loyalty

Are Apple fans really more loyal?

Having faith in other people is often as sensible as having faith that your bus will arrive on time.

People are, by their very nature, mercurial. The current world of supposed sharing often makes them more selfish, as they must spend more time considering how to present themselves publicly at all periods of the day.

It's somewhat surprising, then, that Apple still enjoys the loyalty that it does.

Wander past any Apple store and there always seems to be half the neighborhood in there.

And whenever surveys of brand loyalty are performed, Apple so very often seems to be … Read more

iPhone users get less loyal

iPhone users are feeling a little less loyal, according to Strategy Analytics.

For the first time since the phone originally launched in 2007, the number of iPhone owners who say they definitely or probably will purchase their next handset from Apple has declined, the firm said.

There is no doubt that Apple is continuing its success in retaining existing user base while attracting new customers. However, negative press prompted by a perceived lack of recent innovation by Apple has meant we are starting to see some growth in the number of previously highly loyal consumers who are now reconsidering whether … Read more

Why 'data breach' isn't a dirty word anymore

Three years ago one of the largest payment processors in the country reported that hackers had accessed its computer system, exposing millions of credit card numbers in what is believed to be the largest hacking-related security breach ever.

Heartland Payment Systems' CEO said at the time that the breach had occurred in 2008, but had only been discovered in January 2009. According to the DataLossDB site, the Heartland breach involved 130 million credit and debit card numbers. The company was sued by shareholders, but the suit was dismissed. Meanwhile, after pleading guilty to that hack as well as a slew … Read more

Receipts are the new locations

I recently heard two different pitches from entrepreneurs who think that the business of focusing on physical restaurant or retail check-ins--in other words, Foursquare--is old fashioned and played out. At least as a business. They're pitching start-ups that check in your transactions, using the receipts you get when you pay.

The idea is not to get you to share your financial history with the world, as Blippy did at first. That was nuts. Instead, DailyGobble and RewardLoop are loyalty programs, in which you use your receipt as a virtual box top, a proof of purchase that gets you some consideration from the business you just patronized.

What makes these two services modern and smart is the way they're designed to take the hassle and friction out of making your claims. In the case of DailyGobble, the whole check-in process is stealth, which may appeal to people who don't want to appear to their dining companions to be coupon surfers. First, you find a restaurant deal you like on the DailyGobble site or mobile app. Then you go to that restaurant and have your lovely meal. Afterward, you snap a picture of the receipt from your phone and upload it using the app. Then you get a cash payback in your PayPal account.

What you have to do when you arrive and leave the restaurant: Nothing. DailyGobble execs pitch the fact that you don't have to present "embarrassing" coupons and potentially suffer "inferior service" from waitstaff who know you're dining below normal rates. I'm not sure that's a big problem, but I do like the simplicity of the DailyGobble deal flow.

Meanwhile, the restaurant gets your business, plus some details on who you are and what you ate. DailyGobble itself gets to build a dossier on your preferences and collect a per-seating fee from the restaurants. The business is like OpenTable's, but without that service's traditional recurring fee for its restaurant customers (a newer program, OpenTable Connect, is pay-as-you-go). It's a smart update on the aggregator/loyalty program model.

DailyGobble was part of the 500 Startups demo day in Mountain View last week. … Read more

How OpenTable puts loyalty to the test

A month ago, San Francisco restaurateur Mark Pastore of Incanto wrote an impassioned blog post, Is OpenTable Worth it?, in which he bemoaned the reservation system's fees and encouraged his readers to better support restaurants, many of which are operating on the edge of business viability, by calling them directly for reservations, thereby reserving OpenTable's substantial fees for the restaurants themselves.

It's a complicated relationship that restaurant owners have with OpenTable. There's no question that OpenTable fills seats that would otherwise go empty. And it's ridiculous to pine for the pre-OpenTable era, when finding a reservation meant calling establishment after establishment and hoping for the elusive available table at the time you wanted. Even Pastore, in an e-mail to me, relented:

I certainly don't want guests to go back to booking all reservations by telephone or as you suggest going serially from one website to the next to find a good table match. Yes, both of those scenarios suck.

What does he want, then? He wants OpenTable to not have a monopoly on the reservation business:

How about some good old fashioned American competition to keep pricing honest? And how about someone figuring out a way to monetize this online service on an ad model, like Gmail or any other of countless web services, rather than as something that ultimately siphons hefty fees from the diners. And how about someone figuring out a way to present a more trustworthy and comprehensive directory of all bookable restaurants out there, not just the closed universe (OT.com) of those who are paying thousands for the privilege of being listed?

At the very least, Pastore would like to see a more restaurant-friendly fee structure. Based on some admittedly old available data, he believes that an OpenTable reservation that costs a restaurant about $10 (taking into account monthly and per-booking fees) would completely negate a typical 5 percent profit on a $200 dinner check. OpenTable takes issue with Pastore's math in its own post. Also check out this discussion on Chow.com.

Leaving the table It was with my conversation with Pastore in mind that I talked to Chuck Templeton of GrubHub, the OpenTable of take-out. Not coincidentally, Templeton was the founder of OpenTable in 1998. He's already made one fortune from restaurants (OpenTable went public in 2009). It appears he's at it again, with a similar, if less audacious and more open plan.

Loopt gets a geo-aware directory of nearby deals

Users of location-based social network Loopt who are looking for discounts or other deals in their neighborhood now have an easier way to find them.

The service is expected to launch a new feature on Friday for its Looptstar application, which differs from Loopt's core app in that it's focused on finding nearby deals. The update takes the idea of showing you what deals are in your immediate vicinity and puts them into one large directory that users can browse without actually having to be at those places.

"Users had been asking us to see all the … Read more

Google, IBM, Apple--world's most valuable brands

Google is the world's strongest brand for the fourth straight year, according to a study released Wednesday by research firm Millward Brown Optimor.

Analyzing the world's strongest brands, the fifth annual "BrandZ Top 100 report" examined consumer opinions and market data on brands to assign each one a certain value and then translated that value into dollars to rank the top 100.

Tech companies took the top four spots with No. 1 Google followed by IBM, Apple, and Microsoft.

Google, IBM, and Apple all grew in brand value from 2009, noted Millward Brown, even amid a … Read more

Scam probe casts harsh light on Web retail

The sheer number of retailers accused of betraying customer trust, and the scrutiny being directed toward credit card companies, has churned up an unprecedented scandal for the e-commerce sector.

New York examines Web marketing 'scam' The state follows up U.S. probe of "misleading" marketing practices by Orbitz, Barnes & Noble, and other online retailers. (Posted in Media Maverick by Greg Sandoval) January 28, 2010 12:54 AM PST

Affinion stops buying credit-card info from e-tailers In a victory for consumers and a Senate committee, one of the marketers accused of duping Web shoppers into joining paid programs … Read more

Congress demands info from Web loyalty firm

Update 1:15 p.m. PDT: Added quotes from Vertrue.

Vertrue, which operates a so-called Web loyalty program, apparently isn't as forthcoming with information as some U.S. Senators would like.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Senate's Commerce Committee issued a subpoena to Vertrue requiring that the privately held company turn over documents that committee investigators requested in May, including communications with business partners and credit card companies.

Companies like Norwalk, Conn.-based Vertue, along with WebLoyalty and Affinion, are marketers that make "cash-back" and coupon offers to consumers and charge those who enroll in their … Read more

Buy.com, Orbitz linked to controversial marketers

Update: 11:20 a.m. Friday, July 24, 2009: To include comments from Orbitz.

Thousands of Web shoppers have complained that "mystery charges" are showing up on their credit card statements and have accused those who operate so-called Web loyalty programs of duping them into signing up.

As a result, the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee is investigating Vertrue, WebLoyalty, and Affinion--companies who make "cash-back" and coupon offers to consumers and charge those who enroll in their loyalty programs.

If you think that anyone who unwittingly signs up to one of these programs must be an … Read more