Loyalty programs in the credit card industry

: the most attractive structure for Gen Z consumers

Abstract

This study deals with loyalty programs in the credit card industry and relates to a consulting project conducted for Unicre, a Portuguese retail bank.The study focuses on a specific target: Gen Z consumers who have not joined any loyalty program for credit cards. The aim is to understand which reward type, chosen between a direct and an indirect reward, is more attractive and more likely to bring new young customers to retail banks. The goal is to propose to Unicre the best loyalty program structure for Gen Z consumers. The research involves benchmark analysis, qualitative and quantitative analysis, including semi-structured in-depth interviews, a questionnaire and correlation and conjoint analyses run on SPSS. First, the general concept of loyalty for Gen Z consumers was investigated. It was then found that there is lack of awareness and interest in the credit card sector by young people. The analysis focused on two different rewards, retrieved by the benchmark analysis, to discover which is preferred by Gen Z consumers and which might prompt the target demographic to switch from their current retail bank. The research concluded with a conjoint analysis to understand features of loyalty programs associated with credit cards that Gen Z valued and considered the best loyalty scheme. It was found that young consumers gave more importance to the price of the program and preferred customer service tailored for under 26-year olds with a live agent over rewards.

Date of Award	21 Oct 2021
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Peter V. Rajsingh (Supervisor)