Customer loyalty

The basic reason for establishing the Nutrition Code was to provide an additional service targeted at Kesko Food’s loyal customers, i.e. K-Plussa cardholders. Loyal customers wanted to be offered a service that would be genuinely beneficial to them. Reverse use of customer data was regarded first and foremost as a means to increase the loyalty of existing customers.

This is a service for our loyal customers, and the idea is to create such benefit to our loyal customers that it’s worthwhile for them to be our customers and therefore they will shop at our stores.

- Representative of Kesko Corporation

This objective was to a large extent empirically illustrated by customers as well.

From the customers’ point of view, Nutrition Code was perceived as an additional service among the existing set of other K-Plussa -related customer loyalty benefits, such as conventional monetary compensation for customer loyalty. Naturally, the Nutrition Code was found especially beneficial by those customers that were interested in monitoring the nutritive substances of their groceries. As described in the following citations, Nutrition Code was perceived as an additional service that strengthened the already established and existing loyalty toward the food retailer, but did not necessarily result in concentrating more shopping in K-food stores:

And I think the idea is just great, basically as I am a Kesko client and I mainly do my grocery shopping at the K-stores, Citymarkets and K-supermarkets, so I thought that it

might be a useful added service for me if I want to track my shopping then why not, and it’s for free so that you can use it or then you can forget about it.

[… ]

I use the stores in question, so in a way I get information about my own customership, my own buying behaviour. So it is an added value for me.

- Ilona, 40

However, the theme of customer loyalty was found to be far more diverse in nature than Ilona described. Altogether four distinct sub themes of customer loyalty were identified from the empirical data of which the above described theme was labeled as ‘Strengthening existing loyalty’. Here, the customers’ loyalty toward that retailer was not increased in terms of buying more or concentrating more of their shopping in K-food stores; the information did not necessarily directly affect their patronage behavior. However, they became more committed as a result of being provided with additional service.

Secondly, some customers were willing to prefer K-food stores in the future just because of the Nutrition Code; they were more willing to buy more of their groceries from K-food stores.

Otherwise this might lead to, like I said earlier, that if I had those small markets closer by, or along my route I would probably use them because of the service, I mean it would be another incentive that if there were two stores side by side then which would I choose.

- Amanda, 48

Well yeah, sure if I’ve got an S-market and a K-supermarket side by side I’ll go to the K-store, if not for any other reason then just because what I’ve bought will be registered in the Nutrition Code…

- Mikael, 19

Well yeah I guess if I would go to the store somewhere else and they’d have an S-market and a K-market I would probably prefer the K-store.

- Johanna, 30

As illustrated by Amanda, Mikael and Johanna, K-food stores would be preferredif no additional sacrifices were needed. For example, in the case of different retailers’

food stores being located side by side they would prefer K-food stores just for the

sake of getting the information provided by the Nutrition Code. Although these customers acknowledged that the service had a positive effect on their loyalty toward the food retailer, the increase in loyalty was conditional; Nutrition Code was perceived to increase their loyalty if no additional sacrifices were needed³⁶. From the value creation point of view, the service and the information it provided was not that important due to the fact that although recognizing the benefits of the service, they did not want to endure any additional sacrifices for the sake of those benefits.

In that respect, this sub theme is labeled here as ‘Conditional loyalty’.

Thirdly, Nutrition Code was perceived by some customers as being so important in their value creation that they simply concentrated more of their groceries in K-food stores:

I tend to shop a lot more at K-group stores.

[… ]

I used to go to Citymarket something like 75 per cent of the time but now I’d have to say it’s more like 90 per cent just because of this.

- Helmi, 30

Being provided with information about the nutritive substance of their groceries was regarded as such a benefit for which customers were willing to buy more from K-food stores. No conditions for the increase in loyalty were reported; in that respect, the service increased customers’ loyalty unconditionally. The information provided by the Nutrition Code simply encouraged and motivated customers to buy more from K-food stores, which is why the theme is labeled ‘Motivated loyalty’.

Fourthly, providing customers with information resulting from reverse use of customer data made some customers reassess their current customer loyalty entirely and as a result, shift from one retailer to another.

I have to say that when I first heard of this me and my husband always went to the Prisma supermarket, as we tend to go to the Sello shopping mall in Leppävaara, but when this service came up I thought this is such a good idea that you can get information about what

36 It is important to note that the customers’ descriptions related to ‘Conditional loyalty’ are not based on actual experience, but are more or less resulting from imagination and illustrating how they would behave under certain circumstances.

you buy and what you should eat, so it was because of that really that we moved over to being Kesko customers, or K-group customers…

[… ]

I mean at Kesko they take it down with that, I think this is a really good service and I feel that we won by changing sides. So we’re such Kesko fans now we wouldn’t have dreamt of it before, because for many years we always went to Prisma supermarkets, and it was precisely because of this Nutrition Code that we did it, because I was interested in knowing how healthfully we eat. So now I even try to go close to my workplace there’s a K-store, and they are added up to the same figures, so I really do focus on K-stores now.

- Katariina, 64

As illustrated above, Katariina perceived the information provided by the Nutrition Code to be so important that she and her husband shifted from being loyal customers of S-group to being loyal customers of Kesko Food, just for the sake of the Nutrition Code. She perceived the benefits of the information resulting from reverse use of customer data to be so high that she was even ready to face considerable sacrifices in terms of changing the place where she had used to do all her grocery shopping. Similarly, Matilda found the information provided by the service so important that she found herself almost ‘forced’ to concentrate all their food shopping in K-food stores:

If I shop somewhere else then I wouldn’t know how healthfully I eat. I want to go there to register my purchases in the service and then I can keep track of how healthful our diet is.

So I forgive myself for the stock-up items. Well my husband does sometimes shop at this store whose name I shall not mention which is of German origin, to buy some healthful sausages. But I kind of forgive both of us for these. Because they are just to stock up. But the basic ingredients, our main diet for the most part as much there is to it we get from the K-store.

- Matilda, 53

Consequently, reverse use of customer data does more than just increase existing customer loyalty: it can even initiate totally new customer relationships, a sub theme labeled here as ‘Reassessed loyalty’. The firm is thus able to provide customers with a service that is not available from other retailers and as a result, facilitate both existing customer loyalty as well as attract new customers. Customers were ready to

overcome obstacles and make considerable sacrifices (time and effort) in order to get the information provided by the service in return. The theme of customer loyalty and its sub themes are illustrated in Figure 13.

Figure 13. Increasing customer loyalty through the Nutrition Code

In addition to the different levels of customer loyalty described above, customers considered the provision of information as a fresh and new way of rewarding loyalty, and a good way to encourage them to buy more. In that respect, providing customers with interesting and useful information resulting from reverse use of customer data can be regarded as going beyond conventional customer loyalty rewarding that is often characterized by mere monetary compensation. The traditional methods for loyalty rewarding are based simply on the amount of money consumed in the retailer’s outlets. Customers’ loyalty is fueled by progressive rewards, as is the case, for example, in S-group’s customer loyalty scheme: the more you spend the more you get back within a predefined time period. The progressive nature of customer loyalty rewarding also occurs in the case of the Nutrition Code:

the more you buy (in relative terms from K-food stores) the more accurate picture of the overall healthfulness of your groceries you get. Hence, similarly with the progressive nature of the more traditional money-based customer loyalty schemes, customers are encouraged to concentrate more of their grocery shopping in K-food stores in order to receive more detailed information about their nutritional profiles.

This in turn further increases the information’s ability to be used as input to customers’ value creation.

Today it is rather difficult to differentiate from competition on the basis of conventional money-based customer loyalty schemes as they are relatively easy to imitate. Reverse use of customer data is a good way to differentiate from competitors and to complement the traditional ways of rewarding customer loyalty.

The Nutrition Code was perceived as an additional and innovative way to reward customer loyalty. Instead of being rewarded in monetary terms only, customers were provided with information that can be of interest to them, and more importantly, is about them and for them. With the help of this information customers are then able to monitor the healthfulness of their groceries. Thus, the reward from being a loyal customer is ‘embedded’ in the information that can help customers in their own activities, in their own value-creating processes, for example, in loosing weight.

Well with these customer loyalty cards it’s only a monetary benefit that you receive, so the Nutrition Code service is significant precisely because you can see your shopping list in front of you and think about it and then it hopefully guides you toward a better lifestyle, so it’s not the monetary benefit but the health benefit, that’s how I would see it.

- Aurora, 55

These bonus systems they are purely about money, but the Nutrition Code service itself doesn’t have anything to do with money but with food and nutrients, so it doesn’t bring up money issues at all, which is good since it doesn’t need to.

- Helmi, 30

The customer loyalty themes identified from the empirical data can be compared with the widely cited loyalty phases introduced by Oliver (1999). Oliver divides loyalty into four phases: cognitive loyalty, affective loyalty, conative loyalty, and action loyalty. In the first phase (cognitive loyalty), the information available from the product/service attributes indicates that a brand is preferable. The second phase of loyalty development (affective loyalty) includes an attitudinal component where a liking toward the brand has resulted from cumulatively satisfying usage occasions.

In this phase, the customer’s commitment to a certain brand is characterized both by cognition and affect. In the third phase, customer loyalty includes a behavioral intention to repurchase and is more akin to motivation. Finally, customer loyalty can

enter the action loyalty stage that is characterized by desire to overcome obstacles that might prevent the customer from buying from other stores (Oliver, 1999).

Although not entirely consistent, the loyalty themes resulting from reverse use of customer data share similarities with the proposed loyalty framework by Oliver (1999; see also 1997). ‘Strengthening existing loyalty’ and ‘Conditional loyalty’ can be compared with the cognitive loyalty phase; customers’ loyalty toward the food retailer is increased as a result of cognitively evaluating the attributes of the service.

The customers find it useful in their value creation, but at the same time may set conditions for the increase in loyalty (if no additional sacrifices emerge). ‘Motivated loyalty’, in turn, can be compared with the conative loyalty phase as customers are motivated to buy more from the food retailer in order to receive information about the healthfulness of their groceries. Thus, there is a well-established commitment to repurchase. ‘Reassessed loyalty’ similarly with action loyalty means that customers are willing to overcome existing obstacles and make considerable sacrifices to be able to stay (or become) loyal to the food retailer.

In conclusion, as mentioned in the beginning of this chapter, customer loyalty was identified as the main theme uncovering how reverse use of customer data supports the firm’s value creation. In the context of reverse use of customer data, it can be regarded as the main driver of the firm’s value creation because it manages to capture how the Nutrition Code eventually supports the firm’s value creation. It is the positive changes in customer behavior (customers buying more) that eventually result in the firm’s value creation. In addition to the theme of customer loyalty, three themes were identified that result in supporting the firm’s value creation: firm differentiation and repositioning, firm values and strategy, and firm image. In relation to the main theme of customer loyalty, these themes were not directly linked to the firm’s value creation. Instead, they could be seen as converting into the firm’s value creation indirectly, for example, through a more favourable competitive positioning or a better image that could both result in gradual increases in the firm’s turnover. Nevertheless, this indirectness does not decrease their importance in terms of the firm’s value creation.