Special Issue: Loyalty Programs for Banks and Insurance Companies

Loyalty Programs are not new. Since merchants exist, instruments to transform casual customers to regular customers have been used. Over time, these instruments have not changed much. When purchasing, customers receive incentives to encourage future behavioral intentions, such as re-purchase intentions, and eventually actual behavior. Hence, firms particularly in the retailing industry employ loyalty programs to decrease churn rates. In addition, firms benefit from loyalty as customers will bring in substantial revenues, disseminate positive word-of-mouth and display decreasing sensitivity to price. On the other hand, loyalty programs require substantial marketing investments and personal resources as well as a detailed understanding of the firm’s customer base. While loyalty programs are regularly used in retailing or tourism, they are rarely employed by banks and/or insurance companies. Not only practice, but also marketing science has disregarded loyalty programs for this sector. This is surprising, considering that for continuously provided services – such as finance – in which the duration of the provider-customer relationship is closely tied to its profitability, loyalty programs are of particular relevance. As a result, der markt – Journal für Marketing will publish a special issue on this challenging and innovative topic. This special issue on “Loyalty Programs for Banks and Insurance Companies” aims at highlighting recent developments, challenges and opportunities. We are looking for innovative manuscripts which help to a) improve our understanding of strengths and weaknesses of loyalty programs, b) provide (behavioral) information on various topics related to loyalty programs, and c) point out future developments, chances and risks from a customer’s and firm’s perspective. Please feel invited to submit a paper to this special issue.

About “der markt – Journal für Marketing”

der markt – Journal für Marketing is one of the leading scientific marketing journals in German-speaking Europe. However, it extends well beyond Austria, Germany and Switzerland being distributed in many countries in Eastern as well as Western Europe. While the journal has had a long tradition (the first issue dates back to the 1960s), in the future, der markt – Journal für Marketing will even broaden its scope as it is published by one of the most prestigious scientific publishers, Springer-Verlag GmbH, as of 2009. Alexander Zauner, who is affiliated with WU Vienna, is Editor-in-chief. Leading scholars of the European scientific marketing community serve on the newly established editorial board, ensuring a rigorous double-blind review process. Articles are published either in English or in German. The journal is not restricted to established methods, theories and approaches to research in marketing. der markt particularly encourages alternative, unconventional and innovative thinking as regards methodology and approaches. While papers have to adhere to rigorous academic standards, published manuscripts should also stimulate the transfer of scientific research to corporate practice.

Special issue editor(s)

Ewald Judt, Professor in Marketing
Alexander Zauner, PhD Candidate and Faculty Member
WU Vienna
Department of Marketing
Institute for Marketing Management
Augasse 2–6, 1090 Vienna, Austria
e-mail: alexander.zauner@wu-wien.ac.at
www: http://wu.ac.at/mm

Guidelines for submissions

All papers will be subject to double-blind peer review
Author guidelines are available at http://www.springer.com/dermarkt
Submit your manuscript via the online-submission system available at https://www.editorialmanager.com/dmjm/
Submission deadline: September 30, 2010
Acceptance decision: approx. February 2011
Date of Publication: Spring 2011