Creativity Studies (May 2024)
The influence of creative and innovative loyalty programs’ features on customers’ attitudinal, conative, and behavioural loyalty
Abstract
Companies allocate significant resources in loyalty programs with the primary goal of enhancing customer loyalty. However, the effectiveness of these programs is now a subject of academic debate. Scholars highlight concerns such as the creation of spurious loyalty, the need for perceived value, and evolving consumer expectations. To succeed in this changing landscape, companies must embrace creativity and innovation in their loyalty program design. As creativity and innovations in loyalty programs are new and little-studied phenomenon, a comprehensive assessment of potential creative and innovative features in loyalty programs is essential for a deeper understanding of their influence on customer loyalty. The aim of this study was to measure the influence of creative and innovative loyalty programs’ features on customers’ attitudinal, conative, and behavioural loyalty. 203 respondents took part in the research. Ordered logistic regression analysis was used to reach the aim of the study. The research findings indicate that engagement-, gamification-, personalization-, and experience-based loyalty programs have an influence on customer loyalty. All four types of features of creative and innovative loyalty programs influence attitudinal and behaviour loyalty, and three types of features of loyalty programs, i.e., engagement-, gamification-, and experience-based, influence conative loyalty. The study findings underscore the importance of designing new features of loyalty programs that align with specific loyalty dimensions, as they can have differential effects on attitudinal, conative, and behavioural aspects of customer loyalty. Such insights are valuable for companies seeking to enhance customer loyalty through creative and innovative loyalty program design and implementation.
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