An Empirical Examination of How Time and Socioeconomic Attributes of Frequent-Buyer and Coupon Participants Differ From Those of “Ordinary Customers”

More than 75 percent of households belong to at least one frequent-buyer club program and over 90 percent of these use their cards almost every shopping trip. While customer-loyalty efforts are a major promotional priority for 56 percent of marketers, marketing scientists have not compared the attributes of frequent-buyer club members to those of coupon-users and “ordinary” customers. Analyses revealed that frequent-buyers and coupon-users have lower opportunity costs for time, and lower socioeconomic standings, than do “ordinary” customers. Thus, managerial substitutions of frequent-buyer programs for coupon efforts, as coupon costs increase, seem rational.