Gen Y Starting to Value Loyalty

CRM magazine reports that loyalty marketing research firm Colloquy has released a follow-up to its 2007 benchmarking study on loyalty programs which included the same questions as last year's, but also added questions specifically pertaining to the economy's effect on consumers' participation in loyalty programs.

In the U.S. overall, participation jumped 19 percent year-over-year, with the most significant increase exhibited by Millennials, or Generation Y (people between 18 and 25 years of age), among whom the level of participation spiked by nearly 32 percent.

This past June, Colloquy released its 2009 Loyalty Census, which reported that membership in loyalty programs rose to 1.8 billion, up from 1.3 billion in 2007. The average U.S. household is a member of 14.1 loyalty programs, according to the report, but actively participates in only 6.2 of them. A year ago, the average household was a member in 12 programs, and actively participated in 4.7.

Millennials exhibited the largest jump in rewards-program participation on a percentage basis, with a 32 percent increase in their rate of participation. Even so, Millennials' rate of participation (57.9 percent) remains relatively low; the only segment in Colloquy's study to participate at a lower rate were emerging Hispanics (47 percent, up from 41.4 percent in 2007).

Still, these two groups indicate the highest rate of interest in enrolling with new loyalty programs -- 27.4 percent of Millennials and 28.3 percent of emerging Hispanics -- in order to earn more value. Again, the economic climate may have had a direct impact on results: 46.4 percent of Millennials and 39.8 percent of emerging Hispanics claim that loyalty programs have become "more important" because of the recession.