ONE-TO-ONE MARKETING: Comment - Customer 'loyalty' does not always translate into profit

Marketers spend too much money on loyalty marketing. Some for good reasons, but many more for wrong reasons. So it's fair to ask: 'What is loyalty marketing?' A definition I came across recently goes, 'Creating customers who don't need ongoing marketing investment and therefore are more profitable'. What I like is the phrase 'don't need ongoing marketing investment'. A lot of 'loyalty programmes' are exactly that - ongoing marketing invested in the same customers. Becoming more like retention with incentives and baits. No such processes can claim to be about loyalty.