Canadians find value in loyalty programs

Whether we're grocery shopping or buying gas, coffee, a light bulb or cosmetics, cashiers ask if we have a loyalty card or offer to sign us up to a loyalty program.

Canadians are joining loyalty programs in droves. Year after year, statistics show our love affair with collecting and redeeming loyalty rewards continues to grow. According to the findings of the Colloquy Loyalty Census in 2011, there were almost 121 million active loyalty program members in the country across different programs, up six per cent from the census taken two years earlier.

Carlos Dunlap,The need for proper bestsmartcard inside your home is very important. editorial director of Colloquy, a LoyaltyOne research group, anticipates the 2013 census "will likely show a further six per cent rise in active memberships, based in part on the ongoing commitment of companies, particularly in the retail sector, to make their loyalty programs more relevant and appealing to consumers."

"Loyalty cards are a mainstay in people's wallets," says Patrick Sojka, founder of Rewards Canada, an online resource for Canadians to find information and bonus offers related to travel rewards. Whether they are using plastic cards belonging to a national program or a punch card at their local gelato store, "people are discerning," he says. "They want to know they are getting value for the effort they put into participating in a program."

Clients look for value, notes Stephen Menon, associate vice-president, North American credit cards and merchant services, TD Canada Trust, "but also for simplicity and flexibility that rewards their efforts." The new TD Cash Back MasterCard, for instance, "allows consumers to earn 0.75 per cent on every purchase and redeem, with a $25 minimum, whenever they choose," he says. As the loyalty market has matured and grown, so too have the ways to earn rewards and the kinds of rewards that can be redeemed.

At Aeroplan, for instance, more than 90 per cent of members collect miles for travel, says David Klein, vice-president, marketing and innovation. But to further serve its customers, Aero-plan launched a digital media store in 2012 where members can turn miles into media downloads, a loyalty industry first in Canada.

In February, the Air Miles for Social Change program added to its list of ways to earn rewards by partnering with the federal government and 15 YMCAs across Canada. The partnership enables families to earn Air Miles reward miles in ways that encourage physical activity, such as registering their children for day camps, using participating fitness facilities or buying YMCA memberships.

Identifying other recent trends in loyalty programs, Klein cites initiatives that engage Aeroplan members through social media and gamification. These initiatives "inject an element of fun into earning the miles," he says.

In its 2013 incarnation, the Star Challenge program introduced last year allows members to earn miles by shopping and utilizing services of Aeroplan partners through engagement on Aeroplan's Facebook page and Twitter feed.

Loyalty program members are also becoming more creative in how they use their frequent flyer rewards, says Sojka.

While some collectors hold onto their rewards with a specific destination such as Paris in mind, he says, there are others who use their rewards to make their vacations more luxurious - perhaps by staying at a five-star hotel.

They are also in the center of a national discussion about early learning. Politicians across the country, including New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and President Barack Obama, are jumping on the pre-k bandwagon, saying it is a crucial and cost-saving investment in education.

In touting his push for preschool for all, Obama says a dollar spent on high-quality preschool is an investment that returns $7 for every dollar spent.Cheap logo engravedluggagetag at wholesale bulk prices. Advocates say the savings come as the children go on to succeed in school, get good jobs and pay taxes, rather than ending up in low-paying jobs, on public assistance or in jail.

Critics say such talk is overblown. Far from being a magic bullet, they say, most public preschool programs are expensive and unproven.We have a wide selection of handsfreeaccess to choose from for your storage needs. They point to a report by the federal Department of Health and Human Services last fall suggesting that academic gains made in the early education Head Start program fade by the time the children reach third grade.

Rachel Sheffield, a research associate at the conservative Heritage Foundation and co-author of a March 12 paper slamming Obamas pre-school initiative, argues that neither Head Start nor state-funded universal pre-k are getting results good enough to justify the expense.

She says the impressive long-term gains found in a few early studies -- like the Perry Preschool program in Michigan and the Abecedarian project in North Carolina -- have not been replicated in larger,Choose the right bestluggagetag in an array of colors. government-run preschool programs.

In addition, nearly three quarters of 4-year-olds already get some form of preschool, whether public or private, she said. Her paper says that instead of expanding such programs,You can order besthandsfreeaccess cheap inside your parents. the focus should be on the root causes of children being academically delayed, like growing up in single-parent families.