The Challenge
When a loyalty programme has been running for over ten years it becomes more of a habit than a customer choice. That’s what had happened at Coles, one of the two leading grocery retailers in Australia, and the largest business within Coles Myer Ltd. Coles operates over 460 supermarkets countrywide, employs almost 60,000 staff and serves more than 4.5 million customers each week. In 2006 Coles and the department store group Myer co-owned a multi-partner loyalty programme, Fly Buys.

Fly Buys was launched in 1994 and it was in need of a serious overhaul. Progress in marketing information technology meant that valuable consumer data had already been collected, like customer history. This could be used for extrapolation and forecasting to offer generous – and attainable – rewards, revitalising Coles’ customer base.

What we did
Together, Norton and Coles looked at successful rewards programmes from around the world and gathered useful intelligence to inspire and define the programme’s business objectives. Our team was made up of two of Norton’s senior consultants and Coles’ senior executives who worked together from September 2005 during the changeover, from initial management workshops and planning the new specifications in detail, to the introduction of the new programme in November 2006.

The Outcome
The combined team researched Fly Buys potential customers and feedback from the members in detail. We analysed that information to help us tailor a more generous offer to the customers which unsurprisingly got them talking about Coles and back into the stores. Coles introduced new bonus rewards and changed the thresholds to encourage members to use their points – getting real benefits from their membership. As Fly Buys founds its wings again, new customer recruitment increased too. Proving that you can please all of the people – if you use the right data in the right way.