Using our proven methodology, Ascendant Loyalty develops unique and inspiring loyalty programs for our clients. We determine the best strategic approach for your loyalty marketing program, which includes a structured data analysis, consumer primary research, review of past/current efforts, competitive analysis, and stakeholder interviews and more.
Business Analysis
To drive results from day one, we start with a sharp assessment of your business—strengths, gaps, and constraints. Our adaptable loyalty checklist ensures we gather only the critical information needed to quickly align with your goals and deliver focused, effective solutions.
Competitive Analysis
Do you know what your competitors are doing? We track and document what your direct competitors offer your customers to help shape solutions that outperform and future-proof your business. We also study admired brands and adjacent players who serve similar audiences, even in different models. Finally, we broaden the lens across your geographic footprint—and beyond—to uncover best practices and cultural insights that can sharpen your competitive edge.
Research
We are experts in loyalty-related research. We review your past research and share key insights. If needed, recommend targeted primary research to deepen understanding in critical areas. We also tap into relevant third-party sources, including publicly available data and industry reports from firms like Forrester and Gartner, to ensure our recommendations are comprehensive and well-informed.
Loyalty Program Assessment
We are loyalty marketing experts, dedicated to driving profitable growth for clients through smarter customer retention. Using our proven strategic assessment methodology, we identify unique opportunities and craft loyalty solutions tailored precisely to your needs—no more, no less. If your program has performance issues, our structured diagnostics uncover the root causes so we can deliver targeted, effective fixes. We leverage your brand equity, spark innovation, and build loyalty programs that fuel long-term, competitive advantage.
Loyalty Program Design
When designing a customer-centric marketing program—whether or not it includes rewards—it’s critical to explore all viable models and align the right one with your brand and business goals. We translate your strategic objectives into a tailored program framework, whether that’s a points-based system, an experiential access model, or a subscription-based structure. With deep expertise across the full spectrum of program designs, we ensure you make informed, goal-driven decisions that set your brand up for lasting success.
Financial Modeling
A loyalty program is only as effective as the financial model behind it. Our comprehensive modeling approach lets you test real-world scenarios—like engagement, redemption, retention, and reward costs—across customer segments and tiers. We factor in key variables such as enrollment, frequency lift, average spend, margins, and both capital and operating expenses. Our models deliver a clear view of profitability, ROI, and liability over a 3-year horizon, with built-in sensitivity analysis to adjust for your unique business drivers. This gives you the data-driven confidence to design a loyalty strategy that strengthens retention and supports long-term financial health.
Risk Analysis & Resolution
You know what they say about "the best laid plans." However, smart planning builds in room to adapt. Before your loyalty program goes live, we develop contingencies and action plans to quickly address issues, protect financial performance, and maintain member satisfaction if things don’t go as expected. Whether it’s a competitive response, market shift, or an unforeseen challenge, we’ve likely seen it—and if we haven’t, we’ll move fast to help you course-correct. Our quarterly business reviews ensure we identify issues early, prioritize fixes, and allocate resources to keep performance on track and optimized.
Program Roadmap
Programs rarely launch fully loaded. That’s where a strategic roadmap comes in. We assess your resource capacity upfront to avoid overwhelming your teams, especially during pilots or initial rollout. Our approach starts with a smart, streamlined program backed by flawless operational execution to ensure it delivers on its financial goals. As performance proves out and investment is justified, we phase in enhancements through a well-defined roadmap. Partnering closely with IT, operations, finance, and merchandising teams, we coordinate a rollout that maximizes efficiency, scales smartly, and keeps your customers coming back for a lifetime.