Building customer credit loyalty
One popular method of building repeat business is through customer loyalty schemes. Their inventiveness can be surprising, providing insights into the brand values of the company as well as the threat that they pose to competitors. Virgin Atlantic, for example, has an ingenious way of using such schemes: to reduce the time it takes to get new customers, it offers privileges to people involved in competitors’ loyalty schemes. For a while, Virgin offered a free companion ticket to any British Airways frequent flyer who had accumulated 10,000 miles. This had the added advantage of reinforcing perceptions of the Virgin brand as being dynamic and flexible, if somewhat bold and outrageous.