To delight families with kids, grocery retailers around the world love exploring loyalty programs with family-centered rewards in their marketing strategies. The list of rewards which retailers can choose from while designing their programs is quite long. But, from our own experience, we can say that the more playful and educational, the better!

Let’s zoom in on the “educational” part now, shall we?

Helping kids to grow with educational loyalty campaigns

Loyalty programs for families very often involve playful rewards such as collectible toys and games. However, these rewards possess the potential to become much more. With the right design, features, and content, they can truly support kids’ development, while also making them fun and accessible to learn.

A loyalty campaign that is educational, in addition to being fun, is a great way for retailers to bring more value to their customers. Kids will still enjoy play as well as be able to make discoveries and learn from it. Moreover, parents will appreciate the educational value of the rewards and how they help stimulate important skills at home. In other words, retailers hold a significant role in the lives of families. By offering rewards aiding the growth of little ones through play, you can create an even bigger impact!

But how can loyalty rewards be used as educational material and actually help children use play to learn and grow? It all depends on the type of rewards and loyalty programs that you choose. Let’s take a look at two popular campaigns in retail loyalty, Little Shop and Little Garden, which have been supporting children’s development around the world.

• With Little Shop collectible promotions, children are invited to collect mini replicas of supermarket products that they see their parents buy at the supermarket. Retailers who run Little Shop campaigns re-create a mini supermarket world for kids to pretend-play as little shopkeepers. Yet, beyond what appears to be just play, Little Shop is actually a fun occasion to practice math and develop business and negotiating skills.
• With Little Garden campaigns, families can collect a wide variety of seedling kits each time they go grocery shopping. Retailers promote gardening and encourage families to learn about plants, flowers, vegetables, and a lot more about nature, assisting kids in developing cognitive skills, vocabulary, and stimulating important senses.

There is so much to explore through play that many retailers are getting creative to increase the educational level of their campaigns. Keep reading to discover how loyalty rewards even made it to classrooms!

Turning loyalty rewards into educational resources

When retailers give further relevance to pedagogy in their loyalty campaigns, they tend to receive highly positive feedback not only from parents who recognize the educational benefits of these loyalty rewards but also from teachers.

Over the years, we have seen inspired teachers create fun lessons with loyalty rewards collected at their local supermarkets. Sarah and Ashleigh, teachers and authors of the Australian blog called “Two Teachers One Blog”, even shared 13 ways to use Coles Little Shop minis in the classroom. Moreover, some retailers decided to bring their campaigns to the next level by placing the loyalty rewards directly at the service of schools and producing teaching resources around the themes of their campaigns.