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s the document and imaging industry evolves, imaging workflows become more sophisticated, and products increase in complexity. But with innovation, the industry has faced a new problem: customer confusion. Workflow management now involves both traditional end users in the office as well as IT departments to establish the connectivity that makes these multifunctional machines most productive.

Maintaining brand loyalty among such a diverse customer base isn’t easy, but Canon USA hit upon a successful strategy early on. This came about in part from the company looking ahead and establishing a successful loyalty program that benefited all its stakeholders.

David Hughes, an experienced database marketer at Canon, headed up the project. He realized that the ideal loyalty program structure wouldn’t be about points and rewards. He felt that rewards programs were expensive, too easy to copy, and difficult to suspend. Even more important, they tend to commoditize the brand and divert customer attention away from the brand value to the program itself.

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