Politics aside, consumers are facing stubbornly high prices for groceries and household goods. Marketers must offer tangible value to help mitigate sticker shock, and to bolster value-led positions – and do it without giving away the store.
QSRs promote value meals; retailers offer BOGOs; car dealers tout cashback and low interest rates. Everyday Low Price business models strain to maintain their cred.
Consumers struggle to stretch their dollars, considering less expensive brands, store brands, and just plain skipping little luxuries. Insidious shrinkflation can make customers feel ripped off. Businesses are pressured by higher costs and uncertain supply chains, trying to navigate between margin erosion and customer attrition.
But there is a win-win approach to delivering savings while mitigating damage to your margin.
For many, the answer – or at least a helpful bridge strategy for hard times – can be a loyalty program.
A well-designed program can help control costs by directing targeted discounts where they can most effectively retain customers. Broad discounts, promotional price rollbacks, cashback, or conventional couponing can erode margins without affecting customer behavior. Using program data to limit discounts ensures the highest value – or highest risk – patrons get the best deals.
A few examples: In the QSR world, restaurants increasingly make deals and loyalty rewards contingent upon using the mobile app, which reduces operational costs to offset the discount. Supermarkets use programs to deliver member pricing; the smartest use the same mechanics to drive product trial or accelerate spending. Airlines, hotels, and their partner banks offer rewards based on “stretch goals,” and limit costly perks to their most valuable or most vulnerable guests. Financial institutions offer credits and incentives for new deposits.
Research bears out the importance of savings for loyalty program members. Antavo’s Customer Loyalty Report for 2025 reports that 69.8% join programs for the savings, discounts, and free goods. A Digitas / Fetch study finds 76% of members focus on creative ways to save money.
And while there is much more to real loyalty than price sensitivity, there’s a huge risk if brands don’t deliver savings to their loyalty customers: SAP / Emarsys reports that in 2025, 60% of consumers switched from a brand they were loyal to because of cost concerns.
In uncertain times with persistent inflation, it’s important to ensure your engagement strategy demonstrably delivers real monetary value. Your thoughts?