The art of being chosen again

The trouble with the pet-care program was that it had overlooked the pet. An unnamed client came to The Lacek Group with members to reengage and a program to rethink. Personalization was thin. Targeting was limited. Testing offered too few insights. In a category built around an intensely personal relationship, the communications were treating people much the same.

Lacek’s response was a 12-month engagement plan spanning member messages, digital and store experiences, operational improvements and tests. The agency also built a longer-term personalization road map. The revealing detail is the diagnosis: the emotional significance of caring for an animal had barely entered the program. A company selling to pet parents had more to work with than the next discount.

A dog is not a segment

This is the territory Lacek occupies. A loyalty program creates an ongoing relationship, but somebody must decide what that relationship feels like between purchases. Who receives an offer? What should it say? What happens after somebody joins, stops buying or becomes more valuable? These decisions sit awkwardly between the marketing department, the database and the people writing the email.

Lacek makes that awkward space its business. It sells professional services to brands: strategy, program design, analytics, creative development and continuing campaign execution. Buyers are marketing teams with customer relationships to manage across channels. The company’s public client roster includes Marriott, Carnival, Enterprise, Ford and The Home Depot. The work extends well beyond making a rewards card look appealing.

The airline lesson that travelled

There is a reason the agency learned to think this way. Founders Mark Lacek and Peter Brennan worked on Northwest Airlines’ WorldPerks program before building their own loyalty businesses. The Lacek Group began in 1993. An early assignment involved Passages, a joint frequent-flyer program for Cathay Pacific, Malaysia Airlines and Singapore Airlines. Recognizing the returning customer was already an international problem.

In August 2000, OgilvyOne acquired the agency from EDS. The acquisition announcement framed loyalty as a way to deepen customer relationships and gave Lacek access to a larger marketing network. Today the agency identifies itself with WPP Enterprise Solutions. That combination gives it a particular place in the market: a focused loyalty practice inside a much broader organization.

Brands can also turn to loyalty teams at Merkle or Epsilon, or assemble the work internally. Merkle offers program strategy and managed services; Epsilon offers a loyalty platform with different support levels. The choice is partly about the help a client needs: program architecture, technology, ongoing execution, or some combination. Lacek’s pitch puts creative and analytical work into the same relationship.

Its proposition is that the analysis and the message belong together. In a 2023 interview, then-CEO Bill Baker said Lacek had roughly comparable creative and data teams. His description of the objective was admirably short:

“Our focus is on customer devotion to brands.”Bill Baker, then CEO · 2023

The spreadsheet gets a creative department

Consider Lacek’s published case involving a global brand and a co-branded credit card partner. Acquisition spending was heavy; the communications could be more personal. Lacek combined behavioral targeting with content that selected the card, offer and benefits according to the customer. Its reported results included 15% incremental net revenue over the traditional offer strategy and a 70% reduction in repeatable tasks.

The second number points to another problem. Personalization has a production bill. Every variation creates work: changing copy, checking versions, adapting layouts and preparing material for another channel. A clever targeting model becomes less useful if the creative operation cannot keep up.

Lacek’s answer includes CODA, short for Create Once Distribute Anywhere. It separates content from layout, manages versions and publishes material in multiple formats. The agency positions it as a companion to systems such as Salesforce, Responsys and Adobe. The practical distinction is coordination: the service team can address both the customer strategy and the repeated work required to deliver it.

Before the points, do the arithmetic

A different case begins with a retailer asking Lacek to design a program in an already crowded market. The agency first modeled the business without the proposed program. Only then did it build the alternative. That order matters. A program should earn credit for changing behavior, rather than claiming every purchase made by somebody holding a membership.

The cost model included rewards and benefits, marketing, technology enhancements and administrative overhead. Potential gains included more visits and larger baskets. Lacek compared scenarios and tested assumptions; the retailer chose to proceed after reviewing the five-year business case. Those numbers were projections. The decision to invest is the documented outcome here.

A membership has to mean something

The Home Depot example makes the customer differences tangible. Lacek says its Pro Xtra relationship began in 2017. Professional customers range from individual tradespeople to large businesses. A tier structure lets the program preserve everyday value for smaller operators while recognizing bigger customers differently. Designing for those differences is more useful than assuming every professional wants the same reward.

There is a smaller, almost playful illustration in an anonymous consumer-products campaign: customers voted for a favorite scent, then received a promotion around the winner. Voting, anticipation and the offer became connected parts of a journey. Asking a simple question gave the subsequent message a reason to exist.

Lacek’s July 2026 paper on Brand Devotion extends that thinking toward belonging and identity. Under CEO Randy Gunderson, appointed in May 2025, the agency is making the case for relationships with emotional substance. The practical test remains demanding. Relevant communications require usable data, teams able to act together and benefits the business can afford. A useful experiment for any marketer is to choose one customer moment, improve it, and compare the result with what would have happened anyway.

The internal practices offer a modest parallel. Lacek’s careers site describes a mentoring program, paid time for learning through You Matter Day, and three paid volunteer days each year for full-time employees. These are the company’s own descriptions of working life. They nevertheless show what its relationship language looks like when attached to an actual policy: time, access and a recurring opportunity to participate, rather than an occasional appreciative message.

For a smaller business, copying that specificity is more realistic than copying an enterprise technology setup. Choose a benefit customers can understand and operations can consistently deliver.