Loyalty and incentives marketing step into the driver’s seat

TOGETHER WITH

The value of a lifetime customer. One customer in your loyalty program can be worth five in the wild, or however the saying goes. Talon.One knows how to maximize lifetime customer value with loyalty and incentive marketing. See how.

These customers just want more, more, more! More discounts, more loyalty programs, more incentives…it’s just unreasonable.

Unfortunately, that line of thinking isn’t uncommon. It’s also a red flag for e-commerce executives who cling to such thoughts. From a purely mathematical perspective, less money from a sale is bad for the bottom line, right? Wrong.

The truth is, loyalty programs and incentives marketing can be a major revenue driver. In fact, Harvard Business Review Analytic Services’ recent pulse survey uncovered data to prove the true value of these programs.

They surveyed 420 members of the Harvard Business Review audience via an online survey in March 2025. Respondents were qualified to complete the survey if their organization offered promotions or discounts and they were familiar with their org’s decisions about promotional pricing and customer loyalty.

To understand how loyalty and incentives programs build value, first we have to unravel the notion that they take money out of your pockets. From there, it’s about understanding how to use loyalty programs as a retention tool and how properly measuring the impact of incentives can unlock their true value. Talon.One doesn’t just make that possible; they make it easy with their all-in-one platform.

Does this add up?

“I think there’s a lot of frustration among the C-suite that consumers have come to expect discounts and rewards.”—Brett Hollenbeck, associate professor of marketing at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management

Let’s do a little math. Say a customer makes a $100 purchase but uses a personalized discount code for 20% off that they received via email for their birthday (which counts as an incentive, just like all rewards, discounts, and loyalty offers designed to drive customer behavior). Right away, that’s $20 less in revenue. Is that necessarily a bad thing? According to Deloitte, it’s not.

“Our research shows that it costs about five times more to attract a new customer than to retain an existing one,” Oliver Page, principal at Deloitte Consulting, said. “Once a customer is in your database, retargeting or reengaging them is much easier and cheaper.”

If the only line item you look at is the individual sale, then sure, you discounted $20. But this enormously underestimates the benefits of goodwill, retention, and incentives. The customer’s already part of your email list, and they returned to the site to make a purchase. The incentives are to thank for that.

“We’ve found that digital engagement drives increased shopping behavior by about 20% on average,” Page said. “And how do you get people to order digitally? You give them rewards, incentives, and coupons through a digital channel, and you gamify the experience to encourage them to come in more often or buy more.”

If your competitors take the old-school approach and go without incentives, your brand becomes the golden child. Think of gamification as your trail of breadcrumbs. As customers take specific actions along their journey, the rewards get bigger and sweeter. Without them, they’re likely a one-time shopper who laments that they could’ve gotten a better deal. With them, they’re repeat customers who provide something even more pivotal than any individual sale: data.

Loyalty by numbers

Remember those coloring books where each section had a little number that corresponded to a color, and once you filled it in, you got something beautiful? Loyalty programs can yield the same result, but the only color you’ll see more of is green. In fact, 77% of respondents at organizations with a customer loyalty program say their efforts are either extremely or very important to their executive leadership team, according to a Harvard Business Review Analytic Services survey commissioned by Talon.One.

That’s because loyalty programs can evolve beyond points and discounts to become core drivers of customer retention, CLV, and profitability. The most forward-thinking brands are reimagining loyalty as strategic, data-driven, and measurable. The secret is having the right tools to measure this data.

Enter Talon.One. They’re the platform that brings promotions, loyalty, and gamification together seamlessly for consumer brands. Trusted by global brands like Adidas, Nordstrom, Sephora, and Joe & The Juice, they’ve helped these companies break up the silos that prevent strategic planning across departments to create a unified effort to boost customer loyalty.

For example, in partnership with Talon.One, Joe & The Juice launched an in-store promotion designed to encourage app downloads, a crucial step in boosting CLV. Their strategy includes using app-exclusive incentives to move in-store customers to the app, where it’s easier to gather insights and create long-term loyalty. With plans for future geofencing campaigns, they aim to deliver even more tailored offers.

This unified effort, along with the promotions available through Talon.One, allows them to offer more for their customers and get more in return. It’s a symbiotic relationship between the brand, the customer, and Talon.One, who all work together to create a better experience. This doesn’t just end at loyalty programs, though.

Intoxicating incentives

As mentioned, loyalty programs can help gather more data. That data then lets your brand personalize the experience.

Moving away from mass discounting and toward personalized offers creates more value for businesses and customers alike. Among respondents at organizations that have started personalizing promotions and discounts (56% of the group), 62% say they saw increased sales as a result. Nearly half (47%) say it’s increased customer loyalty, and 44% say it’s delivered a better customer experience.

Talon.One integrates loyalty and promotions, and companies can transform incentives into a competitive advantage. That can mean better internal alignment across finance, tech, and marketing, as well as more personalized customer experiences, improved CLV, reduced costs, and greater profitability.

Now, if we went through every example of how Talon.One executes this with global brands…we’d need a bigger website. Thankfully, they can take things from here. Book a consultation and see how their team can help your company take loyalty and incentives strategies from 0 to 60 with ease.

To learn more about Talon.One and incentives marketing, head to https://www.talon.one/lp/marketing-incentives.