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Sravanthi Challapalli

Chennai , Dec. 25

LANDMARK, the Chennai-based book, music and gifts store, has introduced `The Fellowship', a loyalty programme for its customers.

Speaking to Business Line, Ms Hemu Subramaniam, Partner, Landmark, said the scheme, soft-launched two weeks ago, had already taken on 500 members. The target is to enrol one-lakh members in the next six months.

The Fellowship is so named because Landmark wants the loyalty programme to be "a family business," she says. Add-on cards (Fellowship Junior and Fellowship Legends) are available for children and parents.

A customer can become a member by paying Rs 150 for a card or by making a one-time purchase worth Rs 2,500, upon which the card comes free. The card will be valid at all Landmark outlets in Chennai, Kolkata and Bangalore and points can be redeemed at any outlet. Points will accrue to the family and not to the individual.

Under the programme, the card is valid for two years. Purchases (called `Milestones' in the scheme) ranging between Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000 would earn the customer rewards (`Landmarks') or gift vouchers worth 2.75 per cent of that amount, those between Rs 25,001 and Rs 50,000 would earn rewards worth 3 per cent and within Rs 1 lakh, it would fetch the customer 5 per cent. These vouchers can be redeemed against most of the store's merchandise.

Landmark is also working on a Gold card, which will be a level above the current one. The store is negotiating with a credit card company to co-brand this card, Ms Subramaniam said.

Landmark is also exploring opportunities to tie up with other stores/brands where The Fellowship card could be used to rack up points for the member at Landmark. They could even include bookstores in cities where Landmark does not have a presence, Ms Subramaniam said.

She said her company was also mulling the launch of a co-branded corporate card. Landmark would tie up with corporate organisations and would issue memberships to a certain number of employees.

Even as these members earned their points, once certain sales targets were met, the corporates would be issued gift vouchers proportionate to the amount spent, she explained.

The programme would not ride merely on discounts but on "fun, thrill and a bit of a gamble," said Ms Subramaniam. Advertising agency Rubecon has been entrusted with the responsibility of marketing this loyalty scheme. It would not be a "restrictive" loyalty programme like most others where the emphasis was always on what the customer could not do rather than on what she could do, she added.

It would strive to be an "evolving programme." The company would spend around Rs 50 lakh on The Fellowship in the next two years, she said.

Apart from the gift vouchers, the other facilities that would be available to customers would be special invitations to discussions, quiz competitions, talks and book release functions and the issue of a free newsletter.

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Landmark launches loyalty programme — Aims at garnering one-lakh members

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