Case Studies

Case studies are useful only when they explain the mechanism. "Starbucks has a great loyalty program" is not a finding; understanding why prepaid balances change purchase behaviour, and whether that lever exists in your business, is. The interesting question is never whether a famous program works, but which part of it is doing the work.

This is where we take apart real programs — the ones people copy and the ones they should. What Starbucks Rewards actually gets right, and why most imitations reproduce the visible layer and miss the funding model. Why Amazon Prime works as pricing rather than as loyalty. How Costco's renewal mechanics govern its whole margin structure. When a public guarantee is a retention bet rather than a refund policy. How experiential rewards build a second habit alongside the purchase habit, and why categories people buy from twice a year have to borrow from a different playbook entirely.

Each teardown separates what is transferable from what depends on scale, category, or a balance sheet you do not have. Written for people evaluating whether a famous program is a template or a trap — because most of the time it is neither, and the useful part is one mechanism buried three levels down. Where a program's published numbers and its actual incentives disagree, we follow the incentives.