The Order of Hawkstone Is Better Than Anything We Designed

Most brand loyalty schemes are a points balance with a name bolted on afterwards. They are called things like "Rewards" or "Club" or, at the more ambitious end, "Insider".

The Order of Hawkstone has a name with actual weight, a currency with a name of its own — Runes — and a mechanic that most retailers never manage: you earn by turning up at a location, not only by spending money.

That last part is the interesting one. A loyalty scheme that rewards presence rather than only transaction changes what it is measuring. It notices the person who came to the brewery, walked round, bought nothing and told four friends.

The strategically correct move for the rest of this estate is to extend it rather than replace it — one wallet earning across the shop, the brewery and the pub. Replacing a working scheme with a worse one bearing your own name is a mistake organisations make with depressing regularity.