In the press

We have put together extracts from articles about PAYBACK and Loyalty Partner for you here.

2008   2007   2006   2005   2004   2003   2002   2001   2000

PAYBACK and Weg.de launch new travel web
The German loyalty coalition, PAYBACK, has partnered with the online travel portal operator, Weg.de, to launch a new travel platform called PAYBACK Reisen, with the motto 'the most beautiful points in the world'. PAYBACK Reisen allows travellers to collect PAYBACK loyalty points for booking
their holidays and flights through the site.[...]
(thewisemarketer.com, 23rd January, 2008)

Customers use the Payback card
In Germany Payback is the loyalty programme with the largest market share and the highest number of active users. According to a recent GfK study more than every second houshold in Germany has a card from Loyalty Partner. 56.5 percent of the card owners always use their card when shopping, 38.5 percent use it occasionally and three percent never use it. [...]
(Lebensmittel Zeitung, 12th October, 2007)

There’s life in the old dog yet
Despite indifference, corporate blogs are currently celebrating a revival [...] Successfully launched projects like the loyalty programme’s paybackblog.de illustrate the changing attitude towards this media channel. The development of a corporate blog is not kept under wraps – employees as well as customers are involved in the planning stage. Openness is the main code of conduct for these corporate blogs that are no longer regarded as simple technical platforms for corporate PR. Representatives from all departments of the operator Loyalty Partner were involved in the development before the start of the Paybackblog earlier this year. Further input came from a project blog together with the Munich agency Trnd and more than 100 members. Topics and priorities for the blog were determined in this way.
(Horizont, 14th June, 2007)

PAYBACK announces expansion to Poland 
Following it's rapid growth in Germany, PAYBACK - the largest customer loyalty programme - is going to expand abroad. A start in Poland is planned to begin with, said PAYBACK chef and founder Alexander Rittweger to the German press angency in Munich. In Germany PAYBACK is the market leader. Last year Loyalty Partner achieved a turnover of EUR 150 million with 300 employees. This year a growth of about 30 percent is expected. Around 100 new employees are to be hired. Rittweger founded the company in 1998 in Munich with three employees. Since that time a british financial investment company has become the major shareholder of Loyalty Partner. An initial public offering is not ruled out. "This could be a middle-term option ", Rittweger said.
(Financial Times Deutschland, 12th June, 2007)

dm delivers information at high speed - success via PAYBACK customer card
The drugstore chain - dm - generates meanwhile over half their turnover with the PAYBACK card.
2.3 million PAYBACK cards have been registered via dm. The company has access to the addresses of these customers who - if desired - can be canvassed with mailings. The Karlsruhe-based company sends around 60 direct mailings a year with a total circulation of 22 million. This does not however mean that the customer is swamped with advertising. On the contrary, dm selects the targeted customers as
appropriate using a campaign management software from AIC. Particular emphasis is placed on
data protection - for example, extranet reports are only made available with anonymous till ticket data.
(lz.net, 3rd May 2007)

Aral increases market share thanks to PAYBACK 
The cooperation between PAYBACK and Aral this year has paid off for Aral: Germany’s largest petrol station chain has increased their market share by 0.5% to 23%. Whilst overall the market remains static, Aral has increased their fuel turnover by 0.5 million to 8.14 million tons. PAYBACK has played a large roll in this development, said Walter Clements, chairman of the board, at the annual press conference of the holding company Deutsche BP yesterday. […]
In May 2006 Aral joined Germany’s largest customer loyalty programme. Since joining the programme, customers can collect points by shopping and buying fuel at the participating stations which can then be redeemed for rewards. 
(Handelsblatt, 27th April 2007)

Cashless payment with PAYBACK Plus
The PAYBACK card now offers the possiblity to pay for purchases with
e-cash. Together with real,-, Kaufhof, dm-Drogeriemarkt, Aral and the West LB, the Munich-based 
operating company Loyalty Partner has now added a free e-cash payment funktion to the card.
(Lebensmittel Zeitung, 9th March 2007)

German consumers like to use cards 
[...] Loyalty programmes still seem to be very popular. Almost one out of three German citizens has at least one customer card in his wallet at all times. For more than two thirds (64%) customer cards are automatically part of their shopping. Most customers use the PAYBACK card: 36 % of the interviewed are members of this programme, followed by Happy Digits with 18%. According to the study being a member of a loyalty programme also indicates changes in the buying behaviour [...] 
(Horizont, 16th November, 2006]

Payback instead of brands 
The BP subsidiary Aral is the only petrol station to participate in the national loyalty programme Payback. With its participation Aral replaces its trading stamp system. Starting May 2nd, customers can show their Payback card at 2500 Aral petrol stations in Germany. For two litres of petrol they can collect two Payback points, according to Aral. Currently 30 million Payback cards are in circulation. By switching to Payback, Aral wants to increase their sales by 5 %. [...] 
(Süddeutsche Zeitung, 8th April 2007)

Aral heats up duel with Shell - BP affiliate cooperates with loyalty programme Payback 
BP subsidiary Aral is increasing speed in the fight for the number one position in the German petrol station business. Aral wants to attract more customers to its petrol pumps by cooperating with the loyalty programme Payback. [...] With the Payback cooperation Aral is the only petrol station operator to take advantage of a coalition loyalty programme. 
(Financial Times Deutschland, 7th April, 2006)

Vodafone and Payback offer discount tariff
Mobile communications provider Vodafone is launching a new cut-price tariff on the German market. Working in cooperation with customer loyalty specialist Payback, Vodafone intends for the new tariff to attract new customers, reports the 'Financial Times Deutschland' (FTD). By offering the tariff through a partner, the mobile communication specialist's brand will not be damaged by the low-price tariff. Last year, O2 joined forces with Tchibo to offer a budget tariff. E-Plus followed suit by teaming up with Uboot.com to offer a cut-price tariff with prepaid cards through Uboot's Schwarzfunk label. According to 'FTD', Payback is bringing with it 28 million customers to the partnership.
(werben & verkaufen, 29 April 2005)

Payback points for watching TV
The next level in customer loyalty: ProSieben viewers and Payback customers have the chance to win a million Payback points every day if they take part in the "ProSieben Payback Days" from 26 to 29 May. The TV channel and bonus programme have teamed up on this campaign which involves Payback points being displayed on screen in selected formats. Viewers then send in the number of points by text message.
(Media & Marketing, 28th April 2005)

Pharmacies looking to attract customers with PAYBACK points
[...] With 27.5 million members, PAYBACK is the leading German bonus scheme. Loyalty Partner achieves sales of Euro 120 million; one in three retail customers has the card in their wallet. [...]
PAYBACK also provides the partners with a means of directly addressing customers, e.g. through targeted mailings.[...]
(Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 24 February 2005)

PAYBACK scores extra points
The "PAYBACK Olympiapartner" Olympic partner concept from Loyalty Partner GmbH has won the International Sponsoring Award (ISA) 2004 for sports sponsorship. [...]
The concept's consistent planning, creative implementation, strategic networking and end result were rewarded.
(Horizont, 13th January 2005)

PAYBACK has the edge
[...] There is still no doubt whatsoever that card-holding customers spend more in stores. There is no better example of this phenomenon than at real,- where the average customer spend for PAYBACK cardholders is 55% higher than that of non-cardholders.
(Börsen-Zeitung, 7th January 2005)

Ticket Online
[...] "Set the scene" is the company's motto. The ticketing service provider's partnership with Germany's largest bonus scheme PAYBACK, completed at the beginning of November, is the right move, says Michael Hauser, Manager of New Media and New Business Development at Ticket Online. [...]
Hauser is extremely enthusiastic about his company's involvement and his excitement is not simply down to the visible added-value created by offering end customers point collecting opportunities and deals. Marketing cooperations, he says, depend greatly on the quality of the partnership and not on the number of partners, a criterion that is often emphasised on the market, but is actually overrated.
Hauser finds it "sexy" that each one of the partner companies has enormous marketing potential and scope for conducting campaigns that the other partners can utilise by harnessing synergies.
(Der Musikmarkt, January 2005)

PAYBACK moves into the travel business
[...] With around 27 million cards issued, PAYBACK is Germany's largest bonus scheme. The principle is to collect points when you shop and then redeem these for rewards. The company now hopes to apply this formula to tourism. The PAYBACK travel shop goes online in mid-February and will enable members to redeem and collect points. The portal is in direct competition with travel agents and other direct retailers like Tchibo. "The idea is that the customer enjoys benefits on everyday products," explains Rittweger. "And we are now extending this to holidays, where we have a clear price advantage over traditional holiday companies." [...]
(fvw, January 2005)

Winners
Alexander Rittweger, CEO of “PAYBACK”, has issued all German athletes, coaches and Olympic administrative staff with a credit card. All discount points collected when purchases are made using these cards will be donated to Deutsche Sporthilfe. The donations will go to help paraplegic former gymnast Ronny Ziesmer. BILD newspaper thinks: outstanding!
(BILD, 30th August 2004)

You’ve just got to have the card!
Save 15% on purchases at Kaufhof, 20% on rental cars and triple your bonus points when you shop at real,-. Impossible, you say? Not if you have an Olympics Visa Card from the PAYBACK bonus points scheme!
(Focus, 16th August 2004)

Better than the next Ferrari
Collecting bonus points has become a popular sport in Germany. After health insurance cards and EC payment cards, the PAYBACK card is the third most common card in people’s wallets. 26 million Germans take it with them on their shopping sprees. However, the company founded in Munich by Alexander Rittweger (38) in 1998 has set itself some even more ambitious objectives. […]. This makes PAYBACK one of the four largest German sponsorship partners of the Olympic Games.
(Süddeutsche Zeitung, 20th August 2004)

PAYBACK brings two new partners on board
The customer loyalty card provider Loyalty Partner has brought two new partners on board for its PAYBACK customer card, the Görtz chain of footwear stores and the Christ jewellery chain. This is part of PAYBACK’s new business strategy of winning brand-name companies with stores in prestigious city centre locations as partners.
(Handelsblatt, 26th April 2004)

Successful!
In 1998, Alexander Rittweger founded Loyalty Partner, the company which operates PAYBACK. Not only was this bonus scheme the first to bring the idea of ‘trading stamps’ back to life in the retail sector in Germany when it was launched in the year 2000, it is now also the most successful customer loyalty scheme in the country. It is used by over 25 million consumers.
(Frankfurter Rundschau, 6th April 2004)

PAYBACK remains the leader
Four years ago, Loyalty Partner GmbH led the way into customer loyalty programmes with its PAYBACK scheme. Now, 25 million Germans carry this card with its blue logo in their wallets. And Alexander Rittweger, CEO of Loyalty Partner, can congratulate himself on being in charge of Germany’s best-known card scheme. A representative survey carried out by TNS Emnid recently showed that 72% of those questioned were aware of the possibility of collecting PAYBACK points whilst shopping. “PAYBACK has proved to be a real winner for us. The scheme allows us to monitor our retail success and is becoming the perfect instrument for our customer management activities”, says Loyalty Partner customer Uwe Hölzer, Managing Director of real,- SB-Warenhaus, a subsidiary of Metro.
(Der Handel, April 2004)

real,- tailors its customer appeal
Over the course of a year, PAYBACK customers spend almost twice as much at real,- as non-PAYBACK customers. One in two real,- customers now holds a PAYBACK card, and the card is used in transactions accounting for more than 60% of sales. However, for Mr. Hölzer, Chairman of the Management Board of real,-, this success is about more than just figures. His company is using PAYBACK data for other purposes too. “We’ve now developed our marketing and data processing methods to such an extent that we can address specific customer groups and provide them with a much stronger incentive”, he explains.
(Lebensmittel Zeitung, 19th March 2004)

PAYBACK tops the bonus scheme league table
PAYBACK is the best-known German bonus scheme by far. 72% of those questioned in a recent study carried out by TNS Emnid had heard of the scheme. Second place in the league table was occupied by the Miles & More scheme and the campaigns run by Aral, both of which had a recognition rating of 51%. The Ikea Family Card lay in fourth place with 40% in front of Happy Digits (38%), which shared fifth place with the Rewe Household Card.
(Horizont, 11th March 2004)

PAYBACK members are better real,- customers
PAYBACK members spend over twice as much at real,- as non-PAYBACK customers. According to statistics provided by the scheme operator, Loyalty Partner, and confirmed by real,-, 61% of real,- sales in Germany (EUR 7.4 billion) are already made using PAYBACK cards. And the average spending by card users is 57.6% higher than that of other customers. The PAYBACK strategy of only incorporating partners with high brand recognition value, e.g. Obi, Galeria Kaufhof and dm-drogerie markt, into its partner portfolio is also said to be proving successful for real,- with 35% of its PAYBACK customers coming to it from other partners.
(Lebensmittel Zeitung, 2nd October 2003)

Loyalty Partner GmbH (Munich) and d+s online AG (Hamburg) have been declared Europe’s most successful call centre partnership. d+s operates the PAYBACK call centre as the exclusive service provider.
(Märkische Oderzeitung, 20th September 2003)

PAYBACK customers buy more
The PAYBACK discount card is proving to be a success story for real,-. “We have discovered that PAYBACK members spend 50% more than non-members”, says Simone Meyer. real,-, a founding member of the discount scheme, is the largest issuer of PAYBACK cards with a share of 34%. One important side effect of the discount scheme is that it provides an insight into customers’ shopping habits. “This allows us to better tailor our range and target customers more effectively”, explains Simone Meyer. One in two real,- customers already has a PAYBACK card.
(Rheinische Post, 10th July 2003)

Sales manager of the year
Readers of acquisa, the sales and marketing magazine, have voted Alexander Rittweger, CEO of Loyalty Partner, as sales manager of the year for 2003 in recognition of the rapid growth in sales of his PAYBACK customer loyalty scheme. Here’s how one reader described his reasons for this choice: “Georg Kofler knew how to tailor rewards to the needs and financial situation of his subscribers. He would have deserved the prize, but there is someone else who deserves it even more: Alexander Rittweger. He is achieving something which demonstrates that the reason why companies in Germany are not getting anywhere lies in a lack of creativity on the part of managers in the new market and beyond. Here is a company faced with miserable market conditions which chooses to buck the trend with innovative marketing and obviously outstanding management. Respect!
(acquisa, June 2003)

A PAYBACK Visa Card is all you need! No need to keep collecting cards any more! Visa customers can now use their new PAYBACK Visa Card to kill two birds with one stone. The card offers all the functions of a normal credit card, but can also be used to collect discount points when shopping at PAYBACK partner stores (Apollo-Optik, Europcar, dm, Galeria Kaufhof, OBI and real,-).
(Freizeit Revue, January 2003)

“On the up”
Loyalty pays off. Germans have a new hobby: collecting points. More than 21 million bargain-hunters have PAYBACK cards in their wallets.
(Focus, December 2002)

Queen PAYBACK
The PAYBACK card, sometimes referred to as the queen among customer cards, now offers even more extensive functions. Take real,- for example. Over the course of this year, Stefan Feuerstein, head of this chain of consumer stores, plans to introduce card terminals which PAYBACK card holders (who now number 17 million) can use to access their points balance and cash in their value directly at the check-out. The PAYBACK partner company will also be sending tailor-made offers to its customers in the form of newsletters and direct mail. It’s not without good reason that the German Direct Marketing Association has awarded the PAYBACK concept the “Oscar for Dialogue Marketing”.
(Handelsberater, June 2002)

Well-positioned: According to a survey conducted by Emnid, PAYBACK from Loyalty Partner is by far the most popular bonus card in Germany. After health insurance cards and EC payment cards, the PAYBACK card occupies third place in German wallets. The concept is going down extremely well with consumers, and there are now 17 million cards in circulation.
(Lebensmittel Zeitung, 10th May 2002)

Who would have thought that more people would have a PAYBACK card in their wallets (23%) than the most popular credit card (16%)? Well, it’s a great idea. After all, this is a card that doesn’t cost you anything but saves you lots of money instead.
(Hörzu, May 2002)

The whiz-kid of customer loyalty!
The fact that PAYBACK, a newcomer whose product has only been on the market for two years and which employs just 130 people, has won an award shows that it really must be s omething quite special. Well, it is. PAYBACK is a thoroughbred of dialogue marketing, according to Walter Plötz, Chairman of the EDDI panel of judges. “PAYBACK’s strategy combines ambitious dialogue marketing and a high level of service to create an extraordinarily effective and successful customer loyalty system.”
(acquisa, May 2002)

PAYBACK’s answer to Telekom
In the competitive market for bonus cards, operators have raised the stakes by announcing new alliances. Deutsche Telekom has presented an ideal partner for its Happy Digits bonus scheme in the form of Karstadt-Quelle, while market leader PAYBACK has responded by announcing new cooperation arrangements with Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) and Visa. While Karstadt-Quelle won’t join the Happy Digits points scheme until the second quarter and, together with Telekom, is still looking for agents, PAYBACK will be launching a TV and print campaign for a discount card with credit card functions as early as the middle of February.
(Horizont, 7th February 2002)

Points cards used to only be accepted in one company’s stores until Loyalty Partner GmbH of Munich created a stir with a new concept two years ago. With the support of Lufthansa and the Metro commercial group, the company’s founder, Alexander Rittweger, managed to get partner companies from different sectors on board for his bonus scheme PAYBACK. From a standing start, this newcomer card has become market leader.
(Der Spiegel, February 2002)

Good cards, bad cards
Discounts, gifts, enhanced service – collecting bonus points is consumer sport of the year. “Collecting bonus points is set to become the new consumer sport for 2001”, predict consultants Mummert + Partner. One in three German marketing managers is currently said to be thinking about setting up a bonus scheme. Winner on points is Alexander Rittweger, who has discovered a niche in the market with PAYBACK. Companies which have joined PAYBACK have improved their sales by 2-11%. And not a day goes by without at least one company contacting Rittweger’s office in Munich to ask if they might be admitted to his illustrious circle.
(Max, April 2001)

The new shopping trend: Savings through discounts
The good old ‘trading stamp’ is back, but this time in a new, more modern form. In March, nine large companies joined forces in the “PAYBACK” customer card scheme, which offers discounts of between 1 and 3%. PAYBACK cards are free of charge and can be obtained from branches of participating companies.
(Glücksrevue, 30th May 2000)

Winner on points
Bonus schemes reward customers in the most profitable way. 
Regardless of whether you’re browsing in Kaufhof, fuelling your car at DEA or spending an evening in the cinema, you can collect points with the PAYBACK card all the way. And if you produce the card when renting a car, your weekend hire charge will be cut by 25% and you’ll boost your bonus account balance by 148 points, all of which are worth money.
(Focus, 15th April 2000)