Added extras, cocktail sausages with bacon wrapped round (they weren’t called pigs in blankets back then!) – what genius came up with that? Freshly made stuffing and gravy, the turkey (we did have goose a few times) lots of roasties, good old veggies, and then, there it would be, the sprout. Now I never cheated per se, I was a good boy (at this time) and always did what my Mum told me to. So I would eat the sprouts, but only by dissecting them into the smallest possible size, and then trying to disguise the foul taste with a forkful of nice, tasty food.

Any of you heard of Bitcoins?  This relatively new method of online payment has really exploded onto the world stage during 2011, thus I thought it was worth looking into what all the fuss is about.

 

Bitcoins are one of a number of digital P2P payment methods whose aim is to recreate cash for the digital age.  Bitcoin refers to three things:
1) The decentralized, peer-to-peer network that carries the transactions
2) The digital currency itself that users exchange over the above-mentioned network
3) The client software which users use to access the network and carry out transactions

Don’t you just hate it when you are rushing around town trying to do some last minute shopping when out of nowhere you are corralled by one or more young people dressed in colourful t-shirts, holding clipboards and eager to help you save the world by relieving you of some of your money.  Some refer to them as chuggers (i.e. Charity Muggers).  Whilst a tad harsh, this nickname does underline how unpopular this method of collection has become to parts of our society.  The issue is probably one of frequency – there seem to be so many that sometimes I feel like I’m tripping over them on my way to the shops.

I am always weary of consumer surveys, and this week I have seen countless examples of how the questions can be worded in favour of a desired outcome!  The latest was looking at the security of the mobile as a payment vehicle, and just under half showed that “lack of security” as a concern.

 

As an example of “leading a witness”, compare the following sets of questions, and decide if they take you to a different answer:

• Are you worried about the personal impact of payment fraud on your life?
• Do you think that more should be done to secure your payment information?
• Would you be concerned about all your payment details being sent over the air, and stored in your phone?
• Have you thought what you would do if you lost your phone containing all this sensitive information?
• Do you think that the lack of security is too big a risk to using your phone to make a payment?

 

Alternatively:

• Were you aware that payment fraud has decreased over the last year?
• Do you think that this was due to all the improved security measures?
• Would you be keen on maintaining the level of security, yet making payment faster and more convenient?
• Would you like to securely transfer your card details over the air so that you only have to carry your phone with you?
• Would you be in favour of improving the payment experience through use of your mobile phone?

 

This is a poor imitation on a “Yes Prime Minister” sketch from 1986 (regarding conscription), but looks to highlight how a survey can lead to a differing conclusion on the same question.  I am not suggesting that this was the case with the mobile survey, but it always makes me think twice about the results.

The big news this month is that Apple has chosen not to include NFC support in the new iPhone 4S. So what does this mean to the advancement of NFC customer loyalty interactions at point of sale?

 

Right now there are a number of NFC loyalty initiatives in the UK and Europe but penetration of these so far is low. There just isn’t a clear business case for an NFC based loyalty solution in a large retail estate, yet. What will tip the balance is the convergence of other interactions around the mobile device; payment, customer loyalty, couponing, marketing alerts etc. We all see this just around the corner with the likes of Google wallet and other operator led initiatives hitting the news every day. So why aren’t these leading to widespread NFC adoption and why didn’t Apple see the need to jump on the band wagon?

I was recently sent a viral video of a baby who's used an iPad to such an extent, that she tried to use the same tablet UI gestures (swiping, clicking and pinch-zooming) when given a real (i.e. dead tree) magazine.

 

What struck me was how the video appeared to polarize opinion between the people who chastised the parents for 'ruining their child's future' and those who hailed this as a watershed moment in human evolution.

 

As with many things in life, I try to take the middle ground.

Recently I received an email offer from a retailer, 3 for 2 off reptile food…”wow” I thought, as I have a parrot, rabbit and 2 dogs but definitely no reptile. Did they know something I didn’t about me?

 

Another simple case of mass marketing and a spray and pray attitude that not only dilutes the campaign but has completely missed a great chance to engage with a customer. It got me thinking…how often does this occur and am I getting the same offer as the person next door? Does this organisation really value my business and me as a customer? On the flip side, what actually does the reptile enthusiast get and buy regularly from this retailer? The answer to the latter is a reduced price off his purchase that they would have likely bought anyway, the consumer is happy but the retailer has diluted their campaign and given away profit due to an indifferent approach to consumer focused marketing and customer loyalty.

Well they have arrived. After more than a year of discussion and debate the new requirements for Point to Point Encryption (P2PE) have finally been released by the PCI SSC.

 

These requirements, which are contained in the Point to Point Encryption: Encryption, Decryption and Key Management within Secure Cryptographic Devices (Hardware/Hardware) v1.0, were released this month and define how a payment solution provider may validate its P2PE solution thereby allowing merchants to reduce the scope of their PCI DSS assessments when using the solution.