Never underestimate the value of a great first impression. In terms of loyalty, the first impression often lies within the rewards program’s name (and in its selection of rewards, but we’ve covered that in our rewards guide). Though you’ll have to choose the elements that are most important to your business, here are seven strategies to consider when choosing great loyalty program names, along with examples of companies that have used them.
You can also check out our worksheet for designing a rewards system for your loyalty program.
5 Steps Before You Start – Brainstorming Loyalty Program Name Ideas
You’re eager to start with the fun part and get the program rolling as soon as possible, which is fully understandable. However, there are a couple of steps to make a loyalty program name memorable. Here they are:
- Consider your brand values: who you are and what you represent as a brand, the solutions you provide, and the feelings you try to convey. Make sure these ideas are reflected in your program as well.
- Be cohesive, make everything part of a brand: Don’t stop at simply naming your membership program. Ensure that all of your reward, point, and tier names align with your brand image.
- Analyze your audience and gather feedback: Pull accessible customer insights and available survey results, website or app feedback. Make note of how your audience communicates on public forums and social platforms and adopt any special lingo they use regarding your brand or products.
- Do market and competitor research: See what your direct competitors are working with. Get inspired by industry-leading loyalty programs outside of your vertical. Learn from their examples, but don’t try to replicate them — instead, put your own unique spin on it!
- Pay attention to local customs and relevancy: This is especially important if you’re considering launching a multi-country loyalty program. Don’t skip thoroughly researching local customs, legal obligations, and audience expectations.
Looking for a Loyalty Program Name Generator? — Try Our Loyalty Program Genius AI
So, you’ve completed the five initial steps but are still unsure how to start. Why not get a little AI boost? By using generative AI, you can save yourself a lot of time and kick-start the brainstorming process.
Antavo has trained its own AI, using 5+2 books worth of loyalty content (and a full podcast series) to give you relevant insights instead of generic answers.
Give our free Loyalty Program Genius AI a try using a prompt like this:
I’m launching a tier-based loyalty program for a sportswear brand. My target audience is young, athletic, and financially stable. Keywords that represent my brand: powerful, competitive, premium, high quality, modern, minimal design. The loyalty program contains 4 tiers, with a VIP membership tier on top.
Give me ideas on how to name my 4 loyalty program tiers including my VIP membership tier!
7 Tips for Making Loyalty Program Names Truly Head-Turning
1. Keep it Simple
The first strategy is to choose a straightforward, no-frills name. Selecting a short and simple name is a great way to ensure that your customers remember your loyalty program name and associate it with your core products, which is a valuable benefit. “Club,” “Circle,” and “Rewards” are commonly used, straightforward terms.
For example, Kohl’s membership program epitomizes an easy-to-remember, straightforward loyalty scheme. It’s easy to pronounce, memorable, and perfectly embodies the program’s functionality.
If you’re selling one specific product or product category, including flagship products in loyalty program names is a great idea. This approach is often used by food and beverage, jewelry, fashion, and sporting goods brands.
2. Stay On-Brand, Always
Your loyalty program is not just an “elongation” of your brand — it fully reflects your company proposition and cannot be disassociated from it. So be sure to emphasize and highlight what you have to offer, your brand philosophy, values, and your audiences’ common characteristics.
Girlfriend Collective’s loyalty program, The Collective, is thoroughly infused with the brand’s philosophy of supporting sustainability, using fair-trade and recycled fabrics in their activewear products. The Collective rewards members for soft actions, such as offsetting carbon emissions. The loyalty tiers are also named to reflect the brand’s commitment to going green.
A general rule for every loyalty program is to always keep your brand roots in mind during the brainstorming session. If sustainability is your passion, for example, make sure to communicate it accurately!
3. Connect on Passion
Loyalty programs with a name that connects with their customers’ passions really hit the mark. Whether it’s self-care or infused with charitable actions, many companies employ this tactic when it comes to beauty items, athleisure wear, or pet products.
By granting exclusive perks and special VIP sale discounts to its beauty community members, Sephora’s Beauty Insider loyalty program reflects true exclusivity not only in name but also in action. Membership tiers, perks, and offers also reflect exclusivity and passion.
If your brand revolves around a passion: a love of fashion, an obsession with sport, or a keen interest in investments, put it on full display in your loyalty program name.
4. Choose a Side: Inclusive or Exclusive
Consider your brand values carefully before deciding on a rewards program name. If your brand has always emphasized community and inclusiveness, then it might not be in your best interest to use terminology that implies your loyalty program is only for the privileged few. If you’re in the world of luxury, however, highlighting exclusivity works wonders. However, we’ve seen a rise in loyalty program names that put a more inclusive twist on loyalty and say “Everyone’s welcome!”
A perfect example of inclusivity in loyalty programs is Global Poin Indonesia’s (GPI) app-based GetPlus coalition loyalty program, which offers hundreds of amazing perks to all members. With its wide selection of benefits, mobile-first, accessibility, and free sign-up, GetPlus truly embodies what an inclusive loyalty program should look like.
Every word in a loyalty program name is powerful. Phrases like “inner circle,” “insider,” and “VIP” evoke a sense of exclusivity and privilege, while words like “community,” “family,” and “tribe” deliver a more inclusive message.
5. Make It Aspirational
The essence of a loyalty program is about getting more and going farther. This philosophy is especially well-reflected both in financial institutes’ programs and more traditionally “moving” industries, such as airline and fuel retail loyalty programs, with cleverly playing on words like “speed,” “distance,” “fuel,” and “far.”
The Speedy Rewards Club structure incorporates the speed at which customers usually visit gas stations while simultaneously highlighting the reason why people should visit their fuel court.
Even if you don’t choose a loyalty program name that sounds aspirational, you should still use aspirational language throughout your membership site and promotional copy. In the end, rewards programs are all about the future.
6. Highlight Rewards
If your loyalty strategy will be centered around an amazing selection of rewards, then highlight that. Give your loyalty program a name that implies members will score big!
Homesense and TK Maxx hit the nail on the head with their name, Treasure. This name, combined with their fun approach on the landing page, clearly implies a delightful reward. Further infusing a sense of adventure, member collectible elements are called keys. When you earn 5 keys, and you’ve got yourself an exciting new reward.
Rewards and benefits drive any successful loyalty program. If that’s your program’s selling point, consider adding “gifts,” “rewards,” “perks”, or “selection” to the name.
7. Get Creative
The final strategy on our list? The sky’s the limit! Your loyalty program could be an amazing stand-out moment. This is especially true for brands with a cult following. There’s always a risk involved in getting very creative unless there is an ultra-clear link to your brand, so it’s always wise to ask a group of loyal customers for their opinions via survey or even get their feedback during a soft launch.
Offering a truly magical set of rewards and perks for your customers? Why not make it the literal theme of your membership program? Just look at Charlotte Tilbury’s loyalty program, where every offer and experience revolves around the word magic. Even the currency of the program, the “loyalty coin,” suggests a connection to the realm of magic.
Putting a creative spin on important elements of your program, whether it’s the name itself, the tiers, or the program currency, will make it much easier for customers to remember it and simultaneously encourage word-of-mouth.
Did You Know Antavo Can Do This? – Translating Loyalty Program Names Is No Longer a Problem!
Thinking about taking your loyalty program to a global level? Expanding into a multi-country scheme can be complicated sometimes, but not with Antavo’s flexible next-gen technology! After spending so much valuable time and energy on finding the most accurate and representative name for your new program, loyalty currency, and every membership tier — not to mention the entire reward structure — you need a solution that takes care of proper translations for you.
Antavo’s Multi-language module allows you to translate all aspects of the loyalty program functionalities so that you can display them on the membership site according to customers’ language preferences.
- Translate behind-the-scenes elements like the Dashboard, Customer insights, or Custom events to enable your local teams to process and analyze valuable data.
- You can also use this function to display every aspect of your program to your customers in their preferred language, effectively and quickly translating the names of Challenges, Tiers, Quizzes, or Rewards (among others).
Great Loyalty Program Names Strike a Perfect Balance Between Memorable and Fun
Ideally, the name of your loyalty program will tell customers what you do and illustrate the benefits of your program. Our best advice? Enjoy the creative process, and don’t be afraid to ask for opinions.
Ready to take the next step and start designing a concept for your beautifully-named loyalty program? Leverage our enterprise-grade technology and expertise. Consider including us in your loyalty program RFP, or book a demo to witness our technology in action.
In the meantime, here’s a handy worksheet for designing a rewards system for your loyalty program.
Jess is a Loyalty Program Analyst and a Certified Loyalty Marketing Professional - CLMP, helping companies learn more about customer retention strategies, so they can launch successful loyalty programs. She has been writing about loyalty since 2016. Jess also enjoys ballet, travel, learning languages, and carrying out secret missions for loyalty intel.
