Before apps tallied points and expiry reminders did the chasing, loyalty looked like a bottle cap in a drawer. That is the starting point of a MediaNews4U reflection by Srinath Iyer, who returned to an old Indrajal comic and found a vintage Ramon ad—and a sharper way to think about loyalty marketing.
What old promotions asked customers to do
The mechanics were physical and required a little effort. Customers had to notice, save, remember and eventually redeem something. Iyer’s examples from Indian marketing history include:
- Ramon Bonus Stamps arrived in the 1960s.
- Thums Up traded collected bottle caps for a flipbook.
- Pepsi used Fido Dido to swap caps for a Pepsi Beat cassette.
- Flying Machine placed cut-out coupons in The Times of India; a set could be exchanged at Giggles in Connaught Place for jeans.
There was no dashboard, no status email and no app asking anyone to ‘unlock’ a reward. Yet people returned—and they seemed to enjoy the small anticipation of collecting. The object became valuable because something was waiting at the other end.
Repeat purchase is not the same as loyalty
Iyer’s central argument is that marketing has narrowed loyalty into countable behaviour: number of purchases, points balance, membership tier. But those can come from habit, convenience, shelf availability or plain indifference to alternatives. None of them prove that a customer will defend the brand when someone criticises it.
“We excel in rewarding loyalty than at creating it,” he writes. If a few extra points are all that separate a brand from its competitor, the relationship is arithmetic rather than attachment. A discount may secure the next transaction; it does not automatically create a reason to stay.
Why this matters as loyalty programs multiply
The piece lands at a time when points and tiers have become a default growth lever across Indian consumer businesses. The source notes the shift neatly: children once saved Thums Up caps for a flipbook, while adults now check airline miles for an upgrade. The prizes changed; the underlying human behaviour did not.
That is the useful warning for marketers. When every airline, bank, retailer and D2C app offers rewards, points stop being a differentiator. They become table stakes. The brands that win the next purchase are often the ones that already have familiarity, nostalgia or trust working in their favour.
What to ask before designing the next program
The better design question is not “how many points should we give?” but “what would make someone return if the points stopped?” Iyer frames real loyalty as partly irrational: nostalgia, habit, affection and the comfort of a familiar pack. Those feelings do not show up on a spreadsheet, but they are often the strongest reason a buyer stays.
For marketing and loyalty teams, that changes the brief. A program can still be technically efficient, but it should protect and express the brand’s emotional pull rather than replace it. If the answer to the question is “nothing,” the program may simply be a more expensive way to give a discount.
Source: MediaNews4U
