Previous Loyalty Weeks have discussed that Loyalty is a feeling, Not a behavior to cultivate, which is kinda the antithesis and crux of this Businessweek podcast but has been an endemic feeling among marketers for many years. But if loyalty is only a behavior to cultivate among the consumer, then the behavior that is created among the consumer is often rote to the point of becoming if not pointless, at least required.

According to a study by the CMO Council in Chief Marketer nearly 80% of marketers are continue CRM programs this year, and over 34% are significantly increasing their spend, even though only 13% said their initiatives had been highly effective in leveraging loyalty and brand preference among club members.

Oh, and 58% of consumers, want more compelling personal benefits and services, as well as more individualized deals.

So oftentimes, the creation of a loyalty program ends up seeming more like an ongoing rebate program rather than an actual loyalty program. This has only been complicated recently by the influx of the application of points and rebate-style loyalty programs across so many market segments [think hotels, grocery, coffee, airline, rails, banks, credit cards, bagel shops, ice cream, casual dining, retailers, bookstore, discount stores, outlet stores… is anyone left?].

The issue with these programs is two–fold:

1.       The customer doesn’t actually feel special or any real reason to be loyal because everyone has a program and there is no specific targeting for them.

2.       The cost of maintaining the rewards and of this program can cause the program to tip over and no longer be profitable to bring in new customers, or retain them, since you may actually be paying customers who were already engaging in a behavior, or who are not actually driving additional business only to you.

But it’s also been complicated on the other side by a whole new element: the addition of immediate communication and the cultivation of community through social networking and geolocation tools. Suddenly loyalty can become more than just soup labels pasted in a book or points collected on a receipt bottom, more than a couple cents or dollars off a purchase. They are badges automatically tweeted out to followers, and scores posted to your friends, and rewards that you receive when you post when you’re at Tasti-D-Lite and what you ordered.

Loyalty programs are also evolving to create a method to communicate the good and the bad, not just the rewards, for the transition of companies from a simple transactional relationship to a more symbiotic one. One can look at Forbes Magazine's foray into talking to their customer complaints over social media, or the Comcast Cares program, or even the Domino's Pizza turnaround campaign as a customer service initiative or as a wider cast net into how real loyalty – the "Feeling" loyalty, is cultivated.

Whether it is highlighting the communications channels over time through better behavioral targeting tools, integrating with social media, or adding fun to the programs by laying in instant win games, loyalty programs must continue to evolve to meet the evolution of the consumer’s need.

It’s almost funny that we are announcing an iPad giveaway during Loyalty Week. Many would say that Apple Enthusiasts are some of the most rabidly loyal of the technology culture sector, and yet Apple does not have any traditional loyalty program [many would say argue they tip to the opposite]. Nor are they particularly communicative outright, they let their loyalists do it for them… yet...OK, the blog was a bit light this week.

Cats love the iPad:

But Dogs… remain skeptical at best, but they stopped being early adopters after the whole fire debacle.