qiibee: Pegging Loyalty to the Blockchain (An Open Letter from a Loyal Customer to all Favourite Brands)
Dear Favourite Brands,
You know, humans are one of a kind. And the one attribute of being able to easily spread their loyalties across a complex web of people, places, fraternities or corporate brands is what makes them so. Once a need has to be met, we sort through several networks of solutions and pick the option that best suits the situation with no qualms felt at the very least. But as eclectic as we can get with our consumership, we also have choices and pick favorites from the long lists of similar alternatives seeking our attention.
In essence, given the right incentive, we can stay true to any one thing: a particular lover whose kind manners or lovely doe eyes makes us think of forever; the dog, with the brown fur and sensitive, alert ears that encourages us to visit that local dog store every week just to buy or it could simply be that pizza restaurant that leaves you ordering pizzas from home day in, day out, not just because of the exquisite taste of the pizzas within their vegan range, but because of the sheer delight of being able to earn some added loyalty points for every other pizza ordered.
As for me, I belong to the very latter. When, it comes to making choices about what brands to patronize or what places to eat, shop or request services, my loyalty is pegged to the brands and companies that render very generous loyalty programs. You reward and appreciate me for my constant patronage in anyway: discounts, gift cards, coupons, free shipping, invitations to VIP events and so on? Then, you become my favourite brand. I like to think of these loyalty programs as an enactment of the priceless advices of business stalwarts like Howard Schultz who said that "if people believe they share values with a company, they will stay loyal to that brand" or Donald T. Reagan who insists that "you've got to give loyalty down, if you want loyalty up."
Besides, several statistical reviews have given positive nods to the high effectiveness of loyalty programs. This is only one of them:
This statistics was carried out by the Nielsen Global Survey of Loyalty Sentiment.
So yes, loyalty programs are kind of a big deal for customers like myself as well as the brands who see it as a smart sales and marketing tool that can help improve the engagement of customers with the brand as they try to unlock rewards. So, it becomes clear that the words contained within this letter are addressed to all the brands that intend to or are presently running a loyalty program. And to these brands, the next words shouldn't come as a shock:
The Loyalty Programs are breeding problems, not loyalty!
For one, there is the fact that it takes quite a long time for me as a customer to earn enough loyalty points and use it accordingly. Imagine having to refer 50 people to the bridal cake website before I can get the right amount of loyalty points needed to get discount on the price of my dream wedding cake. I really don't have 50 friends planning to wed anytime soon, so what use is staying true to the goal of buying my dream cake from that website?
Again, the highly fragmented loyalty programs makes it difficult to sign up for the right ones or keep tabs on the ones already signed up for. The number of loyalty cards I get just by breezing into supermarkets or restaurants when hungry from work, it's staggering. And where are they now? Hummmmm, let me think. Ok, no use, I can't remember (thinking about it now, many of them must have expired.)
This is not to talk of the fact that the loyalty points have no real vaIue outside the brand it is gotten from. I mean, I really would like to exchange those loyalty points I have scattered all over the internet like Rice Krispies or the shiny codes I get from drinking too much good soft drinks or coffee for some real money. Value, that's what I want, value, not some points confined to the walls of a department store or stored up there on the clouds.
And honestly, I really get the feeling that it is not only the customers that suffer from the downsides of loyalty programs. For one, it really must cost a lot for the brands to set up the loyalty programs, and having to see them fail shouldn't be an option. But to think I read something about failing loyalty programs from this article:
Companies at the forefront of consumer marketing have developed loyalty and rewards programs in an attempt to grow their business by retaining their most valuable customers. And companies continue to spend massive amounts of money to create and market these programs and keep key participants. But has their investment been worth it? For the most part, the answer is no... loyalty programs are effective at activating only a relatively small percentage of a company's customer base.
Ouch, this must really hurt
I also remember working in a company that offered an online service and proposing some loyalty program that was meant to offer gift cards to people for their active engagement on our social media handles on Valentine's Day. Needless to say, on the verge of being executed, it was scraped out due to the cost and the company's skepticism of customer's response.
Well, the good thing is that with every problem(s), there comes a problem solved who is ready to stake all and provide veritable solutions to the problem(s). In this case, qiibee is THE problem solver. And here's why and how.
qiibee: Pegging Value to loyalty programs
Valerie Maltoni said something quite instructive, "the way to a customer's heart is more than a loyalty program. Making customers evangelists is about creating experiences worth talking about." Well, this is exactly what qiibee is all about; making loyalty programs into experiences worth talking about. And they are making this happen by leveraging on a strangely familiar maxim: Unity in Diversity and pinning it down to the recently emergent world of the blockchain. In this sense, qiibee is a blockchain based solution helping to unify loyalty programs initiated by hundreds of brands and bring them all to the blockchain where they will flow and operate seamlessly in the manner of a loyalty ecosystem.
Not only are they in the business of uniting erstwhile fragmented off chain loyalty programs by making it easier and less expensive for brands to move to or build their loyalty programs to the qiibee platform on the blockchain; they are also tokenising the entire loyalty program system, and making it possible for brands and their loyalty programs to interact directly or indirectly with the cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. In this sense, loyalty points can be traded, exchanged and converted diverse and seamlessly as in the manner of crytocurrencies. Think of some crypto exchange market like Binance or Bittrex (the mere enormity of the implications of this juxtaposition tickles my imagination).
The qiibee token called QBX, which is already on the Ethereum blockchain, will be set as a standard exchange token against the other loyalty tokens that will be created on private blockchains. The companies, with the loyalty tokens, will give a price to their tokens against the backdrop of QBX, making it easy for customers to perform exchanges between the various loyalty tokens on the platform or between a token and QBX.
One needs not spell out anymore that even more than creating bricks of worthwhile experiences, out of qiibee, a revolution is sure to be born.
The qiibee Customer Advantage: Value
According to Fruend(2017), an estimated USD 100 billion in points are left unredeemed by members:This figure clearly shows that brands have to make their programs more effective to really drive customer behavior... (qiibee Whitepaper)
The sheer fact that most of these prerogatives attached to loyalty programs are hardly ever met these days is what has led to the low level of engagements by customers. These are what qiibee, as a loyalty ecosystem, aims to rectify with these solutions:
Easy Management: With the qiibee app, loyal customers who have signed up for several loyalty programs will be able to manage and have a full overview of all the loyalty programs in one stop. Apart from the granted interaction with the individual interfaces of their favourite brands' loyalty programs, customers, on the qiibee ecosystem, can import their accumulated points, manage and control it within one space. Even within the qiibee app, customers can be alerted to new updates regarding a particular loyalty program. No doubt, this easy management will make customers all the more responsive to any such loyalty programs they activate. No longer will loyalty points gather dust or be stashed between piles of trash.
Free and Seamless Exchange: This is a particularly significant feature of the qiibee app, that is, the ability to trade and make transactions both within and outside the context of the loyalty programs. Enabled by the QBX token, each loyalty program will have a digital token within the qiibee ecosystem that makes it tradable with other loyalty tokens. Customers can, without any restrictio and with utmost freedom, exchange one loyalty token for another, send and receive loyalty tokens to other people and redeem the tokens within their wallet accordingly.
So I can easily exchange the loyalty points I earned from buying a tracksuit in a sport shop (I am not really into sports, so I would not be needing those points) for the loyalty points of Chicken Republic, a restaurant just across my street where I can redeem the exchanged tokens and get free meals three times in a row. Because these tokens are backed by QBX, they can be traded for the QBX token which in turn can be traded for FIAT or other cryptocurrencies. No kidding, that's some real world value there.
Security: The mere fact that the [qiibee] (qiibee.com) ecosystem is built on the blockchain makes it tight-knitted against all forms of data breaches and information leakages. Empowered with the right dose of passion and skills, Qiibee is doing all it takes for customers to see the values shaped into every brand's loyalty program and utilise it.
The qiibee Brand Advantage: Loyalty
The main driver of activation is engagement... We looked deeper into the data and found that activating participants is not an end game in itself. There is a way to create more value, and it comes from fully engaging these activated customers by building an emotional connection with your program, brand, or product...
People think of loyalty as a customer for a lifetime. But it's really much simpler than that. It's about the next time, every time. (Shep Hyken)
Rightfully, I should have gone on to first talk about the brand advantage before moving on to the customers, because that's where a loyalty program all starts from: the brand. But I am staying true to the "customer-first" ideology. In like manner, qiibee puts their firsthand customers, the brands, on the foremost, by enabling the easy building of loyalty programs on the blockchain.
Through the user-friendly, open-source developer kit, brands can receive the full support of qiibee in integrating the blockchain technology and token system to whatever loyalty program application they are building. The developer kit has all the brands need, from APIs to support to tutorials and documentations, in easily building their loyalty programs on the blockchain. This plug and play technique dramatically reduces the high cost involved in setting up a loyalty program.
After setting up a budget for their loyalty program, and buying the right amount of QBX needed to help create their loyalty tokens, the brands have the liberty to decide when and how the customers are rewarded. Despite this free-handed control, brands are unlikely to be held responsible for any data breach because customers are basically in control of their wallets.
Brands can further leverage on the already existing growing network of customers that utilised the off-chain, multi-activity qiibee app that thrived on bringing together the loyalty programs of over 900 brands through one conduit, the qiibee point. With the brands' ability to easily align their loyalty programs with the realistic, millennial wave of the blockchain technology, and the customers' ability to obtain real world value from their loyalty points, *qiibee closes the engagement gap between customers and brands. And finally, loyalty programs can begin to produce real results.
Hence, through the qiibee advantage, my favourite brands, can get to redefine not just their loyalty programs strategies, but also the meaning of customer loyalty itself. My every single visit to their stores or websites will finally be seen as a telltale sign of engagement and will be pegged, not to colourful cards or shiny plastics, but to real value. And I, by a means of reflex response, will peg my loyalty to these favourite brands of mine.
Tokenomics
As earlier mentioned, qiibee offsets and sustains its loyalty program ecosystem through the QBX token, which is built on the Ethereum blockchain. Given the fact that it is bound to fuel quite a lot of loyalty tokens, its potentials are infinite. And qiibee has invited the general public to be part of the revolution that is soon to unfold on the blockchain. Either as a loyalty shaper, private or crowd sale contributor, you can be part of the qiibee vision. To know more about the qiibee token sale, do check here.
And yes, I must not fail to mention that, even as the qiibee ecosystem advances what is called **'loyalty token airdrops' **(the gifting of loyalty tokens to customers by brands), they also are in the midst of handing out airdrops to the public. Also, this blog post explains more about the qiibee airdrops. You can just join in by visiting the qiibee airdrop website, clicking on 'join airdrop' and then following the instructions to earn 300 QBX.
P. S: There is an extra bonus of 50 QBX for steemit members who can send a memo containing their Telegram Username and valid ETH address to @bountyworks before the 30th of May.
The qiibee Team
Truth be told, I am highly proclived to sibling partnerships. And qiibee just happens to be one abiding thread in the great line up of successful sibling partnerships. 2015 saw the coming together of two brothers, Gabriele Giancola and Gianluca Giancola, who, with their distinct, specialised skills created a multi-activity application that was designed to conglomerate the loyalty programs of several brands by enabling customers earn and spend a single loyalty award- the qiibee point. About 900 brands and 100, 000 end users came under the umbrella of the qiibee off chain loyalty program solution.
It was the staggering success and limitations of the qiibee multi-activity app that acted as a forerunner to the full-fledged blockchain based qiibee solution for loyalty programs. While Gabriele acts as the sales and partnerships head, having worked in the loyalty sector for over 6 years, Gianluca brings his skill as a Design and UX expert to the fore, giving qiibee just the right feel to make it into a home for customers and brands.
The team base of qiibee is constantly expanded to meet the company's growing needs. And the impact of each added member reflects immensely on the delivery, outlook and function of qiibee. The people that make up the team of strategic advisors for qiibee are also worth mentioning, as they span across various professions and callings, from the economic industry to the travel industry , relevant to the success of qiibee. With such a well-made team, qiibee has gone on to advance progressively and score achievements with several top brands, the recent one being their close-knitted partnership with Lattesso, the second largest coffee producer in Switzerland. Lattesso are presently running their first loyalty program on the blockchain with the help of qiibee.
Conclusion
The Lattesso Model
With all my rambles so far, it is quite easy to tell that I am a chatty person. But before I go on to let go of my pen, let me drop a nugget from one Frédéric Jameson, an equally chatty person like myself. Jameson, in his postmodern paper, enunciated the emergence of a new kind of society- the consumer society. In this society, "new types of consumption" are dictated by "the penetration of the media and the unparalleled degree, rapid rhythm and growth of great networks and culture." In this society, consumer loyalties only go as far as the brands are willing to create a seamless interactive chain of networking for the consumers. I live in this consumer society. And like the millions, even billions of people within the society, I want to find real value for following up on the loyalty programs of the various brands I am loyal to. I want to be able to trade the loyalty points I earned from Domino when my local grocery store suddenly decides to offer reasonable coupons upon having certain number of their loyalty points. I want to be able to send loyalty points to that special someone who needs a certain amount of points to be able to get a gift card that automatically earns her a nice massage at the spa. And yes yes yes, I would be happy if I could exchange the loyalty points from my various favourite brands for QBX tokens which I can trade for Ethereum and then FIAT just so I can buy that dream wedding cake all the same. And as it stands presently, only qiibee can make these happen.
So dear favourite brands, why not get right down to pegging your loyalty programs to the qiibee blockchain based loyalty ecosystem so that I can be all the happier, and thus, all the more loyal to you!
Yours truly,
A loyal customer.
References
Postmodernism and Consumer Society
What Economic Marketers can learn...
You want more information about qiibee? Then seek them out on these platforms:
qiibee website
qiibee Whitepaper
qiibee Telegram
qiibee Medium
qiibee Twitter
qiibee Facebook
qiibee Instagram
qiibee LinkedIn
qiibee Google Plus
This is an entry to this sponsored contest rendered by @originalworks.
qiibee2018
I guess with this idea in mind, you might start your new coin with loyalty programs
Submitted.