Ya gotta luv this one… It’s fun. It’s creative. It captures the spirit of B&J’s. Ben & Jerry’s flavor honors Elton John. (As seen in the Rutland Herald.)

Granted, Lyris is a marketing outfit spinning their own brand of voodoo but these two posts make some great points.

Email Subject Lines: 15 Rules to Write Them Right

Creative Briefs: Your Map to Message Success

The Creative Briefs’ point that “haste makes waste” is especially appealing. Yes! Measuring twice and cutting once will beat the hare just about every time. Pick a target… Focus… Shoot… Listen to feedback… Reload… Fire again…

The June 2008 issue of CRM magazine featured a worthy article on Loyalty Programs.

David Myron, the editor, lead in with “Fix the Problem, Not the Symptom”. While he makes some good points the key here is the last paragraph: “Clearly loyalty programs, when properly executed, can bring tremendous value to companies and their customers…” The fact is, you can substitute just about any guest facing business offering for loyalty programs and his statement would still be true.

The point is, a loyalty program is just one tool of many that is useful for connecting to guests. It is not a “magic bullet”, nor will it make up for any other deficiencies in The Guest Experience. In fact, just like anything else a business does – a LP should raise the bar, differentiate and/or reinforce the positioning & perception of the brand. Just blindly adding a generic “loyalty program” in a world overflowing with LPs is pointless. Unfortunately, me-too is too often the way of most marketers.

The featured article “Lollipop Loyalty” by Jessica Tsai is a good article in that it doesn’t just focus solely on loyalty programs. Ms. Tsai touches upon other aspect of marketing, as well as engaging guests, and how everything ties back to The Guests Experience with the brand.