Observed Signal · Aug 5, 2026 · Research Report · Source: CMSWire · Impact: 2/5 · Sentiment: Neutral
Loyalty Data Largely Wasted by Brands, Forrester Study Finds
A Forrester survey commissioned by Zeta Global reveals that many brands are failing to leverage loyalty program data effectively. According to the report "The Underutilized Superpower Hidden in Loyalty Data," 30% of brands rate their loyalty programs as only somewhat effective. Furthermore, 27% of brands do not use loyalty programs to collect first-party data, and 38% do not collect zero-party data. Integration is also a challenge, with 23% having minimal or no integration between loyalty platforms and other customer data systems. Data quality and completeness issues topped the list of barriers at 61%, followed by poor integration (57%), organizational silos (48%), and limited internal expertise (45%). Encouragingly, 92% of brands plan to invest in new technology or processes within the next 12 months to better leverage loyalty data, focusing on data centralization, advanced analytics, AI-driven personalization, and omnichannel activation.
The article presents a survey highlighting underutilization of loyalty data, which is relevant to MarTech but does not represent a major platform shift or industry-wide change. The findings underscore existing challenges and investment intentions without introducing a breakthrough development.
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Key Takeaways & Evidence Grounding
- 30% of brands rate their loyalty programs as only somewhat effective.
- 27% of brands do not collect first-party data via loyalty programs, while 38% do not collect zero-party data.
- 23% have minimal or no integration of loyalty data with other customer data sources.
- 61% cite data quality or completeness issues as the top barrier to leveraging loyalty data.
- 92% of brands plan to invest in new technology or processes to improve loyalty data leverage within 12 months.
Connected Companies & Entities
2 Entities mapped“A new survey of 310 loyalty and marketing professionals by Forrester Research, commissioned by Zeta Global, confirms this skepticism....”
“Forrester research commissioned by Zeta Global (editor's note: the author's company) found that many brands fail to collect or activate zero...”
Ontology Mapping & Concepts
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