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Make me special: Gender differences in consumers’ responses to loyalty programs

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  • Valentyna Melnyk
  • Stijn Osselaer

Abstract

Current literature on loyalty programs emphasizes the importance of psychological rewards and special treatment. However, it is not clear if male and female customers respond to these incentives in a similar way. We explore the differential effect for female versus male consumers of two psychological rewards that are provided through a loyalty program (a) high status (e.g., Gold membership), and (b) personalization, at different levels of visibility to other consumers. Across three experiments and a field study, we find a coherent pattern of gender differences in the way customers respond to different types of psychological rewards in the context of loyalty programs. The results show that men respond more positively than women to loyalty programs that emphasize status, but only when their higher status is highly visible to others. In contrast, women respond more positively than men to loyalty programs that emphasize personalization, but only for personalization in private settings. We discuss managerial implications for the design of loyalty programs. Copyright The Author(s) 2012

Suggested Citation

  • Valentyna Melnyk & Stijn Osselaer, 2012. "Make me special: Gender differences in consumers’ responses to loyalty programs," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 23(3), pages 545-559, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:kap:mktlet:v:23:y:2012:i:3:p:545-559
    DOI: 10.1007/s11002-011-9160-3
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    8. Vilches-Montero, Sonia & Pandit, Ameet & Bravo-Olavarria, Renzo & Chao, Chih-Wei (Fred), 2018. "What loyal women (and men) want: The role of gender and loyalty program characteristics in driving store loyalty," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 64-70.
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    11. Butori, Raphaëlle & De Bruyn, Arnaud, 2013. "So you want to delight your customers: The perils of ignoring heterogeneity in customer evaluations of discretionary preferential treatments," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 358-367.
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