A sophisticated marketing solution

Multi-brand loyalty is going to infuse excitement in shopping experience, ensuring collective benefits for the participating brands. Vijay Bobba, CEO of Payback India, elaborates on this marketing tool.

Retailer: Considering the nascent stage of modern retail in India, how is Payback  envisaging the prospect in the market as a loyalty programme provider?

Vijay Bobba (VB): India’s booming and rapidly maturing consumer market provides tremendous opportunities for Payback. The rapid rise of organised retail increases the value of sophisticated marketing solutions significantly. We are targeting partners with pan-Indian reach, strong brands and a leadership position in categories that are relevant for shopper’s everyday lives. We want to work with national and international brands and large regional partners offering a high density level in core regional markets. These organised market segments grow the fastest in India and they have reached the critical mass necessary for a multi-partner loyalty programe like Payback.

Retailer: How does it work? What’s the business equation you have with retailers and brands, in terms of revenue sharing?

VB: Payback manages the loyalty programe for the participating partners and gets service and license fees from these companies.

Retailer: It’s a multi-brand loyalty programme. How will you ensure the promotion of every brand has the fair share?

VB: Ever since we are launched in India, we have signed partners from all verticals. This is to keep non-competing brands together. Today we have partners like HPCL, ICICI Bank, MakeMyTrip.com, Megamart, Music World, Bookmyshow.com, FernsnPetals.com, Yebhi.com and many more. Future Group is the newest partner to have joined us recently. There are other major announcements coming up as we build our presence here. All major brand partners are continuously featured in all network communication – whether it is Payback’s own communication or partners’ communication. At the same time, Payback is sending out partner specific promotion offers across its communication channels – online, e-mailers or even physical. These offers are fully personalised and tailored to customer’s actual needs and interests. Thus, our partners can actually reach out to those customers within our network with personalised offers that are really relevant to consumers.

 

Retailer: How do you manage the technical part, the management of the heavy database of the customers?

VB: We do this with our internal experts – they developed Payback; they know how to handle and process big databases as well as running highly sophisticated loyalty platforms. Keeping all data in-house also assures data protection.

Retailer: In the age of debit and credit cards what extra benefits will  Payback card offer?

VB: One of Payback’s anchor partners is ICICI Bank. All ICICI Bank cardholders, both credit and debit, collect points on every single transaction they do with their payment card, everywhere. If an ICICI Bank customer now additionally shows his Payback card at one of our participating network partners, he gets the partner’s points over and above the payment card points from ICICI Bank. This strongly further enhances customers’ opportunities to earn points with Payback.

Retailer: What’s the challenge you’re facing to popularise the concept?

VB: The challenge here is Indian retailers have not tasted success in making loyalty programme popular yet. The sheer expertise needed is seen to be lacking amongst them. They start off with a good note but happen to let it go very easily when they don’t make too much of profits. More than looking it as a customer investment and a strategy to retain the loyal customers, they start viewing it as a means to make profit. This perception needs to be changed.  

Interviewed by Suranjana Basu

 

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