The 2020 Troon Cards officially went on sale on Tuesday, October 1. This is why I thought to share with you what kind of loyalty marketing trends I am expecting for 2020.
What I try to do now is to show you which elements of the 2020 Troon Cards are in line with the latest loyalty marketing trends that will work in 2020 too.
Let’s see what are the new elements in the 2020 Troon Cards:
- A new Patriot Troon Card for active duty, reserve, and retired military to save on golf at Troon-managed and brand-affiliated facilities around the world.
- More than 125 courses are participating in the industry-leading program (up from 112 courses in 2019).
- A number of OB Sports and Green Golf Partners-managed facilities have been added to the 2020 Troon Card program.
- Some state-specific cards also include “bonus states” so Cardholders can tee it up in neighboring states. All Troon Cards offer discounts at Troon’s international locations.
- Troon Cardholders can improve their golf games by participating in complimentary clinics, play more golf with exclusive replay rates and explore the world of Troon with customized experience packages.
2020 Troon Cards are valid November 1, 2019, through December 31, 2020, with “early bird” pricing available through December 6, 2019.
The Patriot Troon Card is available for $249, a 58 percent savings over the regular National Troon TwoSome Card, with a portion of the sale of each card benefitting the Folds of Honor Foundation.
2020 Troon Cards vs loyalty marketing trends
Karin Timpone, global marketing officer for Marriott International has summarized strikingly the essence of loyalty marketing:
Stay more, pay more and cost less!
Golfers enjoy and expect from marketers, golf clubs to provide discounts, utility, free products and services.
However, loyalty efforts should involve as many parts of the customer journey as possible. Our guests are expecting to be appreciated at every stage of their customer journey.
If you really want to impress your loyalty program members & prospects then:
- Build a base of customers with emotional loyalty. Such loyalty is built on customer service, storytelling, trust, and philanthropy. Customers’ purchasing decisions are not very rational. If you emphasize rational transactions too much it will be more difficult to create a genuine connection with your customers.
- Customize the benefits! Utilize collected customer data (check purchase history!!!) to surprise & delight loyalty program members with rewards unique to their preference (e.g. ability to choose rewards)! This could mean tracking their birthday, HCP, purchase recency, frequency, and value, etc. Polls, surveys and preference centers are transparent ways to enable personalization at their convenience.
- Leverage data analytics!! Hyper-personalization is the next big thing in loyalty programs.
I found in a CapGemini study that customers with high emotional engagement are more likely to have a strong brand affinity compared to someone with low emotional engagement.
Forrester Research (2017) found that
70% of emotionally engaged consumers spend up to two times or more on brands they are loyal to, compared to less than half (49%) of consumers with low emotional engagement.
Brands that engage customers meaningfully in ways that illicit customer emotion have the potential to increase basket size, purchase frequency and gain significant profit.
In addition to all these, I would put loyalty at the center of everything and think about how it could contribute to the golf club’s customer experience development efforts.
My impression of the 2020 Troon Cards offers is that they are very transaction-focused.
At the same time, I must highlight 2 promising elements of the offer:
- Complimentary Introductory & Skills Clinic – it can help us feel better on the Troon-managed golf courses;
- Customized Experience Packages – if it means the cardholder can put together his packages.