Latest Posts
Infrastructure Is the Strategy
Why Retail’s Next Advantage Won’t Look Like Software Retail has spent years talking about experience – personalization engines,…
The Best of Customerland (So Far)
This year, Customerland crossed a meaningful milestone: 53 published episodes! It’s been a year of massive shifts – AI…
December 29, 2025
Passikoff: Greetings, Marketers!
Greetings, marketers, both old and newHere’s a 2025 year-end review. The best-known holiday poem is generally considered to…
Unified Commerce, Real Loyalty, Actual Results
A conversation with Eagle Eye’s Jeff Baskin For decades, retail loyalty sat on top of the business like…
December 3, 2025
Passikoff: ‘Tis the (really long) Season
Brands like Coca-Cola and Macy’s helped entrench Santa Claus in popular culture, and Christmas became a retail juggernaut,…
The Vibe-Shaped Customer: Micro-Moments, Mood, and the New Consumer Logic
Over the last year or so, I’ve noticed something odd happening in the consumer world. It’s subtle, but…
Passikoff: A Brand That Doesn’t Need Gimmicks
Tomorrow is Veterans Day – a national celebration honoring the patriotism, courage, and sacrifice of America’s veterans. I…
November 10, 2025
Is Agency Is the New Loyalty?
This has been bugging me for a while. We talk about loyalty as if it were a program…
What If We Could Design for Emotion?
Why the next great marketing advantage may lie in the one variable we’ve never truly measured. For all…
Rewriting the Math of CX
My conversation with Ken Lain, Senior Vice President and Head of CX, Customer Service and Operations at Verizon…
POV: How Webex Is Rewriting the CX Playbook for the AI Era
From Service Function to Growth Engine In the final quarter of 2025, the customer experience landscape looks fundamentally…
Passikoff: The Loyalty Code
In 2025, loyalty isn’t earned once and stored away. C’mon, this isn’t 1983! A little reality check, huh?…
The Emotional P&L of Food Delivery
It turns out that food delivery’s bottom line is less about speed and more about trust. Food delivery…
Passikoff: The Venn of Loyalty
I want to talk about marketer-types who revere/use/misuse/ignore/are-just-plain-stupid-about loyalty. I thought I’d use a visual tool to catalogue…
What CX Is Actually Worth — And Why We’re Measuring It Wrong
We’re increasingly asked to justify CX investments not just on “how they feel,” but on what they contribute. Most…
Passikoff: Expectations of Happiness
Expectations offer deeper insight into the emotional drivers of brand loyalty, engagement – and yes, happiness. When Walt…
July 8, 2025
Performative or Patriotic? What Today’s Most Trusted Brands Get Right
We just released the results of our 24th annual Brand Keys Most Patriotic Brands survey. I usually write…
June 10, 2025
When Brands Carry the Flag – What the 2025 Brand Keys Survey Really Tells Us About American Patriotism
In a year where everything seems political – and almost nothing feels unifying – consumers are still rallying…
When Brands Out-Patriot the Government
In a year marked by economic anxiety, political division, and institutional mistrust, the most surprising finding from Brand…
Passikoff: Loyalty Shifts
Loyalty is “interdisciplinary.” Meaning it involves more than one branch of knowledge. Technically I suppose the way we…
May 8, 2025
Peak Immersion: The Science Behind Engaged Store Associates
Editor’s Note: I had been anticipating this conversation with Aptos‘ Nikki Baird for some time – mostly based…
Passikoff: On Brands and Politics
“Politics makes strange bedfellows.” That’s an 1870 quote from American journalist, Charles Dudley Warner. At the time he…
April 8, 2025
Loyalty Programs That Actually Work: A SAP CX Perspective
What Today’s Loyalty Programs Get Right—and Where They’re Still Falling Short Loyalty isn’t what it used to be—and…
Passikoff on Brand “Temperature”
The 1st Baron Kelvin who (unless you were a physics major, and I don’t count many of those among…
The Technological Renaissance of Coalition Loyalty Programs
Coalition loyalty programs are experiencing a significant revival, albeit with contemporary modifications that address the shortcomings of their…
March 17, 2025
Transforming the Post-Purchase Experience in Luxury & Sustainability
The luxury industry is undergoing a seismic shift. Once defined by exclusivity, heritage, and generational ownership, luxury is…
March 12, 2025
Beyond Price: The Untapped Value of Eco-Conscious Shoppers
The landscape of consumer loyalty is rapidly evolving, with sustainability and health consciousness emerging as powerful drivers of…
March 12, 2025
Lost & Found Reimagined: How Boomerang Turns Customer Frustration into Brand Loyalty
For businesses in travel, sports, entertainment, and hospitality, the lost & found process has long been a necessary…
February 21, 2025
The Missing Link in Retail Loyalty: Travel Rewards
For years, retailers have relied on discounts to drive customer loyalty, but as consumer expectations evolve, traditional price-based…
February 21, 2025
Passikoff: The Brand Also Rises
This is my 100th column for Customerland. Coincidently it’s the 100th anniversary of Ernest Hemingway’s first major book, In Our Time. A…
February 18, 2025
Unlocking the Next Evolution of Travel Rewards
The landscape of travel loyalty programs continues to evolve, shaped by shifting consumer behaviors, technological advances, and strategic…
Big Changes in the Ways We Interact with Brands – the 2025 CLEI Results
In today’s fast-paced market, understanding brand loyalty is no longer just a matter of measuring customer satisfaction; it…
January 29, 2025
Decoding the 2025 Brand Loyalty Engagement Index
The 2025 Brand Loyalty Engagement Index (CLEI), released by Brand Keys, delivers a detailed snapshot of how consumer…
Redefining Loyalty Programs Through Purpose and Sustainability
Can the evolving expectations of Gen Z redefine the way brands approach consumer loyalty and sustainability? This week,…
January 22, 2025
Decoding Gen Z Loyalty and Engagement
Editor’s Note: This was one of the most fascinating – and instructive – conversations in recent memory. I…
Passikoff: Getting 100 on the Brand Test
Think about the number 100. What comes to mind? Completeness? Totality? Your perfect score on that spelling test…
January 14, 2025
What Travel Brands Must Do to Win Over Gen Z
The travel industry is at a crossroads. By 2030, Gen Z’s purchasing power is expected to reach $12…
January 13, 2025
The Hidden Gold in Sustainable Rewards Programs
The season of abundance typically delivers a surge for retailers, but new research shows they may be overlooking…
December 30, 2024
Navigating AI-Driven Loyalty Shifts
In this episode of Customerland, Erin Raese, CRO at Annex Cloud, shares her expertise on the changing nature of…
December 18, 2024
iSeatz Poised for Growth with Strategic Leadership Additions and Product Innovations
iSeatz is making bold moves to reinforce its position as a leader in travel technology. The company’s announcement…
December 12, 2024
The Loyalty Personalities Quiz: A Nifty Tool for Modern Loyalty Strategy
From an analyst’s perspective, Annex Cloud‘s recently introduced Loyalty Personalities Quiz represents an intriguing approach to enhancing customer…
November 26, 2024
From Convenience to Connection: Car Rentals Growing Loyalty
Loyalty programs are everywhere—but loyalty itself is increasingly rare. As consumers face a barrage of choices, traditional programs…
November 25, 2024
Seeking Long-Term Loyalty: Evolving Loyalty Technology for Financial Institutions
Endearing customer loyalty is critical for businesses of every stripe, but for financial institutions, long-term customer loyalty is…
November 8, 2024
Deus Ex Marketer: What it Takes to Orchestrate Customer-Centricity in a Data-Driven World
Editor’s Note: This piece has been marinating in the backwashes of my brain for a long time –…
The Loyalty of Black Friday
Half of U.S. Consumers Will Remain Loyal to Brands They Purchase From During Black Friday The annual Black…
Breaking Loyalty – Part 3: Fixing Loyalty for the Modern Age
This is the third in our 3-part Series on Breaking Loyalty. Along with Mike Ribero, an expert in…
October 16, 2024
Breaking Loyalty – Part 2: What Customers Want and What Companies Need
In Breaking Loyalty Part 2, Mike Ribero and Mike Giambattista explore the shift from traditional loyalty programs to…
October 9, 2024
Breaking Loyalty – Part 1: Unraveling the Loyalty Crisis
What if the loyalty programs you rely on are actually failing you? Join me and loyalty expert Mike…
October 2, 2024
