Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in April 2017 and was updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness on January 11, 2024.
How do you name your loyalty points to stand out? Using terms for your rewards currency related to your brand name, products, or industry creates an association between your loyalty program and the overall brand. Customers will remember the points currency name and your loyalty program. This keeps you top of mind for customers when they make their next purchase.
What makes your rewards program stand out? Whether you’ve considered this question before or not, there’s no denying that simply having a rewards program isn’t enough. With more ecommerce competition than ever, chances are your competitors have also considered starting a loyalty program, so how do you stay relevant in this volatile climate?
Effective branding is one of the best ways to make your rewards program memorable. Colors, logos, and product images are all great places to start, but what you choose to name your program and currency are what customers will remember.
Since we’ve already talked at length about naming your rewards program, we will focus on the importance of creatively naming your program’s currency. Calling your loyalty points “points” puts your program in danger of becoming generic, leaving your brand at risk of flying under your customers’ radar.
Alex McEachern
From puns to brand-specific references, several merchants have truly embraced and exemplified what it means to take your rewards currency to the next level. We’ve gathered 8 of our favorites to share and inspire you to apply some of these concepts to your program.
Without further ado, let’s see who made the cut.
1. Frostbeard Studio’s Pages
Currency Name: Pages
As soon as you land on Frostbeard Studio’s homepage, you know its target customers. References to books and the joy of reading are everywhere, including its rewards program.
Aptly named the Bibliophile Rewards Program, Frostbeard Studios rewards its customers with Pages for completing various actions. This is a clever way of connecting the satisfaction of earning a reward to flipping through the pages of an amazing book. As any bookworm knows, there’s no greater feeling than racing through the chapters and seeing how much closer you are to finishing another good book.
- Frostbeard Studio, Shopify App Store Review
It’s also a great initial hook to pique the interest of reading enthusiasts who want to see what the Frostbeard community is all about. This strong correlation between the customers’ and brand’s values creates that emotional connection that makes this reward experience enjoyable and truly rewarding.
2. RAVE Coffee’s Beans
Currency Name: Beans
RAVE Coffee has assured that its brand community will perk right up through its clever loyalty program branding. This U.K.-based coffee brand has accordingly named its loyalty program points beans. Customers are encouraged to get “Beans with Benefits,” alluding to the perks they’ll earn by buying coffee beans and earning loyalty beans, which they can redeem for rewards. Any coffee lover is sure to appreciate this clever play on words.
This initial hook is critical and can profoundly impact a shopper’s decision to join your rewards program and brand community. By making its reward points’ names so aptly tied to its products, customers will remember RAVE Coffee when they’re ready to restock their coffee supply. With a branded explainer page and VIP loyalty names, RAVE Coffee keeps the fun going. Going this extra mile is what will keep you top-of-mind for your customers.
3. Starbucks’ Stars
Currency Name: Stars
Who’d have thought something as simple as gold Stars would have such an impact on the customer experience? Since the debut of Starbucks Rewards, customers have been driven to collect the coffee mogul’s shiny, five-pointed symbol of customer loyalty, and they show no signs of stopping.
So what makes it so successful? Firstly, it looks and feels valuable. Gold is often associated with wealth, luxury, and money, making it a strong visual reminder of the value customers gain by participating in the program. Secondly, stars are a universally understood way of recognizing success. Small children are often rewarded with stars for good behavior or learning their lessons at a very early age, reinforcing the concept of stars as a symbol of excellence and achievement.
These two factors combine to create a one-two-punch rewards currency that makes customers feel special and creates the desire to earn more. Whether you’re a Starbucks fan or not, you can’t deny that they’re one of the original masterminds behind effective reward points names.
Jonathan Roque
4. The Peach Truck’s Truck Bucks
Currency Name: Truck Bucks
If you want to make your reward points name memorable, make it rhyme. There’s a reason Dr. Suess is so popular. We love everything about The Peach Truck’s customer loyalty experience, from how it ties into its whole brand to how it gives customers a deeper dive into their story. As a brand that began by selling peaches out of the back of a ‘64 Jeep Gladiator truck, The Peach Truck perfectly named both its loyalty program and its currency.
We also love how they tie it all together on their homepage with an eye-catching picture of a truck and a call-to-action (CTA) to “Start Earning Truck Bucks”. This kind of loyalty program marketing sets the great programs apart from the rest. The terminology they’ve picked is chef’s kiss, too–earning and bucks drive the association with money and value, incentivizing customers to check out the program within seconds of being on the homepage.
If you ask us, everything about this rewards program is just peachy!
5. Loop’s Circles
Currency Name: Circles
If you’re a regular around here, you know we love a good pun–especially one with a double meaning. And that’s precisely what the sustainable Filipino brand Loop has accomplished with its reward points name. By calling its loyalty program the Loop Circle, it refers to the circular economy and the idea of an inner circle that people want to be a part of.
Encouraging customers to earn circles drives home the idea that they’re helping to contribute to a closed-loop economy through their line of zero-waste products. Not to mention, most coins are circular, so customers subconsciously associate their points currency with real-life currency. They also bring their rewards experience full circle by choosing a term closely tied to their brand name. Loop and circle are synonyms, so it’s not hard for customers to remember this cleverly named reward points title.
Gabrielle Policella
6. Flare dB Points
Currency Name: dB Points
Customers understand the connection between this next brand and its reward points name within seconds. Flare Audio, an audio accessories brand, named its loyalty points dBs, or decibels, a unit of measurement for sound. With a subtle reference to your industry, your customers will quickly put the pieces together and appreciate your wit.
Flare Audio welcomes customers to their “Soundbank” when they open the rewards program panel. The website contains clever references like this, from its newsletter sign-up CTA, “Keep an ear on Flare,” to its homepage banner image text, “Shade your ears. Turn down the world”. By continuing this trend in its loyalty program, Flare can cut through the noise and stand out to customers.
7. Yaboychamoy’s ChaMoney
Currency Name: ChaMoney
One of our favorite reward points comes from the Mexican-owned candy brand Ya Boy Chamoy. It puts a bit of a twist on its brand name and calls its points ChaMoney. ChaMoney is easy to remember because of the inclusion of part of the brand’s own name and the association with cash. Having a term often associated with currency is a great way to communicate the value of your points to your customers.
Ya Boy Chamoy further demonstrates how much it values its brand community through social media. On TikTok, it often runs friendly competitions between the two founders, Ya Boy and Ya Girl. It also invites customers to take a closer look behind the scenes by showing them packing orders, making the products, and responding to customers’ comments playfully. Their customers are clearly eating up what they’re dishing out because they’ve recently packed their 20,000th order!
Ya Boy Chamoy is right on the money with its reward points name, and it’s paying off. Cha-Ching!
Gabrielle Policella
8. Tushy’s Butt Bucks
Currency Name: Butt Bucks
It’s no secret that bidets are not the most glamorous of products out there, but that didn’t stop Tushy for a second. This quirky brand delivers a fun, tongue-in-cheek shopping experience from start to finish. And it all starts with its loyalty program—the Clean Butt Club.
Customers are encouraged to earn Butt Bucks to earn “free shit.” But(t) the puns don’t stop there. With perfectly on-brand calls-to-action (CTAs), Tushy invites customers to join its program by just do(o)ing it. Tushy shows that you can make anything exciting with clever copywriting and a clear brand voice.
Tushy even extends its playful personality to its loyalty program and referral emails. From the subject line right down to the header message, it’s clear that Tushy delivers messages that will not be forgotten any time soon. Breaking the barriers down about a somewhat ‘taboo’ topic is an excellent example of why your reward points should be memorable. Its email could have simply said, “You’ve earned some points,” in which case you probably wouldn’t be reading about it right now. Customers will remember earning “booty,” which keeps Tushy exactly where they want to be, top-of-mind.
Tushy’s brand experience is a great example, from top to bottom.
Strategies to come up with catchy loyalty point names
As we’ve seen, you can take many different approaches when naming your loyalty points to stand out.
Here are a few of the best strategies to come up with creative reward points names:
- Relate it to your store name.
- Use your products or industry as inspiration.
- Use alliterations, rhyming, and/or puns.
- Communicate wealth, luxury, and value.
- Include terms associated with money, like cash, bucks, or coins.
- Incorporate your target customers’ values into the name.
- Make it memorable.
The power of naming your reward points
Whether through puns, clarity of vision, or brand culture, each brand has developed a name for its reward points that speaks to who it is as a business. From food and beverage to beauty retailers, these currencies have shaped reward programs to provide incredibly valuable communities for their customers.
Whether you’re just getting started with rewards, giving an existing program a facelift, or trying to name your VIP tiers, make sure you take the time necessary to develop a name that appropriately represents the values of both your brand and the community you want your customers to be a part of. After all, your currency name could be your first (and last) impression – make it count!
