The Next Level of Loyalty in Luxury: The Louis Erard Case

Industry, Product

Throughout the blog post series, we have observed the history of loyalty as well as its transformation. From this, we sought out to understand how a successful loyalty program is built and what challenges are faced by brands trying to build a program in luxury. Finally, in the last week’s post, we developed a “Loyalty Checklist” to help brands in luxury and brands in general with the development of their own loyalty program.

Since we discussed all these topics and went through a journey together, it’s only fair that we show you our own journey that we went through in Q4 of 2020 when we started developing the “Louis Erard Loyalty Program”.

About Louis Erard

Louis Erard founded his watchmaking brand in 1929 in Neuchatel, Switzerland and by 1931 the first production of watches under the Louis Erard brand took place.

Since 1931, the Louis Erard way followed a strong code of developing original and authentic watches with strong horological content while still maintaining the essence of affordability. A Swiss-made brand that offers high value and authenticity at amazing prices.

The Program

The program has a simple 3 step flow:

After each watch purchase, customers can now choose to receive rewards in Louis Erard Points (LEP) or miles from the Miles & More or Etihad Guest programs.

The LEP can be used to collect VIP discounts on future purchases at Louis Erard and other awesome rewards/experiences or you can use your miles for flights, upgrades any other exciting products from the Miles & More or Etihad Guest portfolio. Of course, you can always exchange your LEP back into miles with Etihad Guest and spend them there.

One unique aspect of the loyalty program is the way it incorporates two tiers of rewards. You will receive 100 LEP for Tier 1, and 150 LEP for Tier 2. Tier 1 is the heritage collection, whilst tier 2 includes the Excellence/La Sportive collection. Alternatively, you can go for miles from Miles & More or Etihad Guest and receive up to 4,000 or 6,000 Miles depending on the watch tier; Tier 1 heritage; Tier 2 Excellence/La Sportive.

The Results (So Far)

Full time to market = 8 weeks

Including the brainstorming/idea phase which took place at the beginning of the development, time to market has been faster than any traditional loyalty program set-up.

True-time to market = 4 weeks

Without including the ideation phase, the true time to market would be an estimated 4 weeks, as defined by our Head of Sales, Francesco Pagano. This is the fastest go-to-market execution, including IT integration, that you can get into Marketing-land.

Fast Execution and Quick Implementation

Enabled Louis Erard to launch the program pre-holiday season (December) and profit from the upcoming holidays to maximize the loyalty program value.

PR Media Echo

15 different articles posted regarding the launch of the program | 2x one-to-one interviews with the CEO of Louis Erard, Manuel Emch, that were posted by Watchpro and Europastar (links below).

Watchpro: https://usa.watchpro.com/louis-erard-makes-bold-offer-to-retail-partners/

Europastar: https://www.europastar.com/the-watch-files/watches-blockchain/1004092467-louis-erard-to-launch-a-blockchain-powered.html (second interview coming in March)

Key Takeaways (TL:DR)

Point 1: Louis Erard has been in the watchmaking business since 1929. Always aiming to achieve true authenticity and originality at the best price yet they still seek to push the technological boundaries by adopting blockchain technology for their loyalty program.
Point 2: The program has 3 simple steps, 1) Make a purchase, 2) Earn points (receive code), 3) Redeem points (enter code). It’s made to be easily used by the user and add maximum value to their experience.
Point 3: Time to market was key, 8 weeks. Fast execution allowed Louis Erard to profit from the holiday season. This makes qiibee one of the few Mar-Tech companies in the world able to deliver a full rounded loyalty program in a very short time and without any Capex.

qiibee: Access world-class brands your customers love.

Enhance customer loyalty by offering world-class brands and rewards from our marketplace that your customers love. Simultaneously, expand your customer base by offering your products and services to millions of new buyers.