Please and Thank You Just the Tip of North American Coalition Loyalty
by David Rosen | SVP Strategy and Channel Development
Shane Koyczan’s slam poetry on YouTube landed him on the center stage of Vancouver’s opening ceremonies. Shane invokes a spirit of Canadian culture that I’m sure makes all Canadians proud of their heritage and should make Americans who have visited Canada appreciative of their national sense of being.
I began my career in Western Canada and felt immediately in-tune with Shane’s words. The Canadians that I worked with and befriended have tremendous respect for each other, for their guests and for a combined sense of working together. I’d contend that this is one of the reasons that coalition rewards programs like AIR MILES have been so successful over the years.
The question in my mind is why Americans (sorry those of us in the United States – Canada is part of North America too) have never (and in my opinion WILL never) embraced this all-for-one; one-for-all life benefit.
For those new to Canadaesque coalition loyalty, approximately two-thirds (Wikipedia) of Canadian HHs participate in the AIR MILES program. Essentially, members earn across a very wide coalition of retail, banking, energy, travel, etc. partners into a common accrual account with which they can redeem from a vast catalog. Sounds great. So why don’t we United Statesians get this?
My hypotheses:
• Too many people. The Canadian market is really at a sweet spot of sufficient critical mass while still small enough to achieve high rates of sustainable awareness.
• Too fragmented. In the United States, our sheer geographic and population size has led to far more commercial entities in each category. In addition to more national players, regional and super-regional players make building the ubiquity of the coalition really difficult.
• Lack of shared experience. Shane notes that Canada too is a nation of immigrants, but Canada, unlike the United States, Shane recognizes how Canadians choose to stand together. Just watch a couple hours of Hockey Night in Canada and you’ll see how an entire nation unites with common focus and pride.
With that said, I expect that we’ll see a grand attempt at launching similar programs in the U.S. over the next few years. Aeroplan’s (AIR MILE’s top competition in Canada) acquisition of Carlson Marketing may have been their attempt to build a beach head of outstanding talent in the U.S. for that investment.
Stay tuned.
