The title of this article asks a simple question: are rewards clubs for kids a good idea? The answer is a resounding YES, but how elaborate does a 'rewards club' have to be and at what age do such programs really become effective?

Last year I wrote an article for the Hotel Business Review titled, “Building Brand Loyalty When Your Customer is Under 10” and in the piece we highlighted a number of studies that indicated that kids from the age of two start to have beliefs about certain brands and even start recognize familiar brand names, packaging, logos, and characters and associate them with products, especially if the brands use bright colors, pictures, and cartoon characters.

When I was a kid we loved to “flip”, trade and collect baseball cards. Topps was the main brand and producer of the cards, but was later joined in the industry by Fleer and Donerus who wanted to capitalize on the collectability of baseball cards among kids. I can still remember the styles of the cards, the logo of the brands, and of course the barely chewable stick of bubble gum that came with every pack. Today kids love to display, ...