Issue #13: Friends with Benefits

In issue #12 regarding Starbucks and its latest loyalty tweaks, I argued they missed a real opportunity: aligning the program with friends and family. For a brand that practically trademarked the word community, Starbucks loyalty is still a solo sport. And that’s increasingly off-trend.

More brands are recognizing what customers have known for years: loyalty doesn’t happen in isolation. It happens in households. In friend groups. In text chains. In shared carts and shared calendars.

The future of loyalty? It’s plural.

In just the past week:

And the data backs it up: 70% of Gen Z say they’re more likely to join a loyalty program if it leans into community. Translation? The next generation doesn’t want points. They want participation.

Here’s the spectrum:

Before you jump into “friends with benefits,” let’s talk about the fine print.

🥷 Fraud & Abuse: Aeroplan famously suspended its family sharing feature before relaunching last month with tighter controls. When you open up shared value, you open up shared risk.

💰 Financial Impact: Less breakage. More redemption. Higher benefit utilization.
All good for members. Potentially rough on your P&L if you didn’t model it correctly.

⚙ Technology Gaps: It’s 2026 and many loyalty platforms still weren’t built for many-to-many account relationships. If your tech stack wasn’t architected for householding, you will feel it.

📱 Governance, UX, and Marketing: Who’s the primary? Who can redeem? Can someone leave the group? Do benefits require unanimous consent? Will your customer service team end up refereeing family disputes? Who gets what marketing and communications? How will personalization work and who(m) is it personalized for?

I’ve only scratched the surface of considerations here, but as Danika Hoffmann of WinWin Strategy summed up nicely, “Make sure you are working with a tech and platform team that understands the complexity of the underlying data and integrations needed to enable sharing/householding and can think through edge cases. Also, make sure your legal team has you covered that the brand doesn’t get wrapped up in family court if sharing goes awry”.

Yes, it’s complex. Yes, it introduces liability. Yes, your legal team will have (very good) opinions.

Danika is right. Customers share value naturally — through text chains, shared credit cards, family travel, or even something as simple as using the same phone number at checkout. If your program ignores that behavior, you’re designing against reality.

The upside?

And in a world where loyalty programs increasingly blur together, flexibility is a differentiator. If your customers engage collectively, your program should reflect that. Start small. Test transferring. Pilot gifting. Layer in governance.

But put some version of group loyalty on your 2026 roadmap. Because the brands that win won’t just reward transactions. They’ll reward relationships.

With more than 25 years of experience in loyalty and customer engagement strategy, Danika has led the design and optimization of loyalty programs for Fortune 500 companies including Carnival Cruise Lines, Buffalo Wild Wings, Old Navy, Starbucks, McDonald’s, Estée Lauder, PepsiCo, Kimberly-Clark, Ford Motor Company, Silversea Cruises, U.S. Bank and many more. 

Since 2018, WinWin Strategy has helped brands develop and deliver mutually beneficial loyalty experiences that are powered by data and that drive engagement. WinWin supports brands in all aspects of loyalty: program design and technology, research, financial modeling, analytics, and communications strategy.

Reach out to Danika about your loyalty goals at [email protected]

#1 SMP: When brands talk about doing “group” or “household” loyalty, what could they actually be trying to solve?

Danika: First, understanding customer relationships. In categories like casual dining, you often only know who paid the bill, not who they came with. But those relationships matter. Who watches the game together? Who always dines as a group? That social graph can be incredibly powerful.

Second, creating shared moments. When brands facilitate something people can experience together — earning faster, unlocking rewards collectively — it creates authentic engagement. Sharing is inherently meaningful. Even something as simple as gifting or pooling rewards can create emotional lift that traditional earn-and-burn mechanics don’t.

Third, structural reality. Some categories simply don’t operate on a one-to-one relationship. In automotive, for example, one household may have multiple drivers, multiple vehicles, and different people handling service. Designing loyalty around a single “person” doesn’t reflect how customers actually interact with the brand.

#2 SMP: What’s the biggest thing brands underestimate when undertaking group or household loyalty schemes?

Danika: Operational and technical complexity. As soon as you move from one-to-one to one-to-many or many-to-many relationships, the complexity multiplies. You’re no longer tracking value tied to one account. You’re managing shared currencies, permissions, governance, and edge cases.

Households change. People move. Kids go to college. Divorces happen. Someone redeems rewards and suddenly you’re fielding calls about “stolen” points.

Many programs end up introducing a “primary” member model — a household anchor with governance controls — simply because fully equal structures are nearly impossible to manage cleanly.

Brands underestimate how hard this becomes at scale.

#3 SMP: From a customer perspective, what actually makes group loyalty compelling?

Danika: Acceleration is a big one. Many programs take months to earn a meaningful reward. Pooling activity speeds up the gratification cycle.

There’s also a shared goal dynamic. Whether it’s points toward travel, unlocking a milestone, or even just bragging rights, collectively working toward something taps into motivation differently than individual earning does.

And yes, there’s visibility. People like seeing progress, especially if it’s social. It’s not unlike badges or achievement systems. When done right, it feels collaborative rather than transactional.

But brands have to balance this with risk. More pooling often means less breakage and higher redemption. That’s not necessarily bad, but it must be modeled correctly

#4 SMP: When working with brands, do you have a rule or guardrail you insist they adopt (or recommend) when it comes to group or household loyalty? 

Danika: I'd say the same advice that relates to any loyalty initiative:

#5 SMP: How does group loyalty complicate data and personalization?

Danika: It introduces a second lens on everything. Are you reporting at the individual level or the household level? What’s “average spend” — per person or per group? How do you define an active member?

Even something simple like sending a points-earned email becomes a matrix. If one member earns and another redeems, who gets notified? In what version? With what framing?

From a personalization standpoint, you’re not doubling complexity — you’re multiplying it. Every communication must account for ownership, visibility, and governance.

It’s powerful, but it requires intentional architecture.

#6 SMP: Where does group loyalty go from here?

Danika: Adoption will likely continue but progress may be constrained by technology.

Many legacy loyalty platforms weren’t built for complex household logic. Without modern infrastructure that can manage shared IDs, permissions, and multi-layer reporting cleanly, brands will hesitate to scale these models.

There’s also growing international demand for more flexible sharing mechanics. If platforms evolve to support it more seamlessly, we’ll see more experimentation — especially in categories that naturally operate beyond the individual.

The appetite is there. The infrastructure just needs to catch up.

SMP Bonus Question: What's a program you personally are taking advantage of a group or household benefit structure?"

Danika: I love the shareable benefits of being Platinum with Delta SkyMiles— bringing guests into the club, using my miles to buy my mom a plane ticket, or sharing drink tickets. And right now I’m working on who to gift 4 Silver memberships to with my choice benefits, even though other benefits are technically more lucrative to me personally.