KEY POINTS:
Loyalty programme managers reject the claims, saying customers have received tens of millions of dollars worth of benefits and businesses treat the schemes as part of a wider marketing strategy.
Professor van Heerde, who has written an academic paper titled Do Loyalty Programs Really Enhance Behavioural Loyalty?
said the rewards from programmes such as Fly Buys, AA Rewards and Smile City were exaggerated.
"Even if you are effectively paying dearly for them, it has been shown in research that consumers actually overrate the rewards they get from loyalty programmes."
Although his work was based on loyalty programmes in the Netherlands, Professor van Heerde told the Weekend Herald he believed the results were relevant for New Zealanders.
"The exact numbers may differ, but I am sure the key message that one may easily overstate the effect of loyalty programmes remains."
Without allowing for bonus points, the Weekend Herald found a Fly Buys member would have to spend more than $30,000 to get a one-way Air New Zealand flight from Auckland to Sydney.
Under the same scheme, someone redeeming points for a PlayStation 3 would have to fork out more than $10,000 on grocery shopping at New World first.
Meanwhile, an AA Rewards member would have to spend between $2000 and $4000 at participating outlets to earn enough points to get a $20 discount coupon or a reduction in membership costs.
Professor van Heerde said a household of loyalty programme members spent on average 29 cents per dollar more at participating chains than a household that was not on the scheme.
But he said this figure had to be corrected as households tended to sign up for programmes at chains they visited a lot.
"For instance, we live close to a New World, and often go there and we have signed up for the Fly Buys programme.
"But that does not mean that Fly Buys has made us loyal."
Professor van Heerde said if you corrected for this "self-selecting" behaviour, the difference in spending between a member and a non-member reduces to just 4 cents per dollar.
Andy Symons, chief executive of Loyalty New Zealand, the firm that runs Fly Buys, said
loyalty cards were a small component of a larger scheme including price, location, the number of premises, product and service range and the length of the relationship between consumers and providers.
He said that last year more than 70 per cent of Kiwis redeemed almost 750,000 Fly Buys rewards, putting it among New Zealand's most successful loyalty programmes.
Dougal Swift, general manager of membership and brand for the New Zealand Automobile Association, said there was "plenty of evidence" to suggest that loyalty programmes were very effective and consumers liked them.
Despite AA Rewards members earning just one point for every $10 spent _ it takes 200 points to earn a $20 discount coupon at its participating outlets _ Mr Swift said 85 per cent of its 1.25 million members participate in the programme.
He said AA Rewards had given out more than $60 million in benefits since its inception 10 years ago.
"If they didn't work you wouldn't get a figure like that."
Mr Swift also did not believe rewards programmes were manipulating buyers.
"They can then be used to give targeted offers to members based on what we think they may be interested in ... There's no value for us in hitting members with offers they don't want."
John Albertson, chief executive of the New Zealand Retailers Association, said loyalty programmes were not an end in themselves in brands retaining a loyal consumer base.
"There's communicating with the customers through the database, there's the whole question of earning their loyalty in the first place and the third point is rewarding them for that loyalty."
WHAT'S ON OFFER
1) Fly Buys
Members: About 2.3 million cardholders.
What you get for spending (bonus points not included)
* $150 on groceries at New World _ 6 points.
* $42.40 on 20 litres of fuel at Shell _ 1 point.
* $100 on phone/internet/mobile with Telecom _ 4 points.
* $150 on electricity/gas at Contact Energy _ 3 points.
* $500 on annual premiums with State Insurance _ 25 points.
2) AA Rewards
Members: About 1.06 million.
What you get for spending
* Between $10 and $20 at participating outlets _ 1 point.
* Plus a $20 discount coupon or a membership renewal discount for every 200 points earned.
