Yes, Millennials Do Love Loyalty Programs
As a loyalty program manager, you know that Millennials are a huge segment of the consumer market. This generation has a reputation that’s all over the board. On one hand, they’re frivolous with their money, spending far too much on a whim; on the other, they’re so frugal that they’ve been responsible for the decline of brick-and-mortar retail.
The truth certainly lies somewhere in between. And the good news for you is that whatever their spending habits, Millennials are more likely to belong to and be active in loyalty programs. Our recent research reveals that the millennials surveyed belong to an average of 6.5 loyalty programs—compared to an average of 6.2 programs for older respondents.1
Another important insight from our research is that four out of five Millennials we surveyed want to redeem their loyalty points for a merchant gift card or a Mastercard® or Visa® Reward Card.1 Adding these options to your catalogue will help keep Millennials engaged in your program.
It’s not enough to add a gift card or two to your redemption options—you also need to add a variety of dollar values. Some of your members enjoy cashing in loyalty rewards frequently, so they’ll be happy to have a $10 reward card option. Others prefer to hoard their points until they can splurge on a bigger reward, such as a $100 gift card. And there will be people who fall in between, of course. The key is to offer a variety of options to please everyone.
And what about eGift cards and Mastercard Virtual Accounts? Millennials are known for being permanently attached to their smartphones, so digital rewards seem like a no-brainer addition to your redemption catalogue. Our research confirmed that 65% of Millennials we surveyed would prefer a digital reward.1
If you’re trying to increase Millennial brand loyalty, be sure to offer the loyalty rewards that they really want: gift cards and reward cards.
- The consumer loyalty verticals research was an online survey conducted independently by Leger on behalf of Hawk Incentives between Feb. 5 and Feb. 15, 2018. The sample size included 1,500 American respondents ages 18+ and 645 American millennials ages 22 to 37. A probability sample of the same size would yield a margin of error of +/-2.5%, 19 times out of 20.
