Will you make the jump from Air Miles to Scène+?

For large supermarket chains, having an effective loyalty program is as essential as fridges full of milk. The release of Air Miles by IGA, for the benefit of Scène+, is therefore not insignificant. But will consumers gain from this?

In the coming months, cashiers at IGA will stop asking for the famous Air Miles credit card. Instead, you’ll hear: “Do you have a Scene+ card?” IGA’s parent company, Empire, will end its two-decade association with Air Miles. She became co-owner of Scène+ with Scotiabank and Cineplex Theatres.

The transition will begin as early as August in the Atlantic provinces and end in early 2023.

We do not yet know when the turn of Quebec will come. IGA does not want to specify its deployment strategy any further. We promise to inform customers “several weeks” before. Your miles won’t disappear, but once IGA leaves the Air Miles program, there will be few opportunities for redemption. Don’t delay using them.

For the moment, the merits of Scene+ have not been praised by Empire. Nothing has been done to arouse the enthusiasm of consumers. Empire only issued a statement to shareholders.

Still, communication will be key.

First, because the Scene+ card will not be sent automatically to Air Miles members. Interested parties will need to apply. It will therefore be necessary to explain to them how to proceed and, above all, to give them the desire to take a few minutes to get to work.

Less attractive in Quebec

For now, the level of knowledge of the Scene+ card, which has only existed since last December, is low. And its name, in reference to the cinema, is confusing. If its benefits are poorly explained or seem unattractive, there may be no scrambling to join. We already have 13.5 loyalty cards, on average, in our wallet. We will have to convince ourselves of the merits of adding one.

This is even more true in Quebec, because the Scene+ program “is stronger” in the rest of Canada, reports Hans Laroche, expert in loyalty programs and partner at R3 marketing, a firm specializing in the field.

Moreover, Scene+ points are mainly accumulated in restaurants of the Recipes Unlimited group that are not present in Quebec, such as Montana’s BBQ & Bar, Fionn Macool’s and Kelsey’s Original Roadhouse. We know the Harveys (54 addresses), East Side Mario’s (2) and Bier Markt (1) brands, but their footprint remains very limited. The St-Hubert chain, which also belongs to Recipes Unlimited, does not award Scene+ points.

Ditto for The Rec Room and Playdium entertainment centers: they are absent from Quebec territory. And there are no Cineplex theaters anywhere. “In Roberval, Scene+ points are not sexy,” agrees Hans Laroche. Fortunately, Expedia joined as a partner in December for car rentals and lodging.

With Air Miles Cash Miles, you can reduce your bill at IGA, Jean Coutu and Bureau en gros.

As expected, it will be announced that Scenes+ points can be redeemed in supermarkets, I have been confirmed.

It’s hard to say, however, if Scene+ points will earn more than Air Miles. No information allowing calculations to be made has been disclosed. We can only do simulations.

The two experts I spoke to are confident that a new Scotia credit card for Empire supermarket customers will be launched. And that it will be at the heart of recruitment efforts. “For it to be complete, you will need a credit card as is the case with PC Optimum [Loblaw]. If you want to get the best value, you’ll have to have a credit card,” predicts Jean-Maximilien Voisine, founder of the Milesopedia.com site, expert in credit cards and rewards programs.

The duo also believe that a gas-selling partner will be recruited. Again, like Loblaw, associated with Esso. It could be Shell (which offers Air Miles), whose 250 service stations belong to Empire.

Scalded consumers

It remains to be seen how the transition will be handled by the co-owners of Scene+. There is reason to be concerned, as technology did not keep up with the merger between Scotia Rewards and Stage at the end of 2021. Jean-Maximilien Voisine summarizes the situation as follows: “The last six months have been painful. It was disastrous. Catastrophic. »

For two seasons, the wrong number of points was awarded. Still at the beginning of June, the credit card statements promised an “adjustment” on the statement… of June. Plus, talking to Scotiabank to get the errors corrected was next to impossible. Many Scotia customers have been burned, that’s clear.

It’s no wonder, however, that Empire dumped Air Miles, which is constantly losing partners, the latest in the running being Rona and the LCBO, Ontario’s equivalent of the SAQ. As early as 2019, Hans Laroche judged that this program was “at the end of its life”, consumers being unenthusiastic and retailers frustrated by the difficult access to data. Because let’s not forget: a loyalty program is a pretext to obtain data on its customers.

According to Hans Laroche, the fact that IGA “does business alongside Air Miles, like giving away stamps, is proof that it no longer does the job”. Meanwhile, PC Optimum is a hit and gets the 3^e place in the list of the top 10 programs of R3 Marketing and Leger. That of Metro, metro & me, occupies the 10^e rank.

“You can’t be in retail and not understand your customers if you want to influence them,” believes Hans Laroche. But a customer can eat without using any loyalty card.