October 27, 2009
Mitsubishi Corporation
Loyalty Marketing, Inc
Mitsubishi Corporation Announces the Launch of a Multi-Partner Loyalty Program from Next Spring
LAWSON, Showa Shell, and GEO are participating in the program
Mitsubishi Corporation (MC) announces that it will launch a new Multi-partner Loyalty Program in Japan from next spring through its subsidiary company Loyalty Marketing, Inc (LM: Tokyo; President & CEO, Tsuyoshi Hasegawa).
LM manages all operations of “Ponta” – the service name of its loyalty program, which includes issuing Ponta cards and points.
LM has signed contracts with 3 launching partners, LAWSON, INC (LAWSON: Tokyo; President & CEO, Takeshi Niinami), Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K (Showa Shell: Tokyo; Chairman, Shigeya Kato), and GEO CORPORATION (GEO: Aichi; President & CEO, Yasushi Yoshikawa) and plans for customers to be able to use Ponta cards with partner stores from next Spring.
About the Multi-Partner Loyalty Program “Ponta”
Customers can collect and redeem Ponta points when shopping at partner stores and Online shopping via their WEB site after completion of Ponta member registration.
At launch time, this program will be available at more than 13,000 stores all over Japan (8,600 LAWSON stores, 3,500 Showa Shell stores, and 950 GEO stores) and LM plans to expand its partners in the near future.
For customers, Ponta offers the convenience and entertainment of easily collecting and redeeming points with a single card at anytime and anywhere, including earning points among family members.
For partner companies, LM offers marketing analysis tools and support for efficient sales promotion planning.
Number of members
The number of members will start from 20 million members with the transfer of 10 million members from LAWSON’s and 10 million members from GEO’s existing programs.
LM plans to grow the number of members to up to 30 million and 30 partners within three years.
What’s “Ponta”
“Ponta”is the brand of the Multi-Partner Loyalty Program that LM operates.
This brand name represents the places where consumers and companies will gather points, evoking the image of a “point terminal” and also implies that points will “easily be earned” as expressed in Japanese “pon pon tamaru.”
“Ponta” is also the name given to the “Tanuki” (Raccoon dog), a well-known character in Japan.
“Ponta” is a symbolic common character that can be customized by the partners, allowing for a greater sense of closeness.
Background and aims of MC/LM
The point and mileage market in Japan is growing rapidly and it is said that it will reach over one trillion yen in 2009 so many companies are trying to make use of points as a sales promotion tool more efficiently.
MC is aiming at constructing a solid partnership among retailers by which it will be able to leverage its network, industrial strength and global reach with Ponta as the key mechanism of the retailer’s sale promotion.
Also, LM considers commission fees from issuing common points as its core business and is aiming to expand business to media fields including advertising and research services with one of the largest customer databases (more than 30 million members) as a next step.
Overview of LM
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Name
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Loyalty Marketing, Inc
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Headquarters
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3-13-11 Higashi Shibuya-ku, Tokyo
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Established
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December 2008
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Representative
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Tsuyoshi Hasegawa
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Major shareholders
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MC (100%)
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Main business
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Operating a Multi-Partner Loyalty Program, Marketing support
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- Inquiry Recipient
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Mitsubishi Corporation
Telephone:+81-3-3210-2171 / Facsimile:+81-3-5252-7705
