Motivation

A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Most brands Loyalty Programs out there are built on the same basic idea: the more you buy, the more you save. We are *so* used to it we carry a bunch of cards in our wallets and handbags.

But these don't make us feel more *loyal* to these brands.

We don't go to a specific store because we know we nearly have the required amount of patiently gathered points over the last six months to get that 1% discount. We go there because we want to buy something and oh! it appears we have a loyalty card for that store! Purchase acts are definitely not driven by the Loyalty Programs in place.

Same applies to web-stores.

All of this because of the same recurring fallacy: most Loyalty Programs, despite their name, don't reward the most *loyal* customers, but the most *buying* customers. And this nearly always mechanically excludes the most engaged ones (who are more often than not distinct customers).

We thought there must be a better way.

A better way to engage people on the long haul, a better way to reward customers based on their *effective* loyalty to a brand. No more one-size-fits-all strategy.

And this is where gamification comes into place. By combining proven yet powerful game mechanics, we could design compelling Loyalty Programs to raise customer engagement.

As engineers and game players, we thought it was worth giving it a try. So we decided to follow Steve Blank's strategy: test the problem, test the solution, iterate on what you learn from your adventurous *earlyvangelists*.

You are watching our very first attempt; we are still testing the problem. I hope you will enjoy the journey.

Daniel Vergeylen,
CEO of Sigmadelta.io