12% OF POPULATION FOUND TO USE FREQUENT-SHOPPER PROGRAMS

RICHARD TURCSIK

SAN ANTONIO -- More than 10% of the population now belongs to a card-based frequent-shopper program, and that number is still growing at a strong pace, especially among younger, employed shoppers, said a senior couponing industry official.

"I was amazed to find that 11.8% of the population belongs to a frequent-shopper club," said Jane Perrin, senior vice president of marketing at NCH Promotional Services, Lincolnshire, Ill.

Perrin spoke at the Association of Coupon Processors' Spring Conference and Industry Forum here. She presented information from a variety of industry sources, including NCH's sister company Nielsen Marketing Research, and ActMedia, Catalina Marketing, News America and Sullivan.

"That 11.8% is a fairly high number and [ACP] will be tracking that in the future," she said.

When broken out, the information further revealed that "the use of frequent-shopper clubs is much higher in the Mid-Atlantic states. That is a function of the stores offering the bonus-shopper clubs," Perrin explained.

In the Middle Atlantic states, 27.4% of shoppers said that they participate in frequent-shopper clubs, compared with 11.2% in New England, 11.6% in the Southeast, 10.6% in the East Central states, 9.0% in the Southwest, 5.6% in the West Central states and 7.6% in the Pacific states.

"When we look at employment status, we see that the full-time employed people want to go out and take advantage of the [frequent-shopper] clubs," she said, noting that 13.2% of all consumers employed full time belong to the frequent-shopper clubs.

Consumers who are not employed make up the next biggest percentage of frequent-shopper club members, with 11.2% of the total population participating, followed by part-time employed at 10.1%, and retired at 8.3%.

The age group with the highest participation rate is the 35- to 44-year-old age group, at 14.9%.