El Presidente Essay

El Presidente was a film which portrays the happenings from the past when colonization of other country started while Emilio Aguinaldo was the president.  After watching the film, though we watched it bit by bit because of limited time, I can say it was still worth it, because it at least showed to us the events in the past with the creativity of the people behind it. The film was good. I enjoyed watching it, though in some parts of it were kind of confusing to me maybe because I don’t have enough knowledge of history. There are parts when Andres Bonifacio had been a traitor and had been punished to death because of him being a traitor, this confused me. Way back years ago, when I was in elementary and high school years, I can still remember that A. Bonifacio was one of the people I salute in the Philippine History, for being the Father of Katipunan and founder of it. But when I saw that film, I’m confused with what to think of him because of what he acted when someone kind of insult him for not having a higher level of education. He loses his patience and that led to his betrayal to the katipunan. I think if I was in his position, I wouldn’t do what he did, I would prove them wrong about what they think an uneducated or someone who has lower level of learning unworthy to lead, with that he should have proved himself worthy in stead of being eaten by his anger. Also, there’s another thing of the film which I’m confused, its Emilio Aguinaldo. It seemed like E. Aguinaldo was a type of person who do not have any flaws in the film. Overall the film was worth watching. It gave me goose bumps in some part of it because of its intensity, and that hurt feeling seeing how our ancestors fight for our freedom that we’re having now because of their bravery even though they had risked their lives for it.

On The Sidewalk Bleeding Essay

On the Sidewalk Bleeding â€Å"On the Sidewalk Bleeding†, by Evan Hunter is a story about a boy from a gang, getting murdered in a dark alley, by members of the rival gang. It is written in the third person omniscient point of view. The story focuses on the theme of realization of one’s true identity. This theme is depicted with the help of several literary devices such as symbolism, to create depth in the meaning of the story, thoughtful use of irony and characterization elements, which create clarity in the readers mind about the characters thoughts and situation. Symbolism plays a major role in highlighting the character’s realization of his true identity as the purple jacket, which is the main symbol in the story, represents labels put on people in society. A young couple sees Andy in pain and the boy rushes towards him but soon denies him help. â€Å"He saw the lettering on the jacket then. THE ROYALS.† shows the reason the couple did not want to get involved. The jacket being a symbol of prejudgment, determines the way society sees Andy. The name on the jacket defines him to the passers by and the person inside does not matter to them. The Royals being written on the jacket causes the couple to rethink the consequences of helping him. Instead of asking him his name or what had happened, they make a judgment that Andy could only mean danger and trouble, because of the gang name on his jacket. The jacket, the symbol of prejudice, leads to his death. Right before he dies â€Å"It seemed very important to him that he take off th e purple jacket.† At this point he realizes that he is dying and needs to be known for who he really is, instead of for the name on his jacket. He comes to realize in his last moments, that his true identity is his own name. Hence he tries to take off the label, literally and metaphorically, that society has given to him. The removal of the jacket symbolizes Andy’s desire and attempt to get rid of the stereotypical label of The Royals and the prejudice that it brings along. However, changing society’s opinion is not easy for Andy. This is seen when â€Å"He lay struggling with the shiny jacket.† The denotation here is shown by the word ‘struggle’. It shows that he cannot remove the jacket as easily, because he is wounded. However the line suggests that, even though Andy desperately tries to get rid of people’s  influenced, prejudiced view of looking at him, he cannot do so very easily. This implies the author’s opinion that society’s prejudiced opinions cannot be easily escaped, and that disposing of the labels one acquires through their life, is a lifelong struggle. T he jacket being the symbol for such labels and prejudice, removing it shows Andy’s realization of his true identity, making clear that he now wants to be known for who he really is, eliminating any influence that the jacket may have. Hunter uses irony to emphasize the contrast between the character’s realization of his true identity and society’s perception of the character. This is shown when readers learn that â€Å"He felt alone.† It is ironic that he feels lonely when the reason for his murder is that he belongs to a gang. Belonging to a large gang which was evidently a great part of his life, and yet being lonely while suffering, suggests that Andy comes to realized that in the long run, he should stand alone, defined by his own individuality. He realizes that ‘The Royals’ was just a name given to the gang and it should not, in any way, influence people’s opinion of him as a person. Another example of irony can be seen in the end of the story when â€Å"He was very close to dying when they found him, he did not want them to say, â€Å"Oh, it’s a Royal.†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬Å"A Royal.† Andy’s last wish is to be recognized as ‘Andy’ and n ot as ‘a Royal’. The fact that he is on the verge of death makes readers believe that he will be granted his dying wish. However, at the end of the story, when cops find his dead body, they do exactly what he is afraid they will do. Andy struggles in his suffering, to remove the jacket in an attempt to eliminate its influence, but in the end ironically, the cop picks it up and refers to him as â€Å"A Royal.† The cop completely ignores the fact that his name is Andy and repeats the title as he writes it down, emphasizing on the ironic idea of society disregarding Andy’s dying attempts to be known as an individual. Dramatic irony is presented when it is said that, â€Å"The jacket was a stupid meaningless thing†. The jacket is described as meaningless when, ironically, the jacket carries tremendous meaning to society as portrayed in the story, being the sole reason of his death. Had he not been wearing the jacket, he would not have been denied help and wouldn’t have been shot in the first place. In this situation, the readers understand a completely different connotation of the jacket compared to the character’s  understanding of its purpose. The jacket symbolizes the prejudgment in society to the readers, while it seemingly carries no meaning to Andy. Such use of irony throughout the story convinces the reader of Andy’s struggle to realize and be recognized for his true identity. The characterization elements used in the story, focusing on Andy’s dynamic character, highlight the theme of realization of one’s true identity. â€Å"Even in his pain, there had been some sort of pride in knowing he was a Royal. Now there was no pride at all.† shows the change in Andy’s thinking, before and after being stabbed. He has always felt proud about being a part of The Royals and had never imagined this. As a result of being assaulted just for being in the gang, he now understood the significance of being known for his true identity rather than as a member of the gang and felt no pride in wearing the title of ‘The Royals’ anymore. His character is seen to have changed significantly as he transitions from being oblivious and proud of the title to being filled with regret and misery. In â€Å"Wondered why the rumbles and the jumps and the purple jacket has always seemed so important to him before. Now they seemed like such small thin gs in a world he was missing.† readers understand that not only has Andy changed his attitude towards the jacket and the title, but also his perspective of the world has changed. At first he is so proud and taken up by the fact that he is part of a famous gang, that he forgets to appreciate or even notice the other things in the world. After lying on the sidewalk, dying, he realizes that there is much more to life than gang brawls and jackets with titles. It is seen that had he lived, he would have changed the way he lived. His character changes from a materialistic, proud teenager to a more mature, aware and perceptive human being, desperate to live. Andy comes to doubt the meaning of his title, â€Å"He was a Royal. There had been meaning to the title†¦ he wondered about the meaning. If he died he was Andy. He was not a Royal.† Initially the jacket means everything to Andy. He mentions how ecstatic he was when The Royals accepted him. He now understood that it was all over and that the title was now worth nothing. He wanted to be known as Andy before and after his death. He himself was proud of being A Royal and recognized himself as one. However as he dies, he realizes that he was more than just ‘A Royal’ and wanted everyone to know that. He was no more proud or infatuated by the  titl e and appreciated his true identity, which was his name. Andy’s character changes in many ways through the course of the story, the main change being recognizing the importance of his individuality, as he understands the prejudice that exists against the gangs in society. The characterization elements help readers see this dynamic character, giving a better understanding of Andy’s realization of his true identity. The theme of realization of one’s true identity is successfully presented through the use of symbolism, irony and characterization elements. The jacket symbolizes the prejudgment in society, marking its removal as a turning point in Andy’s discovery of his individuality. Irony shows the contrast between the character’s changing feelings and the reality. Characterization elements portray the character as a dynamic character that changes drastically in terms of thoughts, feelings and perspective, by the end of the story. These literary devices help readers understand the theme of realization of one’s true identity.

Synthesis Paper

For example, Tony Parker is a good person with a good heart wherein he helps those needy people. This comes from his winnings against their past opponents giving support on their charity. The achievement is not only for him but also to those people who need their help. These traits are passing from one person to the other. It could be his son who will continue what he had started. When they grew up, they will know more about the things they haven't done and understand yet. One factor that a person had adapted is also from the environment, the people around who encourage them.Behavior involves responding to or interacting with the environment. The total response mechanism involves systems like the nervous system, glands, muscles and sense organs. The five senses, sense of sight, hear, smell, taste and touch; you will be able to do daily activities. For example, when you are blind you lost your sense of sight. So how could you identify things behind you or what will you do. This lack c an lead you to accidents. Sensation is the process by which our senses gather information and send it to the brain. It is a passive process of bringing information from the outside world into the DOD and to the brain.This works when the sensory organs absorb energy from a physical stimulus in the environment and sensory receptors convert this energy into neural impulses and send them to the brain. A large amount of information is being sensed at any one time such as room temperature, brightness of the lights, someone talking, a distant train, or the smell of perfume. With all this information coming into our senses, the majority of our world never gets recognized. We don't notice radio waves, x-rays, or the microscopic parasites crawling on our skin.We don't sense all the odors round us or taste every individual spice in our gourmet dinner. We only sense those things we are able too since we don't have the sense of smell like a bloodhound or the sense of sight like a hawk; our thres holds are different from these animals and often even from each other. Perception is the active process of selecting, organizing and interpreting the information brought to the brain by the senses. This works when the brain organizes the information and translates it into something meaningful. For example, when he/she is in pain, you comfort him/her.Why did you act like that? This only means that o are worried if something happens because you have a feeling of admiration. Your brain tells you to make him/her happy for him/her to be able to forget about it even for a day, much better for a lifetime. It may seem that learning and memory would be an easy thing to talk about since they're such universal phenomena. But because they're so universal many people often use different words to refer to the same thing and sometimes the same words to refer to different things. That can lead to a wealth of confusion.Learning is a durable change in behavior or knowledge due to experience. This act ually covers a lot of ground. For example, a guy watching a basketball strategy lessons so he can play well to impress girls. At first you don't want to learn more strategy on how to play a basketball but because it has an advantage, you are pursuing to learn. You ask guidance from your friends who knows how to play well or this way which is now commonly used preferably teenagers who were fun of watching videos on Youth. In this way it is easy for them to learn because there are many ways on how to do it.You learn when you really want too, especially when it gives you a pleasing resonantly and others do it for fame. Fame in which from the start they were craving but now they were masters. How will you able to learn when you're too lazy? Laziness is the most commonly reasons wherein they don't have learning specially students. How will you able to get good grades without learning. Types of learning aren't all the same, don't all use the same psychological processes or require the sam e parts of the brain, but they're still learning according to our definition.Memory means by which past experience is drawn on to guide or direct behavior or thoughts in the present. For example, an adult playing basketball and dribbling it like he did when he was a kid 20 years ago. Remembering this times make him remember the good times when he is still young. He could play with his friends at the streets during their free time. Taking a look at the past makes him happy, but there were also experiences which are suppose not to bring out anymore. It might be a painful past or a bad dream you have encountered. It's difficult when you lost your memory where in fact this is one of the most important things.Ever wonder why some people meme to be very successful, highly motivated individuals? Where does the energy, the drive, or the direction come from? Motivation is an area of psychology that has gotten a great deal of attention. You are motivated by your family, friends and of course God. For example, a guy who wants to play basketball. He plays because he was motivated by his friends to gain fame and impress someone whom he admires most. So he practices during his break time. Motivation helps you also gain self confidence facing unknown people around you. You also don't feel that tired and helpless.The reason is cause we all want to be successful, we all want direction and drive, and we all want to be seen as motivated. Consciousness is the awareness of external events, internal sensations, the self, and thoughts about experiences. The conscious state is a state of awareness where the mind knows exactly what it is thinking of. We can be highly conscious, or unconscious. We get drowsy as we wake up in the morning getting more aware of our thoughts and feelings. High-level of awareness in the conscious state involves controlled processing, where attention is most alert and selective, allowing us to focus.Sleeping is essentially important to us because our mental and physical functioning can deteriorate if we go without it for extended period. Our sleep and wakefulness are regulated in accordance with our external events. For example, you play basketball last day with your friends; you are really tired because you like your team to won against you're opponents because they were strong combination also. Because of that, you sleep early but wake up in the morning late. Your body needs rest to gain back the energy you had used the other day.Intelligence has been defined in many different ways such as n terms of one's capacity. It can also be more generally described as the ability to perceive and retain knowledge. For example, for your team to be able to win in a basketball, you and your teammates are supposed to have knowledge on how to do that or to do this especially defends and offensives. Within the discipline of psychology, various approaches to human intelligence have been adopted. The psychometric approach is especially familiar to the general public, as well as being the most researched and by far the most widely used in practical settings

An analysis of how photography addresses ideas about still life, with Essay - 1

An analysis of how photography addresses ideas about still life, with particular reference to the works of Irving Penn Still Life - Essay Example rtant element complementing composition and the message conveyed by the artwork or â€Å"communicating allegorical or latent meanings† (Martineau, p.6); it later developed as an independent art form, acquiring its own definition, canons and traditions. Most dictionaries give the following definition to still life: it is a picture that consists of inanimate objects like flowers, fruit, vessels or dead game. But on the other hand, still life as a genre has always been a subject to cultural influences that formed differences in defining and thinking of this genre. The first photographic still life picture emerged about a decade before the official announcement of photography invention in 1839 (Martineau, p.6). Nicephore Niepce, the inventor, was an author of the picture named Set Table depicting a laid table offering a meal for one person. The objects on the picture are rounded by deep shadows (the evidence of lengthy exposure), and the austerity of the photographed meal conveys allusions to Da Vinci’s Last Supper (Martineau, p.6). As photography emerged as a revolutionary art enabling â€Å"painting† not with brushes, but with light, the golden age of painting was gradually replaced by the age of digital fine art. Photography virtually borrowed almost all genres from painting, vesting them in the form of new technologies and using new means to create a desirable effect. In this way, still life migrated to photography, carrying all the key traditions of conventional still life painting to the newly invented art. Particularly, the photographers working at the dawn of photography practiced nature morte as one of the principal genres, using the same objects of depiction their predecessors used to paint with oil or watercolor. Thus, first attempts in photography mirrored compositions used previously in pictorial art (Ingledew, p. 57). The reason pioneers of photography such as Roger Fenton chose still life as the most favorable genre and inanimate objects as their

Discussion question Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 2

Discussion question - Essay Example Chips (1939)† is based on. The profession of a teacher â€Å"demands character and courage", Mr. Chipping is warned in the beginning. What makes the film interesting is the way he succeeds in proving his spirit of professionalism and the way he establishes the necessity to go beyond the university degree in pursuit of having ‘character and courage’ which would help him impart knowledge to the students in the light of the professionalism. So is it just character and courage that takes a teacher to succeed in giving â€Å"you something to take home to think about besides homework† (Tomlin)? We can think about so many other characters that a teacher must possess although the two aforementioned is as much necessary. In fact I would say that the function of a teacher should take a form which is full. Therefore he must justify the full form of TEACHER. He must teach, educate, advise, change, help, encourage and rear; all the qualities of which is given, not by a university degree but by the ability to go beyond it! Quite influentially, Howard Gardener in his theory of multiple intelligences has pointed out that the concentration that the schools tend to give on logical intelligence and linguistic intelligence (mainly reading and writing) does not help in imparting actual knowledge for, not many students excel in this area of intelligence. An education institution thus, must have an approach of such kind that serves the broader vision of the education. That would be possible if the teacher utilizes different methodologies, techniques, exercises and activities that cater to not only those students who excel in logical and linguistic intelligence but also to those who do not. (Theory of Multiple Intelligences). I once undertook a test in the net (Assesment: Find Your Strengths) developed by Dr. Terry Armstong based on the theory aformentioned and was happy to score 3.29 points in my top three intelligences while the highest that can be scored is 5. My top

Management in Brazil Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Management in Brazil - Assignment Example Most of these firms operate under the economies of scale. There is no use of state of the art advance management practices. The situation is no different from the government owned large cooperation. Most of the managers in these co-operations are educated and come for the high social class group. The managers in these large co-operations act like their counterparts in smaller institutions, lack the necessary education in commensurate management. Issues to do with culture and business size limit are the limiting facts to management and are evident in most organization in Brazil. The family owned business the management is centralized around the family. In the middle level cooperation’s, there is no in between levels and the top management is by the owners of the business. The private organizations show very small levels of departments. The structure makes management in Brazil to be very authoritarian. The management is paternalistic and exploits employees mainly in terms of their security, safety and physiological needs. As a result, labor unions are becoming stronger and stronger each day that passes. The unions are advocating better employee working conditions and servicers. The above development has given rise to more firms adopting human and resource management. However, the department is limited to employees alone. Their role makes them to be viewed more as agents of the employees rather than a member of the managing team of the greater organization. The role of women in Brazilian firm’s management is limited. Women have been sideline in management and the main reason given by John Theodor is the Brazilian culture. There are also few women in the professions that are considered necessary to make top management position in an organization. The human and resource department also lack policies to encourage women to join the management as affirmative action. Existing managers in Brazil

Art critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Art critique - Essay Example In most cases, the illuminations covered greatest parts of the pages of Bibles (Gardner and Fred 19). The amount of illumination manuscripts was large to the extent of increasing the weight of Bible. The illuminated manuscripts of the time had brightly colored gold background. The decoration style limited to religion, and artists could only change by improving ability of the work to send more religious messages to people. The figures were flat and formed two dimensions and having draperies made to form geometric shapes. The Gothic art such as those created by Simon Martini has few and small size texts in the pages. Large part of the Gothic manuscripts had gold, and rarely silver around the margins. The illumination during the Gothic period was moving from the Romanesque style that focused more on religious connotations. The Gothic manuscripts diversified and changed to catch up with the current events and environments. For instance, the Limbourge Brothers did a fantastic work by doing landscape painting (Gardner and Fred 33). The work was a sign of diversification of art to start appreciating the environmental

Cask of the Amontillado Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Cask of the Amontillado - Essay Example I indulged myself on reading the story severally to understand the plot of the narrative. I learnt that the story is narrated by a character known as Montresor who is planning to kill his friend, Fortunato, who insulted him. The two characters come from the equal social class and are highly respected because of the affluence they possess. The story shows how Montresor planned to kill Fortunato using his fondness for wine, the amontillado, during the carnival season (Poe, 57). He manages to kill his friend by trapping him in a small crypt where he was supposed to find out whether the wine was amontillado. Symbols in the story helped me in comprehending the plot and the story of the shirt story (Poe, 3). For example, ‘Fortunato’ as a name is ironic device since the name originates from ‘fortunate’ in Italian. This is the opposite of what happens since Fortunato was unfortunate in his life when he was tricked by his friend and finally met his

Economic Exam 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Economic Exam 2 - Essay Example For example, he proposed a theory in regard to labor and value (Schumpeter 21). Schumpeter came up with a theory based on Marx capitalism principles in which he stated that economies can evolve, create new structures and destroy old structures. In his view governments posed the greatest risk when it comes to economy destruction (Schumpeter 59). He was right because, most government evolved from communist or monarchies to democratic governments but still go to war with each other. Keynes’ theory on macroeconomics also known as Keynesian economics focuses on the total expenditure in an economy and the effect the expenditure has on inflation and an economy’s output (Kennedy 196). In Keynesian economics, decisions made by both public and private institutions affect the output of an economy. Classical theory of economics has it basis centered on the concept of free-market economies. The main difference between the two economic theories is the influence of government on an economy. The Keynesian economic theory is reliant on the expenditure and policies of governments but the classical economic theory makes the assumption that there is a free-market (Kennedy 199). Another difference between the two theories is that Keynesian economics theory works on providing short-term results for an economy while classical economic theory focuses on providing long-term solutions for economic problems. Q.4. Characteristics of Anglo-Saxon capitalism and how does it differ from European and Asian capitalism? Which is the better example of Anglo-Saxon capitalism, the U.S. economy or the British economy? The main characteristic of the Anglo-Saxon capitalism model is that it operates based on common law with a judicial system which contemplates minimal government interference in the economy (Pryor 107). The difference between the Anglo-Saxon capitalism model and the

The glass menagerie by tenesse williams Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The glass menagerie by tenesse williams - Essay Example The play is full of imagery and symbolism. Williams uses the characters in the play as symbols themselves. Amanda Wingfield is a southern woman who got abandoned by her husband and is mother to Tom and Laura. In the most parts of the play, she spends her time reminiscing on her past. She also cuts across to the reader as a control freak who nags Tom and Laura by trying to control their every move in the family’s house. She is entirely dependent on Tom for their house rent but still dictates when it is appropriate to play music in the house, dismiss people from the dining table, and even offers her children advice on how they should chew food properly! The yellow dress and bathrobe get used by Williams to symbolize Amanda’s longing for her long gone past. She struggles to put aside her love for his husband who abandoned her. Tom acts as the play’s protagonist and narrator. As a character, he appears to be full of contradiction. Tom’s participation in the play depicts juvenile emotion. Tom is ambitious throughout the play as he works hard to provide for his family. He constantly expresses his love for writing poetry, reading literature, and even has dreams of abandoning his family just to get an escape and have adventure with life’s allure. He however appears bound to their house hold and the petty, squalid living it has to offer. He appears to care for both his mother and sister but becomes cruel to them at times. Even though his father abandoned the family, he draws influence from his absentee father’s family portrait in the household. He follows in his footsteps by abandoning Laura and Amanda at the play’s end leaving them shattered and devastated. Laura is the emotionally and physically crippled sister in the family. She cuts across as the only character in the play who is compassionate to everyone else by not hurting them. Her character is symbolic as she has the fewest lines in the lay

Theories of Biology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Theories of Biology - Essay Example Washington, by getting a blood sample from a pregnant woman and a saliva specimen from the father, the genome of a fetus can be identified (Pollack, 2012). This new development will be very useful in detecting genetic diseases even before the baby is born. It was further found that gene mutations can be inherited from the parents. Aside from the theory of inheritance, there are other major theories of biology. A famous theory is Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection (Pruitt & Underwood, 2006). This theory explains why there are different species on earth and how these species have evolved. Another theory is the cell theory which â€Å"states that all organisms are composed of cells and that all cells come from preexisting cells† (Pruitt & Underwood, 2006). Biological classification is another theory in biology which classifies living organisms according to their similarities and differences (Pruitt & Underwood, 2006). The fifth major theory is bioenergetics which affirms that the energy that powers life is regulated by the same energy in the inanimate universe (Pruitt & Underwood, 2006). The sixth theory explains that organisms can tolerate varying external conditions by maintaining stable conditions internally, known as homeostasis (Pruitt & Underwood, 2006). The latest theo ry of biology is ecosystems. This theory acknowledges that organisms are part of a population which is part of a larger environment composed of other living and non-living things (Pruitt & Underwood, 2006). Pollack, A. (2012, June 6). DNA blueprint for fetus built using tests of parents. Retrieved July 31, 2012, from The New York Times web site: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/07/health/tests-of-parents-are-used-to-map-genes-of-a-fetus.html?_r=1&pagewanted=all Pruitt, N. L., & Underwood, L. S. (2006). Chapter 1 - Biology: What is the study of life? In N. L. Pruitt, & L. S. Underwood, Bioinquiry: Making Connections in Biology (3rd ed) (pp. 1-18). Hoboken, NJ:

Explain Kants Theory of Ethics Essay Example for Free

Explain Kants Theory of Ethics Essay Kant was born in 1724-1804, he was a German thinker from East Prussia (now Russia), and he spent his whole life in his hometown. Kant wanted to create a logical, stand-alone theory that wasn’t just based on assumptions, he believed in an objective right or wrong that is decided on reason and that we shouldn’t do the right thing just because it’s right and not to fulfil our desires. Can we lead a life following his ideals are there not some situations where a perfect moral decision cannot be made, are all our choices fuelled by personal gain and desire? He has a deontological and absolute approach to ethics, to Kant what makes an action good is when you do your ‘duty’ and that one’s duty is to always flow the moral law. We should not act out of love or compassion. The motive is what makes an action good –nothing else! The consequences to Kant are meaningless it’s the act itself that needs to be right an example of his thinking would be its immoral to kill 1 man in order to save 10. For Kant the fact that we ‘ought’ to do something implies that it is possible to do it. Thus moral statements are prescriptive: they prescribe an action. Ought implies can, ‘if I ought to do X’, it means ‘I can do X’. Kant also believed that moral statements are a priori (knowable prior to experience) and synthetic, that they can be verified by our empirical evidence so are either true or false. Kant put forward the idea of two imperatives the hypothetical imperative, these are not moral commands and they don’t apply to everyone. In Kant’s eyes you only need to obey them if you want to achieve a certain goal. An example of this would be that Kant observed that the word ‘ought’ is often used none morally, for example ‘if you want to become a better artist or guitarist, you ought to practice’. On the other hand Kant also proposed the Categorical Imperative, these are moral commands that can be universalised and do not depend on anything else. Whereas the hypothetical imperative requires you to go from ‘a’ to ‘b’ then categorical imperative only requires you to just do ‘a’. â€Å"Duties for duties sake† this related to the categorical imperative. Kant then goes on to the 3 maxims, first off to test a moral maxim as it’s a universal law either everyone should follow it or everyone should reject it. The first maxim is ‘Your action should be able to be universalised’ before you act in a certain way, would you like everyone in the same situation to act in the same way. If not, then you are involved in a contradiction it goes against reason, â€Å" so at that principle of action might safely be made of law for the whole world† if you were to take lying through the first maxim its clear it would fail as that would mean everyone would be lying to one another and trust is completely destroyed. The second maxim is ‘Don’t treat people as a means to an end’ Kant strongly believed that you can never use human beings as a means to an end, to exploit or enslave them. Humans to Kant are all the highest point of creation and so demand a unique treatment. This guarantees that all individuals are afforded the moral principles; therefore no humans can be used for the sake of others, he also explained that we have a duty to develop our own perfection, developing our moral, intellectual and physical capabilities. We also have a duty to seek the happiness of others as long as that is within the law and allows the freedom of others. â€Å"Always recognise that human individually are ends and do not use them as a means to your end† therefore you can’t lie for example to further your own needs at the cost of using someone. Kant’s final and third maxim ‘ work towards a kingdom of ends’ this is an overall culmination of the first two, everyone should act as if every person was a ‘end’ and that moral choices be based on any empirical consideration about human nature, human flourishing or human destiny. However it needs to be clear that despite this autonomy this does not mean that everyone can just decide their own morality but rather that each individual has the ability to understand the principles of pure practical reason and follow them. It is impartial and must apply to everyone. If one maxim is disproved then the law becomes immoral and can’t be universalised. Kant also talked about good will and duty, to Kant the ‘greatest good or summon bonum’ is what Kant terms as good will. Someone of good will is not good because of what they achieve (the consequence) but because he/she acts out of duty. Good will to Kant is the only thing that is truly pure, as we can get our reasoning wrong or it can be manipulated, but to have the good will to perform your duty cannot be manipulated or got wrong. Kant contrasted ‘doing your duty’ with ‘giving into your emotions’ or doing what you feel like. The main two meanings of duty come into conflict as the first thought meaning of duty is to obey your superior, this is what the Nazi soldiers claimed innocence about when they were trialled for war crimes they were just following orders but is that moral? To obey the moral law do the right thing and think a situation through is Kants meaning of duty â€Å"Good will shines forth like a precious jewel† –Kant. Kants theory of ethics seems to grant freedom to do anything that can be universalised. This sets the limits but does not give guidance; therefore in order for it to make sense Kant proposed the three postulates, the existence of god, freedom and immorality. We know that morality can exist because we can observe it. However we must be free to perform it as otherwise the act wouldn’t be truly moral. Morality and freedom must come from somewhere to Kant this is God. Kant argues that there must be a God and an afterlife as there has to be some sort of reward. As we cannot be perfect in this life. This is known as reaching the summon bonum that I mentioned earlier, as this cannot be achieved in this life, there must be an afterlife where this can be achieved. For Kant, morality leads to God. Part B: Assess the view that it is always right to keep one’s promises. In Kants view immorality occurs when the categorical imperative is not followed: when a person attempts to set a different standard for themselves then for the rest of humanity. In the Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals, once Kant has derived his categorical imperative he applies it to a number of examples. The second example and probably the most analysed is that of an unfaithful promise. Kant applies his imperative to a person who is short of money who intends to ask for a loan, promising to repay it, but with no intention of doing so. When Kant applies the categorical imperative to this situation he discovers that it leads to a contradiction, for if breaking promises were to become universal then no person would ever agree to a promise and promises would disappear. Kant connects rationality with morality, and sees contradictory behaviour as immoral. Some critics have argued that Kant never asserts the connection between rationality and morality, but most dismiss this and point out that Kant clearly explains how morality must be based upon reason and not upon desires. Another weakness is that what if your friend told you a secret that he was planning to murder someone, it would be your obligation to keep it but is that morally right? Could that surpass the 3 maxims, in the second maxim there can be no use of one individual for the sake of another, are you forsaking the person that is planned to be murdered just to keep a promise. However on the other hand there are strengths to Kants way of thinking as it means everyone single human has intrinsic value, actions are based on reason and logic and there are 3 straightforward maxims that need to be followed so it cuts out many grey areas as if it simply doesn’t follow the maxims it can’t be universalised. Other theories, utilitarianism for example would say it would be wrong to keep a promise of a secret of planned bomb attack that would kill hundreds as you would be saving hundreds of lives by informing the police. Utilitarian’s believe that the outcome outweighs the action. In my opinion I agree with Kant theory as I believe there needs to be trust between people, as relationships with people would mean nothing also it’s a matter of honour if you gave your word to someone I will promise you this etc. then it has to be in the best of your ability to fulfil it if it’s a good cause and not unjust. However in extreme cases such as say the promise of keeping a secret of a planned terrorist attack I would have to side with the utilitarian approach.

Effect of Loyalty Cards on Customer Loyalty

Effect of Loyalty Cards on Customer Loyalty Background of the topic: The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze and investigate the effect of the loyalty cards on customer loyalty and how does it helps large organizations to achieve its goals. When shopping in supermarkets there is one experience that everyone has, when customers finish with their shopping and get to a checkout, the assistant will ask the customers, whether they have a clubcard. This will continue every time whenever those customers without a clubcard shops in the future, the assistant will keep on asking them for a clubcard unless they get one for themselves. Now there is a question that will come across every customers mind, what is a clubcard and why does every company insist them and every customer to be a part of the clubcard family? Now people become curious and they want to get a clubcard too. The assistant says to fill up a form with the customers general details like name, address and contact details and the day customer fills the form, next day they will receive a clubca rd. Impressive, now why companies offer clubcards to their customers, how do companies benefit from these schemes they provide for their customers? Background of this research title is concerned with the highly competitive market where retail giants have to survive and maintain their competitive edge to always stay ahead in the race or even to survive the downfall whenever necessary. Unlimited majors are taken and a huge amount of time and money is spent to attract customers who bring revenue to the company. Having a large number of competitors around, it is very difficult to have a competitive advantage. Basic mean for this subject matter is to identify the purpose and importance of relationship marketing, and its benefits to make strategic decisions. Loyalty cards can significantly boost business profits whilst simultaneously building customer loyalty. Studies show that loyalty cards are one of the most cost effective ways to build brand loyalty and improve customer retention. Loy alty cards are used by all the major retail and supermarket chains as a vital tool to improve profitability, but one does not need to be a national high street store in order to run a profitable reward card scheme. One of the reasons the supermarkets are taking business away from independent retailers are the incentives offered in their loyalty card schemes. The loyalty cards market in the UK is one of the most significant in the world and forms the backbone of marketing and customer retention planning. With over 85% of UK Households possessing loyalty cards it is really a case where companies can afford not to offer a loyalty card service to their customers. There are different companies who offer loyalty schemes for their customer and give customers shopping vouchers after they spend certain amount of money through those loyalty cards. Main objective behind loyalty cards is to keep customer loyal with the company by offering them discounts and gifts on their shopping so they spend more money in their shops and markets. Most common example of loyalty card is Tesco club card, Sainsbury nectar card and other such cards offered by different companies in the country. But most of the people wont understand the idea behind those loyalty cards that how they work. The success of the Tesco Clubcard has been well documented, in 2002 a Market and Opinion Research Poll found that Tescos Clubcard had been more successful than the programmers offered by rival supermarkets (Smith, 2004). Rationale: Why is this study being done Tesco got a huge amount of success with its loyalty schemes unlike its competitors. The reason behind this study is to find out why Tesco was so successful with their Loyalty cards, Tesco Club cards, as they are named, and how it played a very important role in maintaining their customers loyalty, which is very important for any business today. The theory behind this concept is Relationship Marketing, and how it was used by Tesco to grow its business. Background of this research title is concerned with the highly competitive market where retail giants have to survive and maintain their competitive edge to always stay ahead in the race or even to survive the downfall whenever necessary. Unlimited majors are taken and a huge amount of time and money is spent to attract customers who bring revenue to the company. Having a large number of competitors around, it is very difficult to have a competitive advantage. Basic mean for this subject matter is to identify the purpose and importance of relationship marketing, and its benefits to make strategic decisions. Companies offer such countless schemes for their customers to retain and maintain customer loyalty for their store. There are many other factors behind these loyalty schemes where companies benefit. Loyalty card schemes are not only beneficial for the customers, but are equally beneficial for the companies as well. Significance: How does the study contribute The aim of the research is to identify the impact of the Tesco Clubcard on customer loyalty. This will contribute to contrast customer perceptions of the Clubcard, staff and â€Å"feeling valued† to identify which factor has the greater impact on customer loyalty to store. The paper is useful to both practitioners and academics in the fields of relationship marketing and loyalty. The research provides some initial insight into consumer perspectives in the value of loyalty cards. Tesco has succeeded with the strategy of loyalty cards, but its competitors did not. Retailers like Sainsburys and ASDAs who are the competitors of Tesco, did not manage to promote their business using their loyalty cards as Tesco did. Tesco got a huge amount of success with its loyalty schemes unlike its competitors. Tesco has been known for their best customer service where as its competitor, Asda have been known for their best value and low competitive prices. Now why has Tesco chosen such a marketi ng strategy to attract customers and increase revenue? The reason behind this study is to find out why Tesco was so successful with their Loyalty cards, Tesco Club cards, as they are named, and how it played a very important role in maintaining their customers loyalty, which is very important for any business today. The theory behind this concept is Relationship Marketing, and how it was used by Tesco to grow its business. Tesco has chosen a marketing strategy where they need to gain customers faith and trust to maintain a good relationship with them. Hence they need to know everything about their customers individually. How will they keep a track of each and every customer they have? There are many strategies to know your customers and Tesco uses such strategies to have a good track of their customers. The best way to do this is by the method of loyalty cards. Companies can know much more about their customers through loyalty cards. This study will show how Tesco collects data of t heir customers and use that data to improve their customer service in order to gain customer satisfaction. Aims Objectives: The aim of the research is to investigate the influence of the Tesco Clubcard on customer store loyalty. In 1995, Tesco introduced the loyalty Clubcard that was to offer, â€Å"Benefits to regular shoppers whilst helping the company discover more about its Customer needs†. The main aim of this research will be to compare the Loyalty schemes of Tesco Clubcards with its competitors like Sainsburys and ASDA, and find out why Tescos Clubcards were a huge success unlike Sainsburys Nectar and Asda loyalty cards did not succeed in promoting their business. The study also focuses on the need of customer loyalty and what steps were taken by Tesco to retain and maintain its customer loyalty. (www.tescocorporate.com) Sign Posting: A glance at the major and successful organizations around the globe shows that their success is partly due to their ability to apply the theory of relationship marketing. In the contemporary business arena, all organizations, large or small improve their effectiveness and efficiency by applying this theory, thus improving their customer service and customer relations which play a very important role for any business organization. This study shows the brief idea of the Relationship Marketing and how it has been used by the retail giant, Tesco to gain their customers loyalty and retain it for a long time. Tesco is the company on which this whole study has been based on. At the first there is some information and idea has been explained about Relationship Marketing and how is plays a vital role in companys marketing strategies. It also discusses about the benefits of the relationship marketing and how it is used by the company to achieve its aims and objectives. This will later on conti nue with the main topic, that is, the success of Tescos loyalty cards other than its competitors. It will discuss the concept of the loyalty cards and the different strategies used by Tesco and even its competitors to get a competitive edge in the surviving market. The later part of the study also shows how Clubcards are beneficial for the customers as well as the company. Then research methodology is identified that how the research will be conducted, it includes that how the research will designed means the ways through effective data can be find out. Literature Review In this discussion outcomes from the previous research will be demonstrate to provide the clear understanding to the topic. In this chapter views of different authors and researches will be quoted to support the research. It will include the work of researchers who have worked on this matter and have reached to some conclusion. As a literature review chapter it will consist of basic definitions of customer loyalty, customer relationship, loyalty cards and the most important one relationship marketing. This chapter will also explain these theories and how are they applicable for the strategies used by the companies to achieve their goals and success. Customer Relationship: What does it mean for an organisation and its customer to have a relationship with each other? What kind of a relationship would they have with each other? Do customers have relationships with enterprises that do not know them? Is it necessary that the companies know their customers or the other way around? What kind of a relationship would that be if both the parties are unaware of the relationship they have? Can the enterprise be said to have a relationship with a customer it does not know? Is it possible for a customer to have a relationship with a brand? It can be said that customers would know the products but not the company. Experts have studied the nature of relationships in business for many years, and there are many different perspectives on the fundamental purpose of relationships in business strategies. It can be said that the only aim of the company is not only to gain maximum profits out of their customers or having the greatest market share or the rank the company is. Instead, to be successful in the era of interactivity, when it is possible to deal individually with separate customers, the business objective must include establishing meaningful and profitable relationships at least with the most valuable customers, and making the overall customer base more valuable. Technology plays a very crucial role in maintaining this relationship between companies and customers. In short, the company strives to get a customer, keep that customer for a lifetime, and grow the value of the customer to the organisation. Relationships are the crux of the customer-strategy enterprise. Relationships between customers and enterprises provide the framework for everything else connected to the customer-value business model. This is the same model used by Tesco in order to gain a competitive advantage in the most competitive markets in the world. The exchange between a customer and the enterprise becomes mutually beneficial, as customers give information in return for personalized service that meets their individual needs. Because we are talking about relationships between businesses and their customers, it is important that we agree on a few of the elements that make up a genuine relationship. And while dictionary definitions are not bad as starting points, the most important issue for us to consider is how well our own definition of relationship helps companies succeed in the â€Å"customer dimension† of competition. Lets list some of the distinct qualities that should characterize a relationship between an enterprise and a customer. First, a relationship implies mutuality. In order for anyone to consider a relationship, both the company and its customer have to participate in and be aware of the existence of the relationship. This is the most common factor which is needed to be realized by both the parties. This means that relationships must inherently be two-way in nature. Second, relationships are driven by interaction. When the company and the customer interact, they exchange information, and this information exchange is a best tool for building the relationship. This, of course, also implies mutuality. But interactions dont have to take place by phone or in person or on the Web. An interaction takes place when a customer buys a product from the company that sells it. This is where the customer and the company are in face to face for a reason which builds up this relationship. Every interaction adds to the total information content possible in the relationship. This leads to the third characteristic of a relationship: It is iterative in nature. That is, since both the customer and the company are interacting mutually, the interactions themselves build up a history, over time—a context. This context gives a relationships future interactions greater and greater efficiency, because every successive interaction represents that the company and the customer is growing into a healthy relationship than before by communication and a benefit for both the parties. The mo re that company communicates with its customer, the less they need to say the next time around to get their point across. Another characteristic of a customer relationship is that it will be driven by an ongoing benefit to the customer and the company. The customers convenience is one type of benefit, for the customer, but not the only one. Participating in a relationship will involve a cost in money, time, or effort, and no customer will engage for long in any relationship the company wont be more beneficial for that customer, of it that customer is not getting more benefits that before. However, precisely because of the context of the relationship and its continuing benefit for the customer and the company, each party in a relationship has an incentive to recover from mistakes. Relationships also require a change in behavior on the part of both, the customer as well as the company, in order to continue. After all, what drives the ongoing benefit of a relationship is not only its c ontext, its history of interactions, developed over time, but also the fact that the customers and the companys current and future actions reflect that previous context. This is an important characteristic, because companies sometimes mistakenly believe that interactions with a customer need is always the same, the communication from the companys side, cannot deliver same behavior pattern to every customer. In other words companies need to have relationships with their customer individually because the behavior of every customer is not always the same, which can result in different kind of relationship pattern with the company. But unless the companys actions toward a particular customer are somehow different, there is a possibility of miscommunication and can ruin the relation between that customer and the company, which will be no ongoing benefit for the customer, and as a result the customer might not continue the relationship. Every relationship is different. Relationships are c onstituted with individuals, not with populations. This means relationships are with the individual customer and not the whole segment of the customer population of the company. As a result, a company who wants to engage its customers in relationships must be prepared to participate in different interactions, remember different customers and their behavior or spending habits, and engage in different behaviors toward different customers.(Peppers .D, Rogers. M 2004) During the last few years there has been a growing interest in studying the economics and markets of long-lasting customer relationships where customer relationships play a vital role for every company. This kind of relationship can help to increase revenue for the company which can be a long term process and a continuous growth of the relationship between the organization and the customer. Heskett introduced the concept of market economies, which means achieving results by understanding the customers behavior instead of by concentrating on developing scale economies. (Heskett, J.L., 1987) A mutually satisfactory relationship between the company and its customers makes it possible for customers to avoid significant transaction costs involved in shifting from one company or a service provider which can be beneficial for both, the customer and the company. However, customer retention is not enough. Some long-lasting customer relationships, where the customers are obviously satisfied with what they get, are not profitable even in the long run, as Storbacka says. There is clear evidence that from a profitability point of view intelligent relationship building where company can be beneficial to the customer as well as themselves in the long run, then only such a management make sense. (Storbacka, K., 1993) Customer Loyalty: The whole point of a relationship is to keep your customers, and simultaneously grow new customers. So what is customer loyalty? Those whove tried to answer that question have approached it from two different directions: attitudinal (what Barnes calls â€Å"emotional†) and behavioral (what Barnes calls â€Å"functional†). Although each of these two definitions of loyalty is valid, they have different implications and lead to very different prescriptions for businesses. The attitudinal definition of loyalty implies that loyalty is a state of mind. Customers are loyal to a brand or a company if they have a positive, preferential attitude toward it. They like the company, its products, or its brands, and they therefore prefer to buy from it, rather than from the companys competitors. In purely commercial terms, the attitudinal definition of customer loyalty would mean that someone who is willing to pay a premium for Brand A over Brand B, even when the products they represe nt are virtually equivalent, is loyal to Brand A. But the emphasis is on willingness, rather than on actual behavior, per se. In terms of attitudes, then, increasing a customers loyalty is virtually equivalent to increasing the customers preference for the brand. It is closely tied to product quality and customer satisfaction. Any company wanting to increase loyalty, in attitudinal terms, will concentrate on improving its product, its image, or other elements of the customer experience, relative to its competitors. The behavioral definition of loyalty would mean that someone is willing to pay a premium for Brand A over Brand B, even without respect to the attitudes or preferences that underlie that conduct. By this definition, customers are loyal to a company if they buy from it and then continue to buy from it. Loyalty is concerned with repurchase activity, regardless of any internally held attitudes or preferences. In the behavioral definition, loyalty is not the cause, but the re sult of brand preference. A company wanting to increase customer loyalty will focus on whatever tactics will in fact increase the amount of repurchase behavior— tactics that can easily include, without being limited to, raising consumers general preference for the brand or their level of satisfaction with it. (Peppers .D, Rogers. M 2004) Customer loyalty could be termed a â€Å"customers commitment to do business with a particular organization, purchasing their goods and services repeatedly, and recommending the services and products to friends and associates†. It is a term which is neither easy to gain nor maintain, rather it is vulnerable, where â€Å"even if its customers are satisfied with the service they will continue to defect if they believe they can get better value, convenience or quality elsewhere†. (McIlroy, A. and Barnett, S. (2000) In order to investigate the concept of loyalty, we see the framework of Sopanen (1996) to reveal six different types of loyalty: (1) Monopoly loyalty, where there are no available choices. (2) Inertia loyalty, where customers do not actively seek substitutes. (3) Convenience loyalty, where loyalty is solely defined by location. (4) Price loyalty: where customers are influenced by the lowest price. (5) Incentivized loyalty, where loyalty relates to the benefits gained from reward cards and programmers. (6) Emotional loyalty, where customers are influenced by factors such as brand. From this we can observe that loyalty programs such as Tesco Clubcard can be considered an incentivized type of loyalty, which can be exhibited by customers, but the strength of this loyalty is often questioned. â€Å"As organizations become increasingly customer focused and driven by customer demands, the need to meet the customers expectations and retain their loyalty becomes more critical† (Disney, 1999, p. 491). Customer loyalty is one of the fundamental goals of marketing (Selnes, 1993). Not only does it guarantee repeat customers, but it also decreases the need for companies to spend large portions of their budgets on advertising and promotion in order to attract new customers. Mittal and Lassar (1998) identified that customer loyalty is very often thought of as an outcome of customer satisfaction. This explains why customer satisfaction has become an essential concept in marketing and its quest is one of the most important goals for businesses (Webster, 1994) Relationship Marketing: Relationship marketing is very much interlinked with the notion and practice of customer care. There is no doubt that the development of relationship marketing has had and will continue to have major implications for the marketing managers. Comprehensive accounts of the development, meaning and implications of relationship marketing for the contemporary marketer are given by Lancaster and Massingham. As so often, there are many different views as to the precise nature and hence definition of relationship marketing. So, for example, Groonroos stressed the element of mutual exchange ad trust in relationship marketing as follows. â€Å"Relationship marketing is a process including several parties or actors, the objective of which has to be met. This is done by mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises, a fact that makes trust an important aspect of marketing†. Stone and Woodcock on the other hand put more emphasis on the traditional tool of sales, communication and customer care techniques. Again we see overlap between these two areas. â€Å"Relationship marketing involves the use of a wide range of marketing, sales, communications and customer care techniques and processes to: identify named individual customers, create a relationship between the company and these customers, and manage that relationship to the benefit of both the customer and the company†. Perhaps one of the simplest and yet the most powerful summaries of what relationship marketing is however, is that provided by Buttle. â€Å"At its best, RM (relationship management) is characterized by a genuine concern to meet or exceed the expectations of the customers and to provide excellent service in an environment of trust and commitment to the relationship†. Buttle goes on to indicate what is involved in successful relationship marketing and the commitment of the company required to generate this success. â€Å"To be successful relationship marketers, companies must develop a supportive organizational culture, market the RM idea internally, intimately understand customers expectations, create and maintain a detailed customer database, and organize and reward employees in such a way that the objective of RM, customer retention, is achieved†. This illustrates that relationship marketing has major implications for both how we think about marketing and our approach to the practice of marketing. It affects and includes the provision of marketing information, organizational systems and procedures, and the elements of marketing strategy. Relationship Marketing refers to Promotional and needs and maintain the relationship. This proposal is concerned with Relationship management and marketing at how it is been used by companies to maintain existing customers, retain lost customers and attract new customers. (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/relationship-marketing.html) Relationship marketing is systems-oriented, yet it includes managerial aspects. A systems approach is well suited as a basis for a general theory of marketing, because it makes it possible to include all relevant actors, environmental influence, and even the process nature of marketing. (Kuhn, T.S. (1957) The concept of relationship marketing has emerged within the fields of service marketing and industrial marketing. The phenomenon described by this concept is strongly supported by ongoing trends in modern business. Grà ¶nroos defines relationship marketing in the following way: Marketing is to establish, maintain, and enhance relationships with customers and other partners, at a profit, so that the objectives of the parties involved are met. This is achieved by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises. Such relationships are usually but not necessarily always long-term. Establishing a relationship, for example with a customer, can be divided into two parts: to attract the customer and to build the relationship with that customer so that the economic goals of that relationship are achieved. (Grà ¶nroos, C. (1990) More businesses are moving toward relationship marketing in dealing with their customers as more customers expect a personalized experience. Considering relationship marketing vs. transactional marketing for http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid11_gci1253633_mem1,00.html) Relationship marketing is a marketing strategy that emphasizes customer loyalty, customer retention and long-term customer engagement. Using the relationship marketing approach, an organization aims to develop strong, long-term connections with customers by providing them with information directly suited to their needs and interests. This approach often results in increased word-of-mouth activity, long-term purchasing behavior and a willingness to provide information. The goal of every enterprise, once you strip away all the activities that keep everybody busy every day, is simply to get, keep, and grow customers. Whether a business focuses its efforts on product innovation, operational efficiency and low price, or customer intimacy, for that firm must have customers or the enterprise isnt a business—its a hobby. This is true for nonprofits (where the â€Å"customers† may be donors or volunteers) as well as for-profits, for firms large and small, for public as well as private enterprise. What does it mean for an enterprise to focus on its customers as the key to competitive advantage? Obviously, it does not mean giving up the product edge, or the operational efficiencies, that have been successful in the past. It does mean using new strategies, nearly always requiring new technologies, to focus on growing the value of the company by deliberately and strategically growing the value of the customer base. Companies needed to build compr ehensive customer databases. Companies had been maintaining product databases, sales force databases, and dealer databases. Now they needed to build, maintain, mine, and manage a customer database that could be used by company personnel in sales, marketing, credit, accounting, and other company functions. As customer database marketing grew, several different names came to describe it, including individualized marketing, customer intimacy, technology enabled marketing, dialogue marketing, interactive marketing, permission marketing, and one-to-one marketing. Modern technology makes it possible for enterprises to learn more about individual customers, remember those needs, and shape the companys offerings, services, messages and interactions to each valued customer. The new technologies make mass-customization (otherwise an oxymoron) possible. At the same time, technology is only a partial factor in helping companies do genuine one-to-one marketing. The following quotes about custome r relationship management (CRM) make this point vividly: â€Å"CRM is not a software package. Its not a database. Its not a call center or a Web site. Its not a loyalty program, a customer service program, a customer acquisition program or a win-back program. CRM is an entire philosophy.† (Steve Silver) â€Å"A CRM program is typically 45 percent dependent on the right executive leadership, 40 percent on project management implementation and 15 percent on technology.† (Edmund Thompson, Gartner Group) (Peppers .D, Rogers. M 2004) Loyalty Card: Any retailer running a loyalty card scheme could call up customer details and purchase history from incoming phone numbers. In many firms, loyalty cards are used for direct marketing and not much else. Using them to dramatically improve customer service seems a fitting reward for loyalty. Marketing program designed to enhance brand loyalty by cultivating an ongoing relationship between a marketer and his customer. Successful loyalty programs encourage the consumer to buy frequently, to increase the amount spent each time, and to concentrate all or most of their related purchases on that brand. Most loyalty programs offer perks for membership in a club or program and reward purchases. Rewards may be based on the dollar value of purchases made or on the frequency of purchases. The most well-known loyalty programs are airline frequent-flyer programs that offer discounts against future travel called award miles. Most large supermarket chains now have frequent-buyer clubs that offer no-coupon discounts as well as newsletters and http://www.answers.com/topic/loyalty-program) A loyalty card program is an incentive plan that allows a retail business to gather data about its customers. Customers are offered product discounts, coupons, points toward merchandise or some other reward in exchange for their voluntary participation in the program. A secondary goal of a loyalty card program is to build repeat business by offering participating customers something that isnt available to non-participating customers. Loyalty cards often resemble plastic credit cards but they can also be keychain fobs or stickers. Typically a loyalty card has a barcode or magnetic stripe thats scanned at the point of sale (POS). The card identifies the customer and sends information about what the customer bought to a database. The information in the database is used to help the retailer understand and influence his customers buying habits. According to research carried out by Boston Universitys College of Communication, eighty-six percent of American shoppers are listed in a loyalty database; a majority of survey respondents said receiving the card was worth giving up some measure of privacy. Loyalty schemes are necessary for the retailers because it helps them in attracting the customers and when they came to them they try to retain them by offering their services on discounted rates and by offering them further discounts and services. Smith states the importance of loyalty cards and schemes in the following sta tement â€Å"if Effect of Loyalty Cards on Customer Loyalty Effect of Loyalty Cards on Customer Loyalty Background of the topic: The purpose of this dissertation is to analyze and investigate the effect of the loyalty cards on customer loyalty and how does it helps large organizations to achieve its goals. When shopping in supermarkets there is one experience that everyone has, when customers finish with their shopping and get to a checkout, the assistant will ask the customers, whether they have a clubcard. This will continue every time whenever those customers without a clubcard shops in the future, the assistant will keep on asking them for a clubcard unless they get one for themselves. Now there is a question that will come across every customers mind, what is a clubcard and why does every company insist them and every customer to be a part of the clubcard family? Now people become curious and they want to get a clubcard too. The assistant says to fill up a form with the customers general details like name, address and contact details and the day customer fills the form, next day they will receive a clubca rd. Impressive, now why companies offer clubcards to their customers, how do companies benefit from these schemes they provide for their customers? Background of this research title is concerned with the highly competitive market where retail giants have to survive and maintain their competitive edge to always stay ahead in the race or even to survive the downfall whenever necessary. Unlimited majors are taken and a huge amount of time and money is spent to attract customers who bring revenue to the company. Having a large number of competitors around, it is very difficult to have a competitive advantage. Basic mean for this subject matter is to identify the purpose and importance of relationship marketing, and its benefits to make strategic decisions. Loyalty cards can significantly boost business profits whilst simultaneously building customer loyalty. Studies show that loyalty cards are one of the most cost effective ways to build brand loyalty and improve customer retention. Loy alty cards are used by all the major retail and supermarket chains as a vital tool to improve profitability, but one does not need to be a national high street store in order to run a profitable reward card scheme. One of the reasons the supermarkets are taking business away from independent retailers are the incentives offered in their loyalty card schemes. The loyalty cards market in the UK is one of the most significant in the world and forms the backbone of marketing and customer retention planning. With over 85% of UK Households possessing loyalty cards it is really a case where companies can afford not to offer a loyalty card service to their customers. There are different companies who offer loyalty schemes for their customer and give customers shopping vouchers after they spend certain amount of money through those loyalty cards. Main objective behind loyalty cards is to keep customer loyal with the company by offering them discounts and gifts on their shopping so they spend more money in their shops and markets. Most common example of loyalty card is Tesco club card, Sainsbury nectar card and other such cards offered by different companies in the country. But most of the people wont understand the idea behind those loyalty cards that how they work. The success of the Tesco Clubcard has been well documented, in 2002 a Market and Opinion Research Poll found that Tescos Clubcard had been more successful than the programmers offered by rival supermarkets (Smith, 2004). Rationale: Why is this study being done Tesco got a huge amount of success with its loyalty schemes unlike its competitors. The reason behind this study is to find out why Tesco was so successful with their Loyalty cards, Tesco Club cards, as they are named, and how it played a very important role in maintaining their customers loyalty, which is very important for any business today. The theory behind this concept is Relationship Marketing, and how it was used by Tesco to grow its business. Background of this research title is concerned with the highly competitive market where retail giants have to survive and maintain their competitive edge to always stay ahead in the race or even to survive the downfall whenever necessary. Unlimited majors are taken and a huge amount of time and money is spent to attract customers who bring revenue to the company. Having a large number of competitors around, it is very difficult to have a competitive advantage. Basic mean for this subject matter is to identify the purpose and importance of relationship marketing, and its benefits to make strategic decisions. Companies offer such countless schemes for their customers to retain and maintain customer loyalty for their store. There are many other factors behind these loyalty schemes where companies benefit. Loyalty card schemes are not only beneficial for the customers, but are equally beneficial for the companies as well. Significance: How does the study contribute The aim of the research is to identify the impact of the Tesco Clubcard on customer loyalty. This will contribute to contrast customer perceptions of the Clubcard, staff and â€Å"feeling valued† to identify which factor has the greater impact on customer loyalty to store. The paper is useful to both practitioners and academics in the fields of relationship marketing and loyalty. The research provides some initial insight into consumer perspectives in the value of loyalty cards. Tesco has succeeded with the strategy of loyalty cards, but its competitors did not. Retailers like Sainsburys and ASDAs who are the competitors of Tesco, did not manage to promote their business using their loyalty cards as Tesco did. Tesco got a huge amount of success with its loyalty schemes unlike its competitors. Tesco has been known for their best customer service where as its competitor, Asda have been known for their best value and low competitive prices. Now why has Tesco chosen such a marketi ng strategy to attract customers and increase revenue? The reason behind this study is to find out why Tesco was so successful with their Loyalty cards, Tesco Club cards, as they are named, and how it played a very important role in maintaining their customers loyalty, which is very important for any business today. The theory behind this concept is Relationship Marketing, and how it was used by Tesco to grow its business. Tesco has chosen a marketing strategy where they need to gain customers faith and trust to maintain a good relationship with them. Hence they need to know everything about their customers individually. How will they keep a track of each and every customer they have? There are many strategies to know your customers and Tesco uses such strategies to have a good track of their customers. The best way to do this is by the method of loyalty cards. Companies can know much more about their customers through loyalty cards. This study will show how Tesco collects data of t heir customers and use that data to improve their customer service in order to gain customer satisfaction. Aims Objectives: The aim of the research is to investigate the influence of the Tesco Clubcard on customer store loyalty. In 1995, Tesco introduced the loyalty Clubcard that was to offer, â€Å"Benefits to regular shoppers whilst helping the company discover more about its Customer needs†. The main aim of this research will be to compare the Loyalty schemes of Tesco Clubcards with its competitors like Sainsburys and ASDA, and find out why Tescos Clubcards were a huge success unlike Sainsburys Nectar and Asda loyalty cards did not succeed in promoting their business. The study also focuses on the need of customer loyalty and what steps were taken by Tesco to retain and maintain its customer loyalty. (www.tescocorporate.com) Sign Posting: A glance at the major and successful organizations around the globe shows that their success is partly due to their ability to apply the theory of relationship marketing. In the contemporary business arena, all organizations, large or small improve their effectiveness and efficiency by applying this theory, thus improving their customer service and customer relations which play a very important role for any business organization. This study shows the brief idea of the Relationship Marketing and how it has been used by the retail giant, Tesco to gain their customers loyalty and retain it for a long time. Tesco is the company on which this whole study has been based on. At the first there is some information and idea has been explained about Relationship Marketing and how is plays a vital role in companys marketing strategies. It also discusses about the benefits of the relationship marketing and how it is used by the company to achieve its aims and objectives. This will later on conti nue with the main topic, that is, the success of Tescos loyalty cards other than its competitors. It will discuss the concept of the loyalty cards and the different strategies used by Tesco and even its competitors to get a competitive edge in the surviving market. The later part of the study also shows how Clubcards are beneficial for the customers as well as the company. Then research methodology is identified that how the research will be conducted, it includes that how the research will designed means the ways through effective data can be find out. Literature Review In this discussion outcomes from the previous research will be demonstrate to provide the clear understanding to the topic. In this chapter views of different authors and researches will be quoted to support the research. It will include the work of researchers who have worked on this matter and have reached to some conclusion. As a literature review chapter it will consist of basic definitions of customer loyalty, customer relationship, loyalty cards and the most important one relationship marketing. This chapter will also explain these theories and how are they applicable for the strategies used by the companies to achieve their goals and success. Customer Relationship: What does it mean for an organisation and its customer to have a relationship with each other? What kind of a relationship would they have with each other? Do customers have relationships with enterprises that do not know them? Is it necessary that the companies know their customers or the other way around? What kind of a relationship would that be if both the parties are unaware of the relationship they have? Can the enterprise be said to have a relationship with a customer it does not know? Is it possible for a customer to have a relationship with a brand? It can be said that customers would know the products but not the company. Experts have studied the nature of relationships in business for many years, and there are many different perspectives on the fundamental purpose of relationships in business strategies. It can be said that the only aim of the company is not only to gain maximum profits out of their customers or having the greatest market share or the rank the company is. Instead, to be successful in the era of interactivity, when it is possible to deal individually with separate customers, the business objective must include establishing meaningful and profitable relationships at least with the most valuable customers, and making the overall customer base more valuable. Technology plays a very crucial role in maintaining this relationship between companies and customers. In short, the company strives to get a customer, keep that customer for a lifetime, and grow the value of the customer to the organisation. Relationships are the crux of the customer-strategy enterprise. Relationships between customers and enterprises provide the framework for everything else connected to the customer-value business model. This is the same model used by Tesco in order to gain a competitive advantage in the most competitive markets in the world. The exchange between a customer and the enterprise becomes mutually beneficial, as customers give information in return for personalized service that meets their individual needs. Because we are talking about relationships between businesses and their customers, it is important that we agree on a few of the elements that make up a genuine relationship. And while dictionary definitions are not bad as starting points, the most important issue for us to consider is how well our own definition of relationship helps companies succeed in the â€Å"customer dimension† of competition. Lets list some of the distinct qualities that should characterize a relationship between an enterprise and a customer. First, a relationship implies mutuality. In order for anyone to consider a relationship, both the company and its customer have to participate in and be aware of the existence of the relationship. This is the most common factor which is needed to be realized by both the parties. This means that relationships must inherently be two-way in nature. Second, relationships are driven by interaction. When the company and the customer interact, they exchange information, and this information exchange is a best tool for building the relationship. This, of course, also implies mutuality. But interactions dont have to take place by phone or in person or on the Web. An interaction takes place when a customer buys a product from the company that sells it. This is where the customer and the company are in face to face for a reason which builds up this relationship. Every interaction adds to the total information content possible in the relationship. This leads to the third characteristic of a relationship: It is iterative in nature. That is, since both the customer and the company are interacting mutually, the interactions themselves build up a history, over time—a context. This context gives a relationships future interactions greater and greater efficiency, because every successive interaction represents that the company and the customer is growing into a healthy relationship than before by communication and a benefit for both the parties. The mo re that company communicates with its customer, the less they need to say the next time around to get their point across. Another characteristic of a customer relationship is that it will be driven by an ongoing benefit to the customer and the company. The customers convenience is one type of benefit, for the customer, but not the only one. Participating in a relationship will involve a cost in money, time, or effort, and no customer will engage for long in any relationship the company wont be more beneficial for that customer, of it that customer is not getting more benefits that before. However, precisely because of the context of the relationship and its continuing benefit for the customer and the company, each party in a relationship has an incentive to recover from mistakes. Relationships also require a change in behavior on the part of both, the customer as well as the company, in order to continue. After all, what drives the ongoing benefit of a relationship is not only its c ontext, its history of interactions, developed over time, but also the fact that the customers and the companys current and future actions reflect that previous context. This is an important characteristic, because companies sometimes mistakenly believe that interactions with a customer need is always the same, the communication from the companys side, cannot deliver same behavior pattern to every customer. In other words companies need to have relationships with their customer individually because the behavior of every customer is not always the same, which can result in different kind of relationship pattern with the company. But unless the companys actions toward a particular customer are somehow different, there is a possibility of miscommunication and can ruin the relation between that customer and the company, which will be no ongoing benefit for the customer, and as a result the customer might not continue the relationship. Every relationship is different. Relationships are c onstituted with individuals, not with populations. This means relationships are with the individual customer and not the whole segment of the customer population of the company. As a result, a company who wants to engage its customers in relationships must be prepared to participate in different interactions, remember different customers and their behavior or spending habits, and engage in different behaviors toward different customers.(Peppers .D, Rogers. M 2004) During the last few years there has been a growing interest in studying the economics and markets of long-lasting customer relationships where customer relationships play a vital role for every company. This kind of relationship can help to increase revenue for the company which can be a long term process and a continuous growth of the relationship between the organization and the customer. Heskett introduced the concept of market economies, which means achieving results by understanding the customers behavior instead of by concentrating on developing scale economies. (Heskett, J.L., 1987) A mutually satisfactory relationship between the company and its customers makes it possible for customers to avoid significant transaction costs involved in shifting from one company or a service provider which can be beneficial for both, the customer and the company. However, customer retention is not enough. Some long-lasting customer relationships, where the customers are obviously satisfied with what they get, are not profitable even in the long run, as Storbacka says. There is clear evidence that from a profitability point of view intelligent relationship building where company can be beneficial to the customer as well as themselves in the long run, then only such a management make sense. (Storbacka, K., 1993) Customer Loyalty: The whole point of a relationship is to keep your customers, and simultaneously grow new customers. So what is customer loyalty? Those whove tried to answer that question have approached it from two different directions: attitudinal (what Barnes calls â€Å"emotional†) and behavioral (what Barnes calls â€Å"functional†). Although each of these two definitions of loyalty is valid, they have different implications and lead to very different prescriptions for businesses. The attitudinal definition of loyalty implies that loyalty is a state of mind. Customers are loyal to a brand or a company if they have a positive, preferential attitude toward it. They like the company, its products, or its brands, and they therefore prefer to buy from it, rather than from the companys competitors. In purely commercial terms, the attitudinal definition of customer loyalty would mean that someone who is willing to pay a premium for Brand A over Brand B, even when the products they represe nt are virtually equivalent, is loyal to Brand A. But the emphasis is on willingness, rather than on actual behavior, per se. In terms of attitudes, then, increasing a customers loyalty is virtually equivalent to increasing the customers preference for the brand. It is closely tied to product quality and customer satisfaction. Any company wanting to increase loyalty, in attitudinal terms, will concentrate on improving its product, its image, or other elements of the customer experience, relative to its competitors. The behavioral definition of loyalty would mean that someone is willing to pay a premium for Brand A over Brand B, even without respect to the attitudes or preferences that underlie that conduct. By this definition, customers are loyal to a company if they buy from it and then continue to buy from it. Loyalty is concerned with repurchase activity, regardless of any internally held attitudes or preferences. In the behavioral definition, loyalty is not the cause, but the re sult of brand preference. A company wanting to increase customer loyalty will focus on whatever tactics will in fact increase the amount of repurchase behavior— tactics that can easily include, without being limited to, raising consumers general preference for the brand or their level of satisfaction with it. (Peppers .D, Rogers. M 2004) Customer loyalty could be termed a â€Å"customers commitment to do business with a particular organization, purchasing their goods and services repeatedly, and recommending the services and products to friends and associates†. It is a term which is neither easy to gain nor maintain, rather it is vulnerable, where â€Å"even if its customers are satisfied with the service they will continue to defect if they believe they can get better value, convenience or quality elsewhere†. (McIlroy, A. and Barnett, S. (2000) In order to investigate the concept of loyalty, we see the framework of Sopanen (1996) to reveal six different types of loyalty: (1) Monopoly loyalty, where there are no available choices. (2) Inertia loyalty, where customers do not actively seek substitutes. (3) Convenience loyalty, where loyalty is solely defined by location. (4) Price loyalty: where customers are influenced by the lowest price. (5) Incentivized loyalty, where loyalty relates to the benefits gained from reward cards and programmers. (6) Emotional loyalty, where customers are influenced by factors such as brand. From this we can observe that loyalty programs such as Tesco Clubcard can be considered an incentivized type of loyalty, which can be exhibited by customers, but the strength of this loyalty is often questioned. â€Å"As organizations become increasingly customer focused and driven by customer demands, the need to meet the customers expectations and retain their loyalty becomes more critical† (Disney, 1999, p. 491). Customer loyalty is one of the fundamental goals of marketing (Selnes, 1993). Not only does it guarantee repeat customers, but it also decreases the need for companies to spend large portions of their budgets on advertising and promotion in order to attract new customers. Mittal and Lassar (1998) identified that customer loyalty is very often thought of as an outcome of customer satisfaction. This explains why customer satisfaction has become an essential concept in marketing and its quest is one of the most important goals for businesses (Webster, 1994) Relationship Marketing: Relationship marketing is very much interlinked with the notion and practice of customer care. There is no doubt that the development of relationship marketing has had and will continue to have major implications for the marketing managers. Comprehensive accounts of the development, meaning and implications of relationship marketing for the contemporary marketer are given by Lancaster and Massingham. As so often, there are many different views as to the precise nature and hence definition of relationship marketing. So, for example, Groonroos stressed the element of mutual exchange ad trust in relationship marketing as follows. â€Å"Relationship marketing is a process including several parties or actors, the objective of which has to be met. This is done by mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises, a fact that makes trust an important aspect of marketing†. Stone and Woodcock on the other hand put more emphasis on the traditional tool of sales, communication and customer care techniques. Again we see overlap between these two areas. â€Å"Relationship marketing involves the use of a wide range of marketing, sales, communications and customer care techniques and processes to: identify named individual customers, create a relationship between the company and these customers, and manage that relationship to the benefit of both the customer and the company†. Perhaps one of the simplest and yet the most powerful summaries of what relationship marketing is however, is that provided by Buttle. â€Å"At its best, RM (relationship management) is characterized by a genuine concern to meet or exceed the expectations of the customers and to provide excellent service in an environment of trust and commitment to the relationship†. Buttle goes on to indicate what is involved in successful relationship marketing and the commitment of the company required to generate this success. â€Å"To be successful relationship marketers, companies must develop a supportive organizational culture, market the RM idea internally, intimately understand customers expectations, create and maintain a detailed customer database, and organize and reward employees in such a way that the objective of RM, customer retention, is achieved†. This illustrates that relationship marketing has major implications for both how we think about marketing and our approach to the practice of marketing. It affects and includes the provision of marketing information, organizational systems and procedures, and the elements of marketing strategy. Relationship Marketing refers to Promotional and needs and maintain the relationship. This proposal is concerned with Relationship management and marketing at how it is been used by companies to maintain existing customers, retain lost customers and attract new customers. (http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/relationship-marketing.html) Relationship marketing is systems-oriented, yet it includes managerial aspects. A systems approach is well suited as a basis for a general theory of marketing, because it makes it possible to include all relevant actors, environmental influence, and even the process nature of marketing. (Kuhn, T.S. (1957) The concept of relationship marketing has emerged within the fields of service marketing and industrial marketing. The phenomenon described by this concept is strongly supported by ongoing trends in modern business. Grà ¶nroos defines relationship marketing in the following way: Marketing is to establish, maintain, and enhance relationships with customers and other partners, at a profit, so that the objectives of the parties involved are met. This is achieved by a mutual exchange and fulfillment of promises. Such relationships are usually but not necessarily always long-term. Establishing a relationship, for example with a customer, can be divided into two parts: to attract the customer and to build the relationship with that customer so that the economic goals of that relationship are achieved. (Grà ¶nroos, C. (1990) More businesses are moving toward relationship marketing in dealing with their customers as more customers expect a personalized experience. Considering relationship marketing vs. transactional marketing for http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/generic/0,295582,sid11_gci1253633_mem1,00.html) Relationship marketing is a marketing strategy that emphasizes customer loyalty, customer retention and long-term customer engagement. Using the relationship marketing approach, an organization aims to develop strong, long-term connections with customers by providing them with information directly suited to their needs and interests. This approach often results in increased word-of-mouth activity, long-term purchasing behavior and a willingness to provide information. The goal of every enterprise, once you strip away all the activities that keep everybody busy every day, is simply to get, keep, and grow customers. Whether a business focuses its efforts on product innovation, operational efficiency and low price, or customer intimacy, for that firm must have customers or the enterprise isnt a business—its a hobby. This is true for nonprofits (where the â€Å"customers† may be donors or volunteers) as well as for-profits, for firms large and small, for public as well as private enterprise. What does it mean for an enterprise to focus on its customers as the key to competitive advantage? Obviously, it does not mean giving up the product edge, or the operational efficiencies, that have been successful in the past. It does mean using new strategies, nearly always requiring new technologies, to focus on growing the value of the company by deliberately and strategically growing the value of the customer base. Companies needed to build compr ehensive customer databases. Companies had been maintaining product databases, sales force databases, and dealer databases. Now they needed to build, maintain, mine, and manage a customer database that could be used by company personnel in sales, marketing, credit, accounting, and other company functions. As customer database marketing grew, several different names came to describe it, including individualized marketing, customer intimacy, technology enabled marketing, dialogue marketing, interactive marketing, permission marketing, and one-to-one marketing. Modern technology makes it possible for enterprises to learn more about individual customers, remember those needs, and shape the companys offerings, services, messages and interactions to each valued customer. The new technologies make mass-customization (otherwise an oxymoron) possible. At the same time, technology is only a partial factor in helping companies do genuine one-to-one marketing. The following quotes about custome r relationship management (CRM) make this point vividly: â€Å"CRM is not a software package. Its not a database. Its not a call center or a Web site. Its not a loyalty program, a customer service program, a customer acquisition program or a win-back program. CRM is an entire philosophy.† (Steve Silver) â€Å"A CRM program is typically 45 percent dependent on the right executive leadership, 40 percent on project management implementation and 15 percent on technology.† (Edmund Thompson, Gartner Group) (Peppers .D, Rogers. M 2004) Loyalty Card: Any retailer running a loyalty card scheme could call up customer details and purchase history from incoming phone numbers. In many firms, loyalty cards are used for direct marketing and not much else. Using them to dramatically improve customer service seems a fitting reward for loyalty. Marketing program designed to enhance brand loyalty by cultivating an ongoing relationship between a marketer and his customer. Successful loyalty programs encourage the consumer to buy frequently, to increase the amount spent each time, and to concentrate all or most of their related purchases on that brand. Most loyalty programs offer perks for membership in a club or program and reward purchases. Rewards may be based on the dollar value of purchases made or on the frequency of purchases. The most well-known loyalty programs are airline frequent-flyer programs that offer discounts against future travel called award miles. Most large supermarket chains now have frequent-buyer clubs that offer no-coupon discounts as well as newsletters and http://www.answers.com/topic/loyalty-program) A loyalty card program is an incentive plan that allows a retail business to gather data about its customers. Customers are offered product discounts, coupons, points toward merchandise or some other reward in exchange for their voluntary participation in the program. A secondary goal of a loyalty card program is to build repeat business by offering participating customers something that isnt available to non-participating customers. Loyalty cards often resemble plastic credit cards but they can also be keychain fobs or stickers. Typically a loyalty card has a barcode or magnetic stripe thats scanned at the point of sale (POS). The card identifies the customer and sends information about what the customer bought to a database. The information in the database is used to help the retailer understand and influence his customers buying habits. According to research carried out by Boston Universitys College of Communication, eighty-six percent of American shoppers are listed in a loyalty database; a majority of survey respondents said receiving the card was worth giving up some measure of privacy. Loyalty schemes are necessary for the retailers because it helps them in attracting the customers and when they came to them they try to retain them by offering their services on discounted rates and by offering them further discounts and services. Smith states the importance of loyalty cards and schemes in the following sta tement â€Å"if